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Schuber-Wright 6g office tank

18K views 80 replies 29 participants last post by  toastedtoast 
#1 · (Edited)
Current photo, 10/12/12:


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Original 1st post
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I've been thinking that I need an office tank for a while now, and after reading CryptKeeper54's thread on his Schuber-Wright 4g setup I decided to take the plunge.

Planned equipment list:

Schuber-Wright 6g
Finnex canister
FugeRay 16" light
Atomic Nano V3 CO2 regulator on a 20oz paintball tank
GLA inline diffuser
Netlea 'Lambo' soil

Overall the tank is pretty nice, although the back right silicone seam is quite poorly done--the glass doesn't meet well at the top and the glue is quite thick. Since the tank is small and there's little water pressure I'm not going to worry about it, but I probably would have returned a larger tank with this seam. The rest of the silicone is pretty nice though, so maybe it's just a one-off bad seam.

I really like the Finnex FugeRay light, it looks pretty sleek and the overall fit and finish is pretty solid for $40. I was a bit torn between the FugeRay and RayII for a tank this small, but at around 9" between substrate and light I decided to go for the fugeray. We'll see how it does.

Empty-ish tank, I'm trying to optimize the fit of the DIY manzanita tree and larger stones. Since the tank is sitting in front of a window, being able to see through the glass onto the photocopier was a bit distracting. I've put a layer of "clear" contact paper over the back glass for a bit of a frosted effect and I think it's an improvement. It's easy to remove, so if I don't like it I can just peel it off later--much easier then adding it to a full tank.




Substrate in, along with the rest of the stones. I've been using a pyrex dish on my windowsill to grow emersed fissidens on some of these, we'll see how it does with the transition into the tank:


My LFS (Menagerie, Toronto) has started carrying these small "aquapaks" of tissue cultured plants from aqua flora in BC. They're a bit pricy at $7 but the plants are beautiful and once I separated it out there's actually a lot of plant mass here




All planted:



Since taking the last photo I caught the pothole in the front and fixed it.

Not sure how long I'm going to let this dry start, there's pretty decent coverage of HC already, so I may just let it go long enough to get a few roots down (1 week? 2?) before adding some taller plants to the back corners and flooding.

I'm thinking of putting some blyxa in the back left, and maybe more blyxa mixed with some kind of crypt and rotala around the branches on the right. If anyone has plant suggestions for a tank of this size I'd love to hear them.
 
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#7 ·
that's a beautiful tank/scape! so will this be a low light tank with no co2? im asking because i have a 55g right now and i'd like to setup a simple nano tank similar to yours.

what filter will you be using and what creatures do you plan on putting in there?
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the feedback re: blyxa Texas. I've never grown it before, so that's good to know.

I'm hoping this will end up being medium light, it's going to be high-tech with 20oz paintball CO2.

I really like this piece of wood (or pieces actually, there are a couple small branches mounted together). I agree with the comments about spookyness. The rock was called "Okho stone" when I bought it, no idea if that's a standard name or not. It was hard finding pieces of uniform colour since there seemed to be both brown and greenish types.
 
#10 ·
I really love the scape. Rarely do I like the branchy tree look with larger rocks but the scale is good, plus it's not styled like iwagumi. Though I think I would like it much better with the rocks, I wish you had one picture without any rocks, just to see how it would look. I do think the rocks are the way to go and it has a very "dynamic" look to it. I like the background too.

That's actually a decent amount of HC, IMO, for the money too.


The only thing I am thing is that blyxa may be too big. I have had it grow more compact in the right conditions (fairly high light without CO2 and high plant mass) but it can get big. I cannot think of a plant that would give the same look without being a nuisance. E. tenellus would give the right look but would take a lot of maintenance.

Have you considered star grass? It's a fast grower but really easy to trim and keep tidy. I could see a low bush on the left. You may have to trim weekly but it would just be a few snips.



I mostly just want to see where this goes. Makes me want to redo my first nano but I will wait for it to grow in first.
 
#12 ·
I wish you had one picture without any rocks, just to see how it would look
My initial plan was to do this tank without rocks, but I had a hard time finding small branches that looked plausible balancing on the substrate. I didn't want to do a "tree"-type scape, so having a branch just stuck into the soil looked a bit off to me. Hiding the base with rocks seemed like the best compromise.

The only thing I am thing is that blyxa may be too big...
I'm starting to be afraid that you're right. I have E. tenellus in another tank and while it looks good, the runners are a giant pain. I have never grown star grass, but it looks cool--I will do some research.

Another thing I was considering was Pogostemon helferi, maybe a clump in the back left and by the base of the wood. I could put a couple of crypts or some reddish stem in the far back right corner for colour contrast.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
#13 ·
Nice. Hope that light works for you. That's a perfect match for that tank. Curious to see how that "frosted/mist" back looks when fillled with water. I was thinking of doing the same.

What filter you going to use? HOB or canister?
 
#16 · (Edited)
Curious to see how that "frosted/mist" back looks when fillled with water
That makes two of us, haha. Hopefully it's OK, otherwise I think it will be easy to peel off.

