George's 30cm Cube

[George Farmer]

This is my latest bit of fun.

Photo taken just after filling with water.

It's an Orca MT30 that's roughly a 30cm cube with bowfront and curved edges - no silicon.

Volume is 25 l.

Lighting is 18w PC T5 with built-in refelctor and cooling fans. I replaced the 50:50 marine lamp with a 6500K for £3.70 from here -

http/www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tub...att-865-Philips

The filter is integral and has huge capacity. It covers the entire rear 5cm of the tank. Flow is 320lph.

No heating yet.

Substrate is ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia (Powder).

Rocks are mini-landscape rocks courtesy of Aqua Essentials.

The plan is to grow HC emersed.

Drain the water down to the substrate line. Then plant 6 pots of Tropica HC.

The HC obtains all required nutrients from the Aqua Soil. No need for CO2 or dosing.

12 hour photoperiod. No algae.

All I need to do is keep the HC moist....

 

[nry]

What are the long term plans George? No good having a massive filter if there are no plans to add enough water to let it run

Love the rock layout, works very well.

 

[George Farmer]

Well, one step at a time.

If the HC grows well, flood it. Add fish. Take photographs. Write an article. Then who knows...

 

[nry]

Any idea how the HC will take to being underwater after developing (hopefully!) well above it? I'm curious how the change to emerged growth will work with such a large plant mass. Guess that's all part of the experiments

 

[George Farmer]

That's why the, "who knows"...

 

[Dave Spencer]

My guess is that the HC will make the transition no problem.

I planted out a couple of pots of emersed Tropica HC that promptly faded away and died. The next couple of pots of emersed HC I bought, I left potted and immersed, and found that it changed to its immersed form with no die off. Then I planted it out, still with no die off.

With the emersed HC established in the Aqua Soil and not having to undergo being broken up and replanted, I reckon it shoud be OK.

Dave.

 

[jakeroberts]

the way you have positioned the rocks looks very nice

 

[Underwurlde]

Dunno about this. You're intially giving the plants access to bags of CO2 from the atmosphere? & 'if all goes well', suddenly if you like, submerse them to 3ppm ish CO2 in the water. Also, don't ariel leaves grow differently to submersed leaves - don't know if this is true for HC....

Just thoughts...

So yeah 'Who Knows', good experiment. Hopefully Dave is right!

Andy

 

[ShoC]

you made me think....
I have all the necessary equipment for setting up my Planted tank,
but just have not done so yet because of my RTBS
maybe I could go for a small tank setup,
currently got a 2ft is it alot harder with small tanks?


looks nice with the rock layout and love your article in PFK issue 9
would love to see one on setting rock formations and where to attain them

 

[Themuleous]

Interesting idea George, if you can keep the HC moist it should work well. A light breeze from the fans on the lighting unit should also help move the air around the tank as well, stop it being depleted of CO2.

Sam

 

[mlawson]

It will work. I put some HC in a mosit pot in my greenhouse. The pot is in a container with glass covering the top. The heat from the day keeps it warm and provides a lot of humidity. My guess is it might even grow quicker than when it is emersed, I think in the wild it is a bog type plant and tropica propagate it emersed so it will already be capable of growth straight away?

I might get somre pictures of my greenhouse tank. Basically it has all the plants which I just can't throw away in. Hygrophila, Bacopa and Rotala all produce aerial leaves and I have a lot of duckweed and salvinia. The HC is just sprouting new, leaves and as I have 0 maintenance I personally believe with you it will work really well.

Looking forward to this tanks progress.

Mike

 

[Gill]

This should be Interesting to watch develop.

 

[George Farmer]

I'm sure Tom Barr won't mind me posting this.

I've posted this all over lately:

I've been toying with a few ideas that are I suppose radical to most, but not really when you think about it.

This method allows you to set the tank up flawlessly in the start up phase which is arguably the hardest and toughest phase of planted tank care.

You can grow in many species of plants such as HC, or gloss or most any nay pesky foreground plant without any water other than enough to soak the sediments well for 4-8 weeks first then after it's well grown in, add water and fish. You simply cover the tank with a glass lid or plastic like a terrarium, there's plenty of water in the sediment.

By not adding the water, you can grow the plants flawlessly, no algae, no water changes every 2 to 4 days etc, no NH4, no fish uprooting things etc. The tank is also completely cycled buy the time you add the water to fill things up.

This is the Easiest method to start up a tank without dosing, water changes, any algae, completely cycled tank etc.

The first 2 months are the toughest and this avoids it all.

Just cover the tank, add light and sediment(ADA AS works great BTW and cost about the same most sediments, you can mist the plants if you use flourite black etc with a NPK and trace solution 2x a week otherwise)

You can add the taller stem plants after you fill the tank up and/or other plants that ADAPT FAST.

