sand upkeep?

[Liquidcfour]

what are the must haves for sand up keep?

are sand sifting stars needed? probably a good thing to have tho right?

are there any other things that would keep the sand clean?

thanks
-brandon

 

[Oliver]

I don't know anything about stars but hermit crabs are meant to be good. and some are wicked too, like blue legged ones etc..

 

[skippy2]

Too keep your sand turned over get ceirth and nassirious snails. Sand sifting stars will eat all your pods=bad. If you are going to have a reef I wouldn't add any hermits. I do have 1 and he bulldozes through my corals knocking them over.

 

[corriewf]

Too keep your sand turned over get ceirth and nassirious snails. Sand sifting stars will eat all your pods=bad. If you are going to have a reef I wouldn't add any hermits. I do have 1 and he bulldozes through my corals knocking them over.

I agree.

 

[mogurnda]

The argument can go either way I suppose. I have always had hermits, and really like the scarlet reef hermits. Anything large enough to bulldoze sounds like a bad idea.

For sifters, I use nassarius and fighting conchs. Blue leg hermits help a bit as well, although they will attack smaller snails.

 

[Gealcath]

Sand sifter starfish will usually slowly starve to death due to lack of food (just 1 can clean out a 30gl in short time) and often require additonal feeding.