# Bf's pressy.. The Planted Cube Project



## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Hihi guys...
So this is the lil 8in X 8in X 8in my mummy had stashed for her pennies.. lol 
I've been working hard and playing around with it.. 
Not all plants in there will stay small... but eh.. I am learning 

There are two plates of ricca i picked up and its just growing in nicely now. 
Still addin stuff.. So i thought i would make a small log of the tank ^^

Ask any questions if you have em.. i'll try my best to answer.. :3
Starting off...








Few more plants.. (ricca plates out of view)








Anywho... I have more tinkering with it.. I am trying so hard to learn aquascaping.. Its definatly an art lol. 
Hope you enjoy!


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

That looks really good! I have never tried a nano tank but I have the feeling that they would be harder to do than a larger tank. Do you have any co2 on it?


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Hmm you know.. i was quite terrifde because i hear they can be hard...

I add oganic Co2 i think it is.. The excel stuff  
There is also a small little filter in there.. A lee's nano filter. It has a quite spray bar.

I am getting a bit of green algae on the glass.. But not as bad as it was before.. omg lol and that was with no plants.

Thanks Jrs


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Ciddian said:


> Hmm you know.. i was quite terrifde because i hear they can be hard...
> 
> I add oganic Co2 i think it is.. The excel stuff
> There is also a small little filter in there.. A lee's nano filter. It has a quite spray bar.
> ...


Hey- the excel is crapp and will kill your anubias. Don't use it. Also your anubias days are numbered the way you have it tied down. It needs a porous surface it can adhere to and not move around. I can show you how to do it next time I kill some of your guppies 

For now tie it to granite or wood, not that glass stuff

Be prepared for EVERYTHING in there to die save for maybe the anubias and pennywort, and riccia if you float it right under the light.

If you want a low light carpeted tank you need to look more at the easy crypts, easy anubias, and java fern.

In that tank I would've done Cryptocyrene walkeri for the foreground, an anubias in the back right and a java fern in the back left with a driftwood chunk running up the middle, that's sustainable. You'll find your plants gradually start to die off after awhile.

You could run co2 in that thing no problem. Just start off without fish and jerk around with it for awhile. Plants arent heavily affected like fish by pH swings. Go spend the 30 some odd dollars on the hagen co2 kit with the powder in the little canister and the bubble ladder. It'll keep all your plants you already have happy. A co2 test kit isn't expensive. Keep below 30-35ppm if you can.

As per pH swings, get a kH kit and a kH booster like calcium carbonate and keep your kH higher than 7, then you have no chance of a swing. It sounds complicated but its so easy its almost rediculous I promise.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Well i woulda used some driftwood.....

But... i dont have any. ^^

I tried to find something suitable today and i didnt...

The tank as a 13watt flouresent on it.. So i have heaps of light. Perhaps too much. I've been using the excel stuff for a few now and it seems fine.. 

Just startin out pablo...


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Ciddian said:


> Well i woulda used some driftwood.....
> 
> But... i dont have any. ^^
> 
> ...


Which is totally cool 

But most of those plants will still eventually run out of steam and conk out.

I really really recommend you get your hands on the hagen co2 kit and stop using the excel. (excel is toxic to some fish and most inverts btw)

13W of light is not too much. That's probably what i'd use. Is it one of those CF bulbs? Whats the color temp? Try to get as close to 6000-6700K as you can

Good luck


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Hmmm you know.. I am not sure of the colour temp..
I picked the small strip from home depot i think it was. Its a PC... but i am not 100% sure of the plug style as i haven't taken it out yet.

It did say somthing about 60hrz.. does that matter?

I will try to go pick up one of those hagen thingers soon.. Wont the ladder be to large?.. Should i get a glass diffusor from Harold?

Oohh pablo.. I did grab a blue stone from Bigals cause i couldnt find a bit of wood that would fit in the tank.. LOL i even dug to the bottom! 
I think thats granite.. is blue and white.. and somewhat crystally.. not not like the glass rock. It has tooth to it.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Ciddian said:


> Hmmm you know.. I am not sure of the colour temp..
> I picked the small strip from home depot i think it was. Its a PC... but i am not 100% sure of the plug style as i haven't taken it out yet.
> 
> It did say somthing about 60hrz.. does that matter?
> ...


Jesus christ man... talk about having your stuff backwards 

60Hz is the frequency electricity works at out of your wall. Color temperature is expressed in Kelvin (k)

Granite is red or grey or whitish with darker spots and is made of quartz silica mica feldspar and impurities. What you have is made out of silica with artificial colors and is man made.








you have man made obsidian like rock



















Granite (there is also a grey granite, and various granodiorites, gneisses, and other igneous and metamorphised versions of granitic rocks. None are blue )


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Dont you remember i said i was a begginer pablo?

Thanks buddy..


