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45 cm cube iwagumi, my first tank :)

Jack Reilly

Jack Reilly

Member
Joined
10 Jul 2016
Messages
143
Location
australia
The hardscape

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I had to break up some of the plainer rocks with a hammer to make little rocks to make the layout work.

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The plant plan, monte carlo and some hairgrass
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Hardware:

ADA Tank & Stand
Do!Aqua glass Lily pipes
Eheim 2215 filter
2.6kg c02 keg
VIV diffuser
9L ADA AS
9L ADA AS Powder
Finnex Planted + LED Lighting
Hydor inline heater
Seiryu stone
 
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Looks great. Take your time and be patient. Don't be afraid to put in some temporary plants to help establish things in the beginning. Some easy, large leaf varieties or floating. Iwagumis are slightly more difficult because of the low plant mass in the beginning. The larger leafs may help out-compete algae right from the get-go. Once your monte carlo and hairgrass start to take off, you can start removing the startup plants. Best of luck and the hardscape looks fantastic!
 
Well done. Cubes are hard to scape and you've done well. Better have frogbit floating at first for a while.
 
You could either keep them and put into a new tank, perhaps a small nano, nothing too large and something that can be used as a display piece elsewhere in the home, or you could perhaps just sell them off to someone on an Australian forum, or give them away, or swap them for something else.
 
Amazon Frogbit would be ideal to have floating on the surface while the tank is new.
 
Tank is all planted, I'm running the C02 at 5bps while there is no lifestock. Lighting is 6 hours with a 1 hour break in the middle, c02 is 7 hours and comes on an hour before lighting. The areas of dirt where nothing is planted is actually just some AS that has spilled over the rocks, too shallow to plant.
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I'm using the stock Eheim inlet/outlet pipes until my see-through silicon tubing arrives.
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I asked for some Frogbit at the LFS but they only had a handful. On the bright side they gave it to me for free.

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As I originally bought this light fixture for a long tank rather than the cube, do you think it's still okay for the cube? I'm wondering if the light will be received adequately by both the front and the back of the tank.
 
Jack Reilly said:
As I originally bought this light fixture for a long tank rather than the cube, do you think it's still okay for the cube? I'm wondering if the light will be received adequately by both the front and the back of the tank.
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Looks quite bright.

To your eye, does it provide enough for the fore and background? If it does, then it should be fine. How many Watts is it?
 
Judging by the photos I think you have enough light, shouldn't be an issue.
 
rebel said:
Looks quite bright.

To your eye, does it provide enough for the fore and background? If it does, then it should be fine. How many Watts is it?
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But aren't the perceived brightness of lights and the actual light being received by the plants two different things? And does knowing the Watts of a light still matter when it's an LED?

I had a look at some PAR recordings others have done of the Planted Plus LED and although the PAR readings at the front and back of my tank is in the low/medium light range, the monte carlo seems to be growing strong, after just 4 days lots of little shoots are popping up out of the subtrate even at the very front of the tank, so for now I'm not worried. The hairgrass hasn't done anything but could be putting out roots under the substrate.

I did trim the hairgrass before planting (it was long), but when do you think I should trim it again to encourage new growth (outwards rather than upwards)?

Tank is now nice and clear, yay! If I'm going to have algae issues with a brand new tank & filter, when do they usually start happening?
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You have very little biomass right now, so it's very likely you'll have some algaes, most likely green threads come first. To avoid this you'd better add some floating plants like amazon frogbit to help eat excess of nutrients and slightly dim the light.

Also, what's your plans on livestock? It seems your filter inlet has no guard at all, which is not good thing to fish or shrimps, and even to snails.
 
The filter inlet and outlet are temporary. I have some do!aqua lily pipes but waiting on silicone tubing before using them. I won't be putting in livestock for quite a while and definitely not with the inflow pipe like that. I'm cycling the tank fishless.

I did get a bit of frogbit as suggested but they only had a handful left, just small ones. They said they'd have more in a few days so I'm going to get some more. I can't dim the lights as it doesn't have a dimmer function. But it looks more powerful than it is, it's meant to be a medium/low plant light at my tank dimensions.
 
For mc the planted + will be fine. For hc it may lack the power to grow low and dense, but cross that bridge when you have to.

Your setup is great! And the hardscape looks really cool!
 
Jack Reilly said:
I did get a bit of frogbit as suggested but they only had a handful left, just small ones. They said they'd have more in a few days so I'm going to get some more. I can't dim the lights as it doesn't have a dimmer function. But it looks more powerful than it is, it's meant to be a medium/low plant light at my tank dimensions.
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Forgbit usually grow very easily and quite fast. Several plants would be enough, it's anyway temporary for first few weeks - first month or so. UPD: sorry, it seems you've already have some frogbit, couple more would be great.

About the light: I didn't imply you need a dimmer on light unit, just said your floating plants will reduce light at some degree, which is good for start up phase.

Also, last few months I have LED light on my home tank, and despite it looks not as bright as good ol T5 which lit all the room outside the tank, LED is actually more focused and produce more light directly under the unit rather than outside the tank, so your plants would have enough light to grow. Don't be mislead by outside visible light intensity though.
 
Jack Reilly said:
Tank is now nice and clear, yay! If I'm going to have algae issues with a brand new tank & filter, when do they usually start happening?
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They usually start happening just after you think you are in the clear and start congratulating yourself on no algae :lol:. Tank looks great.
 
Love your hardscape, it has very strong angle, and that suggest me you might think about adding some diagonal (rosetta) plants at the background left part around single finger rock, e.g. some low crypts (parva maybe) or blyxa. Just a thought.
 
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