14 G BioCube Tank Reborn

3486 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Sd760, Jan 11, 2012

yetti82

Discussion Starter · #1 · Feb 16, 2011 (Edited)

I have been wanting a planted tank for a long time but I was never sure if I could convince my wife to let me spend the money. Well she agreed finally

so we revived this tank from a failed attempt at saltwater tanks.

So I read through this site till my eyes glazed over from content overflow and decided that I would try the mineralized soil with a black fluorite sand cap.

For filtration I had discarded the bio balls a couple years ago so I'm using the inards from my filtration system from the 29 gallon I have in the garage. It should work for right now while the tank settles. The LFS owner suggested I use a canister filter so I'll look into that. Any advise is welcome. I'm kinda thinking of using a stage platform made with egg crate scafolding to slide in the middle chamber.

For CO2 I'm waiting on parts to get here for the Paintball canister conversion found in this forum.

For lighting I'm using only two of the three bulbs (modded hood for extra lighting) till I see a algea explosion then I'll cut it back to one. I would like to see if I can balance the CO2 and HO T5's on there and keep the algae in check but we'll see.

My starter plants are Thin leafed java fern, micro sword, star moss, xmas moss, and a plant I just picked up from the LFS and I need to go back to see what it was called(the plant in the back right corner).

Only extra thing I have in the tank is the drift wood which I wrapped together with spider fish line and have wedged in for now till it gets good and water logged and stops floating

Some questions I have is now that I have it all together I feel that I have researched everything under the sun in regards to starting it but now I'm at a loss for maintaining it. This isn't my first fish tank by any means but it is my first planted one.
With the CO2 in place will it basically run on it's on and require just some trimming?
What kind of critters do I need to keep the plants clean?
Is there a trick to getting the drift wood to stop bleeding into my tank?

With that said here are a few shots of my tank. I did a water change of about two gallons but that didn't do much to clear it up.

Save

Reply Quote

1 - 1 of 1 Posts

Realistik84

· Registered

Joined Sep 12, 2011

287 Posts

#10 · Sep 13, 2011

Hey man - I am curious as to where this stands now? I am in the process of cleaning a 29 Gallon Biocube from Saltwater for Planted purposes, Vinegar cycling through right now.

I am curious though - I have read in some smaller tanks such as this, you dont "need" CO2...what was the reason you went on the side of having it rather than not...I am far from a DIYer, so if can avoid would choose to.

Also - what have you found with the filtration. My LFS suggested the stock pump and Filter cartridges for Biocube would work great, as did another seemingly knowledgeable poster on this forum? What did you end up using and how is it working?