spanko
Henry
Threads seem to be popping up about peoples sand beds. Some are dirty, some have algae, or other mysterious unwanted things happening. It seems, probably human nature, that people want to find some critter, since that is why we have tanks, to take care of the problem. Most don't seem to want to attack what the real, in most cases, root cause is. This can range from many things, to much livestock pooping in our pools, over feeding, lack of flow, insufficient filtration, etc. etc. etc.
That aside I think that people that are looking past the obvious, to me, fixes to the problems they for the most part are encountering, should have some understanding of the title subjects. (hee hee maybe with the exception of the swizzle sticks and roto rooter)
Sand Sifters
These are critters that derive their food from sifting through the sand looking for the flora and fauna that reside there. In most all cases they need large tanks. Read min 50 gallons and above with a lot of live rock and maybe a fuge to help to replenish what is being consumed. These fish, starfish etc. will quickly decimate the available food source and most will starve from lack of replenishment of these food stuffs.
Sand Shifters and Stirrers
Now these are the critters that IMO should be a normal part of any CUC that is needed in a tank with substrate. They are the ones that are crawling around on, in, and under the substrate looking for, depending on the critter, meaty dead material, or vegetable type material either live or dead for their food. All the while moving, stirring, shifting the sand around which helps to get the smaller matter back into the water column to allow mechanical filtration to remove it from the tank or even better yet get it flying around so that the coral can take advantage of eating it as well. These would include things like Nassarius, Cerith snails, worms, Florida Fighting Conch.
IMO keep your sandbed clean of detritus by using those shifter - stirrer critters that help to clear out the detritus, not by the critters that decimate the fauna from the sandbed.
That aside I think that people that are looking past the obvious, to me, fixes to the problems they for the most part are encountering, should have some understanding of the title subjects. (hee hee maybe with the exception of the swizzle sticks and roto rooter)
Sand Sifters
These are critters that derive their food from sifting through the sand looking for the flora and fauna that reside there. In most all cases they need large tanks. Read min 50 gallons and above with a lot of live rock and maybe a fuge to help to replenish what is being consumed. These fish, starfish etc. will quickly decimate the available food source and most will starve from lack of replenishment of these food stuffs.
Sand Shifters and Stirrers
Now these are the critters that IMO should be a normal part of any CUC that is needed in a tank with substrate. They are the ones that are crawling around on, in, and under the substrate looking for, depending on the critter, meaty dead material, or vegetable type material either live or dead for their food. All the while moving, stirring, shifting the sand around which helps to get the smaller matter back into the water column to allow mechanical filtration to remove it from the tank or even better yet get it flying around so that the coral can take advantage of eating it as well. These would include things like Nassarius, Cerith snails, worms, Florida Fighting Conch.
IMO keep your sandbed clean of detritus by using those shifter - stirrer critters that help to clear out the detritus, not by the critters that decimate the fauna from the sandbed.
