Goby Garden

[JoJosReef]

Beautiful tank! I love your mix of corals, macros and sponges, as well as your goby gang!

 

[PlanktonChum]

Finally starting a build thread for my 14 gallon Innovative marine reef. I'll be upgrading to an IM 25 lagoon very soon but I wanted to document my 7 month foray into saltwater.

Display: Innovative Marine 14 peninsula

Rock: Established live rock from my LFS

Sand: CaribSea natural reef

Lighting: Ai Prime 16HD

Return Pump: IM Mightyjet 326 GPH

Heating: IM Helio mini (50 watt)

Wavemaker: Ai Nero 3

Skimmer: None

Filtration: IM custom caddy basket

Filter Media: Floss, sponge, rock rubble

Top Off: Tunze osmolater 3 nano

Aquarium Lid: IM safescreen

Dosing: occasionally Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro

Auto feeder: Aquarium Co-Op autofeeder

Tank History
This tank started out as a 10 G IM and was originally going to be macroalgae and soft coral dominated but that quickly changed once I learned more about coral.

This is the last full tank shot I have before the upgrade which was around July.

Fish
3x Green banded gobies
1x pink streaked wrasse
1x Yellow clown goby
1x Blue neon cleaner goby

Motile Invertebrates
3x sexy shrimp
2x Bumblebee shrimp
1x Scarlet reef hermit
1x Randall's pistol shrimp
1x Purple Porcelain crab
1x Feather duster worm
3x Stomatella snail
2x Nassarius snail
1x Mini Conch
Collonista snails
Asterina starfish
Mini brittle stars
Mini feather duster worms
Chitons

Coral
LPS
1x Duncan coral colony
4-5x Micromussa (Acan) colonies
1x Fungia plate coral
1x "Favia" colony
1x Tubastraea
1x Hammer colony

Soft coral
2x Green polyp toadstool
1x long polyp toadstool
1x Lobophytum
4x Cabbage coral
Pulsing xenia
15+ Superman Discosoma mushrooms
1x Florida ricordea mushroom
4x Green hairy Rhodactis mushrooms
Clove polyps
Daisy polyps
1x Tan gorgonian
1x Corky sea finger gorgonian
Green star polyps
1x Cespitularia
Zoas- Astral shift, Exosphere, Red people eater, White zombie (unsure)

Sponges
1x Red branching sponge
1x Red ball sponge
1x Purple encrusting sponge
1x Black ball sponge

Macroalgae
Red branching hex algae
Rhodymenia algae
Caulerpa mexicana
Red grape algae Botryocladia

Hoping to have something like this one day!

 

[bryster]

Beautiful tank! I love your mix of corals, macros and sponges, as well as your goby gang!

This was good inspiration for my similar setup thanks

 

[Mermaidman714]

Finally starting a build thread for my 14 gallon Innovative marine reef. I'll be upgrading to an IM 25 lagoon very soon but I wanted to document my 7 month foray into saltwater.

Display: Innovative Marine 14 peninsula

Rock: Established live rock from my LFS

Sand: CaribSea natural reef

Lighting: Ai Prime 16HD

Return Pump: IM Mightyjet 326 GPH

Heating: IM Helio mini (50 watt)

Wavemaker: Ai Nero 3

Skimmer: None

Filtration: IM custom caddy basket

Filter Media: Floss, sponge, rock rubble

Top Off: Tunze osmolater 3 nano

Aquarium Lid: IM safescreen

Dosing: occasionally Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro

Auto feeder: Aquarium Co-Op autofeeder

Tank History
This tank started out as a 10 G IM and was originally going to be macroalgae and soft coral dominated but that quickly changed once I learned more about coral.

This is the last full tank shot I have before the upgrade which was around July.

