[ALIFER]

Nothing like stumbling on your next project. I was at Marshalls killing some time waiting for an appointment and noticed these nice sized glass cylinders and decided I needed to bring one home, it's about two gallons. The stump was collected while out hiking with my son last fall & it's been soaking in bucket of water along with some oak leaves I use for my dart frog viv ever since. The glass cylinder & the little stump looked like they were made for each other. I have a bucket of black sand somewhere that I had planned to use, but it was no where to be seen, so I decided to try out the white sand that had been recently removed from my son's Gecko tank (after a good rinse). I did a base of peat & a handful of the pre-soaked oak leaves, then covered it with the white sand. The plants are Anubias Nana Petite & Java fern with a little bit of Christmas moss. The lighting is an MR16 fixture with a 5 watt 6000K LED lamp. I'm hoping this will end up a low maintenance/low tech pico tank, but it may be a bit too much light. I've got another 3 watt LED I might use if needed. I'm thinking a few CRS would make a good addition for livestock and maybe a couple of male Endlers. Let me know what you think ...

-Rick

 

[fishsandwitch]

looks good, maybe add some marsilea minuta for ground cover and some small stems for the back?

You'll need a filter, though for anything but a betta or a couple RCS

 

[GlassCat594]

Did you add the oak leaves in order to get some organic nutrients in the substrate?

 

[ALIFER]

looks good, maybe add some marsilea minuta for ground cover and some small stems for the back?

You'll need a filter, though for anything but a betta or a couple RCS

I like the idea of using marsilea minuta as a ground cover.

Did you add the oak leaves in order to get some organic nutrients in the substrate?

Yes, that & to kick start the biological process in the sand. The oak leaves had been soaking in a bucket of water for months and have their own little bio-eco system going and are culturing springtails for my dart frog viv.

 

[ALIFER]

Slight re-scape today

Added 1 red cherry & 1 Green Caridina Shrimp. Just wanted to try them out to see how shrimp do in this tank, hopefully one or both will do well.

-Rick

 

[Craigthor]

I really llike that litte stump. In the long run I think you will need a powerhead for some water movement though.

Craig

 

[ALIFER]

I really llike that litte stump. In the long run I think you will need a powerhead for some water movement though.

Craig

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the comments ... :biggrin: ... As soon as I saw the little stump laying on the ground I knew I had to start a project to highlight it.

I'm really considering a nano HOB filter or small canister filter, since I want to have a small number of both shrimp & fish.

-Rick

 

[ALIFER]

A little more re-scape & added frogsbit for a floating plant.
Frogsbit is also also supposed to :help: suppress algae growth.

-Rick

 

[ddtran46]

What light is that? Looks nice

 

[ALIFER]

What light is that? Looks nice

Thanks

The light fixture is a MR16 halogen fixture I pulled off an old display fountain, then I a wired on a 12 volt power supply.
And the bulb is one superbrightleds.com Seoul 5 Watt 6300K LED.
If you do a search for picture lighting some similar fixtures come up.

-Rick

 

[bigboij]

very cool i was thinking of a cylinder shaped tank just the other day, you said you got it a marshals?, was is listed as a vase of some sort?

 

[ALIFER]

very cool i was thinking of a cylinder shaped tank just the other day, you said you got it a marshals?, was is listed as a vase of some sort?

The Marshals I was in had a whole isle of different sized glass vases &/or candle holders. The one I bought was their largest size of glass cylinder and it was only $9.95. Marshals is pretty hit or miss because they buy overstock items, but you can pickup good deals when you find something you like. I think craft stores or even the craft area at a wallymart might have something similar.

-Rick

 

[ALIFER]

I made up an Aqua Lift sponge filter for the tank so I could have more shrimp & maybe a couple of fish to make the tank more interesting.

Here is a link with more info & pics.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/92486-aqua-lift-sponge-filter.html

-Rick

 

[ALIFER]

Updated pic
I have been dosing 0.5 mL of Excel daily & 0.5 mL of Flourish micro trace supplement every other day

 

[itzjustjeff]

beautiful tank!

 

[aelysa]

Very cute!
My cat would love to drink out of that.

 

[ALIFER]

beautiful tank!

Thanks Jeff

Very cute!
My cat would love to drink out of that.

Our cat used to do exactly that, but unfortunately he got out of the house a few weeks ago and we have not seen him since. I assume he became a coyote dinner ...:icon_frow... I actually saw a coyote trotting down our sidewalk at dawn one morning a few months ago.

-Rick

 

[DCMarathoner]

Very nice!

 

[GlassCat594]

did you change your filter?

 

[ALIFER]

Very nice!

Thanks DC

did you change your filter?

I still have the filter, but I felt the auto-water changer uptake & return were out of scale with the tank (and ugly too). I made new supply & return tubes out of clear rigid 5/16" tubing. I slide some silicon airline tubing inside the clear rigid 5/16" tubing to keep the tubing from collapsing, then I heated it up over my propane grill & bent it into the shapes I wanted. Then I connected the sponge filter & my Aqua Lift pump. It's working fine & much less noticeable than the old way.

-Rick