Looking for Options!

[E_Aquatics]

Well I made the BIG mistake of adding a Yellow Head Goby to my tank several months ago. I say "mistake" because every coral in the sandbed or near the bottom of the tank gets covered in sand. I find myself blowing sand off the corals everyday because if I don't, eventually they'll all be covered in sand. However, he does do a great job in keeping the sand clean and white. That is the only plus of having this goby.

I already tried to catch him with a fish trap I borrowed from a friend. That did not work, he never even attempted to go inside the trap. This might sound a bit cruel but I even have tried to catch with a set of 18" tongs I have, no luck with that either.

I have considered getting riib of the corals in the sand bed but I don't think I want to do that. I could also move those corals up in the rocks but there are some that Im not sure if they can be on the rocks. Those are an Elegance Coral and a Scoly, the rest are ricordeas, blasto, and a plate coral.

The other option is get rid of my sand and replace it with something that has bigger grains. I have Marco Key Largo Coarse Sand but that is just a mixed of really fine sand and coarse sand. The fine sand is whats causing the issues here. I could siphon out the sand and add a few bags of coarse sand. This option would obviously be more time consuming. Also. Im not sure if removing the sand will impact my corals and I do have a lot of money invested in SPS that I would hate to lose.

Is there another option that I have not thought about? If you guys think I should change the sand, which sand should I go with and what steps do I need to take in removing the old sand and adding the new one in order to have the least amount of stress on my SPS.

Thank you for your help.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

DSB or Shallow? You can add new live sand directly to the to of the old one.
Im a dsb guy personally. finer grains are better for the bottom of it.
Removing the bed isnt super tough. drain the tank to the bottom and start sucking it out. let it settle add the new sand, leave as much old as might happen. Suck the crap off the top of the new stand and start filling it up. The corals will be fine for 20min out of the water.
In animal training, animals exibit behaviors. Those behaviors can be manipulated.(training and tricks) giving the fish a happy place to graze and make a mess and have a territory. My damsel now lives under a half clam shell and stops beating everyone up and digging.