Diamond Goby

[Hopeful Reefer]

Went out and got a Diamond Goby this week to make sure my sand bed stays nice and clean...especially in those hard to reach areas...

I must say, this guy is like a vacuum cleaner in my tank... :eek1: I had spots of my sand that were a little "dingy" so to speak, and the morning after he went in the tank the sand was virtually spotless!!

Heres me question though...with all the sand he is moving around (and he is moving a crap load of it around) when will the sand storm in my tank go away...and will this guy eventually slow down to the point where he is keeping up versus going full blast...I have sand all over the place, some corals that were on the sand are now displaced...just wondering if and when things will go back to some resemblence of normal...

[surfnvb7]

the sand storm will go down once the lose stuff settles out. may take a while though depending on how big your sand bed is.

as far as corals being displaced that were in the sand.......heh....good luck with that.

IMO, dont put any corals in the sand besides a clam if you dont want them covered up.....lol

[Hopeful Reefer]

I had some small stuff in the sand...4 headed frogspawn and some button polyps mainly...had a frag of Monti Cap that I'm gonna bring with me to the meeting/grand opening at Marvin's that had fallen in a verticle position on the sand and it has managed to stay vertical and yet not get covered up yet... :D

Should I blow the rocks off every day, couple times a day or what? Or just leave it...I'm tempted to leave it because as soon as I can get my 75g going which should only be a few weeks everything will get moved over...

[westcoastreef]

does an engineer goby work the same way, or do they just keep to the rockwork?

[Hopeful Reefer]

To my knowledge engineer gobies are not the same...don't believe they are sand sifters but I could be wrong...

[phurst]

I'm pretty sure engeneers burrow, but don't sift.

[xxtriggermanxx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10814100#post10814100 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by westcoastreef
does an engineer goby work the same way, or do they just keep to the rockwork?
engineers move a ton more sand! I have both and by far the engineer is the big mover in the tank.

[Hopeful Reefer]

I've got to say...I've never had an engineer goby...especially if he is gonna move MORE sand that my diamond...oh my god, this sand storm is awful...I think I'm gonna have to go with just a slight sand bed in the 75g...just enough for him to have dinner...and put the majority of my sand for that system in the sump...it is worse today than yesterday...geesh

[virginiadiver69]

It will settle down. It took a good several weeks for it to happen for me. As a matter of fact, I had to move rock around a little the other day to add a large clam and exposed some pretty grungy sand. I could almost see the glimmer in my gobies eyes as he went to town. There is fine sand everywhere!
Just a thought about your new tank and the goby...keep in mind that he is sifting for micro-fauna. If the sand bed is to shallow to keep the critters multiplying he could run into trouble.

[Hopeful Reefer]

Right now I have something in the order of 2-3" in the 30g...I'm thinking something in the order of about 1-1/2" for the 75g...I'm gonna re-use most of the sand from the 30g in the 75g...plan on basically tearing everything down and keeping rock, corals and fish in a tub with the lights over it for a day or so to get the 75g set up...so, hopefully whatever I have in the 30g will transition over to the 75g...so, plenty of food for him I believe... :)

As for the settling down of the sand...should I keep blowing off the rocks? I'm blowing off corals as they need it...but should I keep blowing off the rocks or just wait until the water clears up?

[surfnvb7]

most of the really fine sand that adds to the cloudiness should eventually just settle in crevices and in the sump. it would be just like if you were setting up a brand new tank with brand new sand.......lots of dust everywhere for a while.

only difference is, most of that find dust settles back down........the goby is keeping it stirred up. so its just gonna take a while.

the diamond goby i used to have ate regular frozen food also, so i wasn't worried about having a shallow sand bed.

[Hopeful Reefer]

The first night he was chowing down on mysis shrimp...so I'm definitely not worried about him starving...