Cleanup Crew = Poop Machines

[SnakeEyes27]

After a long wait I was able to add some life to my tank in the form of 4 snails and 6 hermits. Theyre doing a good job cleaning up some algae but it seems like they are craping all the time.

The sand is littered with tirds. Just wanted to know if there are any good solutions to keep this in check (aside from siphoning the sand during water changes.

Thanks

 

[Deanos]

(aside from siphoning the sand during water changes.

I love when members answer their own questions :hug:

 

[cisco1717]

lol

 

[SnakeEyes27]

Haha, so is that it?

 

[ClosetFishGeek]

Haha, so is that it?

pretty much....

 

[SevTT]

After a long wait I was able to add some life to my tank in the form of 4 snails and 6 hermits. Theyre doing a good job cleaning up some algae but it seems like they are craping all the time.

The sand is littered with tirds. Just wanted to know if there are any good solutions to keep this in check (aside from siphoning the sand during water changes.

Thanks

Did you get live sand? A healthy population of spaghetti/medusa/those worms that send out long strands of mucous helps keep that in check, as do bristleworms. And copepods, and amphipods, and brittle starfish. But then, I'm an advocate of "make sure everything gets eaten except the display specimens" school of thought on filtration.

 

[SnakeEyes27]

I'm an advocate of "make sure everything gets eaten except the display specimens" school of thought on filtration.

Agreed. I do have live sand but i dont have any worms or even anthropods in there yet. Do NYC LFS sell worms?

There are some nice looking worms on this site:
http://reefguide.org/index18.html

 

[sjsoto]

thats why i dont use sand in my display tank, bare bottom

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

many members have such high flow that a lot of the dirt are suspended in the water column and eventually filtered by the filter sock.
if you use an "irregular" flow powerheads such as wave maker, you will see a big difference in the amount of dirt on the sand.

 

[Wilhelm]

NYC LFS don't sell worms, they come free in live rock. Give your tank some time to mature with live rock and the worm population will begin to grow. You can see them at night when they prefer to come out. My tank is just over a half year old and it has a decent population of various forms of polycheate worms both in the sand and in the live rock.

 

[SnakeEyes27]

TY for the answers guys