# Second hand cube



## Laoshan (19 Sep 2021)

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 



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!








Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## MichaelJ (29 Sep 2021)

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


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## Wolf6 (29 Sep 2021)

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


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## noodlesuk (29 Sep 2021)

That's gorgeous, really lush.


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## Laoshan (29 Sep 2021)

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 . 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 .


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## Laoshan (7 Oct 2021)

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  .















Thanks for watching!


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## Adumlee (24 Jan 2022)

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!


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## Aqua360 (24 Jan 2022)

Carpet looks great, I've had lilaeopsis on my hit list for a while too


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## Cris_thorn (25 Jan 2022)

Looking great. Carpet looks full.


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## Laoshan (30 Jan 2022)

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


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## arcturus (30 Jan 2022)

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.
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## Laoshan (30 Jan 2022)

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.


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