Mr G's Spur Of The Moment Cube !

[MoreCoffee]

This weekend I had a bit of a disaster. To cut a long story short, my shrimp tank failed it's water tight integrity test and emptied it's contents over the carpet

A mad half hour saw the shrimp saved (2 CRS have subsequently died) and the plants relocated to my holding tank. The tank was only 3 months old, still under guarantee and is being replaced, but somehow that doesnt make me feel much better about it !

The Cube:
Anyway, whilst sorting out a replacement at my LFS, I found this for a mere £8.80.....

Well I've been following the progress of Moody's cube and I just had to try my hand at a cube, even if only a budget one ! Tropica AquaCube it is'nt ..... but for less than £9.00 I've got nothing to lose !

This was a spur of the moment purchase, so no time for planning or purchasing special items, the only things I had to go into making it were what had come from my failed shrimp tank.
It would be good to make something out of the mess that came from that tank !

Substrate: Eco-complete
Plants: HC / HM / Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides / Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis / Weeping Moss
Hardscape: Bogwood (with weeping moss) / Rock
Lighting: 20w Halogen desk lamp
Pants only - No fish or shrimp

Setting up:

The Plants:

The End Result:

This was setup yesterday (02/07/06), today I have included some DIY Co2 with a small glass ceramic diffuser. I'll be using Seachem Flourish ferts (in very small amounts) for the plants and regular water changes to try keep the algae at bay.

Setting up took about an hour from start to finnish. The biggest problem was keeping the HC down.
When I removed it from my shrimp tank it was in a 'mat'. I ended up planting some of the Lilaeopsis in
the mat's to help hold it down, even then I had to use a few bits of pea gravel embedded into the mat to weigh the edges down. Hopefully it will root into the substrate again in time.

The Gymnocoronis is a fast growing marsh plant that should be happy growing out above the surface. I'm looking forward to this developing over time, I think I'll need to see how the Gymnocoronis fills out, otherwise I may need to look at something to fill in the back a little.


Mr G

 

[Gnatfish]

Nice!!! Thats a great buy! Nice aquascaping aswell!

Keep us updated!

 

[jayjay]

Pants only - No fish or shrimp

lol sorry that just stuck out

looking good, Mr G !

i was going to use a desk lamp like that but getting another sliver lamp like i have on another tank.

i like the plants sticking out of the water aswel.

 

[MrWaxhead]

WOW that is very cool, I want to do one for my puter desk now hehe.

 

[Themuleous]

Thats a bargin tank! And you've scaped it really well, love the layout, although I think the Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides is a bit big, perhaps one of the smaller leaved rotala's maybe?

BTW you going to have more light over it? Dont think that desk lamp will be much good?

Sam

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Grate job MrG, i see I have had an influence, which is very nice.

Great job on the hardscape, and very nice that you got some of the weeping moss, id like some of that myself, not for my cube though.
If you want a small filter have a look here, i have one on my cube and its dead cheap.

http/www.aquatics-online.co.uk/Z604045.asp

You may have noticed that i have started getting algae in my cube, you may well suffer too, its a hard volume of water to keep happy, and knowing how much fert to add is a tricky concept, Ive gone for 10 drops of Nutrafin Plantgrow every other day.

Keep us up to date, Itl be good to know what your cube goes through.

Nice one

Graeme.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Thanks for the comments. The tank is a 20cm cube and is made by Aqua One, for less than £9.00 I think it was well worth it. I was quite pleased with the end result, I guess it was just lucky that I had a piece of rock and a small piece of bogwood that seemed perfect size for a 20cm cube.

Thats a bargin tank! And you've scaped it really well, love the layout, although I think the Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides is a bit big, perhaps one of the smaller leaved rotala's maybe?

BTW you going to have more light over it? Dont think that desk lamp will be much good?

Sam

Sam: Thanks, I think you're right about he Gymno, the leaves do look a bit big for the cube and I think it may grow out too high and end up looking a bit unbalanced.
It was all I had available at the time, I think I'll leave it in the cube until my new tank arrives then look for a replacement.

