I love my diamond watchman goby. She keeps the sand super clean and is quite a personable fish.

That being said I wouldn't mind if he did stop moving all the sand into the middle of the tank...

My arm, hand & a siphon tube are my favourite sand sifting critters. I stir things up a bit when I do water changes. Since I don't have a sump, that's a regular routine in the display every 20 days or so.

I bought 3 sand sifting starfish because everyone was sold out of fighting conch and so far my opinion of them is that they are useless.

I have a nassarius (sp?) snail in the 180 somewhere. Haven't seen him in over a month now because he's always in the sand sifting away.

I'd love to find a goby. I think that'll be my next addition based on other's opinions of them.

I have a orange diamond goby, sand snails and a sand star. By far the goby does the most, he never stops sifting. The only issue I have with him is where he has decided to sleep, he buries the hole during the day and kicks the sand out at night. I have a mini nem and a mushroom on that rock, the nem seems ok but the mushroom relocated as it was constantly under sand. I can't keep any corals in front of that rock but I'm ok with that. He doesn't kick up sand anywhere and IMO was the best addition for keeping the sand clean.

In my other display tank, I have 2 fighting conch, and used to have a tiger conch, but he died. They move around a bit, but don't do much to clean the sand that I can see. Keeps my Copperband interested, as he tries to pick under their shells. Not sure if he is looking for food there, or trying to get at the snail itself. Not sure why the tiger conch died (might have been the Copperband bothering him), but he didn't move for a couple days, and when I picked him up, it was a really bad stench, so I knew he was dead.

But for sure, my gobies in my other tank, do a much better job of keeping the sand looking clean and fresh.

Well, when your tank its ready, you can have my Rainfords goby. I'm tired of him covering up my scoly, plates, chalices, and Zoas. Drives me nuts...

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By the way, Diamond Goby and Orange spotted goby aren't the same at all.

The orange spotted goby is a shrimp goby, he'll never clean out the sand.

The Diamond Watchamn Goby is a sandsifter... probably the best one out there. There's also the Golden Head Goby that does a great work too.

I very much enjoy my little two spot goby. While a 135 gallon may be a little too much territory for one little two spot (I also have 4 nassarius and a sand sifting star), he does do a good job where he is working. The diamond watchman is probably a more effective sand sifter but the two spot does not drop sand all over everything.

Thanks to everyone for the input. It's nice to have all this info in one thread :wink:
You've narrowed down the list for me to gobies and/or just nassarius snails

Any more input on specific gobies would be great

Get some nassarius snails even if you get a goby. They move the sand but are very good at cleaning up any uneaten food. Plus if conditions are right they will reproduce. I put a dozen or so in my 70 gallon reef and there are now over a hundred babies.