Neat sand sifter

[mrbacony]

I just lost my Golden Headed Goby who was an excellent sand sifter. My biggest complaint was how messy he was. He would get scoops of sand, swim over all the corals and shower them which irritated the corals.
Any suggestions for a neater sand sifter that won’t spread sand all over the tank?

 

[blaxsun]

I just lost my Golden Headed Goby who was an excellent sand sifter. My biggest complaint was how messy he was. He would get scoops of sand, swim over all the corals and shower them which irritated the corals.
Any suggestions for a neater sand sifter that won’t spread sand all over the tank?

Black cucumbers. While you will occasionally end up with some sand on your rocks, it's only when they climb over said rocks and deposit these nicely-cleaned fine pellets of substrate (which is not often, as most of the time they stay in the substrate). I've got 4 in my 160-gallon pulling overtime cleaning substrate along a pair of sand-sifting starfish and a few dozen nassarius snails and orange lip conches.

 

[Tired]

Cucumbers work in a sufficiently large tank, but honestly, manually stirring a bit of your sandbed every water change is probably a better route. Sand sifters eat a lot of the beneficial fauna in the sand.

 

[blaxsun]

Cucumbers work in a sufficiently large tank, but honestly, manually stirring a bit of your sandbed every water change is probably a better route. Sand sifters eat a lot of the beneficial fauna in the sand.

They work in any size tank. 2 of the 4 cucumbers each previously resided in a 25-gallon tank. When they can't find anything in the substrate they'll clean the rocks, sides of the tank, etc. Stirring the sandbed isn't something I generally do as you never know what you're potentially introducing to your water column.

 

[mrbacony]

Won’t the cucumber nuke your whole tank if he dies? Or am I thinking of a different creature?

 

[Uncle99]

That is a possibility.
Not worth the risk.
Nassarius snails do a great job and bother nothing.

 

[mrbacony]

What about a fighting conch? I have heard good things. Can you have more than 1 in a tank, or would they outcompete each other?
I do currently have some Nassarius snails but not sure they could keep the sand bed as clean as I like it.

 

[jaganshi066]

I tried a lot but I haven’t found anything that can even come close to the diamond goby when it comes to cleaning the sandbed. Sure it gets messy but the outcome is worth it

 

[X-37B]

Diamond goby. I have one in my 45 frag system. My display is BB.
I will put one in my 30 gallon fuge when its done.

 

[blaxsun]

That is a possibility.
Not worth the risk.
Nassarius snails do a great job and bother nothing.

Well, it’s a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, if they’re attacked and injured or killed by something they may (emphasis on may) become toxic. When they die naturally, they just... die. But nassarius snails are also an excellent option.

 

[mrbacony]

I know the Diamond Goby is great at keeping the sand bed clean…. but he sure is messy. I have chalice corals on the sand bed that would be covered everyday with one of them.

 

[Uncle99]

Well, it’s a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, if they’re attacked and injured or killed by something they may (emphasis on may) become toxic. When they die naturally, they just... die. But nassarius snails are also an excellent option.

Not as concerned with big water, more the nanos.
I really don’t know if it’s true, but error on the side of caution.
Same with crabs for me. After removing all years ago now, I don’t get any mysterious deaths.
I can’t tell which SC may be toxic, unfortunate as SC would be a great sand asset.

 

[blaxsun]

My black sea cumber got ticked off and “webbed” me the other day. Pity the poor fish that pesters one! Not worried in the least about anything attacking it.