What is the best sand cleaner

[lerch]

I just bought 4 hermit crabs and they are doing a pretty good job at cleaning my sand but they have since moved on to my live rock. I was thinking about buying a sand sifter cucumber but the black species are kind of ugly. Do the yellows sift sand? I have a mandarin goby and a lawnmower blenny, could I add a sand cleaning goby or blenny? I am not sure wich species is the one that cleans sand???

 

[daluminum]

look for a "detrivore kit" it has small star's and lots of worms.. I dont know if its reef safe. but it will help with a DSB..

 

[mlm]

I diamond goby (also called midus (sp)) will do a very good job cleaning the sand. It takes in a gulp of sand and then spits it back out.

 

[nasotang00]

My scooters do the same, great job. Also cucumbers are good at this but kind of slow at it.

 

[diatom]

Lerch~
If you have a DSB don't add sand sifters as what they are sifting the sand for are the creatures that keep it alive.
A detrivore kit is perfectly reef safe and an excellant addition.
fighting conchs do a great job on the sand bed if you have enough open space for them.

 

[adrian]

I agree with the above, a detrivore kit is the best thing for a DSB and you can get most of these creatures from sand taken from established tanks and from freshly cured live rock, although the ugly turd looking cukes do a great job, mine only come out at night so you dont have to worry about seeing them much If the yellows one you are reffering to are the type that extend feeder branches out of one end, then they are filter feeders and will not help to clean your sand. Most sand sifters like the above mentioned diamond watchman gobie will feed on small critters in your sand, the same creatures that keep the sand healthy, like mentioned above If the watchman is not eating prepared foods it can quickly decimate the population of these small critters and then starve to death. Also look into Nassarious snails, they do a great job of keeping the bed stirred and eating any left over foods. HTH

 

[fshhub]

the detrivore kit would be a good idea, but IMO, tricky at this point, they are likely to get eaten before they can take(especially with a mandarin)
nassarius snails are cool, do a goood job and move like the devil
i don't' know if i would add fish, other than algae eaters, if you have a dsb, you don't want them to eat your dets and stir up the sand; just a note, tehse species eat the same food you are trying to keep for your mandarin and if your population dies the mandarin will have a much harder time
all you want is something that will eat the algae and detritus, the crabs will work their way around and eventually get back to the sand
your lawnmower should soon go to work, after a couple of days, you'll be surprised at how much they eat
HTH

 

[subliminalfish]

any type of sand sifting gobie would do well. They are pretty active fish and do a really good job.

 

[lerch]

What are the different types of Sand Sifting Gobies????????????

 

[daluminum]

large hermit crab in a DSB??? pro's con's??