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Aquacube 8lt scape. Woodland glade.Update 8 DEC 08!

Graeme Edwards

Founder
Joined
21 Jun 2007
Messages
1,158
Location
Wirral/Chester Cheshire.
Hi guys,

I though it was about time i put my hand to another pico.
Some basic stuff-
Filter-HOB60
Lighting- 11W florescent, its actual the lighting that came with the free PFK cube.
Heater- Newattino plus 10W
Substrate- Tropica plant nutrition and black fine gravel over the top.
Hardscape- Dead and pree soaked heather wood, its that dead and pree soaked, it sinks. Rock are some kind of light porous lava rock.
Ferts- Tropica plant nutrition+ and Easy life carbon.

Heres the hard scape.
This image shows the basic composition im after. You would call it a mound or central composition. The yellow line is shows you that im unhappy with the angle of the rock, the line is the angle i would like to achieve. I want to create a free flow of space around the cluster of branches.



This image shows how i would like it to appear after some decent growth.



The reddish area is hopefully going to be something like Ludwigia arcuata , or Rotala wallichii , basically i want some red in there at that focal point.
The rocks will be covered with fissidins moss as well as parts of the branches.
The grass will be Eleocharis parvula , if i can get it. If not something very similar.
Hemianthus callitrichoides ''Cuba'' is the for ground plant.
And some of the stem plants, probably no more than 3 species will be something like Hemianthus micranthemoides ,Didiplis diandra ,something along those lines, depends on what i can order.

So there you have it.

Cheers,
Graeme.
 
Sweeeeet...

I'm with Tom on the R. wallichi over L. arcuata. Arcuata may overwhelm as the leaves can span well over 2" in total.

I think the wood and rocks are perfect size and compostion.

Looking forward to seeing this one progress.
 
Hi Graeme,

Good to see you having another go!

The wood looks great although im not sure about the rock position, the middle one seems too central IMO (but what do i know?).

Look forward to following this one .

The hagen sand looks really nice too.
 
Bit of an update.

This is a shockingly bad picture of the cube, its about 3 weeks after planting now. Grow is steady but slow. There is some thread algae in there at the mo, i could do with some shrimp to sort that out. Dosing the easy life carbon each day at 0.5ml and Tropica+ at 0.2ml every other day. Water changes are 2-3 times a week.
I need to get some more plants in there, mainly hair grass,id like to add a tiny amount of riccia, see how it fairs with the liquid carbon.
Ill take more time with the pics, when it has developed better, just a teaser really.




Cheers.

 
It`s your attention to detail I really like, Graeme. Things like little tufts of hairgrass that are just about noticeable, and the spindly wood that is perfect proportion to the size of the tank. The way the branches get noticeably thinner as they reach the water`s surface works really well, also.

It must be a real pain lugging those 1l jugs around the house at water change time!

Dave.
 
A bit of an update chaps and chapess.

Im not going to reveal all just yet. Im really happy with its progress.
To remind you all. Im using easy life carbon at 0.6ml per day and Tropica Nutrition+ at 0.2ml every other day.
Ive now added 6 cherry shrimp which are doing very well, one is even carrying eggs. They are doing a great job on keeping my plants tended to and give the cube some extra interest and movement. Ive also added some pogostemon helferi and some rotala nanjenshan. The shrimps and the quality Tropica plants came from The Green Machine. They are getting in some micro rasbora, maculata, so ill have a think about adding some of them.
The plants don't pearl, but they are doing very well, if a little slow. I only have the lights on for around 7 hours, maybe i should bump that up abit.

Heres some pics.









Cheers.
 
Please do fix the photo's - I can only see the 3rd one down and from that I suspect you are a genius - its stunning! 3 more should confirm my suspicions...

Makes me tempted to stick one on my desk at work, very calming during nightmare conference calls... I wonder if the facilities people would find it against health and safety or something?
 
Wow Gareme, you are truly the zen meister. Every petal looks perfectly positioned and perfectly sized/placed. We are not worthy...

Cheers,
 
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