Which sand sifter?

45ZoaGarden

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So I’ve been out a sand sifter for awhile and the tank’s SB just doesn’t look as good as it used to. My old sifter was a diamond goby. He was great till he jumped through my screen top and became a dog toy :(. It was one of my favorite fish. What a personality! But he had his issues too, particularly burying corals. I don’t really want another diamond goby because of the burying. So I was looking at getting a conch or some nassarius snails. I have some algae in spots and some detritus too. I can’t really up the flow because my euphyllia will suffer. The tank is a 45 gallon 26x21 tank with a 1-1.5 inch sand bed (closer to 2” in the back) . My question is which one should I get? Or do I need a combination of both? Also how many? I don’t really want a sea cucumber because of the risks. I’m also aware that my tank is way too small for a Star. Thanks for your insight!
 

Arabyps

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I have 2 strombus (fighting) conch in my 130 gallon DT. They seem to do a good job keeping the sand bed clean. You usually never see them as they are deep under the sand most of the time foraging for food. In the morning you can see their trails in the sand as hey surface at night. Info may be found here:

 

creativeballance

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I have 2 conch. One I rarely see, the other hangs out on the surface and generally likes to climb up my rocks and roll down onto the sand.

I have some pitho crabs too, and they're good at keeping the sand stirred up too.
 

Tuffyyyyy

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I have 2 strombus (fighting) conch in my 130 gallon DT. They seem to do a good job keeping the sand bed clean. You usually never see them as they are deep under the sand most of the time foraging for food. In the morning you can see their trails in the sand as hey surface at night. Info may be found here:

This for sure. I have 2x in my 120 gallon and they stay just slightly behind the algae curve - which works for me so I know they’ve got stuff to munch on.
 

Crabby48

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I have Conch, nassarius, cerith snails in my sand bed.

If you like gobies but not the mess look into pink spot goby pistol shrimp pair. Goby is lazy and only protects the shrimp. I think the pink spots are less likely to sift a lot of sand.
 
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