To go Sand Sifting Star or Not to?

mikelush78

mikelush78

AC Members
Jun 30, 2006
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ok my sand looks like crap... different color algea growth on it here and there and then u got detritus in places... My water flow is prefect and i do not want a tun of water flow near the bottom anyway seeing that i have corals toward the bottom that do not want a tun of flow so my flow is mid to high and that is good to me.

I have tried a Queen conch and that really does not help.
I have tried nasarius snails and they help only the places that they appear, they do not stir up the sand really.

The one good thing that did that sifted the sand really nice was the diamond goby but I cannot put any more fish in the tank.

I have a 10 gallon attached refugium so I am thinking about the sand sifting star but will it hurt my aquarium at all? I know they kill like sand beds and all but if I have the refugium ...... What do u guys thing?
 
I know some people will probably disagree, but i'd get one. I'd look for a small one though. A small sand sifter in a 90 gallon wouldn't wipe out the life in your sand bed. (At least, I don't think so)..

I had one in my 90 gallon, and I had plenty of life in the sand. I also have one now in my 185, and it seems to be going well.
 
i wouldn't get one. they need tons of food and they won't be able to do what you are looking for. mine did eat everything off my sand bed. i used to have thousands of little bristle stars and he ate them all but those that ran into rocks. the star will sit in one spot for some time before he moves to another. i don't think you'll get a result you are looking for. but you know, if you want to try one, go for it, no big deal if you'll get one or not.
 
you should have enough flow so that the detritus cannot settle on your DSB.

i think corals wont have any problems whatsoever with "flow"

id simply suggest you need more.

on my 18 gallon i have 2 rio 90s, a nano korilla, and a HOB skilter which all equal roughly 670 gph

on a 90 gallon tank you'd probably want like 1800-3600 gph (20-40 times turnover)

whaddaya got now?
 
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I have 2 Sand sifting star fish in my 90G and my sand is pearly white with nearly no discoloration. sometimes i see the bigger of the two on the glass and sometimes he cruises up onto the rocks but doesnt hurt any corals whatsoever. My friend that got me into tanks has the identical tank as me and he has 4 Sand sifting stars and TONS of corals SPS and softies and he has no issues either.
 
First off with my flow of my 90 gallon I have:
- Mag Drive 12 (1000 gph after going up to tank from sump)
- (4) maxi jet 1200 (295 gph)
- for a grand total of 2180 GHP in my tank.....
(I have to say I have enough flow in the tank... the deterious only accumulates in one area and is not bad... that is no the main problem)

The problem is that I have algea here and there and it makes it look messy or dirty... I don’t like it....

When i First started with reef tanks I had a 24 gallon nano cube and I had a sand sifting star in there... Did not know what i was going and the LFS told me it would be fine...

To be honest it was just fine and had the tank up for 1 year... sold him back after more research I decided he was not good for the sand bed and might run out of food...

I had him for a year in a 24 gallon and he was still fine... that is why I said in a 90 gallon with a refugium could he really be that bad?
 
the starfish isnt going to stop the algea.

you need to figure out what the algae is feeding on and fix it.

i dont see any problems at all with the starfish. but he aint gonna solve the algae problems.

and your first post about not wanting the "flow" close to the bottom because of coral was just weird to me.
 
my friend was going to return his sifting star because he was under the same impression as you but the dude at the fish store said that they just work over the top one fourth of the sand bed and it takes like six to ten years to get to its greatest potential. keep in mind my friends aquarium is a 29 gallon
dont quote me on this though
 
I have a sand sifting star in my 100 gallon, and for the most part my sand is pretty clean, he does an adequate job. He is pretty big though, I have had him for over two years now, he was one of the first things I put in my tank after the cycle.

You can support it, but I agree with what others have said here, you should hunt down the source of the algae issue before it gets out of hand. Do you have a cleanup crew, natural algae eaters like tangs, etc. They can really help believe it or not. Check your PO4 (Phosphate) that one always seems to be the food source for algae.

good luck, hope this helped.
 
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