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

For a nano tank, which is what you have 8*8*8 = 512/231 = 2.2G. Excell will do fine. Just becareful not to overdose.
13 watts is good. K (temperature) is second to wattage. So even if you have a 2700K, that wattage will more that make up for it. But if you're interested, Home depot do have a 6500K bulb. If it's from Philips, it's the one with a blue background, on the back in the center bottom you'll see a fine print that says 6500K. I didn't even know Home depot have it, but my wife manage to find it. I ask her to go find me a 6500K 13 watt bulb thinking that it'll send her on a wild goose chase that will last her 1/2 hour so I can shop in peace. But 5 mins later, she came back with a pack of 6 of them!
Anyway, do a daily %50 water change to get rid of your green water. Eventaully, your tank will settle down.
That anubias nana is too big for a nano tank. Try anubias nana pettite. It's leaves size it 1/4 - 1/3 rd of the anubias nana.
As for the ricca, if you want to keep it submerge. Be prepare to have it trimed at least once a week. It's a high maintenance plant.
Another favourite choice of fore ground plant for nano tanks would be cuba (Hemianthus callitrichoides).
If you want to keep some kind of crypt in your tank, Cryptocoryne willisii is a good suggestion. It'll stay relatively small in the background.
I see you have the dwarf sword, watch that one, it will try to take over the tank.

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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Ty for the tips Zebra.. 

Ohhh a normal anubias question... Is it okay.. just to plant it? lol. Does it have to be on somthing to be okay?

I'll take some names and head to harolds soon... see what he can give me.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

More pictures!!
I need to learn how to keep my damn hands out of there. I am still not happy with it, need to find different plants that will do better..

I need to locate/ or make a Co2 diffusor but i just don't have the spare cash atm. I need to leave it be for a while because i was stressing the plants out lol...

I just love it thou... I like having fun with this little cube 
Hope you enjoy!

















Ooh Pablo, the wonderful driftwood you gave me was so great.. But just still a bit too big for the tank... What do you think of that bit? I was trying to do something of what you suggested before.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Ciddian said:


> Ty for the tips Zebra..
> 
> Ohhh a normal anubias question... Is it okay.. just to plant it? lol. Does it have to be on somthing to be okay?
> 
> I'll take some names and head to harolds soon... see what he can give me.


I tried to plant the anubias on the substrate but I can never get it to root propertly. It seems like the anubias doesn't like it and always work itself out of the gravel and if I burry it too deep, it begins to rot and once that happens it's very difficult to keep the rot from spreading. What I do is cut the all the roots to 1" and tie it down to a small rock and burry the rock into the substrate. I think I got that advice from reading one of Amanos notes. It seems to work very well and so much more easier and proffesional looking.
BTW, I like your layout, it looks very good. I don't approve of the algae ball, but that is just my personal taste.
The anubias petite I was talking about is about $7 - $8 at Managerie, I don't know if they have it anymore. It'll be perfect for this type of tank.
Your ricca is growing nicely, if you ever decided to change it to HC(cuba) and can't find any, let me know. I don't want to sell mine, but I can always part some.
Also, you can get by with Seachem Excel. If you check on the specs for nano tanks in any planted tank competition. You'll notice that most don't use CO2 in nano tanks. Most use Excel instead.

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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

Wow, looking sweet Cid!

I just went to the menagerie last week and they had quite a lot of anubias for sale. About 4-5 different types. I picked up the standard nana's and one coffefolia. They did have some nana petites in stock but they might have been from an older shipment.

I haven't had to much bad luck growing anubias in the gravel. I just make sure some of the rhinzome is sticking out. If you bury the whole thing with just leaves poking out, yeah it'll probably die. Here at home I have a coffefolia growing out of a rock and it's do amazing.

In my nano tank I am using excel exclusively with flourish for other ferts. Its doing OK, but not amazing. CO2 would definitely be better, but it might just be my dosage of excel that is off because I have seen some amazing nanos without Co2 (take ranma for example). 

Also, if anyone sees HC for sale, post it here because I would love some for my nano!


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Oohhh awesome thanks for the help guys.. 

I dont mind using Excel.. But i was a lil iffy on the doseing. I am reading up a lot on Co2... interesting reads. 

I will definatly take your advice Zebra, the next time i get into the tank i will attach it to a rock. There is also another bit tied onto the drift.. But its in the back.

I would love to get my hands on some shrimp soon.. and throw a bigger filter on it. 
I'll have to visit harold soon....  Ty Holo 

I would love to try cuba sometime... :3


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2006)

Give your ricca a chance to see what it looks like. Besides, the reason I am not selling my HC is because I have snails. Those annoying little 1 mm ramhorns. I spent the last 2 months trying to get rid of them and it doesn't seem like I am winning.

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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Is the current setup the one with the slope and its higher gravel on the left with the wood? Its very eye pleasing. I say dont touch it except to stick that anubias to something proper but dont move it...

I say screw whatever that is at the bottom and pennywort it all the way across with two (big, small) about 2" and 1.5" grey rounded pebbled up front to the right


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