Sand Turnover

[sweetrav18]

I have a DSB and was wondering what is the best way to turn it over to promote breakdown. I have a sand sift star, but I have heard he eats the good bacteria in the sand. I would like to have something that is both colorful and interesting. Any suggestions? Thanks

[The R/C Man]

Welome to RL!

Well, snails are always a good option. A couple come to mind, conches being one and the other being Nassarius sp. These snails make great scavengers and sandbed airators. Unlike conches these stay fairly small at 1"......

[zhenya]

I have a DSB and was wondering what is the best way to turn it over to promote breakdown. I have a sand sift star, but I have heard he eats the good bacteria in the sand. I would like to have something that is both colorful and interesting. Any suggestions? Thanks

To add to what Greg had said already...
For DSB to function properly it should be left very well alone and not turned over or sifted or any other disturbances. The animals within it( providing that you have necessary infauna populations in there) will acomplish this properly and chanel water through it. Polychate worms are especially beneficial in this regard.
For more information give this a good read over.
Dearest Mudder...

[scubadude]

love nassarius snails, gotta feed them or they will die though thats for sure! freakin pigs too! I think the nassarius are perfect for most tanks up to say 120 and wouldnt get a conch unless I had a very large SB for them to graze. Cukes are also kewl if you have a large SB. I also played around with some netted olives which are like huge nassarius, and Im not sure but they may eat some of the small other detrivores as well. But I had a great turnover with the netted olives, this was with a 220g with a 4.5" SB.

[zhenya]

Rocky,

What are netted olives snails called, I mean the scientific name? I've never heard of that common name before and would like to add it to my database( PC that is ). Do the belong to true Olividae?

[scubadude]

the ones I had where Oliva Reticularis

Snail: Gatropoda
Subclass: Prosobranchia
Size: 1-1.5"

[scubadude]

They are similar to the slimmer Oliva Sayana but larger 2-2.5"

[Ninong]

Rocky,

What are netted olives snails called, I mean the scientific name? I've never heard of that common name before and would like to add it to my database( PC that is ). Do the belong to true Olividae?

Gene,

According to this, Oliva reticularis and 40 other species names were reclassified as synonyms of earlier species. That was done in 1998.

[zhenya]

Thanks for that link,George. All I can say is I see!, says the blind man...

Rocky, those are huge shells How did your sand bed fared with them present?
I have seen those once in a while offered here at the store locally, not very often I must add. Seems like they are all predatory buggers too.

[scubadude]

Rocky, those are huge shells How did your sand bed fared with them present?

My SB fared ok with them, but I probably wouldnt suggest them for anything smaller then 120g, even w/a 120g I wouldnt get more than one.

I really didnt have any problems with them, and kept spaghetti worms at great levels with out them preying on them or atleast enough to keep populations at a healthy level. My nassarius did die back a little ( I suppose they could have been preying on them? ) but I think after I started feeding enough (took some time to balance their food levels) my nass. stopped dying off. I was very worried about them being predatory, however they would eat large chunks of meat fallen onto the SB if it stayed there for too long, you would see like a miniature sand volcano erupt and then they would literally engulf the meat, quite entertaining as you can imagine I didnt have tons of bristle worms in my SB but I did have a fuge that did so I suppose they may have somewhat been preying on the bristle worms too....it was a trade off I will admit to that but I also think that the olives I had where a much deeper SB stirrer than most which is what I think needs for some of these larger tanks. My info on these snails says that they crawl about partially buried in the sand, but my reasoning for them being deeper is a 4-6" of SB in the wild could still be considered partially buried right?