Sandsifter for Tank

[NanoJrFL]

What sandsifters do the best work? (i.e. starfish, cucmber, horseshoe crab) And also other types of sandsifters (I saw a cool African starifish that my LFS says is a sandsifter)

[FishyPoo]

Ha ha NanoJrFL,

Great minds think alike. I was just about to post the same question:P

 

I too, will eagerly await for the flood of wise replies:happy:

[FishyPoo]

Hey NanoJrFl,

I've been told in another thread that some stars eat the good stuff in the sand such as sand fleas, copapods, amphipods and the like according to Nitro Joe.

 

He pointed me to Nassarius snails and a fighting conch which I have been reading shift the sand quite well and eat lots of 'stuff' that hermits won't.

 

I have a cerith snail that likes to bury himself. I only have one so I don't think he does quite enough in that department.

 

Hope that helps. We'll just have to wait for some of the experts to get home from work to reply to this thread I suppose.

[yellowtang]

i have a sand sifting star he does a great job i was gonna get nassarius snails but there so small they dont really do much

[Raise]

you can try and get tiny bristle stars, which do a great job of cleaning up detritus and ######e, but IMHO the BEST sand sifter is the cucumber. I have two 1.5" cukes in my 5.5 and they kick ass.

[yellowtang]

the sand sifting star works good but im taking him back cause i dont want to him to starve...(29gal. tank) i didnt know when i bought him i was told that it doesnt matter(tank size and stuff)

so im just gonna use turbo snails... when theres no more algea on the rock they go to the sand and do a good enough job

[SoS]

Small sand sifting Clams from www.ipsf.com do the trick nicely for me.

[FlyGTI]

I've had some pretty good luck with orange spot gobies, in the sand sifting capacity. I'm not sure what they eat in the sand, but they're always grabbing mouthfuls of it.

 

Their only drawback is their propensity to go carpet surfing. Never a good idea when you're a fish.

 

I'd also recommend them for larger tanks than 12 gal. Eclipses. I kept one in a 28, and it worked all right, and my old roommate kept one for almost 2 years in a 55. That was probably the happiest damn fish in the entire universe. Don't know where that little guy is now, but I hope he's living a happy life in a big tank somewhere.

 

As far as invert sand sifters go, I'd recommend the conchs that were recommended above. I've had a couple of them and they did a great job. I've got a fighting conch right now who is forever sucking gunk off of the sand. Doesn't stir it up much, but does a bangup job of keeping the top clean of detritus.

[Masoch]

A fighting conch can reach up to 6 inches in length, so make sure you can find a home for it when it gets big. A 6 inch snail in a 12 gallon would be like a bulldozer moving in on an anthill.