Nano Cube

[sorgan]

So after reading the latest nano journal (naming no names) I went to my local pets at home to see if I could find me a little fish tank.
After much dithering I opted to take a slightly larger tank as it was going cheap (discontinue aquaone) and still had a filter

So got it home and filled it with substrate left over from the betta tanks refurb, abit of a crypt and some grass of some kind, a large rock and a heater and filled with water.

Now I intend to plant this up a bit and will be using a short 15w t8 I'm gonna steal from an old aquaone hood (maybe to much light? Not sure what to do on this front)
Anyways a bit of the water from the betta tank has been added to this one as I'm rinsed some old filter media in it and thought it may aid the tanks cycle.

For stocking I was thinking af a dwarf puffer maybe but we will have to wait and see

 

[Verminator89]

Wicked. You could do with a few more plants, also it'll help keep algae at bay planting heavy. Have you concidered breaking the rock into two? Get two rocks that way with interesting jagged edges


And i wouldnt have thought that will be too much light, should be fine

 

[stevereade]

After any cherry shrimp for it??? I have hundreds in my cube tanks.

 

[ian]

Looks good...the light will be fine, keep it monitored and if needs be just dose some liquid carbon.

just a quick tip Sorgan, you'll need to stock it soon if you've added the mature media. It dies off at about 10% a day.

 

[plantedaquaria]

Looks like everyones doing these now, i'll have to put up some pics of mine soon.

 

[sorgan]

Cherry shrimp might be cool but may be eaten by mister puffer later, I'm gonna plant the tank up more when I next get chance to swing by the LFS.
Rock may very well get broken tommorow

And finally it was only water from a mature tank that I had rinsed a filter out in, does that qualify as mature media?

Any ideas on plants?

 

[stevereade]

Dwarf Pea Puffer wont eat adult cherries I shouldn't think, the cherries would be bigger than the puffer lol.

 

[jameshughes1989]

They will try and will eat them im afraid, not worth the risk. The tank looks good, ill be interested in what shapes you can get when you break the rock. Keep us posted on how it goes!

James

 

[sorgan]

Ok so rocks been smashed and the tank now looks like

Obviously I need more plants but can't get to lfs ATM so it will have to wait.
Regarding the shrimp, thanks for the offer but they will probably become DP food do I better not, so this leads me onto my next question, what else can I put in with the puffer? I've seen people say otto's are good with dwarf puffs but as the tanks only 20lt I'm not sure if it will be big enough.
Obviously inverts are out of the question as they will become puffy food.

 

[stevereade]

Bumble Bee Goby's, thats what I had with mine.

 

[sorgan]

Sooooo alot of plants have just gone in, so much so it looks a little like a jungle, which I'm loving. Going to have to dose the tank now thi methinks lol.
So plants added where an anubius nana, acryptocoryne moehlmanni, Hydrocotyle Leucocephala (I think) and another I have forgotten the name of (the one in the front that's ferny)

Here's a pic, will post a better one when the tanks cleared.

Yes I know it's messy but I like it messy, looks more natural

 

[sorgan]

And today it seems looks like it's bushing in, amazing how quick it all grows.

 

[stevereade]

I like it, looks very natural, I would get the rocks sat deeper in the gravel and push some gravel up the sides of them a little so they look more natural as supposed to sat on top of the gravel.

 

[jameshughes1989]

It looks good. I think you got some great shapes from that rock. As suggested above, push them a little further intot he gravel ( more natural).

Have you decided on the stocking yet?

Regards, James

 

[sorgan]

Stocking is going to be 1 dwarf puffer and some large shrimp of some variety but I'm pretty sure the puffer will eat the shrimp quite quickly.
Was going to bang some otto's in aswell but at 20lt I think that would be over stocked.