Sleeper Gold Head Goby / Cloudy Water

[chuck78]

Does anyone else here own one & have this problem? This 2" fish is doing an EXCELLENT job of keeping my substrate clean, but it's clouding the water. My hope is that he'll sift & sift til he gets all the micro sized substate stirred up so my skimmer can remove it. Does anyone else have any experience with this fish? Any immediate solutions perhaps. I'd like to think that a water clarifier would be futile.

 

[Bifferwine]

Unfortunately a lot of people have this problem with sand sifters. It has been the reason that a few people here have taken the fish back to the LFS. I'm not sure if there's anything you can do about it. Hopefully someone else will know more. :)

 

[RockStacker]

The skimmer might take some of it out, but you might need a mechanical filter with a fine sponge to take out all the micro sediments.

I have a similar issue with a scooter dragonet that buries itself at night to sleep and likes to shimmy over the sand as he digs for foods.

 

[chuck78]

Any suggestions as to what kind? Which 1 do you have?

 

[Old_Moe]

I had the same situation when I got mine.. water was cloudy for over a week. I thought I made a huge mistake.

I added the following:

BRS Filtersock Mount - English

BRS "Felt" filter sock 4 " x 14" 200 Micron (w/ plastic ring) - English

I picked up 4 socks when I ordered ( I am rotating two now, then I have two spare ). I clean them about once a week, just using hot tap water.

After I added the sock, the particles cleaned up in the water almost over night... of coarse each morning he would wake up and go back to work and cloud things up again. That lasted for about another week.... clean every since. ( I think it will depend on how fine your sand is )

5 months later... I consider him the best fish, and personally a must have, ( if you have sand ). The sand is very very clean. About every other month I reach in and push the sand around in the tank... he starts digging all over again.

I am very happy I kept the goby!

Good Luck

 

[chuck78]

I have the Carib-Sea Live Sand.

 

[Old_Moe]

same sand I have.

Hopefully things work out for you.

 

[Old_Moe]

sorry, I made a mistake on my previous post. I should have looked up your fish earlier. I have the Sleeper "Banded" Goby not the Sleeper "Gold-Head" Goby. But I think they both will create the same mess, so dealing with the mess should be similar.

https://www.livingreefs.com/old-moes-75g-t37153p7.html

I just reminded myself that I have not updated my tank build thread in a LONG time.

 

[chuck78]

Thanx Moe !!

 

[RockStacker]

If you have a sump you could add a fine sponge filter media to a high flow area to catch the tiny particles.
You will have to replace or clean the sponge frequently until all the tiny sand particles have been taken out of the system.

I don't have a sump so the only way I can deal with it is by placing sponge media in a HOB power filter.
I also think that even if you take out all the current micro sediments out of the tank, the bigger sand particles eventually break down and continue to produce micro sediments.

I started with aragonite sand (dry) and did a considerable amount of rinsing before I put it in the tank. But I still get fine powder blown up from the sand bed every now and then.
I may be something that I just have to deal with regularly to keep the scooter happy.

 

[chuck78]

You make a VERY good point Rockstacker!! Oh wow!! That goby has got to go. This really is sad b/c he does an excellent job with cleaning substrate.