Thanks for the insight! Given the sand sifting ability of the goby, do you still sift your sand on water change days? Or just focus on removal and replenishing the water. I sift a bit right now cause I don’t have any of those in my tank and I want to be patient. My sand bed is about 1.5-2” deep.I agree that if 50% are falling to the bottom, feed 50% less!
I have been using New Life Spectrum pellets (a mix of .5 and 1mm) for over 25 years. Everything in my tank gobbles them up. As for frozen, I will occasionally use spirolina enriched brine shrimp, and about once a week I'll thaw out a bit of Rod's Original for my rock flower anemone.
IME, one of the biggest mistakes people make - especially when new to the hobby - is overfeeding. It's kinda like kids and cereal - great when you first pour the milk on, not so great once it's gotten soggy. Feed your fish the same way. If they'll eat it in the first couple minutes, great. Anything after that will likely go to waste.
As for fish to help clean up the leftovers - blennies and gobies are great for that. I cannot imagine having a tank without a Yellow Watchman Goby and a blennie of some sort.
Although a clean up crew will help as well, remember that they, too, poop. It all has to end up somewhere. Your job on water change day is to remove the remainders.....