BVA 93 Cube Gobies Gobies Gobies

Josh@BVA · Dec 23, 2020

So i got this tank from a client as a birthday present. she happened to have one brand new still in box in her basement and it was just taking up space so I was the lucky guy to take it home since I was cleaning her tank regularly and she decided it would be a nice birthday present for me. My plan was to build this as my ultimate Goby tank. essentially I was gunna have mostly different species of gobies and particularly extra tiny guys. I know I wouldnt see them super often but the treat of when i did finally see them would be amazing. especially when I plan on having a total of close to 30 fish eventually. also most of these guys would be making burrows and hiding in holes in the rock so there would plenty of kool scenes of gobies doing fun goby stuff. I'll post some pics and explain in future posts as it progresses.

Josh@BVA · Dec 23, 2020

So here I have the first pieces of rock. I wanted to make sure the rest of the rock in the tank was definetly going to be on solid footing so I found some base rock and cut the bottoms to make them flat. i put these directly on the bottom glass and then started adding sand around them to create a nice sturdy base. you can see I have somewhate of a channel system between the rocks so that in the future gobies can burrow and make tunnels without disturbing the rockwork much. also the sand bed was going to need to be pretty deep so the gobies have plenty of vertical space for digging as well. this was also going to help to build some denitrifying bacteria. i wanna say the average hight of the sand is between 3-5 inches. i dont really plan on doing any gravel siphoning either. instead i'll rely on crabs, nassarious snals, sand sifting stars and the gobies to make sure the sand bed is clean.

Josh@BVA · Dec 23, 2020

I used a bunch of very porous live rock and some tonga branches to create the next layers of the rock scape. there is essentially an open area in the middle and a peak on the rear corner of the tank with ledges reaching towards the front corner and lower ledges on the other sides so that the circ pumps dont interfere with future coral placement. I've changed this scape recently but dont have an updated picture yet. i'll update again soon.

For the most part there are no dead zones for circulation. I used 2 MP40s on either side and a MaxSpec Gyre placed center of the back corner overflow. the gyre pushes and pulls the water behind all the rock that would normally get the least amount of flow. this way the dead zones are kept at a minimum. With the pulsing mode on the MP40s and the gyre doing a intervall 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% then swap to -10% , -20%, -30%, -40%. this makes it so the tank has somewhat of a random flow pattern at all times but still has the generall consistency from the MP40s that provide a majority of the flow. I also have the return nozzel pointed at either direction so it is dispersed as evenly as possible and doesnt make any one side have too much flow over the other. If you cant Tell, flow was my big concern here.

I'll post some more recent pics of fish and coral next time.

RichtheReefer21 · Dec 28, 2020

Ill hop on the goby train cube. Sounds fun

Josh@BVA · Dec 30, 2020

so this tank actually started about a year ago. I did 3 months of 100 lighting with 2 AI Primes. got the tank to be super green and gross during this time. not running any filter or socks. just lots of flow. also no water changes during that time. my goal was to build Bio heavily and that was going to be my main source of filtration.

after i had all the walls filled with algae, I added multiple bottles of different species of pods. tigro, iso, amphro, tisby ect. this was going to be the main food for everything in here. I figured with 0 predators in the tank they would have plenty of time to grow a stable population by the time i introduced fish.

after the pods i added my first clean up crew with various snails and hermits. nassarious, turbo, 2 mexican, blue leg hermits, red leg, zebra, and haloween hermits. their job was to get this green cleaned up fast. After about another month of still doing nothing to the tank except grow hair algae, the cleaning crew got to the point where they had made the glass see through again. Again at this point no water changes or algae scraping. my wife was furious that i had this gross looking cube in our living room. It was fun lol. finally I could see through the tank after 5 months into the build with nothingn but cleaners and pods.

It was time for my first water change. I removed only 20% and kept an eye on it for a week. things seemed stable tests were looking good. So i did a good algae scraping from the glass and added a pair of socks for a few days to catch the debris. also did another water change. this time about 30-40%. bigger this time around cause I had to remove the algae from the tank and didnt want it to break down in the tank.

FINALLY I added my first few fish. a pair of clowns and a flame angel. then a few weeks later when I knew they were doing good I added a bunch of different gobies. Hi-fin, citron, clown, rainfords, yellow watchman, trimma, shark nose, and neon gobies. along with a blenny. these guys did phonominal. I started adding some mushrooms and other coral along the way and this is where I am at Now.

Still no filter aside from socks i add when I do a water change. but i really only have done maybe 4 water changes since the start of the build. no skimmer or other units. just circ fans and heater. Gobies play nice together as u can see from my picture of the trio hanging out. I got a pistol shrimp to pair with the hi -fin goby (no pics atm) and coral is doing well. I havnt had many issues at all and only now just starting to gets a bit of hair algae again but im certain its cause ive been slacking on doing much to the tank at all. I honestly barely feed as well. maybe once a week but everyones tummy looks full, colors look great and the thick sand bed and heavy bio seems to be doing well for me.

