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Sand sifting gobies & sand in the water column?

kevin

NJRC Member
I picked up a very nice mated pair of sleeper sand sifting gobies @ AO the other day to clean my sand bed. They are doing a fantastic job, but I have ton of sand particles in the water column. Do I have to worry about the particles in the water?

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I have a Diamond Goby and he kicks butt at cleaning the sand. If you are a person who wants a level sand bed he will drive you nuts. Another pain I have found is that he gets sand all over everything. I have to blow off my frag rack all the time and lots of it end up in the sump. I have not seen any ill affects as of yet. However I got a clam the other day and I am kind of worried about him getting sand in it.
 

iTzJu

Officer Emeritus
NJRC Member
I've been contemplating on getting a sand shifting goby for my 90 but whole sand in the water column situation worries me. I already get bothered when my powerheads pick up some sand. lol I will probably eventually give in and get one. sigh..

as far as any ill effects of sand being in the water column, maybe it will irritate some corals but it shouldn't kill anything. I could be be wrong though, anything can happen in this hobby but I doubt it will kill anything.
 

dnov99

FRAG SWAP VENDOR
Particles in the water column is fine, in fact it will feed your corals. I would be more concerned about them burying those beautiful Acans on your sand-bed. I learned the hard way many years ago, that this can happen with these fish.
 

kevin

NJRC Member
Thanks for the info! They must of been borrowing.. because now I don't see any particles in the water column!
 
Those are some nice acans! I I had a couple when my tank was new, they died because I do not think there was enough in the sand for them to feed on.
 
It was mentioned already but my sand sifting goby killed a plate coral by always covering it with sand. You will probably have to clean sand off coral daily....
 

kevin

NJRC Member
Those are some nice acans! I I had a couple when my tank was new, they died because I do not think there was enough in the sand for them to feed on.

Thanks! Mine really enjoy mysis, so hopefully they survive.
The acans were very nice when I first got them. Unfortunately, with my lack of knowledge, they turned mostly orange. They had crazy reds & purples etc in them. Got them from world wide corals.. (some of them) The ones I didn't get from them still have there color.

It was mentioned already but my sand sifting goby killed a plate coral by always covering it with sand. You will probably have to clean sand off coral daily....

yep, one of my plates is 40% covered right now
 
I had a diamond goby that cleaned the crap out of my sand and Covered over all my acans. Then I realized... If he wasn't cleaning the sand the Sand around the acans that never moved.... got icky.. So I moved all the acans off the sand and onto the rock work making my tank appear SUPER clean.. and my rock was now brightly colored with acans..

After he had cleaned my sand 500X over.. I basically had zero particles in the water.... I traded him to a friend when I thought that I wanted to place some scolys back on the sand bed.. My sand got ICKY again... So I picked up a mated pair at RedSand and they have been very active and my sand is starting to look AWESOME again.
 
I had a diamond goby that cleaned the crap out of my sand and Covered over all my acans. Then I realized... If he wasn't cleaning the sand the Sand around the acans that never moved.... got icky.. So I moved all the acans off the sand and onto the rock work making my tank appear SUPER clean.. and my rock was now brightly colored with acans..

After he had cleaned my sand 500X over.. I basically had zero particles in the water.... I traded him to a friend when I thought that I wanted to place some scolys back on the sand bed.. My sand got ICKY again... So I picked up a mated pair at RedSand and they have been very active and my sand is starting to look AWESOME again.
And how are they scolys?
 
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