Watchman Goby/Pistol Shrimp Sandbox?

[ChuneReef]

Hi reefers,

I'm thinking about Changing my sand-bottomed tank to a bare bottom. However, I have a watchman goby/pistol shrimp pair that I love dearly. I was thinking about making a sort of sandbox for them to dig tunnels in. I have several questions about this:

1. Is this a bad idea for any reason?
2. If not, how would I go about this/are there any examples of this?
3. how would I safely catch my goby and shrimp without stressing them out too much? I'm assuming a funnel trap correct?

Hopefully, someone can guide me in the right direction here

 

[DannoOMG]

Maybe I don't understand what it is you are doing, but if you are considering removing sand from an existing tank I have been told that can lead to all sorts of imbalances in a tank. At least that is what the guys at BRS said when they did it to their large tank. It messed things up for a long time and it took them forever to get it normal again.

I assume they are talking about parameters changing and messing with the biological filtration of the sandbed.

As for your other question I have no idea.

But maybe you want to look into removing sand before you do it.