• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Mum's nano cube

jamila169

Member
Joined
4 Mar 2021
Messages
170
Location
N Derbyshire
Finally found a cube that I like and didn't cost me a kidney , so I've got a Dennerle 30l nano cube with the corner filter amd a nicrew light from the big warehouse place .I've planted it up tonight as the plants arrived from aquarium gardens yesterday so I didn't want anything to die or get eaten by the dog while i wait to do the next water change on it's next door neighbour -I'm planning to move the 60 over when it's got considerably less water in it so they'll be centred on the surface. I managed not to glue myself to anything, which is a bonus and it's sealed up for the next few days so the plants can get happy before it moves to it's final position. Plan is to get some cherry shimp and run it as a shrimp only tank as opposed to the community tank next door.
Went to my local Maidenhead Aquatics for some snails for daughter's tank today and came home with 25 litres of RO water and what day they get new plants in . Anyhoo, the plants, back to front
Vallisneria Spiralis which I'll be watching carefully to see if it needs to go on it's holidays in daughter's tank(fingers crossed 3 days in a sealed tank won't bother it too much)
Bucephalandra Wavy Green and Java Fern attached to wood and rocks
Cryptocoryne Nevelli in the middle
Saggitaria Subulata in front of that
Taiwan moss on the rocks and shrimp shelter
Blyxa Japonica at the sides and front (again , fingers crossed it'll be ok for a few days kept wet )
Frogbit is presently swimming with the Garys in daughter's tank

IMG20210414213656.jpg


IMG20210414213703.jpg
IMG20210414213707.jpg
 
as expected, the vals and the blyxa didn't look impressed this morning, so they're having a short break in daughter's tank with the aid of the weights and rockwool I saved from unpacking them , the bogwood despite being soaked keeps attempting to dry out so I'm mostly spraying today
 
Hi all,

Daphnia appear in all sorts of strange places, they can <"form resting"> cysts that blew about in the wind etc.

cheers Darrel
Amazing little critters. That probably explains how they turned up in my waterbutts despite very tight fitting lids. Not that I'm complaining :)
 
all cleared and planted , I had a play with my new toy (TDS meter) and at 50/50 tap and RO it's hovering just on 200 and 22c without a heater, which I'll need to keep an eye on as it gets warmer and probably supplement in the winter , Big tank is at 295 with 20% RO so the runaway hardness is tameable it seems even with ferts going in .
Plants have changed about a bit with some H. Tripartita at the back which is intended as a pretty wafting thing rather than carpeting and is also insurance if the M. Umbrosum doesn't take well at the front. I was musing whether I should move the rocks and such back a bit, but I'm leaving it for the sake of access and the wee caves between that I'll probably mess up if I start faffing. I think I need another Buce or Anubias nana to go between the two on the wood, it's not balanced

IMG20210422195322.jpg



Moss is starting to open up and look more mossy



IMG20210422195329.jpg


Round the back

IMG20210422195342.jpg
 
I had a play with my new toy (TDS meter) and at 50/50 tap and RO it's hovering just on 200 and 22c
Interesting. My 50/50 rainwater and tap sits at about 195 straight after a wc. I'm inferring that stupidly hard UK tap water is similarly stupidly hard regardless of which chalk aquifer it's coming from.
 
Hi all,
Interesting. My 50/50 rainwater and tap sits at about 195 straight after a wc. I'm inferring that stupidly hard UK tap water is similarly stupidly hard regardless of which chalk aquifer it's coming from.
Yes that is right, all the limestone aquifer water will have a very similar TDS (conductivity) value. If you get much over 500 ppm TDS, you have other ions (other than Ca++ and HCO3- present).

The values are all similar because of the <"limited solubility"> of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The amount of total/dissolved inorganic carbon (TIC/DIC) is controlled by the level of dissolved CO2 and that is controlled by the <"amount of CO2 in the atmosphere">.

cheers Darrel
 
plants are looking pretty happy, just expected loss of emersed leaves on a couple of things, got a light dusting of diatoms , and have scraped a bit of brown algae off the glass a couple of times. The temperature is a bit variable so I've ordered a heater to even that out. Second big water change/first big clean tomorrow and then I'll have to get more RO water, going to get a second container I reckon, I'm not using enough to justify a filter, but going through it faster than anticipated due to using it to cut the other tank water as well
 
Two weeks since the water went in, so I guess it's 2 weeks old now , everything growing in well, nothing took flight at all which is an improvement , haven't tested the water yet other than TDS which is going no higher than 220 before a top up . replenished the RO water yesterday so I'll be going for a 50% water change which will get it below 200. I started with liquid carbo yesterday b/c of some minor fluffy growth on the moss and I've taken off the spraybar, which is way too short , I've got a plan to use a spares pack to extend it all along the back which should just fit - the nozzle thingy is sending flow along the back , round to the front corner where it's strong enough to drag the duckweed under and then whizzing across, round the back and to the filter strongly enough to get everything waving about but it's a bit too strong for my liking . anyhoo, obligatory progress shot coming up , the two green velvet buce went in yesterday, but the one on the wood is in the wrong place, so I think I'll swap it with the wavy green at the front for perspective's sake
IMG20210505140842.jpg
 
Did 75% change after mad swirling and spot siphoning for fluffy diatoms on the moss and wood, moved a few things around and made sure the Alternanthera cardinalis I put in yesterday was properly planted and did some buce reorganization, ignore the superglue streak, it's not there, you're hallucinating.
Fingers crossed the diatoms are less of a pain soon
16204764922004905112899550343541.jpg
 
still been having hellacious problems with the fluffy diatoms so I did a 90% change today after a 4 day blackout ,also let me attend to a couple of Buces that had come adrift.-then i realised I didn't have much RO left so I dripped most of the water back in through a coffee filter. I stripped out most of the tripartia last week and put the best bits in a heath robinson propagator (ikea kid's cup, bottom half of a pop bottle for a lid ) on the sunniest windowsill and it's growing away nicely, fingers crossed it'll make enough to be able to put it back in, if it doesn't make bigger leaves it'll go into a bigger container in the greenhouse. Will probably make another trip to Wharf this week for Ella's tank , so I might get more saggitaria for the foreground because it seems to be super happy in the cube
 
Decided to stop trying to get the Hemianthus to behave at the front (I've got some loving it in Ella's tank), get rid of an excess of moss that was swamping the Buce and Sagittaria on the left (used a small amount to fill out a bald patch on the shrimp cave) and move the Sagittaria that was getting a bit cramped on the right -found 2 offsets to replant, so I guess I'm having a lawn at the front. I've revived the DIY CO2 and put it on here and the corner filter is swirling the bubbles all the way round nicely , upping the ferts a bit and seeing how it goes parameter wise and growth wise


IMG20210524210823.jpg
 
I haz shrimps! I went with orange sakuras in the end (though not all the ones I got are actually orange, which should be interesting) there's 7 I think ranging rfom a teeny wee sub 1cm babby up to the big orange momma you can see on the log -I've had succesful moults and they're getting interested in actual food now the brown fluff is almost gone Ubiquitous tank shot follows

1624380995781.png
 
I think the shrimps like it -after mad zoomies by the boys 3?days ago big orange girl made herself scarce, finally emerging yesterday with a smart new shell and looking suspiciously rotund , got a good look at her just now and yep, she's definitely berried (got a peek while she was juggling cargo)


1624901289899.png
 
Back
Top