Suggestions for extending my CUC

[eheldreth]

When I initially added the CUC to my tank there were 9 Nassarius snails in the pack. Either they have all died or they just aren't effective enough at keeping my sand bed stirred up. I had originally wanted a gobey/shirmp pair but I've come to understand they can cause a lot of sand to be kicked up and my tank may be a bit small for them so I've backed off on that option. I'm thinking about adding a tiger/strawberry conch and I see they get to 3". I'd love to hear some opinions on keeping one or more in a 29 gallon tank and/or other options to keep the sand bed a bit cleaner between vacuumings.

 

[Seymo44]

I have a 3.5” blue banded pistol shrimp and a yellow watchman goby in my 13.5 gal fluval. Though the tank isn’t too small for them, the shrimp does “redecorate” every night. If you don’t plant to keep corals on the sandbed, a pistol shrimp is an excellent sand stirrer. If you do put corals on the sandbed a pistol shrimp will move them around, bury them, and/or use them to build tunnel supports.

Edit: The shrimp doesn’t really clean. It does, however, keep detritus stirred up so that it can be handled by the filtration system.

 

[Doctorgori]

For sand disturbing types, They (saltwater aquarium.com) sell a larger version than the Tongan with a dark green shell, also babylon snails and knobby ceriths. I also use various Florida conches in my DSB tank