[falcooo]

JOURNAL UPDATE: 8/30

Equipment:
Finnex 7.5g Low-Iron Nano Cube
12" Finnex Planted+
AquaClear 20
Eco-Complete Substrate
Flourish Excel *daily*
Flourish Comprehensive *weekly*
Flourish Root Tabs

Flora:
Anubias Nana
Crypt Wendtii
Willow Hygro
Ludwigia Repens
Bacopa Caroliniana
Downoi
Salvinia Minima

Fauna:
Dwarf Pea Puffer
Cherry Red Shrimp Colony
Various Snails

Day One:

One Month:

Two Month:

Six Month:

Ten Month:

 

[Blackheart]

Have to say that's a pretty nice little tank.

 

[thebuddha]

very cool! that hygro can be a beast though! I'm interested to see how it fares in such a small tank

 

[falcooo]

Have to say that's a pretty nice little tank.

Thanks man!

very cool! that hygro can be a beast though! I'm interested to see how it fares in such a small tank

I'm hoping for that. With mostly all slow growers, I wanted a fast growing stem plant to suck up any extra nutrients and give that overgrown look. Also, once it takes off I should be able to offer some solid RAOKs with it to anyone looking for some.

 

[falcooo]

I had to do a little trimming as the plants I purchased were grown emerged. The crypts melted away to nothing but roots, and the marsilea was dieing back.

 

[AnonAnona]

Oh wow... I can barely see the filter in this tank... I love how you managed to do that!

Loving the scape... good choice of flora... well done!

Keep us updated roud:

 

[StrangeDejavu]

How's the tank doing? You said you were leaving the light as is and planned to dose Excel to balance things- any signs of algae? Will be interesting to see how it does as i'm dosing Excel now too and want to remove the screen.

 

[falcooo]

How's the tank doing? You said you were leaving the light as is and planned to dose Excel to balance things- any signs of algae? Will be interesting to see how it does as i'm dosing Excel now too and want to remove the screen.

So far, tank has only been set up one full week. I had the screen on for the first couple days, but the light has been on 8 hours a day with only the glass lid for the past 4 days with no signs of algae (knock on wood). Also I have been dosing just under 1mL excel daily. My salvinia floaters do block a good bit of light above my java ferns and anubias too.

I just added black bar endler's yesterday, which look great. And am going to see if either of the LFS on my way home from work stock RCS.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Good luck lol, Pinellas County here and I checked every pet store from Tarpon to St. Pete and the one store that did have them were culls. I had to finally order from Msjinkzd. Very happy with her shrimp, the RCS are glowing red. One of the females are berried already so hopefully i'll have some baby shrimp here soon.

 

[falcooo]

I am going to check Fins&Skins on 49th St., but I know Living Color on Park Blvd in Pinellas Park has them for sure. So if I strike out and Fins&Skins I can fall back on Living Color.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Yeah his were the culls I was talking about. Unless he has new stock, the last batch I saw were almost completely clear with barely any red coloration. Also, if you're ever after Amano's, there's a shop off 19 in Tarpon called "Fosters Exotic Pet Centers". The tank they're in is loaded with cladophora and BBA but they had loads of Amanos in stock. They have a great selection of malaysian driftwood, too.

 

[knm<><]

I have the Mr Aqua version of the 7.5 cube and I love that little tank. I'm using the finnex stingray because it's dirt cheap and all of my njf are growing and anubias are putting out new leaves, albeit very slowly, but they are coming out. I have frog bit in there too, it's growing fast! My fert regimen is excel whenever I remember and comprehensive once per week. I also use the AC20 which I have used on all of my tanks 10g and below, in my opinion there is no better HOB filter out there. I have been interested in trying the new fluval c series HOB, but have yet to convince myself that I need to replace the AC 20.

My point is that we have very similar setups and you should have great success with yours. I'm looking forward to future updates from you.