What filter you going to use? HOB or canister?
I bought the finnex canister, though I'm regretting it a bit now. It doesn't come with quick-disconnects, and buying some will jack up the $35 price to the point where I might as well have bought a 2211. Out of cheapness I'll make do without them, but it will make life more inconvenient then it needs to be.

At this point I'm hoping to avoid heating the tank, since the less hardware I have on my desk the better and I'm not thrilled with the idea of an internal heater in a tank this small. My office is heated to around 23 during the day and drops to 21 on weekends, so I'm afraid it's pushing the limits for tropical species. WCMMs get a bit large, so I may end up being limited to cherry shrimp unless I go for some type of heater. Anyone have suggestions? my main thoughts for this setup have been with the plants, so I don't have much fixed idea about fish yet.
 
#17 ·
After a week of watching the HC sit there, I got impatient and filled the tank--hopefully I don't regret it :icon_roll

I ended up putting blyxa in the back corner, along with some E. tenellus and rotala that I had kicking around. I wouldn't be surprised if this turns out to be too much, but it's easy to chop excess stems later if needed.



As you can see from the drop checker I'm running the CO2 pretty high for the moment, hopefully that helps the HC adapt. I'm not sure if there's any disadvantage to running the gas this high as long as there are no creatures in the tank, please chime in if you have any thoughts.

I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of dust from the netlea soil, this photo was taken about an hour after filling. A real departure from the weeks of silt you get after filling a fluorite tank.
 
#22 ·
That's what I was thinking--thanks! I'm using EI dosing, so hopefully that's enough, especially since my lighting isn't all that high.

tetra10 said:
...did you put the foam pad in front of the biomax? if not you should.
Thanks for the suggestion, I should check how I have it set up. I think I did foam in the bottom tray and biomax in the top but I don't remember which way the water flow is going.

My regret with this hardscape is the lack of strong substrate slopes. When I look at tanks like Kiran's the contour adds a lot of interest to the layout. Good learning experience anyway, I have trouble learning things without doing them wrong first.
 
#24 ·
So this tank's been flooded for a week now, figured it was time for some new photos. Updates for this tank will generally be on weekends--my office mates think I'm crazy enough without going around taking photos of an empty aquarium.

Here's a basic overall tank shot:


The rotala is growing in nicely, especially the shorter stems that you can't see behind the blyxa. Blyxa isn't melting, but that's about all I can say for it so far. There are a couple of stem roots forming though, so hopefully it's happy.

HC is staying alive (as far as I can tell) though it's not doing much else so far. In a couple of places it's growing some hanging roots and winching stems toward the substrate, and in others it's going straight up. Hopefully with time it will adjust to being underwater and start growing more quickly. It's pearling at least (starts about an hour after lights on) so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



When I started the filter on this tank, I swapped out half of the media that came with it and filled it with cycled eheim media. I was hoping that would be enough to prevent a cycle, but apparently the rumors are true and netlea leaches ammonia in a serious way.



Apparently I forgot the colour chart at home, but I think it's safe to say the ammonia is "high" and leave it at that.

Hopefully some major water changes will help clear some of that out


One advantage of setting up a tank in a lab (or across the hall from one anyway) is a handy supply of useful glassware.

What really burns about this setup is that the room across the hall is plumbed for 30psi CO2 (along with natural gas, vacuum and compressed air). I played around with the idea of running lines over the ceiling somehow, but it seemed like I would be pushing physical plant's tolerance for my little toy.

I'm hoping that the ammonia issue sorts itself out soon so I can stock some cherry shrimp and forestall my colleague's various suggestions--At least my immediate neighbour has kept fish before and wants neons, but some of the more absurd have ranged from turtles and axolotls to a red-tailed shark.
 
#25 ·
I admit, the idea of someone sneaking in at night to siphon off a CO2 line is suitably hilarious.

Other than that, this is a beautiful tank. I'm always amazed at how lovely these tiny tanks can be. In the close-up shots, you sort of lose a sense of scale, until you step back and go "whoa. All that, in there..."
 
#28 ·
Seeing that it is the Schuber Wright , is the beveled edge facing to the front for your setup?
I put the beveled edge forward, since on my tank the silicone was better on that side. Once the tank is filled with water the bevel is essentially invisible (except the top edge I guess). When I first saw it, my reaction to the bevel could be summed up as "meh" at best, and I strongly considered putting it backward, but it's grown on me and now I'm glad I put it toward the front.
 
#30 · (Edited)
After another week, the filter seems to have the ammonia situation under control and it seemed like a good time to add some fish.

I had a small group of chili rasboras in my home tank that were kind of lost in a larger group of M. kubotai (and unhappy in the higher flow that the kubotai prefer) so I've decided to bring them to work.



They're still a bit pale from the move, but they should colour back up in time and I think they're the perfect size for this tank.

I also have some fire red shrimp that will go in here eventually, but I'm scared about what they might do to the HC before it gets fully rooted.
 
#32 ·
I love the chili rasboras in there, once they color up some more they'll be a lovely contrast!
 
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