Sand cleaners

[Flagg37]

Look what I just vacuumed out of my sand bed. Yuch.

This may be the dirtiest I've ever seen it.

I've still never seen the sea cucumber.

 

[OnTheReef]

@Flagg37 Sea cucumbers have defensive toxins in their bodies to avoid getting eaten, some more than others. If a sea cucumber died in your tank, you would probably see some stress or some serious stinky goo in your skimmer. I would try to find it. Chances are you are just missing it inside or under something.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

@Flagg37 Sea cucumbers have defensive toxins in their bodies to avoid getting eaten, some more than others. If a sea cucumber died in your tank, you would probably see some stress or some serious stinky goo in your skimmer. I would try to find it. Chances are you are just missing it inside or under something.

Which is why I won't have one.

 

[roostertech]

The fact that most sea cucumber look like a piece of moving turd would be a much bigger deterrent for me lol.

 

[Flagg37]

It for sure hadn't died. I checked my nitrates a couple days ago and it was at my normal 5 or so.

 

[Flagg37]

Here he is. He finally emerged.

He sure does blend in.

 

[jonmos75]

It has been years that I had one in my tank...lol

I had a tan one like yours and a Black and Pink one once in my tank.

 

[Flagg37]

Alas, I had to remove Hawkeye (our sea cucumber). He spent the last few days on the glass up at the surface. He was boyant and couldn't submerge. I took him out before he died to make sure he didn't release any toxins back into the tank.

I never thought he did all that great of a job cleaning the sand but already the sand has become quite dirty so it's apparent that he was doing a much better job than I gave him credit for.

 

[MolaMola]

Bummer. We love our yellow tiger tail cuke, even though he does not have a pearly jawfish living in his anus. That thing is a great sand cleaner. I love your conch and think we will add one.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

Bummer. We love our yellow tiger tail cuke, even though he does not have a pearly jawfish living in his anus. That thing is a great sand cleaner. I love your conch and think we will add one.

You love him even though he doesn't have a pearly jawfish living in his anus? I'll bet your husband is breathing a sigh of relief.

 

[Gablami]

How would one know if he had a pearly jawfish living in his anus?

Fighting conches are great, I have 2. Always working hard. I've read to get one per 50g.

I'm thinking about getting a goby to sand sift too. Ive been reading that diamond may be too aggressive if a sand sifted (sand storms and corals covered). Might try the tiger watchman goby.

 

[Bruce Spiegelman]

I'm thinking about getting a goby to sand sift too. Ive been reading that diamond may be too aggressive if a sand sifted (sand storms and corals covered). Might try the tiger watchman goby.

Step away from the diamond goby (or a Gold Head.) They completely destroyed my first tank and are uncatchable.

 

[Flagg37]

How would one know if he had a pearly jawfish living in his anus?

I think it's one of those things where you just don't know until it happens to you, then you KNOW.

 

[Kremis]

Diamond sand sifting goby, I had a pair but one died, 1 still does a good job keeping my 180 gallon sand clean. Before when I had 2, you could tell if they cleaned for a few hours because the water got a lil cloudy, but now with 1 that does not happen. I added them after trying to eliminate diatoms/cyano for half a year, and it was all gone within a month.

 

[MolaMola]

Now I want an assortment of sand sifters in addition to a shrimp-goby pair.
My classroom is officially going to try a cheap night vision webcam, probably in January, so we can really see what goes on in the tank overnight. One student today suggested a new engineering design challenge of a sea cucumber "buttcam." We watched a video in which a researcher superglued a tracking device on a box jellyfish so now they all want to mess with our inverts.

 

[650-IS350]

Best sand cleaner IMO, tiger tail cucumber

Have them for years. same one gave me 2 babies. one passed away a while ago, but never nuked the tank.

But if you want a fish sand cleaner, Dragon Sleeper gobies.

 

[Flagg37]

Best sand cleaner IMO, tiger tail cucumber

Have them for years. same one gave me 2 babies. one passed away a while ago, but never nuked the tank.

But if you want a fish sand cleaner, Dragon Sleeper gobies.

The dragon sleeper is a new one to me. I'll have to check that one out.

 

[Gablami]

Yeah I'm looking into that dragon sleeper too.

Basically I want to switch to a continuous water change with the Dos. Zeovit has small volume water changes, and it makes it a lot more convenient. But that means I won't be siphoning detritus. I have about a 1.5 in sand bed. It's pretty clean now but I want to keep it clean before my tank gets more heavily stocked. Want a goby to keep it spotless but not drop sand all over my corals (so a low altitude sifter). Will also look into cucumber...