14 Gallon Cube, FINALLY!

[Odd Duck]

So I’ve had this cube for MONTHS, I’m pretty sure I got it around January this year.  I got the wood in very early February (I took a pic with it dry in the tank on Feb 3, to see if it would work and how it would look).  The wood has been soaking all this time and was still floating (floating low, but still floating).  I was getting the wood out every couple months, and no significant improvement.

I finally cut it to height since I wanted it in 2 pieces anyway and I was hoping it would sink faster if I exposed some end grain - nope, floats.  I *finally* gave up and got slate to attach for weight and to steady the pieces.

It’s planted, has a Buce accessory piece and a group of pothos (in the surviving “too brittle to drill” shower caddies - see “75 gallon redo” in my sig).  I’m not sure if the pothos will stay after it cycles.  I don’t know 100% if it’s going to be another nano tank or a Betta tank.  I’m leaning toward nanos since I’ve got grumpy Bad Pea Daddy at the left end of this row (he’s pretty boring) and the puffer shoal at the right end of this row (they are also pretty boring).  I’m considering moving the peas to the 29 gallon in the office since I just sold the last of the cories that were in that tank.  Gives me an excuse to scape that one.  I have wood that is soaking (one sinks, the other floats, but I have slate pieces now).  🤦🏻‍♀️🙄

1. First pic with the dry wood.  Feb 3.

2. Trying out different wood pieces, the substrate is ready (heavy, red clay dirt, Osmocote granules, black blasting sand cap).  April 3 - I’m clearly getting antsy to get some plants and water in the tank.  Dragging out gooey, wet wood pieces and sticking them in the sand.

Today:

3 & 4.  Determined shape of the slate I needed, split it as needed.  Then marked the slate around the base of the pieces, drilled the slate.

5.  Got the wood fastened to the slate and in the tank.

6.  Planting - clockwise from back left:  Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia, Epipremnum aureum (Pothos) above it in the shower caddy, Echinodorus barthii x schlueteri ‘Red Flame’, Crypt. ‘Pink Panther’, Bucephalandra ‘Red Dagger’.  I’ll be adding some Anubia nana ‘Petite Golden Coin’ to the bigger wood piece, possibly other Buces.  I may also add either some red root floaters or some Amazon frogbit - long term or short term, all to be determined.

7&8.  Filter moved from the tank where it’s been getting seasoned for months.  Water in the tank!  A couple different angles to show the pothos, too.  I used the sponge filter I had getting seasoned, so I’ll have to get another couple.  I like to keep at least one spare seasoned and ready.  I’m slipping!  😆 

9.  The “Low Row” isn’t finished but there is at least finally water in every tank!

Next, I need to add the little light shield (a strip of black window cling film hot glued to the light).  Then I just need to let it all “cook”.  Test every few days until I see a nitrite peak, then drop with the nitrate climbing.  Once the nitrite drops and the nitrate climbs, I’ll blind feed to make sure the tank can handle some fish, then start adding snails first.  I may have some snails pop out anyway.  I have ramshorns in both tanks where most of these plants were growing.

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by Odd Duck
Fix pic numbering.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

That's one BEAUTIFUL cube!!!

[Fish Folk]

Very nice! Looks sharp. If you ever come across a group of 12 or more Glowlight Pygmy Barbs (Horadandia atukorali) grab them, and load them into one of your cubes. They're unbelievably intense to watch scurry all over the space. I'll try to upload a short video of mine some time if I can remember to. 

[Streetwise]

I love the new cube. I love the lineup of cool tanks. I love the new journal, and I love the matching signature update!

[Odd Duck]

@xXInkedPhoenixX Thanks!  I think it came out well.  I just need the plants to grow like mad, especially the baby, fresh out the tissue cup, Pink Panthers!

@Fish Folk Thanks!

