Sand Shifting Star

[FishinAround]

I'm failry new to this hobby and I've heard mixed stories on sand shifting stars and wanted to get some experienced opinions. I have a 120g reef tank with a fairly deep sand bed (3"-4"). The sand is starting to look pretty bad and was needing something to stir it up and keep it clean. I've heard sand shifting stars will do an excellent job but will also eat the "good" bacteria in the sand bed turing your live sand to dead sand. Is this the case or will it just eat leftover food and detritus? If it makes sense to add, how many for a 120g tank. I've also heard they eat quite a bit and will eventually eat everything in the sand and then starve to death. If the sand bed is clean should some sort of food be added to feed them? I already have the start of a cleaning crew including 20 red legged crabs, 10 blue legged crabs, 10 astrae snails and 10 small nassarius snails.

[BCreefmaker]

they dont kill the bacteria... it would impossible to eat it all.. they will just depelet all the maco and micro lifeforms from your sand bed by crawling through and stiring it, which accutaly makes the bacterial filtration of the sand better, but it will probbably eat anything else to the brink of destruction. im not shure, but if it did completly clean our your sand bed it might die, they are pretty good at hiding and to feed them wouldent you need to load your sand bed with so many little goodies that it would make the beifical action of the sand worthless.

[ophiuroid]

They are highly destructive to a "functional deep sand bed" which requires microscopic and small creatures like worms and crustaceans to help it work. They eat these, and die of starvation in most cases within about a year to 18 months, all the while making your sand bed functionally WORSE than if you did not have it. They do not eat the bacteria in a sand bed. It will not in general eat left over food or detritus, which is why they starve. Do not dismiss this fact, as it is, IMO, the rule rather than the exception with these animals.

You are far better off with sand sifting cucumbers, nassarius, conchs and other animals. If you have detritus and left over food you must address that separately. If your sand is looking bad, that is another issue. Also consider adding a bag of sand fauna booster or even get cups of sand from fellow reefkeepers.

A sand sifter star will not solve your real problem, IMO