2 new questions

about 4 or 5 days ago I went and got my kids some fish for the tank. I have yet to see the Royal Gramma. When I placed her in the tank, she swam into a rock, and hasn't been seen since. Not even a glimpse. I'd like to take my daughter back to the LFS and get her a new fish today, because for a 7 yr old girl, that fish sucks. My sons come down and look at their fish all the time, and my poor daughter comes and just says "Daddy has my fish come out of the rocks yet?"

I'm looking for something small to medium, with some good bright colors on it, needs to be a swimmer and not a hider. Nothing aggressive. So that's my first question.

My second question is, for those of you who have sand sifting stars, do they do a good job of keeping the sand clean?..Reason I ask is my sand is not as white as it used to be. I've got good flow throughout the tank, my parameters are normal, I'm tempted to use the syphon hose, but I read that disturbing the sand isn't a great idea. But it's gotta be cleaned, I can't deal with it looking like that. Any help with this would be great.

Here is a list of my livestock to help with your answers. 90g tank 48"

Mated pair of Clowns (Clarkiis) 2"
Cardinal 2"
Foxface 4"
scooter blenny 2"
Blue Linckia starfish (inherited with LR)

What about a tang? I would think a 48" tank is long enough for a smaller one of those.

For the sand bed. Your not suppossed to disturb a deep sand bed. The one in my tank is only like 2" deep max so it's no biggy there. I of course do not want to mess with the sand bed in the sump. It's 4-5" deep. I been thinking of some sand sifting creatures as well. cleaning is a serious pain in my tank. It all has to be done from a ladder.

I have to clean my tank from a ladder too!..What a PITA!. ...My sand bed isn't too deep, maybe an 1" to 2" deep..Do you think that would be ok to syphon? It's driving me crazy. Maybe I need more CUC. I've got 3 big Turbo snails, about 5 or 6 astrea snails, and 6 nassarius snails...like everyone else, my hermits are knocking them off one by one.

You gotta use one of those syphon vacs and even then be careful. Just a plain syphon hose will suck all the sand out. The vac can also suck out the sand if ur not careful.

In my tank for some reaason it's opposite. The hermits die off and the snails thrive.

My snails aren't dying they're being murdered. LOL.

The other day at the LFs I watched an employee using a syphon hose to clean a tank...He was using a regular piece of clear hose, here's the genius part. He wedged a piece of rock in the hose... it maintained the suction. But because the rock was in the way, it would only suck out the very small particles that he wanted to remove.

yea a tang would def be very social and they look like cartoons so your daughter will love them. But like VAreef said, you'll need to go with a small one and eventually give it back when it grows. Its death is inevitable when it starts to stress due to tank size.

How about a coral beauty?

How about a kole tang? Or even a juv. Atlantic Blue Tang?

Are getting commission on Kole tang sales?

You might need a slightly larger CUC too. If the hermits keep killing the snails, I might put them into QT (or your sump [if you have one]), and possibly try a different type of hermit. Things dying in my tank isn't something I like very much.

How about a couple of anthias? They will school up, are open water swimmers and are colorful. Or maybe some type of reef safe wrasse like a fairy wrasse.