?????? (Mountain Savannah)

[GreenNeedle]

?????? is my first aquascape of 2011. I will be doing another new scape on my 125ltr in a month or so but here goes with this one.

This will be the cheapest setup you have ever seen. From no tank to fully scaped for a grand total of £0.40p!!!!

This is a TMC Aquagrow Micro Habitat 8. It is an 8 litre cube 'in essence'. By 'in essence' I mean that the actual usable tank dimension is 16cm width x 16cm depth by 20cm height.

The tank's depth is actually more than that but it has a built in hidden filtration system behind a black piece of acrylic.

It comes complete with filter media, micro thermometer and a lighting unit which comprises of 16 LG Ultrabright TopLEDs.

I actually ended up getting this for free as it was sent to me by mistake. Then it got broken (big crack down the side near the corner of the filtration section.) The company who sent it in error told me to keep it. Therefore with the crack being out of view as it is on the side where the filtration part is I have siliconed inside and out and put the little tank into use.


Technical Specs:
Tank - 8 litre
Filter - Rear Filter Compartment - lph???? Probably around 50-100lph but moves the water well.
Heating - None
CO2 - Easycarbo Liquid Carbon 0.1ml daily
Dosing - Full EI - 0.25ml Macros, 0.1ml micros, 50% water change weekly.
Hardscape - Some stones Ianho brought round to my house. Look like granite of some sort.
Substrate - Mulm, Leonardite, Tesco value kitty litter, Wilko goldfish gravel.

Inhabitants - Currently 3 shrimp. I'll put more in once I see they are safe

Plants - Vallisneria, Microsorum Pteropus sp 'needle', Cryptocryne Parva, Bolbitis heudelotii, Anubias Barteri v Nana 'petite', Lileopsis Brasiliensis.

How has all this only cost 40p?

Here is the substrate:

The black on the bottom is Leonardite and mulm which I already had from ages ago.
The next 'chalky' layer is the Tesco kitty litter which has been lying around the house since a cat owner left it here whilst visiting.
The top layer is Wilko's cheapo goldfish gravel. Cost £1.60 and I used about a quarter so there's the 40p

Here you can see the rocks. There are 5. One is half behind the largest to support it. The 'supporting' rocks may look too large and powerful at the moment but I am hoping the Lileopsis Brasiliensis when it grows will hide all but the upper third of these.

At the back in both corners plus one just in front of the main rock are Cryptocoryne Parva. Taken from my main tank and as per all of my Crypts they have defied the size guides These are circa 15cm in some points.

The Needle Ferns are attached to the rock supporting the largest rock. These are taken from the main tank.

The Vallisineria is hidden right at the back. You are thinking I am mad putting Vals in such a small tank. These have been in my main tank for over 2 years yet they have not grown at all. They are healthy and no defficiencies but just not growing. If they get too big for this tank then I will consider that a positive

The Bolbitis heudelotii has come from my emersed nursery where it had suffered a bit of neglect for a couple of years. These are 2 very tiny pieces that have survived from what was once the width of this tank. The Lileopsis is a similar story. Hopefully these 2 will be 'resurrected'.

The Anubias petite is also from my emersed nursery but I have had it in my main tank for the previous 2 months preparing it for a scape. It was to be in the main tank however plans have slightly changed there so I have put them in this one.

A few more pictures just for the sake of it (I am no Saintly with the camera. lol)

Hope you like my 40p outlay

p.s. The little kid's toothbrush next to the tank is what I have been using to clean the inside glass at the moment. Was a bit dusty from adding the substrate.

Regards
AC

 

[mlgt]

Does the toothbrush have telephone capabilities? Have you tried answering it before? LOL.

Nice simple scape which when plants grow over will be fun. No mosses for the shrimps?

 

[GreenNeedle]

I forgot to add that I'd glued a little bit of moss along the crack of the main stone. Not uch though. I want it to find it's own way along the crack(s)

The shrimp are quite happy without shrimp. lol

They spent years in my last setups with no mosses at all in them. They seem to quite enjoy cleaning the gravel at teh mo.

AC

 

[LondonDragon]

Nice start Andy, personally I would have gone for a darker substrate or finer gravel/sand with that rock, but so far so good, now watch it grow in

 

[Angus]

I hope you dont make your sprog brush with that after LOL! nice looking nano mate.

Regards, Gus.

 

[GreenNeedle]

Nice start Andy, personally I would have gone for a darker substrate or finer gravel/sand with that rock, but so far so good, now watch it grow in

Lol. Wilko don't sell any other cheap fish gravel he, he. Its quite hard to photograph though. In front of you the contrast from the almost white substrate to the grey rocks/green plants to the black background looks awesome. Very modern in appearance.

I'll have to try and capture that with some different lighting at some point.

AC

 

[B7fec]

Hi Andy,
This is of great interest to me as today I'm picking up one of these tanks to use for my shrimp. I'm looking forward to the scaping challenges that lay ahead. Doing all your setup for 40p...... talk about on a budget! well done! just goes to prove you don't have to spend a fortune!

Liking your plant selection, bizarrely this is nearly exactly what I have got too, I do think Paulo's suggestion of a finer substrate is a good one, although think it all looks very nice! Will be a keen follower of this journal.