Fish
3x Green banded gobies
1x pink streaked wrasse
1x Yellow clown goby
1x Blue neon cleaner goby

Motile Invertebrates
3x sexy shrimp
2x Bumblebee shrimp
1x Scarlet reef hermit
1x Randall's pistol shrimp
1x Purple Porcelain crab
1x Feather duster worm
3x Stomatella snail
2x Nassarius snail
1x Mini Conch
Collonista snails
Asterina starfish
Mini brittle stars
Mini feather duster worms
Chitons

Coral
LPS
1x Duncan coral colony
4-5x Micromussa (Acan) colonies
1x Fungia plate coral
1x "Favia" colony
1x Tubastraea
1x Hammer colony

Soft coral
2x Green polyp toadstool
1x long polyp toadstool
1x Lobophytum
4x Cabbage coral
Pulsing xenia
15+ Superman Discosoma mushrooms
1x Florida ricordea mushroom
4x Green hairy Rhodactis mushrooms
Clove polyps
Daisy polyps
1x Tan gorgonian
1x Corky sea finger gorgonian
Green star polyps
1x Cespitularia
Zoas- Astral shift, Exosphere, Red people eater, White zombie (unsure)

Sponges
1x Red branching sponge
1x Red ball sponge
1x Purple encrusting sponge
1x Black ball sponge

Macroalgae
Red branching hex algae
Rhodymenia algae
Caulerpa mexicana
Red grape algae Botryocladia

How are you liking the 14g I’m thinking of getting one

 

[WillReef]

I decided to splurge a bit on the stand for the upcoming upgrade to the IM 25 lagoon. I struggled to find a decent stand for the tank’s dimensions until I learned about T-slot aluminum through Tidal garden’s video. Absolutely not cheap but I’ll have something that’s rock solid, endlessly customizable and looks great imo.

The construction was also quite fun, super tight tolerances. Unfortunately, they gave me the wrong panels but fortunately I won’t have to deconstruct the whole thing due to the hardware Alufab sends which is quite nice. Additionally, since I have the extra panels, I’m planning on making the front panel into hinged doors.

Thank you! Uhal

 

[Stort]

I love this little tank. I have had macroalgae tanks in the past and hope to get back to it. I added a foxface to my new-ish 75g and underestimated just how many macroalgaes he could consume. He has eaten everything I have except mermaids fan and codium. I am now going to try and grow macros in my observation tank and add to the 75g and see what can survive Spike's voracious appetite for greens!

Macros are great! It yeah you gotta be careful about what you add, I was considering an urchin at one point but found out they love eating up all the macro in days!

 

[Stort]

Spectacular tank! I’m also running a (new) 10 gallon reef and run white light!

I agree that white light looks better than blue. Just need to do a little research to find the corals that don’t look brown under natural lighting. Tidal Gardens helps with this because they list their corals with 20K and 10K pics

I’ll be following your thread!

Thank you! It’s definitely been a process, I spend a lot of time shining my flashlight at corals in my LFS trying to cancel out some of the blue light. If you’re close with your LFS they might change the spectrum for you temporarily!

 

[Stort]

Beautiful tank! I love your mix of corals, macros and sponges, as well as your goby gang!

Thank you!

 

[Stort]

Finally starting a build thread for my 14 gallon Innovative marine reef. I'll be upgrading to an IM 25 lagoon very soon but I wanted to document my 7 month foray into saltwater.

Display: Innovative Marine 14 peninsula

Rock: Established live rock from my LFS

Sand: CaribSea natural reef

Lighting: Ai Prime 16HD

Return Pump: IM Mightyjet 326 GPH

Heating: IM Helio mini (50 watt)

Wavemaker: Ai Nero 3

Skimmer: None

Filtration: IM custom caddy basket

Filter Media: Floss, sponge, rock rubble

Top Off: Tunze osmolater 3 nano

Aquarium Lid: IM safescreen

Dosing: occasionally Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro

Auto feeder: Aquarium Co-Op autofeeder

Tank History
This tank started out as a 10 G IM and was originally going to be macroalgae and soft coral dominated but that quickly changed once I learned more about coral.

This is the last full tank shot I have before the upgrade which was around July.

