Sand Cleaners

[stcardoza]

My tank has been starting to grow patches of algae (green, purple, red filamentous) on the sand and I am trying to find a creature (fish or otherwise) to help keep it in check. I've heard that some blenny's might do this, or maybe a starfish of some sort, or snails or crabs?
My tank information is as follows...
55 Gal. long
50 lbs. live rock
Emporer 400 filter
Sea clone skimmer
2" - 3" sand bed (not live sand)
1 false percula clown
2 green chromis (who double in size every week!)
1 scarlet reef hermit
2 blue leg hermits
2 cerith snails
Anyone have any good ideas or experience? I'm open to anything that will work for my tank.
Thanks!

 

[musipilot]

Our horseshoe crab keeps the sand nice and clean, running along it for a few hours a day, then burying himself in different spots. Before him, we had brown patches on the sand, none since he moved in.

 

[jakob4001]

large hermit crab might...but tends to only stake out a along the front glass pathway only & may disturb things in reef tank...our dragon wrasse seems to stir things up a lot, but it will get large & will disturb pieces of LR...perhaps a scooter blenny

 

[stcardoza]

I like the idea of a scooter blenny because I think they are cool, but I don't know too much about them. Will they do the job I want? I'd like to stay away from big hermits, and I think horseshoe crabs get huge. Anyone out there have experience with the scooter blenny???
Thanks!

 

[predator]

Fighting and Queen conchs!!! These little guys work wonders for your tank. I would not put more than 5 maybe 6 in your tank. I have 10 in my 100 gallon reef and they keep things nice a tidy and have a very, very, very small bio-impcat on your tank. This way you can in fact keep your sand clean and still be able to have other fish, cpral or whatever. Just a thought...

 

[javajoe]

from what i understand, scooter blennys are meat eaters. they feed on the cocopads that are in your LS LR. i had one, and had been told incorrectly that he woudl eat algae- i had to keep feeding him, cause it was a new tank and did not have a lot of critters in the sand bed yet. he ended up dying due to a major tank disaster. We have hermits and a sally lite foot that hang out on the sand and eat stuff, and we have a lawnmower blanny (aka algae or sailfin blenny) who LOVES the green hair alge on our rocks.

 

[briansreeftank19660426]

do not get a HORSHOE.. THEY DID IN YOUR SAND AND UPSET THE DSB FACT! also big hermits make a mess of your tank ive had them . they dig an dpic at your live rock all day n night.. also and most important. you have not POWERHEADS!!!!!! you need the water to circulate to avoid dead spots. get two small powerheads one in each corner. if uve got a 55 gallon get two 25 gallon heads.. i use hagen aqua clear. luv em. since they been added my sand bed gets zero algae and growth jut fish poop which my tiny tiny blue legged hermits eat and my sand burrowing snails. my tank is crystal and pristine.. i also have a sand sifting star. they do not disrupt the bed like a crazy horshoe. its a fact horshoes are noo good for reef unless u dont care about yoru dsb beeing messed up
good luck

 

[sandy]

Pretty sure scooter blenny will mostly only eat meat. Mine (Rocky) is cool though -- has this japanese type fin that stretches from his mid-body up to the tip of his head. He can dive into sand like we dive into water, but only does it in distress (like when I added him to the tank). Some will only eat critters out of the sand, but mine will eat whatever I feed the other fish. He especially likes to steal from the hermit crabs -- just for the sake of stealing, not necessarly to eat. This guy is just fun to watch.