Options on sand cleaning fish/invert.

[hnguyen]

Guys, I need help deciding what I should get fish or invert wise to help clean my sand. I use the Hawaiian black sand so they are pretty big, not fine like the white sand most use. So I'm in need of some help. The tank is pretty new so I'm not worried about it yet, but down the road I know I'll get some kind of junk under my sand. Is there any fish or invert out there that can handle just type of sand?

Thanks in advance for any help/advance.

Hoang.

 

[thanh386]

umm... conch's, nass. snails, sand sifting starfish, sand sifting gobies, etc. Lots to choose from.

 

[tgray3]

Cerith Snail's have done the best for me. I have Hawaiian Black also and they are always digging around it.

 

[smallblock]

Gobies are out with this type of sand right? I have a conch and I love that thing. He doesnt mess with anything but he gets all over the sand. I really like his eyeballs lol sometimes thats all you can see of him they are like two periscopes. They dont just stay on the top of the sand they will burrow and mix it up as well, but have never compramised my rock stack.

 

[hnguyen]

Smallblock;640065 wrote: Gobies are out with this type of sand right? I have a conch and I love that thing. He doesnt mess with anything but he gets all over the sand. I really like his eyeballs lol sometimes thats all you can see of him they are like two periscopes. They dont just stay on the top of the sand they will burrow and mix it up as well, but have never compramised my rock stack.

I want a goby as well, but I'm afraid that it will choke on a big piece of sand or something.

Edit:

tgray3;640063 wrote: Cerith Snail's have done the best for me. I have Hawaiian Black also and they are always digging around it.

Do you know if a LFS that sell these? I'm not even sure how they look like, Let me do a google search.

Edit:

Thanh386;640061 wrote: umm... conch's, nass. snails, sand sifting starfish, sand sifting gobies, etc. Lots to choose from.

I've thought about the sand shifting star fish and goby but I'm not sure how well they will handle my sand. Some of the pieces of sand can get up to 1/4" or even bigger.

 

[smallblock]

Well I have the black and white sand. I cant remember the exact name of it but It wasnt gobie safe I dont think. The gobies still hit it going for copepods and seem to do ok with it. I do suspect that they move some of the bigger black chunks to the side of the tank. I think they know what they can and cant hit and filter.

Edit: Do they make a finer black sand. Yours is kind of chunky isnt it?

 

[hnguyen]

Smallblock;640068 wrote: Well I have the black and white sand. I cant remember the exact name of it but It wasnt gobie safe I dont think. The gobies still hit it going for copepods and seem to do ok with it. I do suspect that they move some of the bigger black chunks to the side of the tank. I think they know what they can and cant hit and filter.

Edit: Do they make a finer black sand. Yours is kind of chunky isnt it?

Mine's start out fine when everything is mixed up, but after time all the smaller fine sand settles to the bottom of the tank and all is left over are the big pieces on top. At least thats how it worked out with my 60 cube and I used the same sand for it. I didn't put anything in the 60 because of this reason but now I want something to help keep the sand clean after seeing how dirty it was when I removed the rocks from the 60 to transfer over to the 93. I was socked at the dust cloud I got on the 60. Thats why I'm hoping to find something that will be able to handle this sand.

Maybe some sponsors might chime in with more info about them.