I had to look up those barbs, new to me.  I’m finding I’m very fond of the Kubotai rasboras in my 100 gallon and will be getting more for that tank.  How would you compare the barbs to Kubotai’s behaviorwise?  I’m not looking for frenetic (they’re bedside, after all), just more active than pea puffers.  I’ve found the puffers are the great Houdini’s of hiding if you only count shoaling species and don’t count any type of catfish.  Even the tiny chilis are easier to spot in my 100 gallon!

@Streetwise  Thank you!  I’m really liking how it turned out and how they’re coming together as a group.  I’ve carried some of the same, or similar plants throughout, mostly because they’re some of my favorites that still fit with the small scale/height of the group.  I think this one makes a nice centerpiece for the group and it’s been killing me to wait for the wood to sink.  I finally decided I was going to have to cut a flatter bottom to the biggest wood piece and I might as well fasten it to some slate while I was at it.

Now if I can just get assorted algaes under control.  I’ve cut way back on lights because of pea puffer tanks (messy murder beans), and also cut back some on feeding.  I also switch off the puffer tank lights at times, but they’re all on the same timer and the puffers have ready access to pest snails ad lib.

I keep telling myself - time and patience and STOP OVERFEEDING!!!  🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

Edited August 1, 2021 by Odd Duck

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OMG,  never heard Messy Murder Beans, that. is. HILARIOUS. 

[Odd Duck]

On 7/31/2021 at 10:01 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

OMG,  never heard Messy Murder Beans, that. is. HILARIOUS. 

They are sooooo bad!  I siphon out amphipods and shoot them into pea tanks just to help get remains out of snail shells (and provide some live food to “the princesses”).

[Fish Folk]

@Odd Duck here is a video showing some of my Glowlight Pygmy Barbs. Their energy may not appeal to everyone, but they sure do make this tank a lively one to watch! It’s not scaped or beautified… mainly just a breeding tank for Rams.

 Everyone has different taste. To me, they’re more active than tetras… but a bit more compact than danios.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Fish Folk

[Odd Duck]

@Fish Folk Nice!  I’ll keep an eye out, but my locals don’t usually have the less common stuff.  Unusual for them to have stuff I haven’t heard of before, for instance.  It’ll be at least 3-4 weeks before any fish go in, anyway.  I don’t try to push the timing.  I typically wait until cycled, then buy the fish and they go into QT for at least 2 weeks.  Usually put a few snails in once cycled to help build the BB’s before fish go in.  I do often get snails popping up before that from transfer with plants.

[Odd Duck]

Cycling fast!  Nitrites were already up a little yesterday, a little higher today, and nitrates are climbing rapidly!  Yippee!  I’m hoping (if I’m very lucky) nitrites are cleared by the time I get back in town Sunday.  Then I can do a bit of blind feeding and see how the tank handles it.

Right now I’m mostly just letting a bit of crypt melt happen (they almost always do 🤷🏻‍♀️) along with letting the substrate do any leaching, then see how soon it settles.

[Scott P.]

@Odd Duck I like the way you did the wood. It looks like it grew there.

Looking good.

[GameCzar]

That cube is amazing, and you really can't beat the price.   

[Patrick_G]

@Fish Folk, do you know the Latin name of the Pygmy Barbs?  

[Fish Folk]

@Odd Duck here is a video showing some of my Glowlight Pygmy Barbs. Their energy may not appeal to everyone, but they sure do make this tank a lively one to watch! It’s not scraped or beautified… mainly just a breeding tank for Rams.

 Everyone has different taste. To me, they’re more active than tetras… but a bit more compact than danios.

[Fish Folk]

On 8/4/2021 at 8:00 PM, Patrick_G said:

@Fish Folk, do you know the Latin name of the Pygmy Barbs?  

