Tiger Tail Cucumber for sandbed

[kinetic]

Every two or three days, my sand bed gets a bit brown. There's also some built up detritus. Every week when I do water changes, I siphon the sand completely to get it white again, but two days after, it gets brown again.

I use a long kent scraper to comb over the sand when that happens, but I feel like I just trap detritus and algae deeper into the sand. It's not terrible, but I wanted to see if I could keep a tiger tail cucumber to help keep the top layer of sand clean.

I've tried cerith, tonga fighting conch, and more. They don't really make a big dent.

The tank is small, Red Sea Reefer with only 36g in the display (24x20"). Will a small cucumber survive and do the job?

I've already decided against sand sifting gobies and multiplying the amount of snails.

 

[Ranjib]

Do you have cyano issue? If its cyano, you might need a different strategy,

 

[Kremis]

sand sifting goby worked for my 180 and 28. kept everything clean. if i dont have them the sand turns brown in a day from diatoms/cyano / im not really sure why
both tanks are really nutrient heavy

 

[kinetic]

Do you have cyano issue? If its cyano, you might need a different strategy,

I doubt it. I've seen and had cyano in previous tanks. This does not look as thick or red. It's just filmy brown algae that gets kind of stringy. It's not the dark red/thick mats you see with cyano.

It could be a very light amount of it, but it happens even in the highest flow zones. I'm going to say it's not cyano.

sand sifting goby worked for my 180 and 28. kept everything clean. if i dont have them the sand turns brown in a day from diatoms/cyano / im not really sure why
both tanks are really nutrient heavy

Thanks. I'm not going with any fish. Just looking for more information about the Tiger Tail please!

 

[MaddyP]

I doubt it. I've seen and had cyano in previous tanks. This does not look as thick or red. It's just filmy brown algae that gets kind of stringy. It's not the dark red/thick mats you see with cyano.

It could be a very light amount of it, but it happens even in the highest flow zones. I'm going to say it's not cyano.



Thanks. I'm not going with any fish. Just looking for more information about the Tiger Tail please!

Stringy and brown? Do you notice any bubbles building up in the strings? Kinda sounds like Dinos.

 

[kinetic]

Stringy and brown? Do you notice any bubbles building up in the strings? Kinda sounds like Dinos...

no bubbles

 

[kinetic]

Sorry to be so misleading. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, I'm pretty sure it's just brown film algae. I've battled dinos, cyano, and all sorts of terrible nuisance algae. I'm pretty sure this is not any of them. I see my trochus and turbo snails eat through it pretty quickly. The snails don't really spend much time on the sand, and the tonga fighting conch doesn't seem to make a dent.

Am I asking the wrong question? I just want to know if a tiger tail will be OK in my 36g tank? It's more sand than rock (only about 8 lbs of rock).

 

[kinetic]

Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate and thank everyone who jumped in to help with the algae issues!

 

[SaltLifer]

I got a yellow-head sleeper goby and a sand sifting sea star. Problem solved.

 

[MaddyP]

no bubbles

Good sign, but I wouldn’t count Dinos out. If it is dinos, a tiger tail will likely do nothing to help.

Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate and thank everyone who jumped in to help with the algae issues!

No worries! I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a bigger problem hiding in plain sight!

Yes, a tiger tail will likely do a good job keeping the sand bed cleaner, however, I have noticed a tendency for them to stay nearer the base of rocks than open sand.

 

[SaltLifer]

The guys at my LFS are always trying to sell me a cucumber but from what I understand, if they die, they're likely to kill everything in the tank.

 

[kinetic]

Good sign, but I wouldn’t count Dinos out. If it is dinos, a tiger tail will likely do nothing to help.


No worries! I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t a bigger problem hiding in plain sight!

Yes, a tiger tail will likely do a good job keeping the sand bed cleaner, however, I have noticed a tendency for them to stay nearer the base of rocks than open sand.

How long before it would become full blown dinos and obvious? I've had this consistent issue for months. It's never gotten worse. Though my tank parameters are pretty much in check, so maybe it won't ever become bad enough.

I see my snails eat it up off the rocks. They just never venture onto the sandbed much. Flow is pretty high, they can't really grip the sand well. My fighting conch picks up one piece of sand at a time and definitely cleans that one piece off. But they don't really get much work done doing it so inefficiently

Do you think a tiger tail will be OK in my tank size?

 

[ksfulk]

I always have a bit of brown film in my tank - and its over a year old. I have a cuke, and I was super nervous about getting it, but now its huge... and its been through the ringer - it was taken out of the tank on a rock I was remodeling and sat in the kitchen sink for the better part of two hours before getting tossed back into the tank - its never really given me much issue at all. Its been in there at least a year, if not longer, it is super long (13+") and it does absolutely nothing for the brown film on the sand.

(The best way to manage that stuff is to get a turkey baster or coral feeder and blast the sand (which turns the whole bed over) every couple of days. I have sand sifting stars, the cuke, narussius snails, conches, etc - no one is bothered by the cloud of detritus that is released (Polyp extension goes crazy for an hour though) and the sand is back to "white sandy beaches" for a couple of days.)

 

[kinetic]

I may have spoke too soon. Today I noticed bubbles in the algae:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/what-kind-of-algae-bacteria-detailed-photos.350882/

 

[robert teseo]

I have 2 cukes in my tank, they never leave the safety of the rocks and venture into the open

 

[3mm3]

Every two or three days, my sand bed gets a bit brown. There's also some built up detritus. Every week when I do water changes, I siphon the sand completely to get it white again, but two days after, it gets brown again.

I use a long kent scraper to comb over the sand when that happens, but I feel like I just trap detritus and algae deeper into the sand. It's not terrible, but I wanted to see if I could keep a tiger tail cucumber to help keep the top layer of sand clean.

I've tried cerith, tonga fighting conch, and more. They don't really make a big dent.

The tank is small, Red Sea Reefer with only 36g in the display (24x20"). Will a small cucumber survive and do the job?

I've already decided against sand sifting gobies and multiplying the amount of snails.

I have kept cucumbers for quite a few years. In my smaller tanks 29g and 60g I kept a smaller type that I think came from the Caribbean. I have two tiger tails currently in my redsea 650. Originally had one but he split into 2 a year ago. Mine both are around 18 inches long. I would try to stay with a cucumber that stays smaller..

 

[jdemarco]

Tigertails are great IMO. Even if they sometimes do like the safety of a rock base they will stretch their body way out as the get bigger and bigger and mine would stretch up to 6 to 8 inches + and ingest and process sand full time. I personally love their prehistoric spiked look. One of my favorites. Just be sure your tank is full proof as I have kept various tigers throughout my years and I have had 2 times whereby they almost caused flood....once ing got into my outflow to my sump and another in the return to tank line from cpr hob refugium.....so I obviously smartened up and did better job screening those as they should have been. Overall great additions but very very poor shippers... which is why most lfs don't stock.....any signs of anything coming out of/ flowing from their mouths stay away......they "throw their stomachs" often during shipping....in which case do not buy...hardest part is finding a healthy one in store up buy....i personally recommend them tho....