Two Cubes low energy!

[ianmianmianm]

Hi all, joining the forum today as I currently have 2 small planted tanks (lo-tech) and a third in planning and progress.

Tank 1 - 35cm cube, planted with spiderwood, lots of moss, some stems and floaters. It's shockingly well balanced and home to Ember Tetras, Endler males, some Amanos and Nerites.
Pothos growing hydroponically out of the top, filtered on an internal Fluval. Nasties always at zero, pH 7. On gravel with bagged aquasoil under the stems.

Tank2 - 25cm cube, effective litres after displacement is 11, planted with Glosso, Hemianthus, Moss balls, Ludwigia, Anubias and something random I can't remember the name of
Lidded, with a cheap Ebay HOB that has had ceramic media attached. Hardscape is mainly Driftwood with cobblesand it sits on aquasoil. pH sits from 6.5-7. I'll monitor the parameters for a bit before adding some cherry shrimp.

Tank 3 - 30cm cube. It'll be bagged aquasoil capped with sand, rock and 1 piece of spiderwood with some stems. Probably going to be a Betta living in there.

I prefer the natural and controlled jungle look so only do trimming when it's needed to free up space or allow light to the base plants.

I'm tank keeping again after a gap of about 8 years while moving around a lot, have previously had a couple of reefs and a few bigger biotopes.

Pics to follow when

 

[hypnogogia]

Hello , welcome to UKAPS.

 

[tacy k]

Welcome!

 

[bazz]

Welcome,

Pics to follow

look forward!

 

[valevelo]

Welcome from a fellow newb! Looking forward to seeing some pics of your tanks

 

[sparkyweasel]

Welcome! 🙂

 

[ianmianmianm]

These are my 3 at the moment. A bit different from the original post.....

L: 30/30/30 litre low iron - strong light but short photoperiod - mostly fast growing plants - the Hydrocotyle will be coming out of there into a planted vase project. I think that will also give a better rule-of-thirds balance too.
This just has 6 endler males in of varying types from wild to scarlet to snakeskin, with a nerite. It's red lava rock which is not something I've tried before, if I did it again I'd go for the grey instead. The original centrepiece rock kept semi-floating and repositioning itself but because the stuff is so light and thus cheap, it was easier for me to just buy a new piece. There's aquasoil under all that gravel capping and so far so good.
This will look a lot more grown in soon when the Limno and Rotala grow a bit. I've never had Endlers before and they are truly stunning under good light.

Centre: 15 litre cube with about 2 litres displaced and a litre gained back from the HOB at the back. Temporarily home to a young female Betta and a couple of Amanos while I sort out another tank. Plants are Ludwigia, Java fern, moss balls, various resurrected Hemianthus and Glosso and frogbit which were at deaths door in the shop, and substrate is aquasoil, cobbles and a gravel scattering. I'm not too sure what to do with this one long term - either just swap the contents into another 30cm low iron cube (as I have never had one before and I am smitten) or turn this into a cherry shrimp tank as it currently is. Mrs Betta is also a lot happier in this one than she was in the LH tank when I tried her in there before the endlers went in (and with lower light) so, bearing in mind the parameters are all fantastic in this one, I might let her grow a bit in this as it is before deciding what to do for her.

R: 35/35/35 planted. It was 15 quid tank only as a second hand bargain. It's basically spider wood, moss, more moss, an anubias, and lots of surface cover from salvinia, mini lettuce etc. There are currently 9 embers, 4 dwarf raspboras and Amanos in there. The Embers are probably going to move home soon and I may just add a lot more chilli and pygmy rasboras into this one.

Just to add - I do minimal pruning and trimming - I like the naturalistic look and lots of hidden areas.

Credits for stock, service and good advice: Aquarium Gardens, Aquatic Design Centre.

 

[Cazza]

Hi!

 

[FrozenShivers]

Welcome, nice looking cubes you have there 🙂

 

[ianmianmianm]

Welcome, nice looking cubes you have there 🙂

As Picard said to the Borg Queen.

 

[ianmianmianm]

Okay you guys are going to think I am nuts.

As you can tell, one of the three cubes is a used Opti-white tank (the 30cm cube). I'd never had a low-iron tank before and to be honest I love it.

The glass colouration on the other two cubes was getting to me; I also felt the Embers were not at all happy in their 35cm swimming space nor was Mrs Betta happy in her 15 litres.

So a good hard think of what was sensible to do (including potentially rehoming the Embers) and then I spotted...... a used Superfish Scaper 90 Optiwhite, with scaper LED light, internal filter, heater, and all sorts for sale. I made an offer for £45 which was accepted. It was missing the HOB but to be honest I've got one going spare anyway. So I went and picked it up..... petrol was a tenner. It came with a bucket of pea gravel (bucket included), magnetic scraper, foam base and of course random unconnected suction cups that everyone has. I don't generally get deals like this in life....

I set to work into the evening and, erm, night to amalgamate the big cube and little cube contents into this single 90 litre tank. That leaves me with everything now in the 90, except for Mrs Betta and a Nerite snail who've moved into the Opti 30 cube.

The 90 setup was.....

• Fluval aquasoil and some light gravel from the two old cubes was mesh bagged as the base (MD tanks method)., with some loose aquasoil in some gaps to create some planting pockets.
• The whole thing capped with the pea gravel - not my first plan but it was free and easy to place - and then some light sand at the front.
• Wooden hardscape elements placed from both cubes (already soaked so they all sank)
• Various large and small cobbles and pebbles from both - not the best colour mix and I might take out the white ones.
• Media from both cubes was amalgamated into the new internal filter and also added into a Marina S15 HOB as well. I'll replace the internal with a second S15 HOB next week and might have a look at planting both.
• Fauna wise - managed to find and move everyone barring one Rasbora who had already been missing. All the Amano shrimp were found even though I'd rarely see them.
• Mrs Betta is now in the Optiwhite cube (it looks a lot brighter than it really is, don't worry)
• And I only needed to keep the occupants out of the tank for 3 hours while I played tank-tetris.