Horadandia atukorali

https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Horadandia-atukorali.html

[Odd Duck]

@Scott P. Thank you!  I’m pretty happy with it. That’s 3 pieces, 2 of which started as the same piece. I got the biggest, central piece knowing it was too tall but I wanted to do a “rotting stump” effect. So I eyeballed it and cut off about where I thought the waterline would be after I removed some of the *heel* of that boot shape and sunk it in the substrate a bit. The top is the right side piece and they are leaned against each other and fastened down.

The left front with the Buces is another piece I had that just happened to be the right color and texture to fit right in with his friends.

I’m having issues with how far the light *doesn’t* come over the tank. I might have to actually spend a bit more for a fancier light that extends farther over the tank.  I like the shadowy effect it gives but I wanted to grow some Buce or Anubias on the front side of the tall piece and I’m worried it might be too dark for them.

 

@GameCzar Thank you!  I got it “new in box” from a guy that changed his mind about it so it was only $30.00. I got another 6 G cube (my 6 G Volcano cube) at the same time for $20.00!  I got very lucky with them!

 

Still on track with cycle. Nitrites a bit lower today and nitrates climbing higher.  May, or may not, test after a nap and before my flight later this AM (still at work on overnight shift). Still hoping nitrites and nitrates will drop by the time I get back in town. I did go ahead and drop a little bit of food in this AM to keep pushing development of BB’s. 

[Odd Duck]

Adding a new pic with more plants added today, Anubias nana ‘Golden’ and A. barteri ‘Dark Angel’ on the large wood centerpiece.  Plus some Jade Lotus moss (Jungermannia truncata) on the small wood piece with the Buce. ‘Red Dagger’.  This tank also has Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) up top.  I’ve got Crypt. ‘Pink Flamingo’ coming to replace the ‘Pink Panther’ that fully melted.  I probably pushed too fast putting fresh out of the TC in a not yet cycled tank.  It’s cycled now, so hopefully it will do well.  There is also Crypt. pontederiifolia and Echinodorus barthii x E. schlueteri ‘Red Flame’ that are doing well.

I think this one is coming along pretty nicely.  If I can get some ‘Pink Flamingo’ established I think it will really complete the look.  I’m not going for full jungle on this one and I’m still open to suggestions on stocking.  Probably not a Betta unless I find one I can’t live without.  I’m still leaning towards a nice shoal of chili rasboras (Boraras bridgittae) and some dwarf shrimp (Neos).  Might go for golden yellow backs to stay in the same warm, bright, color family as the chilis.

[Odd Duck]

So the Anubias nana ‘Golden’ has pretty much all melted.  I was afraid it would since it looked bad when it came in.  The A. barteri ‘Dark Angel’ looks rough in spots but looks like it will settle and do fine.  The moss is starting to show some growth and I got the Crypt. ‘Pink Flamingo’ TC separated and planted.  We’ll see how it does.

The bottom part of the tank is starting to look pretty decent, especially if the flamingo takes.  The top half, not so much.  😞 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Odd Duck

[carefulest]

Sometimes anubias does this, the rhizomes look pretty healthy so there's hope. How's everything attached to the wood?

[Odd Duck]

On 10/4/2021 at 11:03 PM, carefulest said:

Sometimes anubias does this, the rhizomes look pretty healthy so there's hope. How's everything attached to the wood?

They’re glued.  There’s really not much left of the Golden rhizomes.  There are roots clinging but the rhizomes are pretty much all mush.  There’s little flecks of rhizome that may still be green, but mostly they’re mush.

The Dark Angel should be fine.  It’s going to lose some leaves, but those plants are solid.

I’ve got lots of Anubias and I’ve had some turn to mush and dissolve after shipping (never after I’ve had them for any length of time), but post shipping they either got overheated or cold.  These got overheated.  The stem plants and a tissue culture I got in the same shipment came in as complete mush with no chance of recovery.

I’ve already gotten replacement of some of that shipment and a refund for what they didn’t have available to replace.  I need to contact them about these Goldens since I’ve already told them the first day they looked bad and I suspected they wouldn’t survive.