Ben

 

[greenjar]

Technical Specs:
Tank - 8 litre
Filter - Rear Filter Compartment - lph???? Probably around 50-100lph but moves the water well.
Heating - None
CO2 - Easycarbo Liquid Carbon 0.1ml daily
Dosing - Full EI - 0.25ml Macros, 0.1ml micros, 50% water change weekly.
Hardscape - Some stones Ianho brought round to my house. Look like granite of some sort.
Substrate - Mulm, Leonardite, Tesco value kitty litter, Wilko goldfish gravel.

Hi AC,

I see there is no heating in the tank itself, therefore, please let me know what temperature the tank maintains without? Im presuming that you're not altering the room/ambient temperature or anything like this to regulate the tank temp?

 

[heathen06]

I've been thinking of getting one of these lights for a small pico cube. Looks like it throws out a lot of light from the photos. What do you think of it? What is the quality of the light like?

 

[GreenNeedle]

Hi Andy,
This is of great interest to me as today I'm picking up one of these tanks to use for my shrimp. I'm looking forward to the scaping challenges that lay ahead. Doing all your setup for 40p...... talk about on a budget! well done! just goes to prove you don't have to spend a fortune!

Remember the 40p includes the tank which ended up being free after being delivered to me by mistake and then being broken.

If I were paying I wouldn't have bought one of these. I would've got an Arcadia Arc20 or one of those Superfish AquaCube 15s which are similar price but a little bigger. Come to it I may have even just bought a plain small 14" Clearseal for £20!!!!

Liking your plant selection, bizarrely this is nearly exactly what I have got too, I do think Paulo's suggestion of a finer substrate is a good one, although think it all looks very nice! Will be a keen follower of this journal.

This gravel is pretty small in reality. lol The miniature size of the tank makes it look much bigger. If the LP gets going the way I want then the substrate won't matter too much as it won't be part of the scape really and no light will get to it so photo's won't be 'dazzling' from the white substrate.

I see there is no heating in the tank itself, therefore, please let me know what temperature the tank maintains without? Im presuming that you're not altering the room/ambient temperature or anything like this to regulate the tank temp?

Nope - I leave the house thermo as it is (18C) but have the heating timer control set to turn off at 12-30am and on again at 6am. Therefore while the heating is on it maintains circa 21-22C which is perfect for these shrimp. It won't cool down much more than 20C with the 5½ hours of no heating. Great temperature for mosses as well. I guess this means that the pump in the back is adding 3C.

I've been thinking of getting one of these lights for a small pico cube. Looks like it throws out a lot of light from the photos. What do you think of it? What is the quality of the light like?

The actual light output is fine however the design of the light is completely form over function. It looks the biusiness but think about it. Put an 8ft tall bookcase directly underneath your room light and what happens? Dark areas and shadows. This light would be fine with no hardscape but is pitiful with!!! They should have made the light twice the size and spread the LEDs out better!!!However that is something I have been saying about all types of aquarium lighting for 2-3 years now but the manufacturers aren't to blame as it is the consumer that demands these sleek slimline units!!!!

So the output/PAR is fine. The spread is very very poor. They are wasting the efficiency they gain as you would need 2 to get the spread you really want. Not a problem in this tank as it is only a mess-about. If it were serious I would probably pull the light apart and redo it myself with some MDF (something I may yet do anyway)

My view on the whole setup is for £50 it looks the DBs but when it boils down to the nitty gritty it can't compete on 'bang for the buck'. Its much like buying some really nice looking speakers. Then realising they don't sound as good as the budget ones you walked away from

Will be a little bit of fun though.

AC

 

[GreenNeedle]

This little tank had been in the kitchen for 2 months while I did my lounge redesign. There it lay neglected with no fertilisation nor liquid carbon added in the most sun drenched corner of the whole house. No light was added.

Needless to say the inevitable decline commenced at by the time I could return it to the lounge position it was overloaded with Cyano, Staghorn and BBA.

All is not lost though, in fact nothing is lost as I am persevering with it and for the past 3 weeks back in Situ it has had daily EI+liquid Carbo and weekly 50% water changes.

The pictures below are at present and although there is a lot of BBA and staghorn it is much better than it was. You could not se any green nor rock 3 weks ago so about half way back to perfection.

I've also added a moss wall which comprises of Singapore, Java, Stringy and Christmas moss. Maybe some others too as it has come out of the emersed set up where I use it purely for covering the top of pots.

I've also added 4 tiny slate pieces (1cm x 1cm) 2 of which have Fissidens Fontanus on them and 2 of which have flame moss. Hopefully they'll spread out past the slate pieces and into the Gravel.

Regards
Andy

 

[GreenNeedle]

One month on and the recovery continues apace. I have not touched the rocks, plants or substrate. That is not my style. Much more my style to let good routines sort the problem naturally. I have cleaned the glass at water changes though. Dosing of macro, micro and Easycarbo has religiously been followed daily and it is starting to show the result.

I have removed the moss wall. I don't know why I put it in there to be honest. I always rip them out. One reason is I think they look messy , another reason is I am pretty lazy with regards to pruning etc. Also it was not really viable in a tank this small in my opinion.

Andy