Substrate Depth for Purple Firefish and Yellow Watchman Goby

sharkmatt

sharkmatt

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Dec 17, 2004
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Hey Guys and Girls,

I have a 40 gallon FOWLR aquarium. I bought it second hand and transferred it with all the live rock and live sand intact. Unfortunately the system only has about 1/2" of coral sand substrate which is something I didn't really consider when buying the tank. I would now like to get a Purple Firefish and a Yellow Watchman Goby. I have researched both fish and from what I can tell both need 2"+ of substrate. What I've read also recommends that you should have less than 1", or more than 4" substrate depth, so in going over 2" I would effectively need to go to 4" or more. Obviously this would be a major undertaking involving stripping the tank and replacing all the substrate. I currently have 2 Black Oscellaris clowns which would make it all the more difficult.

My question is; Are there any other ways of achieving a suitable environment? I've thought about using p.v.c. pipe or providing a pile of deeper substrate.

Unfortunately I think I know the answer. I'm going to have to strip the tank if I want to do this, but thought I'd ask if anyone had any experience/ideas about doing it another way.

Thanks Shark.
 
An easy way to add more sand to a running system already stocked with live rock and fish is to take a length of 2" PVC (24" long or a little more than the depth of the tank water) or the tube of a large gravel vac and a large funnel.
Place the funnel at the top of the PVC or tube and slowly pour the sand into the funnel while evenly distributing the sand where you want it. This avoids having to dump the sand into the water column (creating a huge mess) or emptying the tank. Be sure to stir the sand well (but carefully) afterwards so all your old "live" sand isn't buried underneath the new sand. It's worked for me in the past.
 
I have considered this but currently I have course coral sand and would want to go with finer/oolitic sand if I opted for a deeper substrate bed. Thanks for the advice though.

Shark.
 
My purple firefish remains near one piece of live rock in my tank all day long. It will float around there and only move when feeding. Its basically his cave. It has a couple openings and some that are so thin that most fish will not make it through. I haven't seen inside the rock and I don't want to move it, but its where he remains all the day and he is quite happy. There is a couple inches of sand in there too, but I don't know what he does since its hard to see in.
 
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