• 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

Second hand cube

Laoshan

Member
Joined
14 Jun 2013
Messages
98
Hi all,

This is my home office tank in a secondhand 30C. Started it about 6 months ago as a low tech. Decided to add CO2 to try and improve the growth of the “carpet”.

I am quite happy with plant growth overall. Dosing 1 ml of Aqua Rebell Makro Basic every day. The Lilaeopsis carpet could look better though. Maybe there is some emersed leaves left, I will trim it soon. Or it needs more CO2.

Of course the stem plants also need a better shape. Especially the Bacopa needs work. I actually like the Potamogeton gayi and Nymphoides in
fba7a4f2ca23c6c40adef01495607cb2.jpg

this tank, lovely plants even though a bigger tank would be better for these.

Not much of a scape here, just a piece of Mopani wood. Next challenge will be to work a better sense of scale and depth, perhaps with smaller leaved “nano” plants and more detail in the hardscape.

Let me know what you think. And sorry for the shaky photos. Even with or without coffee my hands are not steady!

d3c74df8783d5160c1e50726418fe805.jpg





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Lovely tank! Some cherry shrimps or possibly a small shoal of nano tetras such as Red Ruby or Embers would work nicely in this tank.

Cheers,
Michael
 
Last edited:
Thanks all!

Lovely :) How often do you have to trim plants in such a modest size?

Some of the plants are not really fit for this size indeed. I trim the stem plants about every two weeks. Last week I trimmed the Lilaeopsis carpet as well. This seems to have triggered BGA to take over :meh:. Doing a blackout at the moment.

Lovely tank! Some cherry shrimps or possibly a small shoal of nano tetras such as Red Ruby or Embers would work nicely this tank.

Those are great fish suggestions, I was actually planning to have Embers in a 45P which is still empty at the moment. As for the cherry shrimp: I actually have two orange ones in there, leftovers from a tank that didn't do so well. Last week I saw one of them berried. I guess they got lucky :).
 
Some more photos of the cube. Bucephalandra theia is constantly flowering. Do you think removing the flowers will induce faster growth?

New leaves are bigger as well, that does seem to be a good sign :) .

DSC07171.JPG




DSC07180.JPG


DSC07165.JPG


Thanks for watching!
 
Looks great lovely growth I like the look of the Lilaeopsis carpet I'm going to add that to the plant list for my tank!
 
Carpet looks great, I've had lilaeopsis on my hit list for a while too
 
Thanks all. I can recommend Lilaeopsis. Once it’s settled it grows vigorously in my experience. Very dense root systems. Not very demanding either.

The cube is completely overgrown as I am more focused on our slightly bigger tank in the living room. Which has more algae issues.

At least the cube contains sufficient plant material for a rescape, once I can manage it. I am planning to do a mossy scape with some twigs, but it should also include the Green Lotus and Crypt Costata from the current setup.

Best regards,

Tom
 

Attachments

  • F19D75E0-B8EB-432C-8A2F-9E9AFB8A915F.jpeg
    F19D75E0-B8EB-432C-8A2F-9E9AFB8A915F.jpeg
    1.8 MB · Views: 119
Beautiful tank! Just make sure you also add some micro/trace elements to avoid running into deficiencies. You can consider the Aqua Rebell Mikro Basic Eisen. Observe the plants and check if you need to increase the macros a bit (maybe to 1.5 ml/day) since you have plenty of plants.

 
Last edited:
Thanks that’s a useful pointer. Have been dosing Basic Eisen actually. Indeed it might a be a good idea to increase the macro dosage. I have also cleaned the CO2 diffuser today, using citric acid, as it was completely clogged.

Funny though that I have a host of algae in the bigger tank which I attribute to an imbalance of CO2, light, etc.. and have been tweaking parameters. This tank seems to thrive (relatively speaking) by neglect. Perhaps this little cube has a more established system.
 
Back
Top