Sheridan's Cube

[Sheridan]

Some of you may have seen my thread in general titled 'upgrade time'. Basically, I was going to upgrade a tropiquarium 68 with some new lighting, plant it out a bit and use some commercial fertilizer each week. Well, been doing a fair bit of reading, mostly on this forum, looking through some planted tank journals. Also had a look at some Amano tanks, and it seems I've caught the bug.

I've bought a 35 US gallon cube tank off ebay literally just the glass tank. I shall be making my own hood and stand, similar to those pinned in the DIY section. Some sort of contemporary design hopefully, not sure on materials or finishes yet.

Now, this is a budget(ish) project for the summer, where I can do a bit of experimentation and a whole lot of learning along the way. My original plan was to light the tank using two 36W interpet T5 compacts. Decided against this after luckily stumbling across some threads about overheating issues. The next option was several T8 15W tubes, but this would work out far too expensive with several starters and tubes needed to get enough wattage.

So, I've ordered 4 daylight bulbs giving me 100W. This, really is the experimental part. If it doesn't work out, I'll have to upgrade, but at 6400K they seem a good choice for the planted tank. These will be wired into the hood, keeping electrical safety in mind, not sure on the finer details yet. Anyway, we shall see...


Also ordered from aquatics online:

Nutrafin CO2 system
Laterite (to be mixed with gravel or sand)
GH/KH test kit
Airline T-piece should I need to add another bottle to the CO2 system


The tank will be filtered by my current biolife filter and I shall be adding the following fish:

2x Keyhole cichlids
2x Bolivian rams
2x Bristlenose plecs, breeding pair
5x Cardinal tetras
3x Cherry barbs
1x Black widow, the old man of the tank
1x longfin danio, a hitchhiker

I will most likely be using the EI method after reading that pinned topic about 5 times! I assume I can get the ferts from a garden centre to save on p&p, as long as they are pure? Will probably restrict the dosing to about half until I work out how efficient my lighting will be. I assume it won't be as efficient as using tubes. I will also use root tabs of some sort too.

Right, thanks for reading this far folks. Any suggestions or criticisms as to what I've written above? Hopefully it should work out alright, and not cost the Earth. I may well do an all inclusive journal, if I can be persuaded!

Once again thanks for the help.
P.S. Jimbooo this is all your fault for doing that cube journal!

 

[Themuleous]

So, I've ordered 4 daylight bulbs giving me 100W. This, really is the experimental part.

Let us know how you get on with these bulbs, I must say Im spectacle about the results you'll get, but you never know

I assume I can get the ferts from a garden centre to save on p&p, as long as they are pure?

I would get them from Aquaessentials, you just dont know what you're adding when you use ferts for the ground. It might be ok, but for me its just not worth the risk. P+P from AE really isn't that much (think its £3.50 for 1KG parcel) and the ferts last months and months even with a 36g tank.

Will probably restrict the dosing to about half until I work out how efficient my lighting will be. I assume it won't be as efficient as using tubes. I will also use root tabs of some sort too.

I would hold back from the root tabs just yet, if you're adding laterite to the gravel you'll probably find it does the job. I would only add root tabs if you find some of you're plants seem to be struggling a bit.

Post some pics once its all up and running

Sam

 

[Sheridan]

Excellent reply, just what I was looking for, thanks! The worst that can happen with the daylight bulbs is that I'll have 4 nice energy saving bulbs to stick in the house. If the plants don't get on too well I'll upgrade to something more conventional. I guess I'll get the fert from aqua essentials, £3.50 isn't that much in the long run.

Will plants such as amazon swords be ok just with laterite and EI dosing? I thought they'd need root tabs?

 

[Themuleous]

Ive not used laterite as yet but from what I understand it effectivtly replaces the need for root tabs, it is designed to provide plants with ferts after all. I would just use the laterite for now and see how you get on, if the plants look like they need some extra help, chuck some tabs under the ones that need it later on. No point spending the mone if you needn't

 

[Sheridan]

Well, it's been a couple of months now since I started and the tank got off the ground, so I thought I'd update the original topic.

This was pretty much a budget project for me, the equipment as follows:

21" cube tank, second hand off ebay.
Stand and hood, DIY using wood from around the house.
Filtration, Biolife unit from an old tropiquarium.
Lighting, 4 x 25W daylight bulbs, as seen here
CO2, nutrafin kit with a second 2L bottle added.

All plants from a greenline multipack, so I'm not too hot on their names!

I've been using the EI method (roughly!) and it seems to be working pretty well with minimal algae appearing.

The tank started off with some bogwood and a rock as hardscape, but I took these out after a few weeks for a change of scenery and to let the plants grow out a little.

I will probably put a black background on it at some point and will most probably upgrade to an external filter once I can afford it.

Any comments, criticisms etc greatly appreciated, I'm sure you all know the score with these journal type threads!

And now for the pics

 

[Themuleous]

Tanks looking great just one thing, that lotus lily will probably get huge given time, you might be better off moving it to the side or back of the tank so its less dominating when more fully grown.

Sam