Nry's Pfk Aquacube Journal

[nry]

It isn't an open top tank, there is a glass cover that sits on the grey/silver frame edges.

Eco-complete on Monday night, plants are ordered, will hopefully arrive next week aswell!

 

[nry]

We honestly have no other location suited to the tank, if nothing else, the only reason I don't want it in the kitchen is because it won't be seen much!

 

[nry]

Okies, Eco-complete arrived today, so an update on piccies of initial scaping:

I think I may bank-up the back right a bit more, plus one twig seems too central, I may move this left or right depending on how the plants change things. The current picture is full of bubbles, and I don't think it conveys the actual feel of the tank too well, overall I am really happy with how it is shaping up!

I really like the EC colouring, it isn't uniform which I was expecting, it looks much more natural which is nice.

 

[RadaR]

I can see what you mean about the twig being to central and agree with you.
It looks great though. The rocks look superb aspecially with the Eco.



PS. I hate it when a new tank is filled up with water and all those bubbles appear lol

 

[nry]

I scraped some bubbles off the front, the rest were too difficult to reach without disturbing the twigs.

Depending on the planting, I may ever remove the central twig altogether....we'll see!

Being picky now, I also notice that I haven't managed to keep the strata in the rocks aligned too well either

 

[mikster]

Looks very good, yeah the central twig seems a bit too straight and it does draw the eye a bit too much, apart from that it looks really good and i cant wait to see the finished product.

 

[Themuleous]

Looks like it'll be a quality space, the rocks seem to be emerging from the ground, an excellent effect and often difficult to achieve I see what you mean about the central twig, but I don't think its too bad as the other twigs balance it out, perhaps have a thinner one there?

What are your thoughts on planting? And yeah a more dramatic slope would probably help with a sense of depth.

Sam

 

[wei0204]

Nice setting... hope to see more updates soon.

 

[Kyrielle]

It distinctly reminds me of a forest clearing. =) I can see how you could use small plants as undergrowth with moss growing on the trees or some type of plant that would attach itself to the branches and grow out in leafy bunches. But I have no idea for your real plans and I think listening to too much celtic-sounding music is making me feel very "foresty" at the moment.

Looks great anyways. I secretly envy all you guys with your journals and wonderful aquascapes.

 

[Sibelius]

It distinctly reminds me of a forest clearing. =) I can see how you could use small plants as undergrowth with moss growing on the trees or some type of plant that would attach itself to the branches and grow out in leafy bunches. But I have no idea for your real plans and I think listening to too much celtic-sounding music is making me feel very "foresty" at the moment.

Looks great anyways. I secretly envy all you guys with your journals and wonderful aquascapes.

Nope, I agree completely, you're not completely off your rails! I immidiately thought of a wintry forest when I saw it. I really like the contrasts of the black with browns.

 

[nry]

Twiiiigs!!!! I like, I like

Are you doing a floating plant/canopy for this one? Or will the twigs be bare?

EDIT: I just re-read the whole thread. Looks like you're going with HM canopy as well. Good choice!

Yeah, wonder who I got that idea from?

 

[nry]

Still waiting for some of the plants to arrive, must have ordered some popular ones!

The twigs are currently 'growing' a fluffy white beard, and the bits above the waterline are I think growing teeny mushrooms. Really manky, though I kind of expected something like that! When the last plants arrive I am going to scrub the twigs and cut them to below the waterline. For now I will let them soak and see how they go, the last plants aren't likely to be dispatched until 8th Jan onwards.

 

[nry]

Well, the last plants finally arrived yesterday. They got a bit bashed in the post (surely a jiffy bag isn't the nest for delicate plants!?) so I salvaged the best of them: they are really short at the moment, maybe 4-5" each bunch, it all looks a bit sparse for now. They should grow OK I hope, the bits I kept all have new shoots at the top of the stems before planting so fingers crossed! The HM also seems to have got a bit 'hairy' with algae so I gave this a good sort through: I have been running the lighting a bit too much recently as the electronic timer I bought was impossible for me to work out so it was a manual on/off. Got a new mechanical timer now so lights are currently on a 7-hour period (rather than the stupid 7am until 7pm setup I had before!)

Added more eco-complete to ramp the back of the gravel height up, and gave the twigs a good clean. Added a heater now aswell, and also replaced the original light with an 18" T8 Interpet Daylight Plus (which was lying around a cupboard with a starter unit) and a proper reflector. This is suspended about 2" above the tank and lights things much better than the original light unit.

I'll add some more pictures soon, next step is to take some cuttings from the pelia moss in my 15g tank and use it to create some 'bushes' in the PFK cube. I have a nerite snail to go in soon too.

For anyone reading this, would pygmy corydoras be OK with eco-complete? I think they may not be as it is a bit rough.....

 

[mlawson]

It's great to see, yet another PFK AquaCube being setup.
It looks great so far. can't wait to see how it ends up.

 

[nry]

Piccy (not the best I've taken!):

The aim is that the plants will all grow to hide the filter and heater.