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Dinoflorist

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hi, I was wondering about the importance of oxygenating the sand bed.

I have a 20 gallon tank with about 3 inches of sand. The sand was mostly just non-living aragonate but I seeded it with some heavily populated sand. Somehow the dark, dirty live sand made it down below most of my new sand. There's still a large copepod concentration everywhere. I can always see at least 50 of them running around, but I worry about the ones that have died below the sand, because the line (that used to be brown because the of the darker color of the live sand) is turning grey-ish, as if it is decaying.

I was thinking of something like a diamond goby to turn over the sand and mix it, but I don't want to completley decimate my copepod population, becasue then other things might starve. Being a 20 gallon tank, the diamond goby is porbably too big. So I was wondering what else could do the job well and fit in this tank. I already have a huge fire shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, 5 hermits, 3 snails, and one small green chromis, and a couple small SPS corals.
 

Dinoflorist

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Yeah I looked up nassarius snails. THey are also really cheap which is a plus. I think thats a good idea, but how many would you put in a 20 gallon tank considering what I already have, and my intention to add one or two clowns.
 
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Anonymous

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Is it possible to feed a sand sifting star supplemental foods and rely on it to do most of the sand moving?
 

K9coral

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I would get 20 or 25 nassarius snails, some will burrow and some will climb on your glass. Either way that will probably help.
 
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Anonymous

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malakai":ztmrtkti said:
Is it possible to feed a sand sifting star supplemental foods and rely on it to do most of the sand moving?
probably not since it is sifting sand continuosly in search of food?
 

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