[Solstice_Lacer]

Nice tank, I like the underwater tree stump look.

I find hornwort fills out the top of my tanks nicely. It grows quickly for me so it does have to kept under control somewhat. Potential downsides being it might shed, and I've heard it sucks up a lot of calcium. But my shrimp like it.

Or you could plant some val on the side/back and let it grow up and over.

Either way looking good

[Patrick_G]

Sorry about those anubias, but the Buce looks great!

[Odd Duck]

On 10/5/2021 at 10:24 AM, Solstice_Lacer said:

Nice tank, I like the underwater tree stump look.

I find hornwort fills out the top of my tanks nicely. It grows quickly for me so it does have to kept under control somewhat. Potential downsides being it might shed, and I've heard it sucks up a lot of calcium. But my shrimp like it.

Or you could plant some val on the side/back and let it grow up and over.

Either way looking good

Thank you, I looked through a lot of pieces before deciding on this one.

I have the WORST luck growing hornwort.  I just got some yesterday from my friend and it’s in a bucket right now, waiting for me to pluck up my nerve to actually add it to a tank.  It polluted the last one I tried with some.  He grows it like mad, I e never been able to grow it in over 40 years of fishkeeping.

I do like Val and have some in multiple tanks, but I think it would quickly overwhelm this small tank (it’s only 15” x 15” x 15”).  Even corkscrew Val (one of the smallest) would probably overrun this tank quickly once it settled in to growing.  The Red Flame sword should hopefully get settled in for some serious growing soon.  And I’ll get more A. nana ‘Petite Golden’.  I’m not giving up on having some in that spot, I just don’t hold out much hope for these specific plants.

I usually have very good luck with Anubias, but I’ve had a couple shipments of Golden succumb to rhizome rot now from a couple different sources, too.  These I know got severely heat stressed.  I can’t remember now about the others, it’s been too long ago.

On 10/5/2021 at 10:41 AM, Patrick_G said:

Sorry about those anubias, but the Buce looks great!

Yep.  I’m reaching out to the source today.  I’ve got cooler weather in the near future, so I’m hoping they agree to replace them since I’ve already discussed with them how heat stressed the plants appeared when I got them all.

[Odd Duck]

So I got a little side tracked with this tank because I fell in love with hummingbird tetras (Trochilocharax ornatus) and decided they were exactly what I wanted in this tank, but I haven’t been able to find them until very recently.  They are supposed to arrive tomorrow!  I took a strong look at this tank the other day and realized it wasn’t ready, yet.  The fish will go into QT, so I’ve got 4 weeks to whip the tank into shape.

I’ve had some mosses “stored” in this tank that needed to be moved and I had to move a Crypt. pontederiifolia that had shot all the way across the tank from back left to right front.  So I moved the mosses, moved the Crypt ponte back alongside its “momma”, and put in a couple dozen Crypt. lutea that I had in a grow out tank, plus a couple more wood pieces with some attached Buces.  I’ve been still waiting to see if the Anubias nana ‘Golden’ rhizomes would come back, but the tiny remnants are just sitting there.  So I’m ordering replacement plants and I’ll place them so they obscure, but don’t block any regrowth, of these rhizome remnants just in case they decide to actually grow.  I just put some of my sapphire shrimp in the tank for more clean up crew (there’s a few snails) since the tetras will be the only fish.

1. Pic of the tank about 2 weeks ago showing the errant Crypt. ponte and all the mosses.

2. Today after the clean up and revamp.  I also placed some root tabs all around since I’m getting so very impatient for those ‘Red Flame’ swords at back right to get more growth, especially more height.  You can also see some of the tiny root/rhizomes remnants left from the Anubias that melted.  There is a bit of BBA that I’ve hit with peroxide that should be gone soon.

I think this tank just needs a bit more time, a few more plants, and some fish!

 

[Jennifer V]

ORD looks beautiful! 😊