How to keep a sandbed: FYI the virtues of Nassarius snails...

[Sk8r]

Setting up my tank, I used eggcrate lighting grid as the first layer. Rock atop that. Then dry sand.

Now, you would think there would be pockets of uncleaned nastiness due to the grid, over time. Not so. When I broke my tank down for a move 3 years ago, it was pretty clean all the way down.

Yet I never, ever, ever disturbed that sandbed.

I did and do have a crew of Nassarius snails, great white and beige fellows that rarely ever surface. They and a fighting conch keep the sand for me. Both these species live under the sand surface like the sandworms of Dune, and consume the gunk that otherwise might build up. They will, additionally, show up for a demised snail, etc. Or food, if gunk is getting scarce. You won't normally find them at your lfs: you can look straight at their tank, but you won't see them until you ask the dealer---and he can get them to pop up for you. They'll surface in an instant if there's food in the offing.

They work hard, they bother nothing (they are whelks, of a sort, but a safe sort [whelk snails include some bad guys, so don't go picking them up at the beach] and they're the answer to all those posts about 'how do I clean my sandbed.'

The Fighting Conch is a peaceful fellow with a scary name; he's an odd sort that just keeps his eyestalks above the sand. BUT you have to have a 50 gallon tank to support one, and you should NOT keep them with plate coral or any similar coral such as acans, which could be injured by their spur as they maneuver over rock. No plate coral, no acans, they're great, and fun to see pop up now and again.

[cloak]

Just make sure they are indeed nassarius snails and not something else. You don't want to end up throwing a whelk into your tank due to a misidentification. There's some snails at my LFS right now that are labeled as the larger Tongan variety but something doesn't look right. They look more like a nassarius vibex snail but are almost 3X the size. I'm going to play it safe and pass on those right now.
Here's another example of what to look out for.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-11/mg/index.php

Overall though, like Sk8r said, they're a great addition to a reef tank.

[Sk8r]

Thanks for that link, Cloak. Definitely be careful of your sources and watch any too-good-to-be-true pricing. Since this is a species that can be found in the US, with some lookalikes, be doubly sure to get these from a reliable source.

[greech]

I see that only one conch per 30-50 gallons should be added a lot but I have a fleet of 4 fighting conchs in my 40B with about 8 nassarius for over a year. Those along with my tigertail cuc do an outstanding job. I have also never seen my conchs attempt to climb a single rock. I have acans, chalice and a scoly down low. Every once in a while I see the conchs mouth probing the rocks but the foot and shell stay on the ground. I started one conch for a while but added the other 3 about a year ago. All are doing very well. I feel my CUC is a good balance and would rather have them then more smaller snails.

[Sk8r]

i hope it continues, creech---I had one with a plate, and all was well---just one crazy accident that took out one of my favorite corals, and I watched it happen, not even aware it could do damage.

That's quite a lot of cleaners, for all of them to find enough to eat, but the nassarius and probably the conches will eat other food, so they're better than regular snails in their survival in that department Any time you find the nassarius on the glass, they're either getting hungry or they're mating...for what i can tell. Never have had any success raising snails.

[greech]

Ya, I do have a fair minimal scape so a fair amount of sand is exposed. I don't mean to say what I am doing is correct for every application, it just seems to work for me. With any CUC, I think it best to start small and go from there. Another great thread Sk8r

[cubsFAN]

Also one of my favorites for keeping a clean sand bed. I like the one's sold as super tongan nassarius snails. the little black ones are good too. I have found that my melanarus wrasse will eat these snails unfortunately, so think about that before you add them.

[89Foxbody]

I only have one of these guys in my tank but he used to have a big chunk of macro growing on his shell, so it would look like I had a walking shrub moving around the bottom of my tank haha. All you could see was the algae above the surface.