Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's probably going to be another year before I have my own place and as such the space this fish will require. However, since responses on this forum are slow, I thought I'd post this now.
I was just wondering if anyone could tell me how it is they've been keeping their violet gobies. You know, food suggestions, tank set up, etc. For example, I've heard they preffer sand, but I've also heard that bacteria need live things to form during the cycling process and that plants don't take well to sand. I've also read minimum tank size at anywhere from 20-80 gallons, or as long as the tank's more than 24 inches long. I've also been considering the places that carry them, because I was told it helps to get one that's healthy to begin with, but the pickings are pretty slim. There's Petsmart, but the ones they had there looked like they weren't eating well. There was also Aquatropics, but all of theirs have raggedy fins. I found a website that sells them, but they're $12 not including shipping and handling, which is something like $24.
Just wondering if anyone who owns one could take a little time to describe what kind of tank they have and what kind of food they use, or something to that effect.

125 gallon brackish tank though they do ok in a 55 untill about 12 inches. I fed mine a mixture of crushed flake food adn sinking omnivore wafers. With the occasional treat of brine shrimp. He lived 3 years and 19 inches. *sniff* I miss my fish.

Thank you for the answer. I hope you'll be patient with me and won't mind answering a few more of my questions? I mean, I've read around on the internet, but the answers vary from place to place--and it's hard to find any books that say anything about violet gobies specifically--so I decided trying to find some personal experience stories.
Some places say you have to use marine salt, and some say aquarium salt is fine. Different places also say different things about how much salt to use. So, how much of what kind of salt did you use?
When I got mine from petsmart, they told me to feed him with a syringe to make sure he got the food. When you fed him, did you make a special effort to put the food right in front of him, or did he manage to sniff it out himself?
I was also wondering how you cycled the tank, because that was my main problem when I got the violet goby the first time. I found a site that had a long involved cycling process for brackish tanks, which I would do, but I was curious about other ways to do it. I also was hoping you could tell me what kind of substrate you used (I do still have sand, but again, different places say different things so I was looking for personal experience), and if you used a special kind of filter or if you just used one that came with an aquarium set.