Did I make a mistake getting a goldenhead goby

[Dj City]

I have a 180 gallon reef tank thats just about 1 year old.
I've battled dirty sand the entire time.

I have very high flow with 2 gyre fx350's and 4 neptune wav pumps.

I finally broke down and got a goldenhead goby.
My tank has been cloudy with stuff blowing around in the water column ever since.

The goby is not spreading sand all over the place.
In fact, he mostly just staying in one area towards the back of the tank doing his thing but my whole display has debris all over the water column.

Will this get better with time?
Did I make a mistake getting the goby?
Should I get another sand sifting goby to speed up the process?
Do I just have too much flow?

 

[Crabby48]

Will clear with time but that’s a big tank to cover. I wonder if the sand is really dirty if it can cause a mini cycle from the release of to much Detritus at once. Can you vacuum small sections and help clean the sand over time

 

[Dj City]

Will clear with time but that’s a big tank to cover. I wonder if the sand is really dirty if it can cause a mini cycle from the release of to much Detritus at once. Can you vacuum small sections and help clean the sand over time

I stir and disturb my sandbed regularly. I'm not worried about a cycle. The tank is established.

I just would like it to clear.
The sand is dirty though and the amount of flow keeps what the goby kicks up suspended.

He has only hit the one area of the tank so far.

Am I doomed to have a tank with particles in the water column now that I've got the goby?

 

[Crabby48]

They can be a life time since he is still in one spot. I added 4 sand sleeping wrasse and it took them 5 months to clear a 4’ tank

 

[RC Corals]

Add some filterfloss to your sump, or whatever your setup is and polish the water for a day or so. It will strip out all that floating crud.

 

[Dj City]

I'm hooking up my fluval x6 canister filter filled with polishing pads and dropping in a spare 1micron sediment canister filter from my rodi with a pump to try to help clear the mess out.

 

[Arabyps]

I don't quite understand what you mean by this "I've battled dirty sand the entire time". IMO the time proven method to clean the sand bed mechanically is by using a vacuum siphon. This will remove the silt (very fine particles) and detritus. I have done this when the tank was new to remove the fine silt which would cloud the water when stirred. Now I have a Bella Goby sand sifter and 3 fighting conch which keep the sand stirred and clean. Based on the amount of flow you describe, I assume the sand itself is not too fine.

 

[Dj City]

I don't quite understand what you mean by this "I've battled dirty sand the entire time". IMO the time proven method to clean the sand bed mechanically is by using a vacuum siphon. This will remove the silt (very fine particles) and detritus. I have done this when the tank was new to remove the fine silt which would cloud the water when stirred. Now I have a Bella Goby sand sifter and 3 fighting conch which keep the sand stirred and clean. Based on the amount of flow you describe, I assume the sand itself is not too fine.

No. I do not have fine sand. I have special grade sand.
I don't do water changes and really have not vacuumed the sand bed. When I do a water change, I use the Neptune DoS so...
No sand vacuuming.

I battled with dines in this tank and for the most part beat them. I don't have an algae problem at all.
I have a Clarisea SK5000 filter roller.

It's a 180 gallon tank but from my dino battle early on, my sand has not been white.
I have LARGE poop machines. 5 inch fox face, 5 inch yellow tang, 5 inch sail fin tang, 5 inch maroon clown. I had a 7 inch lion fish in the tank up until last month when I re homed him.
When they poop.... THEY REALLY POOP!

I got the goby to address the sand issue. He's doing his job but the tank is not clear and particles are ALWAYS in the water column.

I used some diy coral snow and that helped some.
I am hoping that the addition of the sediment filter along with the canister filter will pull all the particles out the water column.

I may stir the sand again really good to get even more "stuff" into the water column for the filters to pull out if my initial run works.

 

[Rubberfrog]

You have a lot of dirt in there from not vacuuming the sand. Either wait for an unknown amount of time, or start vacuuming it out.

 

[RC Corals]

There's no problem with vaccuuming your sandbed. If anything, by not systematically doing it you're potentially causing yourself more problems down the road, or even triggering a potential tank crash if/when it does get drastically disturbed for some reason.