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iamjero
09/26/2006, 03:11 PM
I have about 5-6 inches of sand on the bottom of my tank and I was wondering if that was deep enough to get some sort of sand sifter to help keep the substrate clean but not disturb my nitrifying bacteria?
TekCat
09/26/2006, 03:14 PM
nassarius snails, bristle worms, and a cuke should do it for you :)
iamjero
09/26/2006, 03:23 PM
what is a cuke?
TekCat
09/26/2006, 03:25 PM
cucumber
Paintbug
09/26/2006, 03:47 PM
nassarius and ceriths do it for me.
tkenm377
09/26/2006, 03:55 PM
get a diamond goby if you dont have something else inhabiting the bottom... they will keep your sand white as snow!!
UnderCoverDork
09/26/2006, 06:30 PM
sand siffting seastar works
CompNrdCR
09/26/2006, 06:53 PM
Love my diamond spotted goby... He is so funny!

He is looking out at me from the hole he just dug...
bertoni
09/26/2006, 07:22 PM
The sand sifting sea stars seem to starve to death after about a year to a year and a half, so I'd stay away from them. The goby fishes will eat the animals that make the sand bed live, so that limits the denitrification a lot. :) But that might be okay for your tank.
iamjero
09/27/2006, 08:14 AM
I am planning on adding a few soft corals, zoas, and shrooms so anything that will eat them is out.

I would love to get a Goby. Does anyone know of a species that dosen't dig as much? I hear that the Diamond Spotted Goby are pretty avid diggers.
650-IS350
09/27/2006, 10:06 AM
Most sand sifting gobies ARE avid sifters that usual stir up only the first inch or 2 of the layer of sand. ( diamond gobies, golden sleepers, pink spot, dragon or banded, etc.. most sleeper do it ) but for my experience Dragon gobies are top not as they are not predomantly bottom feeding fish. they are more free swimming gobies which nomadically swim throughout your tank and sifting sand through their gills. ( they tend to sift only the top layer inch or so ) but the good thing is that if the top layer gets to clean they don't mind eating flakes, frozen or live brine as well.

http://www.marinecenter.com/fish/gobies/dragongoby/

I managed to have them spawn ( but not hatch constantly before ) they have also manage to have a liking to hair algae as well.
tkenm377
09/27/2006, 10:54 AM
you don't have to worry about gobies eating any of your coral... I started out my tank just like you by the sounds of it, and my ony regret was that I had a goby and didn't have a top on my tank. They are great fish, but you are going to either want to have a hood or a glass top to keep them from commiting suicide.
iamjero
09/27/2006, 11:10 AM
The goby fishes will eat the animals that make the sand bed live

If the goby disturbs the top couple inches of substrate will the remaining three to four inches of undisturbed sand still provided adequate bio-filtration?
bertoni
09/27/2006, 12:19 PM
The top 2" of sand have most of the live animals, and the remaining 3-4" won't do much if the top 2" are dead. There's lots of information on this topic in the advanced topics forum, and the substrate thread I put together has pointers as well.
iamjero
09/27/2006, 12:42 PM
What??? I need to start looking in the advanced topics forum?

This is good news!
doin' fin
09/27/2006, 01:50 PM
I was doing some researching on the sea serpent stars(non-spiny ones) and was under the impression that they could be trained to take frozen food like Formula one and two. This way they could sift and still not starve. But I have never had one and don't want to starve one to death....
doin' fin
09/27/2006, 01:52 PM
You may also want to look at the nudibranches (sp?) they may also help. Some people think the bristleworms are bad - guess it depends on what you will have in your tank.
bertoni
09/27/2006, 01:54 PM
Serpent stars (ophiuroids) will take frozen food. Sand sifters, in the biologist's sense, generally (or perhaps always) require live food. Each animal is a bit different, though, and we see a wide range of adaptability in some species.

Nudibranchs are all predators on live animals. I wouldn't recommend them.