My sand sifters are dying.

[MichaelW4]

I have a 29 galling tall tank and all that is in the tank is Live Rock, 5 small fish, 1 Emerald Crab, 3 Hermit Crabs, 2 small Coral Frags, and about a 2” sand bed. I had the tank setup for over a year and it was doing fine then I moved and had to move my tank so I completely started over with new sand and water. I have always have a Diamond Watchman Goby but when I moved he died from what I thought was probably stress. Now my tank has been setup for about 3 months now and I have had 3 Diamond Gobies, and other multiple sand sifter and they have all died but the only thing that I have had live is 2 Sand Sifting Conchs. I am so frustrated that I have lost so much money on this hobby and I am just looking for help. I can’t seem to figure out what is going on with my sand sifter. PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[brandon429]

Anytime you’re dealing with fish that didn’t get disease prepped or with a tank that adds in hard scape items without prepping them against disease (such as adding snails from a pet store) fish loss to disease is the risk. It is rarely a parameter out of spec, it’s commonly a delayed disease loss.


do you isolate and fallow tank additions or do corals and hard scape items just go right in

I dont think bad sand is the issue, I think what’s going on daily in the fish disease forum is the issue

 

[Capecoralsreef]

I have a 29 galling tall tank and all that is in the tank is Live Rock, 5 small fish, 1 Emerald Crab, 3 Hermit Crabs, 2 small Coral Frags, and about a 2” sand bed. I had the tank setup for over a year and it was doing fine then I moved and had to move my tank so I completely started over with new sand and water. I have always have a Diamond Watchman Goby but when I moved he died from what I thought was probably stress. Now my tank has been setup for about 3 months now and I have had 3 Diamond Gobies, and other multiple sand sifter and they have all died but the only thing that I have had live is 2 Sand Sifting Conchs. I am so frustrated that I have lost so much money on this hobby and I am just looking for help. I can’t seem to figure out what is going on with my sand sifter. PLEASE HELP!!!

If you completely started over with new sand and new water, you Didn’t have the bio mass in the sand that the sand sifters required. The pods and the other living organisms that they feed on. With brand new water and brand new sand you provably didn’t have enough bacteria to consume the ammonia and nitrites your fish were producing. Starting from scratch I’d assume you’d have to cycle the tank just like if you set up a new one, and your aquarium just couldn’t break down the fish waste. I’m just starting out in the reef world, but that’s what I’m thinking.

 

[brandon429]

Capecorals

read this link it will catch you up on cycling rules + sand interactions

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

one of the primary ways tank disease wipeouts are affecting the hobby is when we hunt for false causatives involving sand or cycle control, that link shows how rinsing sand to zero is harmless in the matter. Reef sandbeds aren’t full of diverse life in someone’s home 40 gallon, they’re full of waste + sand grains and six pods or worms, the cuc eat actual growths off the rocks and food matter before it has a chance to degrade into useless ash

we show how rinsing or removing sandbeds there doesn’t impact ammonia control at all, and the fish disease forum shows how critical it can be when we add unprepped animals from a pet store into our tanks, disease happens.

contrast that big sand work link, no deaths, with this forum loss rate when dealing with skipped disease preps:

Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis

A forum for discussing treatment and diagnosing saltwater reef fish.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Reefbuds]

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[Dkmoo]

Probably starved to death, 29G can probably only support 1 sifter full-time with mature sandbed. Brand new/clean bed just doesn't have enough biology to support it

 

[brandon429]

in my friends tank, when she feeds pellet food the goby is light a lightning snake of grab

hers does not ever starve due to this hunger/ability

if the sand sifters in question here are gastropods, disregard.

if they're fish, regard the disease forum. I cannot derive from that forum that adding mixed fish from the pet store without preps works well in a high % of tanks

 

[Cell]

Too small if a sanded to support that many creatures.

 

[vetteguy53081]

The sifters you lost in particuar dont do well with sudden changes in water type, ph changes and temperature and nitrate swings. It invites for most snails and sifters stress which they do not endure well especially if ammonia-nitrate were elevated. Starvation, i also would not rule out which is often a silent killer with snails. Sifters feed also on pods and unless you restored a population of such, there may be lack of food.
Nassarius snails are generally toughter species as are conchs for bottom cleaning. They rely on uneaten foods within the sand for food source and not detritus as is often assumed.
Do you have test results for the last few weeks since resetting tank?