Fish
3x Green banded gobies
1x pink streaked wrasse
1x Yellow clown goby
1x Blue neon cleaner goby

Motile Invertebrates
3x sexy shrimp
2x Bumblebee shrimp
1x Scarlet reef hermit
1x Randall's pistol shrimp
1x Purple Porcelain crab
1x Feather duster worm
3x Stomatella snail
2x Nassarius snail
1x Mini Conch
Collonista snails
Asterina starfish
Mini brittle stars
Mini feather duster worms
Chitons

Coral
LPS
1x Duncan coral colony
4-5x Micromussa (Acan) colonies
1x Fungia plate coral
1x "Favia" colony
1x Tubastraea
1x Hammer colony

Soft coral
2x Green polyp toadstool
1x long polyp toadstool
1x Lobophytum
4x Cabbage coral
Pulsing xenia
15+ Superman Discosoma mushrooms
1x Florida ricordea mushroom
4x Green hairy Rhodactis mushrooms
Clove polyps
Daisy polyps
1x Tan gorgonian
1x Corky sea finger gorgonian
Green star polyps
1x Cespitularia
Zoas- Astral shift, Exosphere, Red people eater, White zombie (unsure)

Sponges
1x Red branching sponge
1x Red ball sponge
1x Purple encrusting sponge
1x Black ball sponge

Macroalgae
Red branching hex algae
Rhodymenia algae
Caulerpa mexicana
Red grape algae Botryocladia

Hoping to have something like this one day!

It was definitely a steep learning curve but I have mostly hardy corals and fish which makes maintaining it a breeze!

 

[Stort]

Finally starting a build thread for my 14 gallon Innovative marine reef. I'll be upgrading to an IM 25 lagoon very soon but I wanted to document my 7 month foray into saltwater.

Display: Innovative Marine 14 peninsula

Rock: Established live rock from my LFS

Sand: CaribSea natural reef

Lighting: Ai Prime 16HD

Return Pump: IM Mightyjet 326 GPH

Heating: IM Helio mini (50 watt)

Wavemaker: Ai Nero 3

Skimmer: None

Filtration: IM custom caddy basket

Filter Media: Floss, sponge, rock rubble

Top Off: Tunze osmolater 3 nano

Aquarium Lid: IM safescreen

Dosing: occasionally Brightwell Aquatics ChaetoGro

Auto feeder: Aquarium Co-Op autofeeder

Tank History
This tank started out as a 10 G IM and was originally going to be macroalgae and soft coral dominated but that quickly changed once I learned more about coral.

This is the last full tank shot I have before the upgrade which was around July.

Fish
3x Green banded gobies
1x pink streaked wrasse
1x Yellow clown goby
1x Blue neon cleaner goby

Motile Invertebrates
3x sexy shrimp
2x Bumblebee shrimp
1x Scarlet reef hermit
1x Randall's pistol shrimp
1x Purple Porcelain crab
1x Feather duster worm
3x Stomatella snail
2x Nassarius snail
1x Mini Conch
Collonista snails
Asterina starfish
Mini brittle stars
Mini feather duster worms
Chitons

Coral
LPS
1x Duncan coral colony
4-5x Micromussa (Acan) colonies
1x Fungia plate coral
1x "Favia" colony
1x Tubastraea
1x Hammer colony

Soft coral
2x Green polyp toadstool
1x long polyp toadstool
1x Lobophytum
4x Cabbage coral
Pulsing xenia
15+ Superman Discosoma mushrooms
1x Florida ricordea mushroom
4x Green hairy Rhodactis mushrooms
Clove polyps
Daisy polyps
1x Tan gorgonian
1x Corky sea finger gorgonian
Green star polyps
1x Cespitularia
Zoas- Astral shift, Exosphere, Red people eater, White zombie (unsure)

Sponges
1x Red branching sponge
1x Red ball sponge
1x Purple encrusting sponge
1x Black ball sponge

Macroalgae
Red branching hex algae
Rhodymenia algae
Caulerpa mexicana
Red grape algae Botryocladia

How are you liking the 14g I’m thinking of getting one

I’m a big fan of the IM tanks, they’re overbuilt which gives me some peace of mind. The peninsula is a great layout as well seeing straight through it from the sides adds so much depth!

 

[13rodo]

This is an absolutely beautiful tank! I love the fish you chose (especially the pink streak)!

 

[Stort]

This is an absolutely beautiful tank! I love the fish you chose (especially the pink streak)!

Thank you! It was definitely a grail fish for me and I jumped at the opportunity to grab it at my LFS!

 

[Stort]

This is an absolutely beautiful tank! I love the fish you chose (especially the pink streak)!

Thank you! It was definitely a grail fish for me and I jumped at the opportunity to grab it at my LFS!