10"x10" cube! and mini-m - 10760 Manchester

[bsmith]

i have a 4g bio orb in my office the problem is that its a sphere and viewing isnt all that great due to all the bending of light. so i did what any respectable planted aquarist would do..... looked around this site untill i found something i though would be cool! i did and i did. purchased a 8"x8" cube from a member of this site (very happy by-the-way), looked at lighting setups, and settled on a polished steel desk lamp with a 100w fluorescent twist bulb. my co2 accessories (drop checker and diffuser) are in the mail, recieved my deco art filter by red sea yesterday and have it running.

the first day i got the cube i brought some aqua soil from home i had left over from another project to work. laid the soil out and choose which rock i wanted to use, siphoned water from the 4 gal bio orb into the tank and let sit.

here is what i have so far.

full scene shot tank and light


close up, i have the moss in there for cycling purposes only at this time.


side view

[Wasserpest]

That's a nice looking cube, I like the light as well. Have you thought about the background? The texture of the wall isn't bad, but the HOB filter is quite distracting.

If I ever do a small cube, I'll use my Zoomed 501 filter, rigged with a heater, CO2 reactor, and acrylic filter tubes so all you see in the tank are two clear tubes.

[bsmith]

what kind of background could you suggest?

i cant wait to set up my co2 i have never done a nano before and it really is pretty exciting.

[Wasserpest]

Just try out a couple of things, starting with a piece of white paper, colored papers, stuff that you can temporarily attach behind the tank and get an idea of how it looks.

Once the tank is planted and grown it, you can finalize the background... or leave it like it is now.

[ruki]

This is a simple, elegant tank.

The first thing that comes it mind is trying a moss wall as described on aquamoss.net. Don't know if this would work for your design, since you would need to put something else in the center of the tank since the moss became the background.

[Yoshi]

Nice tank B

Looking forward to seeing the progress... esp. the aquascaping and plant growth. Keep us updated!

[waterfaller1]

Sweet set up, similar to what I have planned. I might just go ahead and paint my background black...

[bsmith]

ruki- that sounds cool i didnt even think about doing a moss wall. as of right now the only reason i have the moss in there is to speed up the cycling process.

yoshi- i cant wait to plant my m.minuta and maybe some small anubis nanas i have in there.

wf1- i thought about that one too just using some black vinyl. but the mos wall sounds pretty sweet too!

[bsmith]

just found my first surving rcs!!! it was in there over the weekend!!! tried one earlier last week and it died. i think the as is safe now. ill bring my test kits in tomorrow just to make sure before i put all my sritters in there.

[sandiegoryu]

Good luck! I'll be keeping an eye on this one like I did Yoshi's 8inch cube :-P. I'm a fan of those because I also have one lol.

And a 100w twist flourescent bulb? I hope you meant 10w or a 100w incandescent equivalent. Not sure how many flourescent watts that is.

Be sure to have a hardscape!

[epicfish]

~23W fluorescent equivalent = 100W incandescent. Probably one of those.

[kunerd]

Looks great so far! But i have to ask what you do. It looks like you have carpet on your walls. Is that so you dont bounce on them

[Wasserpest]

I wondered but didn't dare to ask.

[bsmith]

well the shrimp died . im just going to have to test, test, and retest then tesd somemore, before i put anything else in this tank.

sorry for the confusion about the light, its a 26w twist fluorescent, it says its the aquivalent to a 100w incandecent.

the carpet is on the walls is at my office, its part of the out of date decor' here! and so i dont hurt myself too......

[bsmith]

her is my messy office, just for reference my honma away from home!


also a quick question does my ligh look like its at a good height over the cube?