A question about my Mantis

[Dolf]

After 5 years or so of not posting I am back. As a short introduction I used to keep a 75 gal reef and loved it. I took it to McMurray with me in a holiday trailer and everything was fine until I left for work one night and had the power go when it was -35 or 40. Needless to say that when the tank is kept at those temperatures for a few hours nothing much survives and I put away the tank. Now I have set up a little 10 gal for mantis shrimp. I had wanted to keep them back when I had the large tank- but they seemed like a poor choice for the type of tank I kept. Now that it is up and running I find my mind racing at full throttle toward a 33 gal refugium and possibly a 5 gal nano… or a 10 gal … or maybe I’ll just pull the 75 out of storage. Funny how addictive this bloody hobby is.

Anyhow, as it stands I have live sand in 2/3 of the tank (thanks Will) and a divider to keep the shrimp in the other part. I was wondering if I pulled out the divider and let the Mantis run free if I will still have the diversity of life in the live sand, or will it consider the worms and such just a light snack? Most likely I will opt for the rufugium again- it worked great last time and I found I spent almost as much time watching worms and pods as corals and fish. However, for the next month or two I would like to just keep the 10 Gal as a stand alone and was wondering if I can let the shrimp have the run of the tank. Thanks for any help.
-Danny