Do I need sand shifters?

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I finally added my DSB. I have about 2-3inches depending where you measure it. I had to use Playsand because I had already looked and looked for SD and couldn't find it.( I already had 30pds of LS) It sure made a mess of the tank, but is clear now. I just have residue on everything. Everyone survived but my scooter Blenny seems stressed. Anyway, What's next? Do I need stuff to stir up the sand?? What about the clean-up crew? Will they stir sand? I don't have any snails, and only a few crabs that were in the live sand. I have a 55gal. tank, 1 1/2 yr old, 1 regal tang, 1 coral beauty, 1 Cardinal, 1 firefish, 1 dartmouth. I use a wet dry.

 

[waterbury guy]

I would get something to stir the sand around. I have a few fighting conchs in mine that do a good job. Probabaly be good to get a detritivore kit in there from inland aquatics or IPSF.

 

[aileena]

i would get red hermits, a emerald crab, conchs, and a sand sifter star.

 

[waterbury guy]

Under no circumstances should you add a sand sifting star (or any other sand sifting animal for that matter). These will quickly deplete your DSD of the beneficail fuana. You only want animals that that will turn the sand over. Read up on DSB on this link:
http://rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

 

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Thanks, I read the article. It cleared some stuff up. I put my LS in first, because the LFS told me it was all I would need. After finding this website, I realized I needed much more sand. I added the playsand next. Now you can see the layer where the new sand starts. Shoud I try and mix the sand? Also, I bought 15 nassarius snails, 2 blue legged hermits, and 2 red, 3 turbo snails and three queen conchs today. I noticed on this website the clean up crew packages are even larger. Is this necessary? The LFS said those hermits would get pretty big.

 

[waterbury guy]

IMO the pre-packaged clean up crews have too may items in them. All I have in mine is what is listed below and they do a very fine job of keeping everything clean. I started out with more hermits and snails, but the hermits started eating the snails and a few canabalized each other. You shouldn't have to mix the sand up. I would definatly get a detritivore kit from inlandaquatics.com or ipsf.com this will be a great benefit to your DSB. The hard part is paying that much $$ for stuff you rarely see.
I got one from IPSF in Feb. and just added one from inland last week. As you can see from Dr. Ron's article having a diversity of creatures is very desireable.

 

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Could you please give me the websites for the places you're purchasing from?

 

[waterbury guy]

www.inlandaquatics.com
www.ipsf.com

 

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Thanks!

 

[hnf2k]

how long should did it take for your tank to clear up? because mine is cloudy as all hell

 

[j21kickster]

Originally posted by Waterbury Guy
I would get something to stir the sand around.
Then you say under no circumstances should you add a sand sifting star(or any sand sifting animals for that matter) And then you say only animals that will turn the sand over, well if their stirring sand it is usually in search of food.So what is your final opinion? just to avoid the confusion.

 

[fshhub]

do not disturb the bed
let your worms and pods do the little bit you need in the upper layers, you do not want it disturbed below anyhow, you want oxygen deprived areas for bacteria to grow, which finishes the nitrogen cycle, thus reducing nitrates into nitrogen gas and exiting by bubbling out of your system
]
and you do not need to stir it for cleaning reason, your critters will do the cleaning and the bacteria will finish it off

 

[waterbury guy]

j21kickster, you're right, the way I made my statement was contradicting itself. Sorry about that. Dr. Ron says it much better in the article I posted a link to above, and Fshhub summed it up very nicely as well.

 

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HNF, sorry I didn't reply. I've been off a few day. It only took about 24 hours to completely clear. Now I have a question for the experts...........I have stuff on my glass that looks like small dust blowing with the current(it's white). Usually whats on my glass looks like green algae. This is new. I don't know if it's from the sand, the LR I just added or something else. I don't have any corals in my tank except a few struggling mushrooms and what was on the LR. I was wanting to clean off my glass but was a little worried about wiping this off. Thought it might be something benificial?? I also just added a bunch of snails and hermits if that helps.