best sand stirrer

[FatWrasse]

i need to know what can turn the sand the best i have some 4" large green wrasse which i think is a lunar and two perc clowns and like a 3-4" sand bed in a 29bio what is the best sand stirrer i have to get something to turn it fast i have all tonga branch so it has a lot of openness to it... i bought a small 1" florida conch and it has been two weeks and that thing blows... my mothers tank had one and it did wonders this on isnt worth a hoot... so any ideas and i know the wrasse is too big for that tank and i want it gone but catching it is another...

 

[niteowl03]

Sand sifting goby will be best for this. Orange spotted work well for me.

Sent from my MyTouch4g

 

[FatWrasse]

Thanks I like those but wanting something besides one of those

 

[Carl T]

Watch the size of sand. I was told sugar grain size like Fiji Pink is great but the Carib-Sea Reef sand may choke sifting gobies. I have no experience, just was word of mouth to me.

I was thinking Nassarious snails. I sure like mine for what they do.

 

[ldreefer]

I would like to know what does the best job as well. I need something that stirs the sand up nice and keeps detritus from collecting in my 120g.

 

[FatWrasse]

I have the carribean sea or whatever where it could choke the goby I have one sand star in my other 29 and it does a pretty good jobbut doesnt have a really thick sand bed and doesn't have a lot of open sand.

 

[etphi]

+1 on the nassarius snails.

 

[hooterhead]

Sand sifting cucumber such as the tiger tail work great for me. Most of the gobies get too big for a 29 anyway.

 

[Shmoopy]

I have a 2 inch conch in my 14 g and it works great

 

[bimmerzs]

Hi,

Not sure how old your tank is but I would not recommend a sand sifting star for that sized tank, simply not enough life in that limited sandbed area to sustain ong term. Nassarius snail's, tiger tail and a small queen conch would be one of the better options for you for the sandbed, one or two mexican turbo's will also help with general cleanup duty in there. [smilie=smile.gif]

Cheers,

 

[FatWrasse]

the one with that i need it for is over 2+yrs. and the one that has the sand sifting star in it is 4-5yrs.

 

[mukymuk]

IME, the easiest way to keep detritus from collecting is to manipulate water flow and use mechanical filters.

The biological way is to use a variety of macrofauna that work together to break down particulate material. It's actually not trivial and requires a broad set of organisms. Dr. Shimek (and others) has good information on this. You can find a little bit of it on the web, but for the full story, you have to purchase articles from him.

Predators, such as sand-sifting gobies, cucumbers, and such, are actually counter-productive to a biological solution to detritus accumulation. Yes, they do eat some of it but their excrement is largely particulate as well, so you're back where you started. They also eat the organisms that are required to further process the waste. When you have miles of sandbed--no problem. When you have 3 square feet--it's a problem.

Even when you do get a healthy, diverse sand bed community going, biological detritus processing is never 100%. You eventually do have to deal with it mechanically.

 

[SushiGirl]

We have tiger fighting conchs and they do a great job, we no longer have nassarius snails (they didn't do anything anyway), and we bought these after our sand sifting goby died. They also eat algae off the glass & rocks and leftover food and interestingly like to hang out mostly in the lower flow areas for us LOL. Our orange-spotted shrimp goby doesn't sift sand.