detritus build up - clean up crew update

[lziarek]

Was looking for a criter that eats detritus off the sand bed, my crabs and such spend all their time foraging around my live rock and their waste starts acumilating on the sand bed. Any suggestions for criters to get?

 

[austinsdad]

Try something in the Attack Pack link below. I'm thinking the sand sifter star works well, but others may say they remove good stuff from your sand too.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=25&pCatId=532

 

[MT79]

Not sure about any critters that eat that but, an easy way to get rid of it is to increase the water flow in the area where it collects so the skimmer can break it down.

 

[lziarek]

I am going to try to rearrange my powerheads to get to the "trouble" areas and pick up another sand sifting star =)

 

[AquaBear]

Question: Can you include the Sand Sifting Sea Star if you don't have sand? I only have crushed coral and LR.

 

[lziarek]

mine seems happy in cc and he has been moving around and eating for about 1.5 months. He seems happy and shows no signs of stress.

 

[fishstixs05]

Nassarius snails ar preety good, they slide very fast aloong the sand bed, and there best quality s the y bury in the sand, eating dead organic matter.

 

[seaham358]

IMO a sand sifter is not a great idea.. In a smaller tank they will eat all the good pods ect in the sand in no time. I have read that this is there main food source. A cucumber would be a better critter to get. I have 1 in my 125 reef and 1 in my 55 fowlr and they eat all they poop...... Nonstop eating machines.

 

[Atari]

Anything that eats also poops

I agree with the mechanical removal.

 

[seaham358]

AAAAAAhh.. The cucumber poops out nice little sand pellets very neat critter.

 

[pecan2phat]

I thought the cukes were pretty cool too until I found out one night that they were eating all my shrooms!

 

[steve-s]

I thought the cukes were pretty cool too until I found out one night that they were eating all my shrooms!

What you talkin about Willis 8O

Not to poke fun but that sounds highly unlikely. The cuke could have just been in the right place at the wrong time. Cukes do not have any kind of jaw structure or mandibles for eating. Just simple soft tissues with extension feelers for pulling foods in. Unless the shrooms where unattached, then I can't see that happeneing.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Atari]

LOL Steve, you just made me spit coke all over the keyboard with that quote

 

[lziarek]

what type of cuke should i get, and where is the best place to get them, my lfs does not carry cukes though they might special order one for me

 

[steve-s]

Be sure to carefully consider the addition of a cuke. Many species don't do well unless in a very mature tank with very stable water parameters. If in a newer tank, there will not be enough of a natural food source for long term success. They are also very intolerant of high nitrates and unstable conditions. Not to be kept in an aggressive carnivor tank either

The ones I have had the best success with are from the Holothuria sp, Black Knobby, Tiger tail and pink/black Hawaiian. I wouldn't suggest the Black knobby for smaller tanks as they get much too large and none for something under 50 gal (ish).

Cheers
Steve

 

[pecan2phat]

Steve, This is how I determined that the hitch hiking cukes that were in the Key's rock from liverock.com were shroom eaters: After I placed the 100 or so lbs of LR into the tank, I let nature stabilize the tank. I left it alone for about a month to make sure that all levels were good. I then started to populate the top of the LR wall with shrooms attached to small pieces of LR from my reef tank. These were good size pieces with about 5 to 10 heads on each piece. Over the course of a week, I added about 5 of these pieces of LR with shrooms attached. The shrooms opened up and did well for the next few weeks, then they just started to shrivel up and disappear slowly over a course of about 2-3 weeks. I thought nothing of it, chalking it up to less than perfect water quality (nitrate & phosphates) due to the amount of fish in the FOWLR setup.
I knew I had a hitch hiking tan/brown cuke in the tank. I would see him late at night a few times. I even posted on the vendors forum asking if I should remove the cuke. Liverocks.com said it was perfectly harmless & that they have them in their display tanks, so I left it.
So one day months later, I'm having some red algae problems in my Nano tank and the Gulf's rock is populated with the red tuffa like algae. I'm pruning this all the time so I decide that I'll let the Tangs in the FOWLR have a go at it. This was in the late morning and the tanks are still dark but room lights are on. So I place two pieces of this rock straight into my FOWLR. The Gulf's rock has large growths of the red algae and a few shrooms on it. I go back to working on the Nano. About an hour later as I'm passing the FOWLR tank, I notice the cuke is out which is weird cause it never comes out when there is any lights on either in the room or tank. I see this guy coming down the glass towards the 2 pieces of LR that I had placed on the sandbed. Then I notice that there is a second cuke that I have never seen before It was near one of the LR pieces that I had placed in the tank. I decided that I didn't like the idea of the cuke possibly going into that piece of LR and being transported back to my Nano, so I put my arm in to move the rock and the cuke moves with the rock. I said great, he's already going in. I pick up the rock and I see him attached to a shroom that is disfigured. He would not let go, I had to shake him off. While doing this, the original cuke had made his way to the second piece of LR and was starting to munch on a shroom also. I said SOB, that's what happened to all my other shrooms in this tank.
So that's my shroom eating cuke story. Needless to say, the two cukes are out of my tank for now.

 

[Atari]

When you said you placed the shrooms on the top of the rock wall, how close and how much light were they getting? Wouldn't too much light be a reason for them to behave the way they did?

 

[steve-s]

I pick up the rock and I see him attached to a shroom that is disfigured.

Is it possible given the shrooms you mention being disfigured also had some sort of necrosis and that was what attracted the cukes to begin with? Not to doubt what you are saying but I have never seen a cuke purposely injest an otherwise healthy coral, shroom or otherwise unless it was unattached and simpley got in the way

Cheers
Steve

 

[austinsdad]

Can all cukes kill the tank when they die in your tank or release their insides? The mention above about a very mature tank by Steve-S seems a very important thing.

 

[steve-s]

Can all cukes kill the tank when they die in your tank or release their insides?

It depends greatly on the size of tank and the type of cuke but it is definately possible. The leastproblematic would be the Tigertail. If a smaller tank, it wouldn't matter the species due to the limited water volume with fish being almost immediately affected.

Cheers
Steve