Sump/Refugium Inhabitants

[discuspro]

Need some recommendations on some good sump/refugium inhabitants. My sump has a bunch of caulerpa, about 3" deep sand, 2'x1' sand surface, very low water flow,no rocks, miracle mud sand substrate, diurnal light cycle of about 11 hours, lots of detritus that originated from I don't know where(possibly bacteria residue or dead bacteria), water depth from sand to surface varies but on average is 7" deep. Is there anything that will thrive in these conditions and not kill too much fauna in the sand bed? Cucumbers, starfish, etc?

[bigdscobra]

I keep Ghost shrimp for my anglers in the fuge about 100 or so at a time, also some snails and alot of bristle worms that have grown.

[discuspro]

What kind of snails? Bristleworms, I haven't actually thought about that one. They might actually help a little, although they may not dig in the sand too much, I usually see them coming out of rock.

I really think I need stuff that will help move atleast the top layer of the sand and that will like to eat organic detritus.

[discuspro]

On second thought, maybe I should just remove the sand bed altogether. I'm sure I could do it safely by just removing the water from the sump and scooping out the sand. This will probably help remove detritus buildup problems and stuff. Or would this not help and mess up nitrate removal? Again, I don't have any animals like fish in the tank that I feed so nitrates shouldn't be high to begin with but I could be wrong. The last time I checked nitrates they were at zero.

[Ram_Puppy]

your miracle mud will fule algae growth, and if there is no macro, it will fuel micro.

ANyhow:

nassarius snails
mini-stars
bristle worms
pods of course
spaghetti worms

off the top of my head.

[Richard]

The key to a healthy sandbed is infauna not the sand. So I would suggest you go to www.ipsf.com and check out what they have. I would suggest things like their...
Reefworms
Mama Mia worms (aka spaghetti woms)
ministars
bristleworms
sandbed clams

They are expensive though so you might see if you can get some of those things from maast members.

[discuspro]

Wow, I've got a bunch of spaghetti worms in the main system that I can put in the sand. I've got bristleworms and I've got ministars. Awesome, I'll just move some from the main system into the sump! Does anyone have any of those Tapes clams they have on their website, in Austin?

[Thunderkat]

Nassarius snails are awesome, bristleworms can be bad, there are many species of bristleworms, some are bad and some are good. I personally hate bristle worms, when I find a big one, I remove it from my tank. Some people like bristleworms but when you move a sand bed and you get bristleworms on you, then you will see why I really dislike them.

[Ram_Puppy]

but when you move a sand bed and you get bristleworms on you, then you will see why I really dislike them.

which of course has nothing to do with how bristleworms are awesome tank cleaners.

[BIGBIRD123]

If you haven't done so, then, you need a little bit of rock in there, too. This will help in pod production and habitat.

Steve