So right now I have a 33g long brackish tank with two knight gobies, a dragon goby and a gymnothorax tile (freshwater moray).
I am changing the current substrate with my dragon goby in mind. First I had white gravel which would catch all the frozen food and 95% of the frozen food would be stuck in the gravel and the dragon goby would not get any. So then I switched to playsand. Now I cannot even touch the water without the water becoming opaque. I had to switch to sponge filters and I want to add a powerhead as well.
I have fifty pounds of playsand in the tank currently, and when I do a water change, I have to set a bucket next to the tank above it with new water and siphon out the water from the bucket into the tank so I don't create a huge mess. Just this tank takes me over an hour to water change.
I am also getting black pockets in the sand. I have a lot of lace rock in the tank that the eel hides in and he tends to mistake my hand for food. Not to mention when I do agitate the sand a bit the tank turns super cloudy for a day.
So I would like to switch out the substrate with something else that is dragon goby friendly.
My major dilemmas are:
1. The tank is really shallow, water changes will likely stir up the substrate pretty badly
2. I have a lot of heavy lace rock and I am unsure if a thin layer of thicker sand would prevent the lace rock from scratching up the bottom of the tank really badly. With the lace rock, barebottom is out of the question.
3. The dragon goby cannot get any food if I use gravel.
Does anybody have any ideas on how I can make this work?
I can also switch the 33g with a 40 breeder, but I would rather not since all the fish in here seem to prefer longer tanks than wider tanks.
I am changing the current substrate with my dragon goby in mind. First I had white gravel which would catch all the frozen food and 95% of the frozen food would be stuck in the gravel and the dragon goby would not get any. So then I switched to playsand. Now I cannot even touch the water without the water becoming opaque. I had to switch to sponge filters and I want to add a powerhead as well.
I have fifty pounds of playsand in the tank currently, and when I do a water change, I have to set a bucket next to the tank above it with new water and siphon out the water from the bucket into the tank so I don't create a huge mess. Just this tank takes me over an hour to water change.
I am also getting black pockets in the sand. I have a lot of lace rock in the tank that the eel hides in and he tends to mistake my hand for food. Not to mention when I do agitate the sand a bit the tank turns super cloudy for a day.
So I would like to switch out the substrate with something else that is dragon goby friendly.
My major dilemmas are:
1. The tank is really shallow, water changes will likely stir up the substrate pretty badly
2. I have a lot of heavy lace rock and I am unsure if a thin layer of thicker sand would prevent the lace rock from scratching up the bottom of the tank really badly. With the lace rock, barebottom is out of the question.
3. The dragon goby cannot get any food if I use gravel.
Does anybody have any ideas on how I can make this work?
I can also switch the 33g with a 40 breeder, but I would rather not since all the fish in here seem to prefer longer tanks than wider tanks.