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View BadgesI was reading that serpent stars are poo eaters, any truth to this?
Depends on the star type. Serpent star(s) means a lot of different things and let us say you get a "green brittle star" aka ophiarachina incrassate then it will also eat your fish and anything else it traps. You will want something like the red, orange, or harlequin serpents. Smooth legs, not brittle. In fact, those should curl up in your rock work and only see their arms when they smell food. Thus I don't think an ideal solution to your problem.
Micro stars from IPSF are really cool but again prefer substrate of some form or a refugium. So they are out - but super cool. You can't really do tiger tail cucumbers. You are really limiting our options here. Fish are not going to really hang out there other than neon blue and yellow gobies. They will and you could get a group of 5 or so. They are a bit territorial but it could work depending on the rock work and size.
There is another goby coming to mind but I think they are more carnivore - barnacle blenny. That is it. Cool little lads but don't think they will work. Snails, yeah. Not the favored sand swelling such as conchs or nassarius. Heck, stay away from nassarius anyway - I swear they love clams. A cowrie, nerite, and ceriths may work well.
Gyre could work. It doesn't need to be on the bottom, in fact it should be up at the surface to get the surface then crash against wall, then gently roll down and across the bottom and back up. You could alternate the blades and get forward and reverse action. Also place it on the side vertical and get movement.
If you have a controller or say MP type power heads then see if they support nutrient transport mode(s). This is what I used to do on my 40 breeder and the flow pattern is such that it does a great job of picking stuff off the bottom, suspending it, so the skimmer can pull it out. Thus the nutrient transport name. One of the major manufactures offers it - I forget which. I did this with a custom library on my Reef Angel. Amazing stuff.
Spaghetti worms won't work as someone said - they love substrate. I'm sort of out of options. There really isn't a fish that I am personally aware of that would focus on the bottom and eating things like you mentioned. Tangs do because some other tangs don't process all of the food/algae they eat but I'm blank on anything else other than maybe a smaller goby / blenny. They do tend to stay on the bottom to lower tank zone(s).
Sorry - I've got nothing for you Hope all is well with you.