Am I happier - yes loads. Mrs Betta has a bit more space and seems to enjoy the cube a bit more than when she was briefly in there before. Importantly the Embers are a lot happier with their 60cm swim space, including having coloured up a lot better. I'm a fan of junglistic and slightly chaotic tanks rather than aquascapes. I'm hoping the Myriophillum and Ludwigia will grow in better in the gap areas but if not then I've got Limno and Rotala doing well in the Betta cube that I can steal, and have some Hydrocotyle, Vallis and more Myrio also growing in the planted vases where my Assasin snails are currently on shore leave (can be seen on the right). My only regret is not going for a dark substrate in this new tank but the occupants don't seem bothered (there's lots of surface plant cover).

I'll probably pop the other two 40L and 15L cubes up for sale, befoer I end up using them.....

 

[megwattscreative]

Nice looking new tank!! Good to see you've reused old filter media etc to keep beneficial bacteria 🙂 miss Betta and the tetras might like some leaf litter if you fancy adding tannins! It'll also help darken up the substrate, and goes with the junglistic vibe 🙂

 

[ianmianmianm]

Nice looking new tank!! Good to see you've reused old filter media etc to keep beneficial bacteria 🙂 miss Betta and the tetras might like some leaf litter if you fancy adding tannins! It'll also help darken up the substrate, and goes with the junglistic vibe 🙂

Hi - thank you. Yes I think I might do that though am going to spend a few days enjoying the pristine substrate first (as I've only ever had aquasoil before) then will have a think - everyone's out and about a lot and all the tetras and Rasbos are now coloured up so I'm less worried. Mrs B is enjoying herself in the Frogbit as well. I'm adding more plants too and bigger leafed stuff so that is getting them more and more secure. Here it s today.....

 

[ianmianmianm]

A couple of my tanks past, and a bit of a story behind one of them....

The greener one was a basic 3 ft "pet shop" type tank, set up when I lived in Portugal about 10 years ago, very much in T5 days!. We had a rather novel situation where the national coach network, the equivalent of National Express, would still carry unaccompanied parcels. I lived about 100 miles north of Lisbon but having made friends with the high end aquatic shop near the Lisbon coach station, they would allow me to call and order livestock and supplies, and they would put the parcel onto the 6pm coach on their way home, and I could collect it 2 hours later from the bus station near me.... and any fish would be in the tank within 3 hours of leaving the shop. We had no aquatic shops within about 80 miles but I managed to run a few tanks (including a reef) this way....

That amazing piece of wood was about 20 euros. We were well served in that regard but plants could be a challenge. I used to have to travel to London 4 times a year for work so would stop off at Living Waters on the 2 trips I did by road, and stock up to bring them back on the ferry via Spain. Or it would be the Aquatic Design Centre (Great Portland Street era), fill up the hand luggage with a gew plants and then onto the tube to Heathrow. And here I am still using ADC's plants but only about 30 miles away from home this time round.

Tank 2 was a Hugo 4ft tank... I never got the balance or design right on this, and it got shut down short of growing in, 4 years back when I was offered a job away from the UK again. The hardscape I kept.... and kept.... through various storage units, boxes in sheds, as I just couldn't bear to part with it all. It's now finally in the Scaper 90 I just set up.

 

[ianmianmianm]

I really didn't like what I'd done with the 30 litre cube. I am sure that red lava rock can work really well in some scenarios but it wasn't working for me here! Also from an ethology viewpoint this wasn't going to be a winner for the female Betta. (she also shares with 2 male endlers which are in there as they are jumpers and the other tank is lidless). This is a lot darker in relaity that the phone always shoots it at.

So a rescape with some black lava and wood I already had. Thank heavens lava rock is so light=cheap and I probably only wasted 6 quid. And thank more heavens that a 30 litre can be emptied and rescaped in under an hour.

Some leaf litter is soaking at the moment and this will hopefully be even better when the Limno and Rotala has grown in.

 

[ianmianmianm]

Back to this again.

MTS has well and truly kicked in. The irony being this thread started with 2 small cubes 3 months ago....

My Superfish Scaper 90 has grown in nicely, and looks good thanks to the sterling efforts of my CUC, the Amanos are tireless and the often overlooked Nerites would have The Shard fully clean before teatime if they could.

I treated myself to 45 litres of Blackwater in a Scaper 45, the first time I have done a proper set up with botanicals and tan water.

All that's in there at the moment is a baby Java Fern, a lot of mini water lettuce and frogbit, and 7 Cardinals at a pH of about 6. I agree this is totally the best way to keep Cardies - they have never decoloured and are confident, exploring the tank and drifting in and out of their group and have been from day one. I didn't want a plainblack background as I already run my other tank with this, and frosted/white defeats the object, so I've used a technique I did years back which is to add cork background sheets but on the outside of the tank -- it totally looks like they're on the inside when viewed from the front. I'll add some corys next....


Very lucky to have Crowder Botanicals near me so I was able to picnmix botanicals as needed without it costing £££s in big packs.

EDIT TO ADD - IT'S NOWHERE NEAR AS RED AS THAT PHOTO SUGGESTS!