ADA 30-C Cube Garden

[cintamas]

My first attempt at aquascaping a cube.

Here are my cube's specs:
ADA 30c Cube Garden
Lighting - 27w 65k desk lamp 27W Archea Lamp
Substrate - ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia II (powder type)
Filtration - Eheim Ecco 2232
Hardscape - Southeast Asian Driftwood, Quarry Stone
Co2 - Pressurized
Plants - bolbitis heudelotii, elatine triandra, blyxa japonica, rotala sp. mini, anubias nana 'petite'

Just finished planting. I'll try to post updated pictures when i have free time.

[timme278]

i love the wood


planted pics please lol

[ClPat]

Amazing driftwood!! Should look great once covered up with bolbitis. Also consider needle leaf Java fern and some moss, that would be really cool!

[Ugly Genius]

cint, I love it! The driftwood you picked is awesome. The thickness of the wood give the hardscape a look of permanence.

One thing to consider is that with driftwood hardscapes, substrate slope is not as necessary as it is with rock hardscapes; perfectly flat is perfectly acceptable. This is particularly true in the case of cube tanks. I didn't slope my substrate in my cube and the effect is particularly nice in that no one side looks like a "side".
Just something to consider.

[cintamas]

Funny you bring up that point UG, I have this cue positioned so that I can view it from the right side while lying in bed. I should have gone without a slope so that I could do more scaping especially for the side view. Oh well....I'm excited about this tank because it fulfills my long-time wishes of owning a cubed aquarium and using bolbitis in a scape!

Here are some pictures after planting. Taken earlier today (5-3-2009).

[Jack Gilvey]

Beautiful! That piece of wood is worth buying a 30-c for.

[Francis Xavier]

that driftwood has a lot of character behind it, i'm interested in seeing how this will evolve.

[cintamas]

The wood is actually 3 pcs. and are litterally tangled together now. Originally, I had bought 5 peices and had planned to use them all. The ones I used were too good together that the other 2 just seemed out of place. I really don't want to attach anything else to the wood as every inch of it adds shape and feel to the layout. I may just move forward with planting around and between instead.

[Phoenix-cry]

I love it!

[kcirtappatrick]

This cube looks great! The driftwood gives it a nice mysterious look. Do you think you're going to add anymore plants in there?

[cintamas]

Still searching for my foreground plant. Other than that, I think the scape is stocked where I want it to be.

[Ugly Genius]

I think you're off to a great start. I think the hardscape and plant choices so far are bullet-proof. Keep refining as you go along and this'll tank will be a contender.
Right here and now, a dark-leafed carpet seems most appropriate. Microsword, perhaps. A slow grower such as MS will also serve you well in that trimming won't have to be all that frequent; with a driftwood hardscape like you have, this is an even better thing than it is usually.
Or a Marsilea Sp.. MC, while a bit less fancy-shmancy than all the other carpet plants, would totally vibe with the mood of this tank. Grown under ideal conditions -- which your tank appears to have -- it makes a stunning carpet. Also grows very slow. It's a fern to boot, which makes it even radder.

[CL]

Wow that wood is incredible! You have some great plants too

[cintamas]

Is it just me, or does the 'ripple-effect' of the substrate seem annoying? I've tried many times to flatten, but the water changes and the eheim keep screwing it up for me!! When the foreground plant has been chosen, it shouldn't be as big an issue.

I've been spending each afternoon siphoning off the 'wood mucous' and refilling water, yet more mucous and more brown tint appears. I'm tempted to indulge in some purigen very soon....don't anybody try and stop me!

I'll be adding some photo updates shortly....TTFN!

[FrostyNYC]

I'd like to see a full tank shot showing the wood sticking up out of the water. I think adding some plants (anubius for example) growing out of the water and up the wood would be very interesting. I'm not sure what would survive like that.

Overall, I dig it.