detritus

[pounder]

I am looking for a method to control the debris on top of the sand. During water changes some gets removed but I am looking for a way to get rid of it between water changes. I have turbo snails which clean the live rock and glass. Would a reef safe star fish help? Or would some other organism be better. I have very little algae in the main tank. Lots in the sump. The tank is 120 gallons and is 4 months old.

 

[jeffsdesigns]

stay away from Sand Sifting Starfish.

They'll eat the benifical critters in your sand.

then...later starve to death.

patience is the key.

either that..or buy tons of bristle worms and spagetti worms.

 

[Anonymous]

you shouldn't need to siphon it off. it should break down on its own.

if it is truly detritus, you either have too still of water, too many turbos and hermits, an algae cycle that you attempted to fix with more turbos, or a newly set up tank that is too heavily stocked for its age.

how did i do?

like jeff said, steer away from the Sand Sifter.

 

[t-byrd]

well,
i like the diamond goby. alot of people will tell you not to get one because he eats sandbed inhabitants, but unless he making himself a house,
mine never digs more than 1/4 inch below the surface of my 5" dsb,
so anything deeper than that is fine.
he keeps the top of the sand clean, catches uneaten food that falls,
and any sand bed critters that are more than 1/4 inch under the sand are fine. he is a cool fish that is always out cruising around.

 

[danmhippo]

Get a brittle star fish, and/or fighting conch. Depending how big your sand surface area is. Queen conch can get big and may not be the best choice. Fighting Conch is more suitable for most aquariums.

 

[ErikS]

fighting conch

Best damn sand cleaner I've ever seen!

 

[monkeyboy]

Sea cuc's! Pick up a half a dozen or so of those beautiful terd like creatures, they are excelent sand cleaners. They can't hurt anythign because they ingest sand at a very slow rate; anything that cant get out of the way during that amount of time, probably shouldn't be alive anyways .Nassarius snails to some extent will help turn over the top portion of the bed also, although they won't actually chow on the detritus.

About the sand goby... Although they only eat stuff at the top layer of the sandbed, they still are voracious (well, maybe to a 'pod) sand bed critter eating machines. The last thing you want for your DSB is a critter who's entire purpose in life is to sift the critters out of the sandbed which keep the sandbed functioning properly. Just because they sift only the top layer of sand has little bearing on their sandbed impact. The worms and critters are everywhere and will eventually find themselves to the top at somepoint, only to eventually be eaten by an ugly white fish. (well, they're not ugly, i just dislike them).

So there's my take on it, take it FWIW.

 

[esmithiii]

Sea cuc's! Pick up a half a dozen or so of those beautiful terd like creatures, they are excelent sand cleaners. They can't hurt anythign because they ingest sand at a very slow rate; anything that cant get out of the way during that amount of time, probably shouldn't be alive anyways .Nassarius snails to some extent will help turn over the top portion of the bed also, although they won't actually chow on the detritus.

Ditto. Couldn't agree more except to add that nassarius do a great job of processing uneaten food.

Ernie

 

[SPC]

Sea cuc's! Pick up a half a dozen or so of those beautiful terd like creatures, they are excelent sand cleaners.

-I agree with the cukes, I have one in my 180. The "half a dozen or so" I would strongly disagree with, they will starve (I hope Monkeyboy was J/K with this :wink: ).
I also have Nassarius snails and a queen conch to help with the sand bed.
As to the diamond goby, I agree with Monkeyboy. They sift the sand for one reason, to eat any critter they can find. They sift the top 1/4" to 1/2" of sand for one reason, thats where the majority of the critters in a sand bed live :wink: .
Steve