Best sand sifter?

[Hitchhik3r]

I have a 75 g tank and in desperate need of a sand sifting organism. I have some nessarius snails and a fighting conch but they are too slow to be doing a thorough job. I don't want a goby as I will be populating my tank with coral and don't want sand dumping on them constantly. I'm thinking of either a starfish, sea cucumber, or a tuxedo urchin. Which is the best at keeping the sand clean?

 

[Dan_P]

I have a 75 g tank and in desperate need of a sand sifting organism. I have some nessarius snails and a fighting conch but they are too slow to be doing a thorough job. I don't want a goby as I will be populating my tank with coral and don't want sand dumping on them constantly. I'm thinking of either a starfish, sea cucumber, or a tuxedo urchin. Which is the best at keeping the sand clean?

What was your reasoning for needing a sand sifting animal to raise coral?

 

[FSP]

I wouldn't do the starfish or urchin, cucumbers do good job but they have their own potential baggage.

Before getting more critters though, if the bed is getting so polluted a conch in a 75 gal can't keep up, I'd manually intervene (gravel vac), look at feeding practices and/or look at flow. Something seems off.

 

[Hitchhik3r]

I wouldn't do the starfish or urchin, cucumbers do good job but they have their own potential baggage.

Before getting more critters though, if the bed is getting so polluted a conch in a 75 gal can't keep up, I'd manually intervene (gravel vac), look at feeding practices and/or look at flow. Something seems off.

I gravel vac every week when I do a 10% water change and my sand looks great for a day or so after but then the dark brown coat takes over. Isolated to just my sand. My rocks are doing fine, currently in the midst of Coralline starting to take it over. I do feed on the heavier side (both pellets and frozen mysis) but that is only because my nitrates and phosphates are both almost undetectable.

Why a cucumber over a starfish? I have heard they are both great at sand sifting but the cucumber carries the risk of nuking the tank if you don't take it out immediately upon it's demise

 

[Bot587]

I use nassarius snails to aerate the sand.

previously I have used diamond gobies and sand sifting stars (but they tend to eat a lot of the macrofauna out of the sand bed)

 

[BuddyBonButt]

I gravel vac every week when I do a 10% water change and my sand looks great for a day or so after but then the dark brown coat takes over. Isolated to just my sand. My rocks are doing fine, currently in the midst of Coralline starting to take it over. I do feed on the heavier side (both pellets and frozen mysis) but that is only because my nitrates and phosphates are both almost undetectable.

Why a cucumber over a starfish? I have heard they are both great at sand sifting but the cucumber carries the risk of nuking the tank if you don't take it out immediately upon it's demise

Brown coat comes back every other day? How old is the tank? This is starting to sound like a dinoflagellate problem, more specifically amphidinium most likely if it sticks to the sand, and if this is the case, none of what you're trying to do will be the solution.

If it is and you're inexperienced, I would be more than happy to walk you through a Dino removal process. It takes time but I'll be there to help

 

[blaxsun]

Black sea cucumbers get my vote (have 5 in my tank).

 

[PeterEde]

Sleeper goby. Mine is a workhorse at moving sand all day.
Be aware you will have to blow sand off rock/corals. But my sand is very clean between it and my 4 nassarius snails

 

[Singspot]

I have a 75 g tank and in desperate need of a sand sifting organism. I have some nessarius snails and a fighting conch but they are too slow to be doing a thorough job. I don't want a goby as I will be populating my tank with coral and don't want sand dumping on them constantly. I'm thinking of either a starfish, sea cucumber, or a tuxedo urchin. Which is the best at keeping the sand clean?

1 Diamond Goby

Look no further.