Sand sifting goby: Viable sand cleaner?

[ReeferReefer]

First off, I know a fish won't make up for poor maintenance. That being said, will a sand sifting goby really keep the sand clean?

 

[James M]

Yes but they will cause sand storms leave sand everywhere

 

[PDR]

I used to have one, but it only kept to one half of the tank. How much of a mess it'll make depends on how fine your sand is.

 

[mattzang]

get a conch. my sand was a mess a couple of days after weekly sandbed stirring maintenance. got a conch, clean sand within a day or two.

 

[ReefyB]

I 2nd the conch, ‘roomba’ of the sandbed.

 

[PDR]

I love conchs, but I have 11 (yes 11 lol) in my RSR 350 and my sand bed still gets filthy. It looks ok, but stir it up and its nasty...

 

[ReeferReefer]

Thanks for the input. Despite our conversation I will still be vacuuming my sand periodically, I was just hoping to do it a bit less often. Might get some conches though. I'll have to read up on them.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

As one can guess the opinions on this are never ending. I tried sand conch five actually and they never really cleaned my sand bed in my 240.

I then went with a ladder goby who lasted about three weeks and decided to hard wood floor surf twice. Then the third time he ended up in my sump, and the fourth no idea but lost him. Then I tried a diamond goby and same thing went surfing on my hard wood floor.

Now I had about given up and purchased a golden head goby. Now they are a tad different in he refuses to swim up into the water column and after 6 weeks still won’t eat the food I feed my other fish. But he has made my sand bed absolutely gorgeous and he is busy all day long and from the whole tank. I went with a goby because I kept having small cyano break outs and not a fan of chemi clean.

He literally destroyed the cyano in about three days and it hasn’t been back since (I love him). Now yes I had to buy a turkey baser and twice a day I have to uncover the corals on the sand bed. However to me personally it’s worth it because I can’t expess how clean and white the sand is.

To each their own but so far the golden head goby has been my life savior. In addition my sand was gross it had 13 months head start on him. He has made short work and I feed a tad heavier now just to make sure he finds food. But since then my nitrates have dropped quite a bit because I don’t have to use my noprox redsea as often or as much. Definitely something to consider if you want the pismo beach beautiful white sand look.

 

[jd371]

Two conch snails and the Rainford Goby keep my sand spotless. Rainford doesn't make a mess, no storms or covered corals and I have that sugar fine sand.

 

[Jesterrace]

get a conch. my sand was a mess a couple of days after weekly sandbed stirring maintenance. got a conch, clean sand within a day or two.

Agreed. Technically a Diamond Watchman Goby is the best all around sand cleaner but I struggled to keep them alive (lost 2 of them over the course of a 18 months) and don't miss the sandstorms in the tank. I have 5 conch snails in my 90 gallon with 60lbs of sand and they keep it about as clean as my DWGs did but without the sand mess. They are also entertaining to watch. Here is a vid of mine and between the 4-4:30 mark you can see how they get the name "Fighting Conch"

 

[Jesterrace]

Hello,

As one can guess the opinions on this are never ending. I tried sand conch five actually and they never really cleaned my sand bed in my 240.

I then went with a ladder goby who lasted about three weeks and decided to hard wood floor surf twice. Then the third time he ended up in my sump, and the fourth no idea but lost him. Then I tried a diamond goby and same thing went surfing on my hard wood floor.

Now I had about given up and purchased a golden head goby. Now they are a tad different in he refuses to swim up into the water column and after 6 weeks still won’t eat the food I feed my other fish. But he has made my sand bed absolutely gorgeous and he is busy all day long and from the whole tank. I went with a goby because I kept having small cyano break outs and not a fan of chemi clean.

He literally destroyed the cyano in about three days and it hasn’t been back since (I love him). Now yes I had to buy a turkey baser and twice a day I have to uncover the corals on the sand bed. However to me personally it’s worth it because I can’t expess how clean and white the sand is.

To each their own but so far the golden head goby has been my life savior. In addition my sand was gross it had 13 months head start on him. He has made short work and I feed a tad heavier now just to make sure he finds food. But since then my nitrates have dropped quite a bit because I don’t have to use my noprox redsea as often or as much. Definitely something to consider if you want the pismo beach beautiful white sand look.

Part of the problem is that with a 240 you need way more than 5 conch snails to keep it clean. I would go with 12 on that size of a tank. I started with 2 in my 90 gallon and it wasn't enough, so I bumped it up to 5 and now it looks as white as when I had my DWGs. My issue with the Gold Head Sleeper is that it tends not to feed directly on the bottom and will raise up dumping sand as it goes. A shame too as it is a gorgeous fish.

 

[Daniel Waters]

First off, I know a fish won't make up for poor maintenance. That being said, will a sand sifting goby really keep the sand clean?

They do great for sand depths of about an inch or so in my opinion. My diamond goby doesn't sift super deep, so areas where you get deeper sand, you may still want to siphon and clean.

Mine does pretty good about dropping sand near the sand bed level, but corals sometimes get covered. If you like to keep a lot of corals on the sand bed, it can be a bit aggravating.

A new goby will most likely dig burrows everywhere in the tank and create havoc. Mine settled down after he found his preferred home and doesn't do any major "remodeling". The fish can be a pain but is probably one of the most entertaining and a ceaseless worker. A covered top is a necessity.