Pretty darn easy.

I made a nice rug of HC this way using nothing more than a 1" layer of ADA aqua soil, filled the water to about 7/8" depth, added more water about once every 1-2 weeks to keep it moist and after 4 weeks, the tank is entirely grown in.

No dosing, no water changes, no CO2 issues, no uprooting, no nothing. Easy as it gets.

Bacteria will cycle after about 3 weeks or so, about the time frame the rug grows in using the ADA AS. So the NH4 is now been converted to NO3 and has plenty of bacteria to keep it low.

Some will say they wanna add their fish right away, then can do the old way if they want to, but this method makes life much easier and a little patience can make the tank look very nice with virtually no work.

Not many trade offs here.
And the success rate ought to be near 100% without any issues with algae, growth etc.

I do not think there are any other methods that can come even remotely close to that for the general plant hobbyist.

Crypts have long been grown as well as swords, Anubias, hair grass, Gloss, Dwarf clover, Utricularia grammifolia, as matter of fact, most of the plants that Tropica carries are emergent grown.............

I'd wait to add most stem plants later as you add the water. Then a week later, add shrimps, algae eaters and another week, the main fish.

If you dose well, do the water changes etc, good tending of the CO2.......the system should start off and stay looking good from then on.

I think this method can make many folk's life far easier and less labor and far better results than the "water in the tank methods" to start a new tank up.

I've grown Crypts for many many years this way, but given the issues, taking the next step with the start phase of the tanks that submersed seems pretty reasonable.

Don't you think so?
Many want a nice rug of various foreground plants and this is dang easy way to get a massive rug pre rooted.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Underwurlde]

Bloody hell! Am I the only idiot here slapping my forehead & thinking 'why didn't I think of that'!

Clever bloke that Mr.Barr

Andy

 

[john starkey]

I'm sure Tom Barr won't mind me posting this.

I've posted this all over lately:

I've been toying with a few ideas that are I suppose radical to most, but not really when you think about it.

This method allows you to set the tank up flawlessly in the start up phase which is arguably the hardest and toughest phase of planted tank care.

You can grow in many species of plants such as HC, or gloss or most any nay pesky foreground plant without any water other than enough to soak the sediments well for 4-8 weeks first then after it's well grown in, add water and fish. You simply cover the tank with a glass lid or plastic like a terrarium, there's plenty of water in the sediment.

By not adding the water, you can grow the plants flawlessly, no algae, no water changes every 2 to 4 days etc, no NH4, no fish uprooting things etc. The tank is also completely cycled buy the time you add the water to fill things up.

This is the Easiest method to start up a tank without dosing, water changes, any algae, completely cycled tank etc.

The first 2 months are the toughest and this avoids it all.

Just cover the tank, add light and sediment(ADA AS works great BTW and cost about the same most sediments, you can mist the plants if you use flourite black etc with a NPK and trace solution 2x a week otherwise)

You can add the taller stem plants after you fill the tank up and/or other plants that ADAPT FAST.

Pretty darn easy.

I made a nice rug of HC this way using nothing more than a 1" layer of ADA aqua soil, filled the water to about 7/8" depth, added more water about once every 1-2 weeks to keep it moist and after 4 weeks, the tank is entirely grown in.

No dosing, no water changes, no CO2 issues, no uprooting, no nothing. Easy as it gets.

Bacteria will cycle after about 3 weeks or so, about the time frame the rug grows in using the ADA AS. So the NH4 is now been converted to NO3 and has plenty of bacteria to keep it low.

Some will say they wanna add their fish right away, then can do the old way if they want to, but this method makes life much easier and a little patience can make the tank look very nice with virtually no work.

Not many trade offs here.
And the success rate ought to be near 100% without any issues with algae, growth etc.

I do not think there are any other methods that can come even remotely close to that for the general plant hobbyist.

Crypts have long been grown as well as swords, Anubias, hair grass, Gloss, Dwarf clover, Utricularia grammifolia, as matter of fact, most of the plants that Tropica carries are emergent grown.............

I'd wait to add most stem plants later as you add the water. Then a week later, add shrimps, algae eaters and another week, the main fish.

If you dose well, do the water changes etc, good tending of the CO2.......the system should start off and stay looking good from then on.

I think this method can make many folk's life far easier and less labor and far better results than the "water in the tank methods" to start a new tank up.

I've grown Crypts for many many years this way, but given the issues, taking the next step with the start phase of the tanks that submersed seems pretty reasonable.

Don't you think so?
Many want a nice rug of various foreground plants and this is dang easy way to get a massive rug pre rooted.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Hi George, this sounds like it could be something for my next setup early next year, thanks for the idea see you at the show george in a couple of weeks, regards john