Case Of The Unknown Poop....Solved!!

ChitownRomeo

Active Member
EVERY single time I do a water change and my sand is a beautiful white, I wake up the next morning and it's poop EVERYWHERE!! It's like I never cleaned the tank. Its a 55 gallon with 2 baby clowns maybe inch and half in size. So I know it wasn't them doing that much pooping. Then I turned to the 8 Hermits in the tank & ruled them out quick. So me being a computer tech, I hooked up a night vision webcam in front of the tank and set it to take pics every 30 seconds. Quickly found out that Astrea snails make ALOT of poop. I mean ALOT!!! I have 7 of them and they crap alot!! Might have to get a few Fighting Conch snails to handle it or trade them in for some bumble bee snails. :evileye:
 

reefer gladness

Well-Known Member
Astrea snails are algae eaters, bumble snails are omnivores and like to eat meat. When they run out of available meaty foods they'll start eating other beneficial members of your cleanup crew. They won't solve your problem.

On the sandbed you want a good number of nassarius snails, a couple fighting conchs won't hurt for diversity (they don't fight by the way). A sandsifting star is another beneficial member of the CUC on the sandbed.

Everything that eats poops so replacing one snail with another doesn't stop the excrement. In general when detritus is allowed to settle on the sandbed and rocks I think it's a good indication there isn't enough water flow.

Nothing wrong with astrea snails except they can't right themselves very well when they fall over. If you want to try something different in the way of algae eaters I've had great success with trochus snails, they reproduce in the tank fairly easy too. If your tank is a large enough a tuxedo urchin is another great algae eater.
 

ChitownRomeo

Active Member
Thanks Reefer!! I'm going to order a few nassarius snails & 2 Fighting Conches. I thought a sand sifting star was too big for a 55.
 

Roots

Member
I've had a Sand Sifting Sea Star in my 55 for over a year now and it's great for stirring the sand bed. I also have a fighting Conch and a few nassarius snails. I never have issues with detritus buildup on my sand bed. Also make sure you have good flow as mentioned by the others.
 
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