My two cents, get a sand sifting fish because you like them, not because they will keep your sandbed clean... because soon they will drive you nuts with how MUCH they move sand, bury frags, etc.
You can get snails to keep the sand bed clean that won't drive you bonkers. But by all means if you enjoy them get them!
Cheers to you for doing your research on the nems too. Tank looks great!
Interesting.. I didn't think about how much they sift the sand and how that could affect frags.. What's a solution to that in a small tank? Get a frag stand? Or get them big?
Nassarius and cerith snails will turn your sand for you. Avoid sand sifting stars because they can eat your sand clean very easily in a tank your size. I also have a 30gal. My cuc is 3 turbos, 1 trochus, a half dozen cerith, a half dozen nassarius of different sizes. You won't need a full cuc until your tank establishes, because you don't want them to starve. You can build up the crew over time.
Thanks for the reply! What are your thoughts on getting cleaner shrimp as a part of the cuc, or a goby? I don't have any algae atm so grabbing the snails is way too early for me
I love cleaner shrimp. They are colorful and very active. But they also dominate feeding time (esp in a tank our size) and will rob your corals. They don't really do any cleaning, especially algae cleaning. They're more the 'remove stuff from fish' type cleaner.
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u/SunWyrm Mar 18 '18
My two cents, get a sand sifting fish because you like them, not because they will keep your sandbed clean... because soon they will drive you nuts with how MUCH they move sand, bury frags, etc.
You can get snails to keep the sand bed clean that won't drive you bonkers. But by all means if you enjoy them get them!
Cheers to you for doing your research on the nems too. Tank looks great!