ok first off....ive got to clean ma sand bed......its digusting..like. all a sudden theres these red and green spots on it..seems to be like..coraline growth..but ive never heard of growth on sand..wat can i do? i dont have a cleaning crew yet..but im ready to do some major ordering...so wat kind of critters are safe in a reef but will keep my sand bed spotless? help.

2. is that i just bought a mandarin goby i guess ud call it. dragonett wateva..well the lil fellow is beautiful. but...wat do i feed him? guy said nah dont worry hell live off ur live rock..but yea thats wat they said bout my scooter and he woke up starved to death one day. so wat can i feed him?

Some Mandarins will eat live Brine shrimp and that will sometimes but rarely get them to take frozen food like Cyclops, Brine or Mysis.

Their primary diets consists of copepods that live in and on the live rock and sandbed.
Did the person at the store ask you the size tank you have, how much rock, if you had a refugium and how long the tank has been set up?

Any Dragonette like a Mandarin or Scooter really needs a tank with at least 100-200lbs of live rock and a refugium as well and be established for 9-12 months before attempting to keep a fish like this that 99% of the time will never eat anything other than copepods.

They need to eat a ton of them too. They eat constantly while they are awake and at a rate of about 1 pod every 3-5 seconds. Doing the math, a Mandarin can eat upwards of 12,000 pods per day if they are awake for 16hours and only eat one pod per 5 seconds.

Most people should never buy these fish unless they research their feeding needs and then set up a system that will sustain them.

Mandarins have one of the highest mortality rates of all the fish kept in the salt water aquarium trade.

I'm sorry but you should really consider returning him.

A good protein skimmer does pretty good job too. If you don't have a cleaner crew a good skimmer is a must.
Agreed with Schigara, more flow- less algae, thumbrule.
Dragonettes won't survive in an unestablished system, other tumbrule.
Conchsnails also does great job on sandbads, but they also attack smaller snails and crabs..you don't want that, but they stir the sand like crazy.

Dick,

Totally agree with the skimmer. I would never run any salt without one. Once you see the organic crap that comes out, you'd never want to go skimmerless again.

and OMG !!!! YES

I would NEVER have a salt tank of any kind or any size without a skimmer again ....wow......the stinkt slimy crud they pull out of a perfectly clear tank is amazing ..........i can hear the skimmer noise cange just from sticking my "clean" hand in the tank for a minute.....

i use a red sea prizm HOB skimmer....not the best out there by far ....but she does a great job and is reasonably easy to use.and it's right at 100 bucks ................ive got it down to just cleaning now ..............and just let her chug along getting the nasties out...Boss