Nry's Pfk Aquacube Journal

[R1ch13]

Nope they dont need to lol !

The Filter is already camoflaged enough !

It took me nearly 30 seconds to notice the filter man !

Its very well hidden by the stick infront of it !

*Points out how thin the stick is in comparison to the filter*

Lovely tank mate

Cant wait to see it once its grown out a bit

Thanks for sharing the pics

Richie

 

[nry]

Well, it's a long time since I posted in this journal. In short the whole twig thing has so far not worked out. I could not stop the twigs developing some form of slime/fungus, so they have gone. I have been drying some other oak twigs on the radiator for the past 4 months, they were soaked for ages and then oven baked, I have currently got them in a vase to see if they develop a similar fungus: so far so good, I really hope they will be OK as without the twigs the whole look and feel of my design is lost.

The only plant I am keeping from previous pictures is likely the anubias, it is doing really well. The c.lyrata just looks messy, it grows fast (which is OK!) but it sends out loads of aerial roots and gets all tangled up. Today I ordered some Tropica vallis americana 'Mini Twister' and some utricularia graminifolia from Aqua Essentials. This vallis doesn't get much bigger than 15-20cm according to Tropica so it should be a perfect size for the cube. The UG was recommended by George Farmer to let me create some bush-like planting though I am growing to the idea of having it cover the whole substrate...I have 15w over the tank from a 18" Interpet Daylight Plus T8 and reflector, UG will either like this or it won't!

I've also got a HOB filter which I will be setting up shortly aswell, the internal that came with the tank is putting out way too much of a current which bashes the plants around, it also takes up room.

Live stock currently consists of 5 pygmy cory and 2 amano shrimp. I did have 6 cory but one somehow jumped out between the tiny gap around the edge of the glass lid, it promptly turned into a fish crisp....poor thing! Not sure yet what other stock I will choose, I want to get the planting finally sorted before I look for any other fish...a shoal of something small and colourful would be good. I'll post some more pics once the plants have arrived.

 

[cheesy feet]

Well, it's a long time since I posted in this journal. In short the whole twig thing has so far not worked out. I could not stop the twigs developing some form of slime/fungus, so they have gone. I have been drying some other oak twigs on the radiator for the past 4 months, they were soaked for ages and then oven baked, I have currently got them in a vase to see if they develop a similar fungus: so far so good, I really hope they will be OK as without the twigs the whole look and feel of my design is lost.

lol TBH i would of gone to a shop and bought some.

The only plant I am keeping from previous pictures is likely the anubias, it is doing really well. The c.lyrata just looks messy, it grows fast (which is OK!) but it sends out loads of aerial roots and gets all tangled up. Today I ordered some Tropica vallis americana 'Mini Twister' and some utricularia graminifolia from Aqua Essentials. This vallis doesn't get much bigger than 15-20cm according to Tropica so it should be a perfect size for the cube. The UG was recommended by George Farmer to let me create some bush-like planting though I am growing to the idea of having it cover the whole substrate...I have 15w over the tank from a 18" Interpet Daylight Plus T8 and reflector, UG will either like this or it won't!

I've also got a HOB filter which I will be setting up shortly aswell, the internal that came with the tank is putting out way too much of a current which bashes the plants around, it also takes up room.

So have you got any algae ?

 

[nry]

Twigs in shops? Never seen any anywhere, nothing even close to what I wanted.

I had some algae on the HM which didn't seem to take in my tank as a floating plant. I planted some in the EcoComplete but it isn't doing too well. Beyond that I have no algae problems at all, my nerite snail and the recent addition of two amano shrimp are doing an excellent job though I didn't have any issues before they went in either. There, that's fate tempted!

 

[cheesy feet]

If you go into a reptile shops they might have the 'twiggy' effect you arelooking for.

 

[Castellop123]

Any pics...

 

[nry]

Pics will follow once the new plants arrive, it's too messy at the moment to show anything off but poor plants

 

[nry]

I won't even try to count how many individual vallis I got from my order of 2 via AquaEssentials, needless to say there were loads! I managed to leave my camera somewhere so no piccies until later. With the space available from the hob filter (old internal taken out), the twigs and the UG I am now really happy with the scape, unsure on moving one of the 3 twigs but the rest really works. Hopefully the vallis (mini twister) will take OK!

Can't be doing things all that bad, my 5 pygmy cory must be enjoying things because I spotted a baby pygmy cory last night! Aww!

 

[nry]

New picture:

I really need a tripod, and please excuse the heater in the shot, it would be better if this was removed, obviously final shots will not have equipment in!

Hopefully the vallis will start to send runners out and thicken the planting, I was truely amazed at how many individual plants I got from Tropica/AE as I got in excess of 20 plants from an order of 2 pots. Whilst I was really hoping to find a small vallis like this, I am unsure whether it may actually be a bit too short as it is rated to reach 15cm-ish in height which is a bit short of the water depth. Not too happy with the pictures at present as I don't feel they represent a proper look at the tank. Maybe time to call in free help of brothers with stupidly expensive digital SLRs!

The UG is a nice choice (cheers George!), again I hope this will take and spread nicely, it really suits the scale of the tank, though I notice one has floated up to the top of the tank in the shot!

Comments welcome as usual!

 

[Heather.]

Looks good..Plants look nice and green.. x

 

[nry]

Looks good..Plants look nice and green.. x

As much because they are new and I trimmed off all the dying leaves But I agree in the respect that my other tank has the same lighting tube (Interpet Daylight Plus) but the black gravel in the cube really does enhance the plant colours, I would love to replace the gravel in my larger tank with a dark substrate for this reason alone.

 

[Heather.]

Yeah the black gravel is nice..I just bought some y-day for my little betta tank and it makes such a difference.. It really makes your plants stand out..x

Here is a pic before the gravel..

and one with the gravel..

 

[Castellop123]

UG takes quite a while to grow into a carpet... It also takes a fairly long time to root itself...

Cheers...

 

[nry]

It's just starting to show new growth in the past day or so, I always find new plants take around 2 weeks to 'settle in', then they either grow like mad or do nothing! The vallis seems to be doing well, lots of new growth and some leaves are getting longer which is good...the shrimp keep uprooting the plants though, cheeky aquascaping monkeys that they are!

 

[nry]

More fish tomorrow Giving TriMar a try, getting fish for a nano in my area is impossible, I should hopefully have 7 rasbora maculatus which look stunning in all the pictures I can find. If it wasn't for the state of play with the galazy rasbora I'd have gone for some of those but I am not up for breeding them at the moment.

More piccies soon, I'll be trying a tripod next time!