The best sand sifters?

CodyRVA · Dec 24, 2016

Need input on the "best" sand sifters out there. Was looking at a cucumber for a while, but am fearful of toxins and fish loss, although they seem very efficient. Thoughts?

I've had nassarius snails in the past, but looking for an alternative.

I've also debated gobies, I have a 4 foot tank and about a 1.5 inch sand bed, not sure if I would need 1 or 2 of these guys, I'm open to buying a pair, but what type? The only other goby I have is a clown goby who hangs out in my SPS colonies; just trying to avoid aggression.

bw777 · Dec 24, 2016

one diamond goby

CodyRVA · Dec 24, 2016

bw777 said:
one diamond goby

Do they stick to one part of the tank? I want something that will cruise around the entire tank turning the sandbed.

cloak · Dec 24, 2016

Couldn't you just get yourself a stick and do this yourself? For those hard to reach places a small power head will do just fine.

CodyRVA · Dec 24, 2016

cloak said:
Couldn't you just get yourself a stick and do this yourself? For those hard to reach places a small power head will do just fine.

I do so weekly with a turkey baster, along with all my rock work, but I have most of my flow at the top of my tank and the sand bed requires stirring quite frequently, thus I would prefer to get a critter to do the job.

cloak · Dec 24, 2016

You do realize that those critters are actually pooping in that very same substrate you wish to keep clean don't you? Almost canceling themselves out IMO. Those Gobies aren't sifting through that sand for fun either. They're stripping the substrate of all the micro fauna in the process. To each their own though. GL.

wes_slavens · Dec 24, 2016

Be careful with a diamond goby or engineer goby as they might eat your clown goby and any shrimp you might have

CodyRVA · Dec 24, 2016

wes_slavens said:
Be careful with a diamond goby or engineer goby as they might eat your clown goby and any shrimp you might have

Yea I've never had one before, had a yellow watchman, but didn't really move much sand.

wes_slavens · Dec 24, 2016

CodyRVA said:
Yea I've never had one before, had a yellow watchman, but didn't really move much sand.

I've had both my diamond goby is the one that ate some smaller fish and currently I have an engineer goby that has eaten 4 peppermint shrimp so far

CodyRVA · Dec 24, 2016

wes_slavens said:
I've had both my diamond goby is the one that ate some smaller fish and currently I have an engineer goby that has eaten 4 peppermint shrimp so far

Dang! I have a coral banded, which has eaten fish itself so that would be an interesting pair... would a sifting star be a better option?

eatbreakfast · Dec 24, 2016

A diamond goby won't eat clown gobies. Clown gobies produce a fairly noxious slime coat.

Diamond gobies are one of the better sand sifters. Another good sifter is the bullet goby.

wes_slavens · Dec 24, 2016

CodyRVA said:
Dang! I have a coral banded, which has eaten fish itself so that would be an interesting pair... would a sifting star be a better option?

Yea I think your coral banded would be fine! I have one that killer a copper banded butterfly lol. Idk for sure but I was told if you didn't have a DSB you were basically slowly starving the starfish. I made a thread on here a while back because I don't want gobies and I was told strawberry lipped conches

jeflen651 · Dec 24, 2016

A couple of tiger conchs will graze your tank

CodyRVA · Dec 24, 2016

I had a fighting conch, but was a pain, constantly bull dozing frags over, are the lipped/tiger conchs smaller? My fighting conch was at least 5 inch

wes_slavens · Dec 24, 2016

CodyRVA said:
I had a fighting conch, but was a pain, constantly bull dozing frags over, are the lipped/tiger conchs smaller? My fighting conch was at least 5 inch

I think lipped, but don't quote me are around an inch

Roboson · Dec 24, 2016

Tiger conch is a good sand sifter. Sand sifting star, but it requires a large aged sandbed of at least 2 inches deep. Sand sifting gobies sift the top layer looking for food.

erinmegan85 · Dec 24, 2016

If you go the goby route be prepared for a mess. Mine puts sand all over the place. Doesn't matter if there's coral there or not, and from what I understand it's a pretty common thing. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't have put it in the tank, but now that it's there I would feel bad giving it back to the LFS or to someone.

CodyRVA · Dec 26, 2016

erinmegan85 said:
If you go the goby route be prepared for a mess. Mine puts sand all over the place. Doesn't matter if there's coral there or not, and from what I understand it's a pretty common thing. If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't have put it in the tank, but now that it's there I would feel bad giving it back to the LFS or to someone.

Does he hang out in one place, or cruise all over the tank?

erinmegan85 · Dec 26, 2016

CodyRVA said:
Does he hang out in one place, or cruise all over the tank?

He moves about the bottom of the tank a decent amount. Sometimes he heads up in the water column, but not usually. He guards his hole from my starry blenny (not that he's interested in it in the least) and spits sand out all over the place. He's just about irritated my poor open brain to death. No matter where I put it on the sand that fool seems to find it and dump sand all over it.