Best sand for wrasse and diamond goby

Lionsreef · Apr 7, 2019

I'm trying to finish the planning on my new tank upgrade. I'd like to have some sand dwelling wrasse as well as a diamond goby to sift sand and keep it clean.

I'm also planning on having a fair amount of water movement generated by powerheads in the tank for my mixed reef so don't want to generate a sand storm.

What brand of sand do you use and size sand particles would you recommend?

Jesterrace · Apr 7, 2019

A mixed substrate (ie Live Sand), Argonite and several others would be fine.

Lionsreef · Apr 9, 2019

What grain size is recommended for wrasse and diamond gobys? For example Tropic Eden has 3mm reeflakes, 2.7mm mesoflakes and 2mm miniflakes. Is 3mm too big for a wrasse to bury itself? Would anything smaller than 2mm grain size just create a dust storm?

Jesterrace · Apr 9, 2019

Very fine sand is a bad idea as it will create sand storms more often than not. I don't think there is a specific mm for sand that is best for these fish. More of just a general rule of thumb. As long as you don't go for super coarse sand or very fine, just about any of them will work.

evolved · Apr 9, 2019

Lionsreef said:
Is 3mm too big for a wrasse to bury itself?

Really anything under 4mm is fine; possibly a bit larger even but the risk of abrasions do start to increase from there.

Micksfish · Apr 9, 2019

carib sea arag alive either special grade or fiji pink is what I use and all my wrassed do great with it.

wesman42 · Apr 9, 2019

KISS

good ole aragonite, or fiji is fine!

Seamore2001 · Apr 9, 2019

Micksfish said:
carib sea arag alive either special grade or fiji pink is what I use and all my wrassed do great with it.

Agree. I used the fiji pink in both tanks - the leopard wrasses seem to be fine with it and the diamond goby sifts it happily. I haven't noticed it shift in the current, but I may not have as much flow as you're planning.