Vince's 55g Starter Tank

[lee9]

Originally Posted by vince0

I was also curious about adding a sand bed? I like the idea of sand, and wanted to get a symbiotic shrimp/goby combo, or at least try for it. What is involved in adding sand bed? What is the best time to add the sand bed? Should I wait until the tank is cycled completely?

I have a Yellow Watchman Goby and Tiger Pistol Shrimp pair. In hindsight, I wish I would have used a coarser substrate for my sand bed. I currently have a mix of fine live sand and aragamax sugar-sized sand. The Tiger Pistol Shrimp is like a little bulldozer. It's a permenant construction zone at the bottom my tank. haha It's cool to watch but it makes a mess of things with the fine sand. I can't really put anything right on the substrate or it gets partially buried. My bottom live rock gets a lot of sand on it too. My tank is very small though (28 gallons) so it probably won't be as much of a problem for you.

That's just my experience with the pair so far. I really enjoy them though.