DSB questions

I am in the middle of setting up a new tank and am using a DSB. I just
went out and bought some bule leg and red leg hermits and a brittle
star to stir up the sand a little. The hermits seem to be eating the
organisms in the sand is this a bad thing, are they eating the
organisms?


Brad

Hi Brad,

What do you mean by "in the middle of setting up"? First day? First month?
"In the middle" of cycling? Need more input!

Hermit crabs will not hurt the fauna in your DSB, but you do need to "seed" with
LS from someone else's tank, or from the LFS's display / refugium.

Marc


Brad Irwin wrote:

I am in the middle of setting up a new tank and am using a DSB. I just
went out and bought some bule leg and red leg hermits and a brittle
star to stir up the sand a little. The hermits seem to be eating the
organisms in the sand is this a bad thing, are they eating the
organisms?

Brad

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Brad Irwin wrote:
I am in the middle of setting up a new tank and am using a DSB. I just
went out and bought some bule leg and red leg hermits and a brittle
star to stir up the sand a little. The hermits seem to be eating the
organisms in the sand is this a bad thing, are they eating the
organisms?


Brad


Brad,

Yes the hermits will eat the organisms in your sand bed. This is why
most of the dsb experts do not suggest using any hermit crabs in a reef
aquarium. Hermits opertunistic ominivores and will eat just about
anything they can get ahold of, be it plant or animal matter.

Kim
http://www.jensalt.com

Talk about lack of agreement! We posted the exact opposite of each other.

Oh well.

Marc


kim gross wrote:

Yes the hermits will eat the organisms in your sand bed. This is why
most of the dsb experts do not suggest using any hermit crabs in a reef
aquarium. Hermits opertunistic ominivores and will eat just about
anything they can get ahold of, be it plant or animal matter.

Kim
http://www.jensalt.com

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

Hermits are oportunistic scavangers. Meaning they will eat what ever is easiest
for them to get ahold of. Sand bed critters are usually pretty easy. No hermits
in my tanks!

In article ,
Rbuehler9 wrote:

Hermits are oportunistic scavangers. Meaning they will eat what ever is
easiest
for them to get ahold of. Sand bed critters are usually pretty easy. No
hermits
in my tanks!

So does anyone have any advice on what will stir up a DSB just enough,
but not too much?

I'm getting some algae on the surface of the sand. Water changes are
in progress to help with this. But, is there anything that will eat
algae from the surface of the sand?

I was going to ask about scarlet legged hermits- I already have a
couple- but now I'm not so sure...



Thanks!

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"Marc Levenson" wrote in message...
Talk about lack of agreement! We posted the exact opposite of each other.


Here's one in favor of you, Marc.

Add as many hermits as you can cram into your tank. Well, okay, maybe not
that many, but about one for every 2 gallons is a general rule. Hermits
will not eat the creatures that make a DSB a DEEP sand bed. They may eat
some of the critters on the surface, but will mainly eat algae when
available. Many thousands of DSB'ers have hermits of all kinds and have
plenty of life in and on the sand bed.

The two people who are against hermits with a DSB can't even spell
"opportunistic." Not trying to be mean, just poking a little fun.

IME the Nassarius Snails do a good job of "sand stirring" as well as
scavenging.

personally I have quite a many hermits in my tanks and have not experienced
any problems with them eating any significant number of organisms in my sand
beds. they do however do a fine job of eating any left overs and nuisance
algae's that form.

kc

A good item to start with are Nassarius snails. They will not eat the
algea but they will stir up the sand bed, and will eat the excess food
that you want the hermites to eat. To actually eat the algea a fighting
conch is a pretty good creature to have.

The best way to stir up the sand is lots and lots of critters in the
sand, ie worms pods etc. The more of them you have the more your sand
bed is stirred up.

Kim Gross
http://www.jensalt.com



Hermits are oportunistic scavangers. Meaning they will eat what ever is
easiest
for them to get ahold of. Sand bed critters are usually pretty easy. No
hermits
in my tanks!


So does anyone have any advice on what will stir up a DSB just enough,
but not too much?

I'm getting some algae on the surface of the sand. Water changes are
in progress to help with this. But, is there anything that will eat
algae from the surface of the sand?

I was going to ask about scarlet legged hermits- I already have a
couple- but now I'm not so sure...



Thanks!

Thomas Bishop wrote:

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message...

Talk about lack of agreement! We posted the exact opposite of each other.



Here's one in favor of you, Marc.

Add as many hermits as you can cram into your tank. Well, okay, maybe not
that many, but about one for every 2 gallons is a general rule. Hermits
will not eat the creatures that make a DSB a DEEP sand bed. They may eat
some of the critters on the surface, but will mainly eat algae when
available. Many thousands of DSB'ers have hermits of all kinds and have
plenty of life in and on the sand bed.

The two people who are against hermits with a DSB can't even spell
"opportunistic." Not trying to be mean, just poking a little fun.

Thomas, If think your DSB is as live as you can get it, why don't you
try an experiment, remove your all of your hermits for 2 months and
compare the amount of life in your sand bed. The hermits will eat
larval forms of most creatures before they get a chance to get into the
sand bed. If you would like to research this a little your self here
are a couple of good links.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumd... 3&forumid=40

http://www.rshimek.com/reef/sediment.htm

http://www.reefs.org/library/talklog...ie_061498.html

http://www.reefs.org/library/article...in_shimek.html

There are a lot more, but what makes a deep sand bed work well is the
amount of life in the sand bed, not just that it has a bed that is 3 or
4 inchs deep. With lots of life in the sand you can feed tha tank
heavier plus many of the creatures in the sand will spawn creating
zooplankton in your tank for your corals to eat.

I might not be the best speller but at least I know what I am talking about.