Sea stars in my tank

[Zante]

I'm looking at getting sea stars in my reef.
150 gallons, 5 feex x 2 feet x 2 feet
Sand bed varies between 1 and 2 inches in depth

Stock currently is
Selection of snails
6 cleaner shrimps
1 pair of coral banded shrimps
1 pair of pistol shrimps
2 tuxedo urchins
1 heteractis magnifica
1 lawmmower blenny
1 pair of randall's gobies
1 pair of percula clowns
1 pair of coral beauties
4 firefish
4 flasher wrasse
1 yellow tang

Soon to be joined by a falcula butterfly

These are the sea stars I'm looking at:
- sand sifting (Astropecten polycanthus)
- blue linckia (Linckia laevigata)
- red sea star (Fromia milleporella)

Not necessarily all of them obviously, but I do like them all, so I will consider any combination of them you will suggest.

[MikeandNicole]

I would stay away from the sand sifting. I would worry that there wouldn't be enough microfauna in the sandbed to sustain him.
For stars, I have had really good luck with red linkia- my guy lived in my 45g cube, then moved to my 12g temporarily, and is now healthy & happy in my 205g system. If you like the red linkia as much as the blue, try the red instead. IMHO they are more hardy than the blue.

[sellersmd]

+1 on avoiding the sand sifting stars. They often starve to death even in fairly large tanks.

[Zante]

What about a couple of Fromia milleporella?

[Calappidae]

Fromia is harmless and reef safe and stays small. They will ONLY eat an invisible flim algae though and there is no other way to feed them.... if the tank is established for around a year or more than there may be enough algae to support one.