Our (not so nature) NA cube (30L)

[SirBuce]

From the sneak peek in our journal My First Aquascape - Red Cherry Jungle (30L) ha.

Essentially did a dark star of the tank on 8Oct23 and then officially fully planted last weekend 5Nov23 (was waiting for Hygrophila pinnatifida, Bolbitis and Buce from the LFS).
The dark start was likely unnecessary since I already have functional filter media from my other cannister filter, and all soil are capped with sand anyway - didn't plan to cap the soil at first but I thought of the nightmare to keep scooping/magneting the soil on the sand....

So ya this is officially our first attempt on NA style, inspired by a couple of the ADA classic builds.
Can't wait for the plants to grow in, I will be adding 15 chili rasbora as the main fish of the tank, maybe a few panda cory if we could get them. Already have like 10+ Yellow neos and 2 Amanos in them.

Pics first and then specs follow after ha.

The drafting and dark start and the lovely biofilms


3 weeks later let's say I have been acclimating the plants I prepared at that point ha
(I eventually removed the 'standard' java fern as they are just too big for this size of tank - less is more eh?)


3) The complete look and then small adjustment this week

 

[SirBuce]

NA style cube (Dennerle 30L) started 8/10/2023
L*W*H 30*30*35cm
Filter Oase FiltoSmart Thermo 100 (at 22C) (hose 12/16mm)
Lighting Chihiros WRGB II Slim 30
CO2 FZONE CO2 set (using a splitter to share with SirBuce's Dutch Sunset (55L)) with inline CO2 reactor Qanvee
Soil Tropica Substrate + lava rock + EasyLife root tabs + Tropica Aquasoil Powder and then capped with ADA La Plata sand
# Plants list
1 Hygrophila pinnatifida (cup x3)
2 Bolbitis (pot x2)
3 Microsorum pteropus (pot x2)
4 Nymphaea lotus (x1)
5 Bucephalandra sp. "needle leaf" (cup x2)
6 Anubias 'Petite' (pot x1)
7 Taxiphyllum alternans 'Taiwan'
8 Ludwigia sp. 'Super Mini Red'
9 Rotala rotundifolia 'H'ra'
10 Rotala indica 'Bonsai'
11 Myriophyllum 'Guyana'
12 Fissidens sp. "Mallorca", Riccia fluitans, Marsilea Hirsuta, S.Repens, Hydrocotyle tripartita
Plants#1-6 are newly bought, and the rest of the plants come from other tanks - Rotala Hra and Ludwigia Super mini red wouldn't be that red if bought new 🥲. Their new leaves actually look green-ish so I already turned the light to near max setting yesterday (R/G/B:100/56/85%) and removed some floaters, finger crossed the stem plants at the back will turn out ok.

I quite like the build but I need to add the chili rasbora soon - to me it is quite 'boring' to look at without fish aha. Overall it is not a bad copy/attempt I'd say - but ya, I think I am done with these nano cube tank for awhile lol. It seems to me the minimum should be 45cm long or really ideally a 60cm long (no wonder 60P is the 'gold standard').