sandsifters, yes or no?

[fungia]

i am planning my sand bed right now and dont know if i should care about sandsifters or not when choosing what i will use in the sand bed. are sandsifters still recommended, for example the gobies and stars? i hear some dont use them anymore but many books mention them. which is more correct and current?

tia

 

[Anonymous]

you will find differing opinions on that.

as far as stars are concerned, i wouldn't do the one reffered as a sand sifting star (astropecten polycanthus). it lives off other sand bed fauna and disrupts the bed too much.

supposedly the smaller white brittles are beneficial though i haven't ever had the pleasure.

i wouldn't add a fish unless you really want one.
i would look into buying some real live sand. whether it be a florida aquaculture or an import. it is recommended by the people i find most informed. and they find it preferable to a detritivore kit, though some of those are great too.

 

[Len]

Popular opinion nowadays is that sand stirrers aren't necessary, and perhaps even detrimental to a reef system because most sand stirrers are highly efficient predators of benthic life. If it were me, I'd skip on sand-sifting gobies and the large white burrowing stars; both will decimate the sandbed population.

 

[outdoorandmore]

I have patches of brown algae on my sand bed.
And I've been told by a couple experienced hobbyists to get a couple sand sifting starfish, which would help in turning over the sand.
I was also told that they definitely eat the fauna in sand beds, but many argue that their consumption rate isn't high enough to cause any damage to my system.

True or Flase???????

What would be an alternative for eliminating the unsightly algae?

 

[Anonymous]

are you attempting a DSB?

 

[Mogo]

I have a couple sandsifters in my 140 and quite frankly they're to dam slow to matter much.

 

[Anonymous]

I have a sand sifting star and golbies from day 1 and have no problems. But this has work for me. My sand bed is about 1-2". Tank is a year old. I believe in sand sifters. Plus they are cool to watch.

 

[MiNdErAsR]

What you want, instead of sand sifters, is sand shifters. Things like tiny brittle stars and bristleworms that live and constantly move about within the sand.

 

[Anonymous]

I have both sand sifting gobie and a serpent star. I have found them to be fun to watch and they really dont hurt the tank all that much and it helps keep the red slime away really well. Its all up to what you wanna do with your tank many people have way different opinions

 

[Reefguide]

I have a sand sifting star in my tank now but I wouldn't recommend it. I have low flow near the tank bottom and was having alot of garbage bilding up so I added the star ! But again, I don't like em !

 

[MiNdErAsR]

...I have found them to be fun to watch and they really dont hurt the tank all that much...

Really? What do you think they are eating from your sandbed? I'm curious, how long have you had the sand sifting goby? Is it nice and plump or emaciated?

 

[investigator1]

Seriously........

Just buy a whole bunch of nessarius snails. They guys dive into the sand like a submarine on crack. They live thier life only eating table scraps from fish and algae (including cyano).

I would not recommend anything else for maintaining a good DSB.

 

[DA Mini reefs]

You will find that most of the mature reefers don't recommend sand sifters simply because they limit the goodies in your DSB, eating them faster than they can reproduce. You don't want that at all. :wink: If you think about it, it's just common sence isn't it?
Hope this helps
Dave

 

[Mogo]

I really like my sand sifters. They just don't seem to do much although I'm sure they are. They are a clear benefit to my 140 aquarium.

 

[Mogo]

By the way i have over 100 feather dusters (hitchhikers from lr) established on the bottom and the sand sifters have never bothered any of them.

 

[Anonymous]

I have had my sand sifter for about 4 - 5 months now and he is nice and healthy not skinny at all. he goes after the frozen food in the tank and I am sure he takes good things out of the sand but he also keeps the sand bed clean. He is probably one of my favorite fish in the tank

 

[Pamela]

I am in the planning stage of setting up my 75 gal. reef again.

There will be a 50 gal. basement sump with a 4" DSB, using oolitic sand.
It will be seeded with live sand and detritivore kits,and No sand sifters
The main tank will have 1-2" seaflour special grade reef sand, with sand sifters(small cukes and stars).