Whilst I was thinking about getting a different light (I could do with that one back nex to my PC !) I thought a 20w halogen lamp would be enough, the instruction for the Tropica Aquacube say to only use a 10 or 20 watt bulb. The cube certainly seems bright enough (although maybe that doesnt come across in the pics) and the HM is pearling, the HC has also shown signs of settling in and starting to pearl.
I'll see how it goes ..... if it needs more light, it'll get it.

Grate job MrG, i see I have had an influence, which is very nice.

Great job on the hardscape, and very nice that you got some of the weeping moss, id like some of that myself, not for my cube though.
If you want a small filter have a look here, i have one on my cube and its dead cheap.

http/www.aquatics-online.co.uk/Z604045.asp

You may have noticed that i have started getting algae in my cube, you may well suffer too, its a hard volume of water to keep happy, and knowing how much fert to add is a tricky concept, Ive gone for 10 drops of Nutrafin Plantgrow every other day.

Keep us up to date, Itl be good to know what your cube goes through.

Nice one

Graeme.

Graeme: Yeah, watching your journal gave me the desire to try this one day ..... then I just saw this and had to give it a try. Obviously I've got a totally different look, but I needed somwhere to keep my HC and HM alive for a week or two. Now I think it will stay in this cube and I'll just have to order more !

I love the weeping moss, I think it's my favorite moss and once it settles in on the wood it always looks great. I originally got mine from Ebay, that is on another piece of bogwood, I trimmed that back to get some for the cube.

Thanks for the link to the filter .... I may give that a try.

As for ferts, I'm using Flourish. Previously I made an excel spreadsheet that works out how much of each to add for a particular volume of water, so it tells me how much I need. However the doses are so small as to be almost unmeasurable without a syringe.

Currently I'm trying 30% water changes - twice a week.
Fourish = 2 or 3 drops after a water change
Fourish Excel = 2 or 3 drops twice a week
Flourish Nitrogen = 1or 2 drops after each water change
Flourish Phosphorous = 1or 2 drops after each water change
Flourish Potassium = 1or 2 drop after each water change

Not really sure how this will go, but I'll be keeping a close eye open for any algae !

Anybody got any suggestions ?


Al

 

[MoreCoffee]

Day 3:
Here an a quick update. Did a 30% water change today, trying to avoid any early algae problems.

Some [size=-1]Lysimachia nummularia (creeping jenny) has replaced the [/size]Gymnocoronis Spilanthoides at the rear of the cube. I agree with Sam, the Gynmo just looked too big. The creeping jenny will do until I put in my next plant order (still awaiting new tank), but it looks a little better. I looked at my LFS and the plants were not in very good condition, so I left it.

In the bottom of my box, I found small piece of rock that matches the one on the right (rear), so that has been used to break up the large patch of green on the left (front).

The CO2 has been in the tank for a couple of days now and the plants are showing signs of responding.

Updated pics: Sorry - the poor pic quality makes things look a little yellow/green, but you get the idea !

Closeup showing modified layout and CO2

Top view: with a couple of small Water Lettuce floating in the bottom right corner.

Pearling yesterday .... actually the whole tank was 'fizzing' (better colour in the pic)

Al

 

[jayjay]

looks good !

i see some water lettuce in there?

what co2 system and ferts do you use?

 

[MoreCoffee]

looks good !

i see some water lettuce in there?

what co2 system and ferts do you use?

Yeah just a couple of water lettuce on top, but they'll be moved when they start getting bigger.

CO2 is just DIY from a 1 Ltr bottle and the small glass diffuser.
Using Flourish ferts but very little and at the moment (see previous post) and just experimenting to try find the right level.

If anybody has any suggestions on a fertilising regime for a 20cm cube, I'd be interested, I've seen Moody's and his looks to be working.

At the moment I think I'm probably dosing too much, but with 30% water changes twice a week I'm hoping it should be OK.

With no fish in there it's one less thing to worry about, especially on the CO2 front 1