Engineer Goby & Re-Aquascaping

S

st0ned0g

First Question
well my engineer goby has dug out underneath his rock until it has started to cave in the whole rock formation. So this weekend I am going to reaquascap every thing. I figured I would get a peace of starboard and support it with PVC pipes so that I can provide the goby with a big enough home (since all my rocks are smaller (length wise) then he is. ) that will not collapse on him as he tries to expand it.

So in other words I plan on putting a peace of starboard in my DSB, will this work? If I can not find starboard at this short of notice what else could I use that’s not to expensive?

Second question
My rocks are carefully stacked on each other, so I will have to pull all of them out to build goby’s new home. What is the best way to do this?

I assume it will be to make up new salt water to store the rocks in and use tank water to store the fish and other livestock in while I have my hands in the tank. Any other ideas?
 
The one flaw I see in your plan is the goby will move to different homes. And he will probably end up diigging under some other rock that is not supported like you are planning to do.
 
Cathy will chime in soon I bet. She put a piece of PVC in the substrate with clear tubing pointing up and the goby lives in the pipe and never bothers her rockwork.

If you can hold off, the current newsletter that I'm almost done with has information about moving tanks and livestock.
 
Well, Stupid doesn't use the tube since I changed out the tank - I'm still waiting for him to find it. The engineer get blind as they grow older....

I did all of the following when I got the replacement tank - the same time I bought a bunch of sand from you!

Steve, what I did was place all of my rock and fishies into big plastic tubs that I bought at WalMart for fairly cheap. Emptied everything into it - AFTER adding a heater and powerhead to each. I had a small food basket that held any loose corals, so they didn't get lost.

Once I added the sand, I added large sized PVC into the sand, and put 3/4 sand into those. (There are about 8 large sized, and 6 small sized PVC pieces holding up my rocks.) Then added the rocks - without the water, but wet paper towels on them - and made sure the whole setup would stand before adding water. Then added the water, fish, etc.

I only made up enough water to be the same as any water change that I normally do. You may want a little more than that, but keep as much of the water as you can.

OH! A word of warning - when you take out the rocks, watch for the goby. He will hide IN the rock, even out of water. Some other types of fish do this also - we lost a bi-color blenny the very first time we took out all of the rocks.

I have a piece of clear plastic tubing that is half-buried in the sand. The Stupid used to have this as his home, like a hamster - he just hasn't found it yet.It weaves through rock and sand, same as he would.

All of this will NOT keep the guy from digging, but the rocks are far enough above the sand to keep them from falling when he does decide he wants to enlarge his space. You will always have dust clouds, sorry to say, if you used your Southdown.

Any questions - feel free to ask! I've had Stupid several years now, and he is over 18" long.
 
That is true. Using PVC pillars or footings for your LR will keep the main supporting base pieces from shifting. The digging fish can not move a 2" or 3" diameter PVC stand that is held down by larger pieces of LR.

Fill the tank with sand, place your PVC pillars so that they are just barely visible (or not) and start placing your LR on these. Move the pillars where they need to be, and once the base is solid, stack on top of this with the rest of your rock and corals. Add the water as you add more rock, using the same method that we normally employ to avoid stirring up the sand and causing a cloud.
 
PVC Pilings.

HDPE Cuttings boards from Walmart or the Dollar Store.
 
Just use the PVC pilings. That's I used and never had a rock slid even after one of my fish cleared out the sand all around on of the pilings.
 
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