I think as long as I make sure not much fluctuation happens in the tank that things should stay stable. Going to be adding apex to the system and doing some upgrades on next update. My plan is to have like 40 tiny fish ion here with the flame angel and clowns being my biggest fish.

Thanks for reading. What are some gobies u can suggest.

Josh@BVA · Jan 22, 2021

I started working on an Apex board for the cube. I have been stagnant with progress. Apex will help keep routine tasks simple and track results. Adding upgrade to sump soon too. I will add more soon.
Using pvc board cause it is water resistant and easy to work with.

Josh@BVA · Jan 28, 2021

Finished putting the board together. Did a mock up and ended up making an extra hole and rearranging a few things before mounting under the tank. Looking great so far tho. I only have 1 DOS right now but left room on the board for a second one in the future. Also there is a breakout box hooked up to some switches for feed modes and other functions that I am not adding to this board. Instead this box will be mounted on the stand door for quick easy access with having to reach all the way under the tank. Lastly the only non apex module on this board right now is the Gyre controller but I think it still fits in just fine. For future builds I think I will spend more time getting the holes aligned more semantically and get an even cleaner look. I was doing this all after work like an hour at a time every few days. Impatience gets the best of us all and final product shows I was getting antsy to get this puppy going asap. So here we are.

kutcha · Mar 29, 2021

two things one what size pvc did you use for this build? Second updates?

Josh@BVA · Mar 31, 2021

kutcha said:
two things one what size pvc did you use for this build? Second updates?

3/4" PVC return 1" drain line with flex hose. I've been running socks but I think I'm gunna remove them and opt for maybe a poly foam in a cup style instead. Easier to replace and I'll just toss the dirty foam instead of washing new socks all the time. Trying to keep this build to a minimum routine effort. I'll send some pictures with updates later this week. It's been awhile (months) since I've really done much of any cleaning, water change, or algae removal. Been trying to keep it natural and do small daily water changes with the Apex system.

Biggest changes so far is I have more anemones (my 2 both split so now have 4) some new zoas, mushrooms and I did end up losing 3 fish because they either jumped or I just havnt seen them in awhile and figured they got eaten by crabs.

Current livestock: pink spotted prawn goby, yellow watchman, neon goby, bicolor blenny, Hector goby, designer clownfish (misbar black) flame angel, pistol shrimp, blue leg hermits, red leg hermits, nassariius snails, bumble bee snails, turbo snail, feather worms, cocoworm, zoa frags, lots of various mushrooms, 8+head Duncan colony, meteor shower, toadstool leather, frog spawn, orange fungia, and a bunch of other small frags. Ill send pictures this weekend for an update.

Thanks for following.
For more of my tanks check me out at www.facebook.com/blueviewaquatics I have client tank gallery there as well.

Josh@BVA · May 2, 2021

A few pics and updates. Added coral and nems, still mostly gobies. Lost a few due to temp swings when my heater recently died. Apex unit tracked it but didn't have alarm set. This tank is amazing so far.
Next step is to add a canopy (slacking on this.) I def should already have had one cause I've had 2 jumpers so far

also need to get auto w/c system set up. Just been busy. But that's the whole point of the automation. So I can make sure things run smooth with minimal effort on my part.

But I'm happy with it as is and will continue to add more and update this thread.

I did end up getting a big algae spike again but the issue resolved itself when hundreds of baby snails appeared and ate all of it. So bio filtration and balance has been amazing.

Still running pretty much just socks. I added a skimmer but don't run it often.

Josh@BVA · May 2, 2021

Screenshot_20210428-133311_Autodesk SketchBook.jpg

count krunk · May 2, 2021

This tank is super cool. The rockscape is awesome.

As far as livestock, I think a few leathers would do well and get huge. Add a lot of movement to the tank.

Josh@BVA · May 2, 2021

count krunk said:
This tank is super cool. The rockscape is awesome.

As far as livestock, I think a few leathers would do well and get huge. Add a lot of movement to the tank.

I agree. I have like 4 small ones in there now that will hopefully grow out nicely. Hoping to do mostly zoad and LPS on the sandbed, leathers, a and and more LPS on mid level, and some hardy sps, montis, and more light and flow demanding coral on top level.

The way the rock scape was planned there would be a mix of different flow levels and light levels all over so I can have wide variety of livestock.
Watching the gobies hop around has been amazing and the flame angel never stops zipping in and out of all the crevices and holes in the scape. It's def my favorite build I've made so far