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I've been checking out the Instagram account "lisaaquarium" and she's a big fan of these, esp the Waterbox ones. Was wondering if anybody here has owned one and what they found the pros and cons to be. I like the concept, but a couple cons for me might be: The inflow for the filter is at the top. I suppose it has to be with this sort of design, but in my tanks I get better results when the intake is more mid to bottom of the tank. Lidless. I would love to have a lidless tank, but with the dry, cold winters here I need the heat and water kept IN the tank and my cat OUT of the tank. I know there are lid companies that can make one, but they can be pricey, and the tank is already pricey. If you don't like the filter - too bad. Pros for me: I like the look, a complete departure from my Aqueon rimmed tanks. The filter setup wouldn't add any more height to the tank, unlike a HOB or even canister hoses. Anyways, just wondering.

Planted Nano Pea Puffer Cube For the first time ever, I have a beautiful rimless all-in-one aquarium. Over the weekend, my partner and I picked up a Tideline AIO 11.3G, which is just under 14” cubed. Our eventual goal is to house a single pea puffer (and possibly some amano shrimp as cleanup crew). As a seasoned aquarist, I know this aquarium will take a while to establish before I can add our new tiny friend. In the mean time, I will be keeping a journal about its progress. Full disclosure, I did pretty much pull this entire post directly from my blog. I use the blog to share information with friends and family and document my journey, but it makes it rather easy when I can format it there and just paste everything over here to spark conversation. Hope you enjoy! 💚ALL PLANTS ARE FROM AQUARIUM CO-OP💚 The Process Substrate Egg crate structure with *Magic Mud™️ There are two additional layers of egg crate stacked in the back to create depth without using excess substrate. It also brings the nutrient layer up a bit so it’s easier for the plants in the back to reach. As you can see, there’s about 1/2” of space from the edge of the egg crate to the glass, allowing me to keep a clean edged look on this rimless tank. In the back, I have a total of 1.5” of nutrient-rich layer. This will help feed the Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag), Ludwigia repens, and Helanthium tenellum (dwarf chain sword) without having to reach their roots through 4” of sand. Hardscape Initial substrate pour. Sand is Caribsea Super Naturals Torpedo Beach and accent gravel is Spectrastone shallow creek regular. Addition of hardscape. I am unsure what kind of wood this is, but it’s very splintery and the glue wasn’t holding very well. Instead, I chose to zip tie it temporarily to ensure it doesn’t disturb anything or shift when I filled the tank. The rocks are a grayish toned dragon stone. All hardscape and sand was acquired from Dallas North Aquarium, which is an excellent store and I do highly recommend them. Top-down view. As you can see, I chose a budget light, the Lominie Asta 20. I will write a full review once I have tested the light for a decent period of time, but so far I really like it. Planting Addition of Sagittaria subulata – contained in the back corner behind the hard scape. My hope is that the hardscape will keep it from taking over the tank. This stuff grows fast and I really don’t want to be yanking up runners every week. Cryptocoryne wendtii sp. pink flamingo in the front (I am so ridiculously excited about this plant, it’s so pretty!) and Ludwigia repens just behind. Althernanthera reineckii and Helanthium tenellum added, and some baby java ferns tucked into the holes in the rocks. We added some Anubias nana petite, some Bucephalandra sp. Green wavy, and shoved some moss (Christmas moss? Unknown sp) into the splintery bits of the driftwood. The zip tie is a bit unsightly, but I would much rather have an unsightly zip tie for a month than have my hard work ruined by a stubborn piece of wood. I squeezed an established sponge filter over the tank, filled it, and started up the filter! After about 10 hours, the water is tannic, but no longer super hazy. The filter pump is a little too aggressive for my liking, so I have one on order that’s a much slower 80gph instead of 150gph. A single pea puffer isn’t going to need that much crazy filtration, and quite honestly the poor thing would probably get blown around by the flow. I’ll reserve the pump that came with the tank for another project. Final thoughts This scape turned out pretty great, and I’m really enjoying staring at it, even without livestock. I uploaded a YouTube short of the “sparkle” that happens in this aquarium that photos just can’t accurately capture. You can find that video here if you’re curious. *Magic Mud™️ is a product of my own design that I am still working on perfecting. Its main components are organic worm castings and natural red clay. The egg crate is simply there to keep everything in place and to avoid having the soil slide down to the edges of the aquarium, giving it a nice clean look all the way around without sacrificing a nutrient-dense base layer. Want to see more? Follow me @Nirvanaquatics on Instagram and Facebook!

When I went to order some of my plants from a source I have never orderd from I saw that they had some "Dry Fertilizer" up until today I have only used liquad stuff. Well, I decided to give it a try and thought I would create a thread for it as I document how well my dry fertilizer is. Is it better then the all in one liquad stuff like easy green? Heres what the package looks like: I accidently clicked the "high tech" option instead of the "low tech" option so hopefully it will be alright. As you can see it does not say how much to dose, it only says "the following dose will add _______ to your water". I could see how one (espically a beginner) may find this confusing. After filling a old 500ml hand sanititzer bottle (it has been throughly rinsed) with condtined water I add the powder. I must say that when adding the powder I made a HUGE mess. I reccemend fillind the bottle up with water then add the powder, I overflowed the bottle lots when trying to get it all in. I then shook it until you could not see the powderd substance. It says to shake every couple hours and wait for 24hrs. I shall update this thread then. I will be taking the hand sanitizer label off and putting a homemade label on it.