9 Gallon Goby Garden

[Chasselti]

I've been feeling restless and itching for a new project lately, and up in air about upgrading my 16 gallon but not thrilled about the idea of water changes that take more than one bucket. In the spirit of nano reefs instead of going bigger I'm going smaller!

I took advantage of a Black Friday sale and got the UNS 45U - 45 x 28 x 28cm, 9 gallons/35 litres

I think I'm happy with my scape, wanted to keep it minimal since the plan is to fill the tank mostly with voluminous plush softies. I made a huge mess breaking up larger pieces of dry rock and glueing it together using the freshwater aquascaper method - liquid cyanoacrylate superglue and cotton pads to join rocks and a dusting of sand to hide the join.

Next step, getting sand in and getting it filled!

 

[blaxsun]

So how many gobies are going in the tank?

 

[Chasselti]

So how many gobies are going in the tank?

At least 3 hopefully! I have a circus goby in an observation tank and I just picked up two green clown gobies yesterday. They are looking a little skinny but eating so I'm hoping they'll plump up and be healthy.

 

[Chasselti]

Water is in the tank! I thought rinsed the sand (Seachem Meridian) pretty thoroughly but still ended up with some cloudy water so I picked up some Seachem Clarity. I feel like it's probably better to remove the particles so they don't just settle (which they didn't seem to want to do anyway!)

I know I'm reaching back about a decade with this strategy but I got the Aquaclear70 to turn into a mini refugium with chaeto. We'll see how it goes, I've always been curious to try it. It also provides all the flow and mechanical filtration.

 

[Chasselti]

Water is looking much better after adding Clarity. I went through a couple rounds of filter floss, it turns orange when it gets saturated with the clumped particulate. Now I need to up my cable management game!

The little fuge is also up and running. I haven't yet made any of the traditional mods people use just in case I abandon the idea and want to resell or reuse the aquaclear elsewhere.

It's got a cheap 6watt led adjustable white/red channel light. I'm not running a reverse light cycle at the moment just because of my light timer situation. Does anyone know if this will be detrimental in the long run?

I was also considering adding some Matrix below the chaeto but not sure if it's necessary. Thoughts from those in the know??

 

[Alexopora]

Please do get a cover if you dont already have one. Gobies are notorious for jumping.

 

[Chasselti]

So the goby garden has done a bit of a 180...

I was not a fan of the aquaclear filter at all. I found it noisy, was annoyed by how dirty the clear intake pipe got, and chaeto bits were getting all over the display despite my attempts to contain it. Also the chaeto wasn't really growing, just collecting detritus and waning away. So I ditched it for what I'm familiar with - the seachem tidal 35. At the moment it's the only source of flow, providing about 16x turnover, so we'll see how it goes. I may need to add more flow but the tidal 55 intake was too long for this tank.

Also the goby garden didn't turn out to be full of gobies at all. Sadly the two green clown gobies didn't make it through quarantine, I couldn't get them eating and tried just about every food available. I'm wondering if it's how they were collected or if it's just my own failing and inexperience. Disheartening to say the least.

I still have the lovely circus goby though and he's joined by a cute misbar darwin clown I've been keeping my eye on since before the holidays. Her face was beaten up pretty badly from fighting with another clown at the lfs and I said to myself if she was still available and healed up in the new year I would bring her home; affectionately named Scarface. So now it's a black and white fish tank

It only took her a few hours to find the little bubble tip! I couldn't believe it! Some other interesting livestock are Christmas tree worms and a troop of sexy shrimp. I feel like that's pretty much all I dare add in a 9 gallon tank, for now at least.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I like how the tank is turning out though!!