reefkprz
Active Member
welcome to another installment of random reefkeeping by yours truly.
There are many fish and creatures labled as reef safe that really are detrimental you a reef tank even though they do not eat corals. say your trying to get a mature deep sand bed adding a sand sifting goby will destroy the chances of your DSB ever fully maturing as the sand moving around, changing depth prevent bacteria from forming in set layers of aerobic anoxic and even anaerobic levels, though we do strive only for the aerobic and anoxic. Anaerobic translates to "all hell breaking loose in a closed system" to quote one of my favorite authors. sand sifting starfish are another of these creatures, in a smaller tank they will quickly consume all the benificial creatures and then starve to death preying on the leftovers over the course of many months. in a larger system they just keep the sand bed from maturing properly, they do help keep the upper layers aerobic but the damage caused by their ravenous nature on our little sand dwelling friends, is far more detrimental than any advantage recieved from the limited use of them keeping that upper layer aerobic. there are many creatures better suited to the task, such as nassarius vibex, or sand shifting crabs, even sand sifting cucumbers, which I think are cool as all get out. pick you reef dwellers carefully to reach a balance.
Cleanup crews, oh goodness where to begin? Well first I would say dont start a tank and throw in an entire cleanup crew sutied to your size tank, there isnt enough food there yet. Most of them will die. Start slow and add more at need, if you dont have a ton of algae, 10 turbo grazers will quickly turn into 5. Hermit crabs are a hit or miss item on the "clean up crew role call list" usually in my expirience they just do more harm or create more havoc than anything else. knocking about frags dropping them behind the rock work steling shells with frags on them, and killing snails from your clean up crew for a shell that may or may not fit. though some hermits can be fun for viewing pleasure I dont really consider them cleanup crew, even though they will decimate a fish carcas in no time, we really dont want to be providing them with fish carcasses do we? there are many ways to set up c a proper clenaing crew for your tank take your time and figure the direction you want your tank to go and what creatures will best serve your needs. Unfortuantly trial and error does turn into a trial and you will make many errors (we all do). again in this case proper research can save you a lot of headaches, just like with everything else in life, its easier to try something if you have a basic knowledge of what your attempting. I'm going to stop here and move on, I will probably adress this again in the future.
There are many fish and creatures labled as reef safe that really are detrimental you a reef tank even though they do not eat corals. say your trying to get a mature deep sand bed adding a sand sifting goby will destroy the chances of your DSB ever fully maturing as the sand moving around, changing depth prevent bacteria from forming in set layers of aerobic anoxic and even anaerobic levels, though we do strive only for the aerobic and anoxic. Anaerobic translates to "all hell breaking loose in a closed system" to quote one of my favorite authors. sand sifting starfish are another of these creatures, in a smaller tank they will quickly consume all the benificial creatures and then starve to death preying on the leftovers over the course of many months. in a larger system they just keep the sand bed from maturing properly, they do help keep the upper layers aerobic but the damage caused by their ravenous nature on our little sand dwelling friends, is far more detrimental than any advantage recieved from the limited use of them keeping that upper layer aerobic. there are many creatures better suited to the task, such as nassarius vibex, or sand shifting crabs, even sand sifting cucumbers, which I think are cool as all get out. pick you reef dwellers carefully to reach a balance.
Cleanup crews, oh goodness where to begin? Well first I would say dont start a tank and throw in an entire cleanup crew sutied to your size tank, there isnt enough food there yet. Most of them will die. Start slow and add more at need, if you dont have a ton of algae, 10 turbo grazers will quickly turn into 5. Hermit crabs are a hit or miss item on the "clean up crew role call list" usually in my expirience they just do more harm or create more havoc than anything else. knocking about frags dropping them behind the rock work steling shells with frags on them, and killing snails from your clean up crew for a shell that may or may not fit. though some hermits can be fun for viewing pleasure I dont really consider them cleanup crew, even though they will decimate a fish carcas in no time, we really dont want to be providing them with fish carcasses do we? there are many ways to set up c a proper clenaing crew for your tank take your time and figure the direction you want your tank to go and what creatures will best serve your needs. Unfortuantly trial and error does turn into a trial and you will make many errors (we all do). again in this case proper research can save you a lot of headaches, just like with everything else in life, its easier to try something if you have a basic knowledge of what your attempting. I'm going to stop here and move on, I will probably adress this again in the future.
