Sand Sifter
- Thread starter dick525
- Start date
underthesea
Member
i have one in my tank and it is awesome and has never hurt anything in my tank. He is just always sifting through my sand and eating what ever that is in it. I love this guy and am looing to get more of them
tiggerbengal
Member
I asked someone at a store that just sells saltwater fish & they had quite a few of the sand sifters. According to him, he said as long as you have a protective layer on the sandbed, they wont harm anything. His main concern was them stirring up the bed & causing amonia and such.
k.lee
Member
Originally posted by tiggerBengal:
<strong>I asked someone at a store that just sells saltwater fish & they had quite a few of the sand sifters. According to him, he said as long as you have a protective layer on the sandbed, they wont harm anything. His main concern was them stirring up the bed & causing amonia and such.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Bah f0r ammonia! unless you have a masive die-off, ammonia is not in the equation. And if that happened, what would you care. Any thing loke you descibe sounds like a godsend to reef keping, however,
<strong>I asked someone at a store that just sells saltwater fish & they had quite a few of the sand sifters. According to him, he said as long as you have a protective layer on the sandbed, they wont harm anything. His main concern was them stirring up the bed & causing amonia and such.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Bah f0r ammonia! unless you have a masive die-off, ammonia is not in the equation. And if that happened, what would you care. Any thing loke you descibe sounds like a godsend to reef keping, however,
bluto
Member
I believe the original question was...will a sand sifting star hurt the live sand bed and corals.
Eating the corals would probably be obvious, but my question to those of you who have one is...how do you know it's not depleting the microfauna of your LS??
I've never had one, but I'm assuming the star doesn't look like it's doing any harm (just going about it's business) WHILE it's eating all the microfauna in your sandbed.
Just a thought.
Bluto
Eating the corals would probably be obvious, but my question to those of you who have one is...how do you know it's not depleting the microfauna of your LS??
I've never had one, but I'm assuming the star doesn't look like it's doing any harm (just going about it's business) WHILE it's eating all the microfauna in your sandbed.
Just a thought.
Bluto
bluto
Member
I'm not trying to argue with anybody, but the misinformation from LFS's is really pretty frustrating.
I'm not an expert but I'm fairly certain of a few things. There is no danger of releasing ammonia simply by stirring up the sand bed (I believe somebody mentioned this a few posts up). The danger of having a DSB and stirring it up is releasing hydrogen sulfide which is toxic. From what I understand, this has always been an issue with DSB's. However, although I've seen lots of posts warning of this...I don't remember ever hearing of a firsthand account (or horror story) from someone who's actually had it happen?
I'm also a little confused by the mention of a "protective layer"...protective layer of what?? Plastic? Substrate (perhaps a different substrate like cc)? Or was this a referrence to a plenum??
Just wondering, because if there IS a way to enjoy the benefits of a DSB and LS, AND not have to worry about hydrogen sulfide release...I'd love to hear about it (and employ it in the 180 I'm planning).
Bluto
I'm not an expert but I'm fairly certain of a few things. There is no danger of releasing ammonia simply by stirring up the sand bed (I believe somebody mentioned this a few posts up). The danger of having a DSB and stirring it up is releasing hydrogen sulfide which is toxic. From what I understand, this has always been an issue with DSB's. However, although I've seen lots of posts warning of this...I don't remember ever hearing of a firsthand account (or horror story) from someone who's actually had it happen?
I'm also a little confused by the mention of a "protective layer"...protective layer of what?? Plastic? Substrate (perhaps a different substrate like cc)? Or was this a referrence to a plenum??
Just wondering, because if there IS a way to enjoy the benefits of a DSB and LS, AND not have to worry about hydrogen sulfide release...I'd love to hear about it (and employ it in the 180 I'm planning).
Bluto