 

[falcooo]

I have the Mr Aqua version of the 7.5 cube and I love that little tank. I'm using the finnex stingray because it's dirt cheap and all of my njf are growing and anubias are putting out new leaves, albeit very slowly, but they are coming out. I have frog bit in there too, it's growing fast! My fert regimen is excel whenever I remember and comprehensive once per week. I also use the AC20 which I have used on all of my tanks 10g and below, in my opinion there is no better HOB filter out there. I have been interested in trying the new fluval c series HOB, but have yet to convince myself that I need to replace the AC 20.

My point is that we have very similar setups and you should have great success with yours. I'm looking forward to future updates from you.

Thanks, you should create a journal of your 7.5. My crypts melted down to nothing initially, but have since grown back. I plan to give it another week or so before I update with more pictures. Also, I have my LFS guy picking up some galaxy rasboras for this tank since the endlers didn't fare too long. I added a heater that increased the temperature way too quick.

 

[falcooo]

Quick Two Week Update:

Front/Side

Correct me if I am wrong, but this shrimp has to be pregnant…right?

The crypts that initially melted down to nothing are growing back nicely.

Willow Hygro has new growth shooting out at each node.

All of the plants seem to be doing well. Aside from the above, salvinia has been growing new plantlets like crazy so I am picking off and throwing away the old brown nasty looking ones. Ran into a little bit of a rough patch with the fauna, but I am trying to get the tank bank on track so that I can stock 7 or 8 Celestial Pearl Danio (aka Galaxy Rasboras). Tons of tiny hitchhiker snails (MTS & ramshorn). Next move is to grab some Seachem root tabs, and then some better liquid ferts.

 

[StrangeDejavu]

Looks like everything is coming in nicely, can't wait to see it in a month or so.

 

[falcooo]

One Month Update:
Did a little bit of rescaping. After attempting a few drastic changes, I landed almost exactly back at where I began. I just took a couple of branches out. Tied down the anubias and java ferns better, and moved a few things. But while messing with the tank, I was able to notice a few tiny baby cherry shrimp, so that was exciting at least. The crypts are growing in quite well after melting down to nothing initially. Everything else appear to be sprouting out new growth. Except the marsilea has really let me down so far, for the amount of which I started with it doesn't seem like much of it really made it. And the bit that did make it is not spreading or growing very well.

 

[gobluewolverines4]

Any more updates? I'm interested to see what the marsilea did!

 

[falcooo]

Any more updates? I'm interested to see what the marsilea did!

I will post some pictures later tonight or tomorrow when I get a chance to take some new ones. But everything is growing great, hygro, crypts, java fern, anubias. The marsilea however, is growing slowly. I am sure that is the norm for this plant, I am just anxious to have a thick carpet plant. I see new growth sprouting up and it appears very healthy. The new growth plantlets are all one noded. I was confused for the first month because I kept seeing 4 leaf noded new growth, but that has since developed into only one nodes.

 

[pheo]

The berried shrimp in your picture looks like an amano. If thats the case, you could look into this thread on how to care for the shrimplets

Info for breeding Amanos

 

[falcooo]

TWO MONTH UPDATE:

After two full months, everything seems to be growing well. I am sticking with my dosing regiment of Flourish Comp weekly and Excel daily. I also added Flourish root tabs a couple weeks ago. Weekly 50% water changes. I have been able to trim and replant a stem from the Hygro to fill out the back left corner. The Java Fern is growing very well, but seems to overpower such a small tank. I really like the look of my two anubias nana plants, but they are being hidden by the abundance of fern. Also the banana plant in the front doesn't seem to fit in the way I had hoped it would. Once the marsilea fills in, I will likely try to sell the java fern and add in some more anubias. The crypts look awesome, especially the color variations and striations in the leaves. Salvinia Minima grows like a weed (I was able to offer a RAOK earlier this week), and the roots stay especially short and compact which works great in the nano tank.

Inhabitants include two neons and I don't even know how many shrimp and snails. I started with 8 Red Cherry Shrimp, and they must be happy since I have tons of new little red baby shrimp. Their are a lot of small pond and ramshorn snails, but I feed sparingly so they haven't had the opportunity to overpopulate.