The Medieval 12G Aquatop Bookshelf Tank build for a Betta Rescue and Guppies!

[Patrick_G]

Wow it looks great! I see it’s watched over by plush Cthulhu! 😄

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Patrick_G Hahaha! Actually it's a plush Octopus handmade from a Russian artist but I'll take Cthulhu any time!

[Patrick_G]

On 1/2/2023 at 3:50 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Patrick_G Hahaha! Actually it's a plush Octopus handmade from a Russian artist but I'll take Cthulhu any time!

Oops! I’m guilty of assuming Cthulhu based on the surrounding decor. 😆 

[Odd Duck]

I can’t wait to see a tiny double side broad axe in the tank!  😃  Your big rocks are perfect with your arch!  They are so similar in color and texture that it makes it look like a rock outcrop and your arch was rocks hewn from the outcrop.

Maybe something that is less obviously a screen?  Check into Echinodorus vesuvius - Vesuvius sword.  It stays just the right height for the tank and is a very interesting texture with very fine, tightly twisted flat leaves that look more like a tiny Vallisneria than a sword plant.  I have some in the picture just I posted earlier in this thread that shows the whole tank and how much light refracts forward from the twinwall.  That pic was shortly after I put the Vesuvius in the tank and it was still adapting after being moved.

I eventually found it too difficult to work in the tiny tank without taking the clamp on light off the tank every time.  Plus if I forgot to do the work before refilling the tank after water changes, I would overflow it just by sticking my hand in when the water level is where I like to keep it.  I need super low maintenance in this tiny tank.  That would be less of an issue in your 6 x larger tank than this tiny 2 G cube.  😉 

The best aspect, and the downside of it, is that it runners.  Not nearly as vigorously as Val does (when Val likes where it’s at) but it may be more maintenance than you prefer in the long run.  I was able to keep it in check in my 2 gallon tank with trimming every couple weeks, but if I didn’t tend it often enough, it did run a bit wild on me.  I finally decided against it because it just didn’t give me the feel I wanted in the tank, but it might be exactly what you’re looking for in that spot.  The leaves are much finer than all Java ferns except needle leaf and it’s right on the borderline with that.  It’s MUCH less dense looking than Windelov, so would be less obviously a screen while still adding a little touch of “mystery” to your courtyard.

Maybe start it in your right front corner and let it runner toward the arch and see how you feel about it as the tank develops?  It really is a great little plant and should runner just enough in that spot without being too much.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Patrick_G to be fair there is also a Pegasus 

Fantasy is my favorite genre so it includes all of the pictured things 🙃

 

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 1/2/2023 at 3:55 PM, Odd Duck said:

Echinodorus vesuvius - Vesuvius sword.  It

My question to you about that is this- Would a plant like that be a good idea based on the tank's limitations: on that side of the tank there is not a lot of substrate, it is Eco Complete on the backside of the wall and I have my rock floor there. The original plan, besides the plants that were dry started, any additional plant would be a rhizone (Anubias, Java in particular) partly BECAUSE in this tank I can't go too deep with the substrate in such a short tank. The other issue is if a runner plant goes a direction I'd rather it not (keep in mind I don't have a lot of experience with runners) how detrimental is the maintenance to my rock floor or even if it goes under and disrupts the Monte Carlo (as it's in Fluval Stratum and we all know plants are smart enough to grow towards a nutrient source). 

[Minanora]

Those shelves are really cool. I've never seen anything like those.

The tank looks great! I love the rocks and it's sized so well. It really could be 2 inches taller though. It looks way long. But it's really lovely. I look forward to seeing the fish in there! That'll make it incredible.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Minanora are you talking about the shelves above the tank? Yes they are called floating book shelves. The outside cover of the bottom book gets slid onto a couple of small tabs so the books look like they are literally just floating on the wall. Have had them for years. Frankly, I need more. 

[Minanora]

Yup. That's super neat. Clever idea! I wonder how many WoT books it can hold at one time without being too heavy 🤣 

[Odd Duck]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:32 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

My question to you about that is this- Would a plant like that be a good idea based on the tank's limitations: on that side of the tank there is not a lot of substrate, it is Eco Complete on the backside of the wall and I have my rock floor there. The original plan, besides the plants that were dry started, any additional plant would be a rhizone (Anubias, Java in particular) partly BECAUSE in this tank I can't go too deep with the substrate in such a short tank. The other issue is if a runner plant goes a direction I'd rather it not (keep in mind I don't have a lot of experience with runners) how detrimental is the maintenance to my rock floor or even if it goes under and disrupts the Monte Carlo (as it's in Fluval Stratum and we all know plants are smart enough to grow towards a nutrient source). 

If you check weekly to every other week for runners going the wrong way, you should be fine.  Their runners tend to lift up out of the substrate so all you have to do is grab the runner with tweezers and turn it back on itself.  The runners are fairly flexible so easy to either turn them around and make the stand denser, or just snip them off and discard or plant where you do want them.

I know I must have at least one pic of the tank when it was getting a little overrun after a few weeks of neglect - only top-offs.  Let me see what I can find.  Only found this one.  Shockingly, I don’t tend to take many pics when tanks are at their worst.  😝  This pic does show how the plant sends runners up into the water like other swords instead of through the substrate like Vals and crypts.

I definitely think this is not a very hard plant to control compared to most other plants that runner.  Nothing as vigorous as Vals.  Something more like crypt speed but a little bit faster than most crypts.  I get just enough growth in a pot in a 10 gallon that I can sell 2-3, 5 or 6 plant bundles to my LFS about every 4 months or so.  Very controllable.

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

 @Odd Duck sweet! Thanks, I'll look into that plant, see what's available around me. Just to confirm this is the full grown plant you speak of where the arrow points? Are the smaller plants the same plant but the runners popping up?

 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/4/2023 at 5:02 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Just to confirm this is the full grown plant you speak of where the arrow points

I recognize the plant as a crinum.

update: I see it was identified as Vesuvius sword. 
 

They look similar.

Edited January 4, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/2/2023 at 7:52 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Patrick_G to be fair there is also a Pegasus 

Fantasy is my favorite genre so it includes all of the pictured things 🙃

 

 

I like the octopus @xXInkedPhoenixX. I have a squid.

 

On 1/4/2023 at 5:43 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Fantasy is my favorite genre

Have you read any of the Dragonlance series?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea love the squid, I have something similar somewhere in the house, it's a dog toy the cats play with. 

I tend to avoid anything that's more than 3 books (and avoid most of those too). I typically enjoy really off the wall and quirky fantasy books- 1 off novels. I love most of A. Lee Martinez's novels (not his series with Constance Verity), Toby Barlow has written two totally different yet extremely odd and wonderful books, Sharp Teeth which is a totally unique werewolf novel (my favorite fantasy monster) and Babayaga a quirky book about witches and a person turned into a flea! So yea. Oddball stuff. 

Edited January 4, 2023 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

On 1/4/2023 at 4:02 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

 @Odd Duck sweet! Thanks, I'll look into that plant, see what's available around me. Just to confirm this is the full grown plant you speak of where the arrow points? Are the smaller plants the same plant but the runners popping up?

 

Yes, that’s the plant.  The small ones are Crypt parva, possibly the slowest growing crypt known to mankind.  Adorable and perfectly in scale with this tiny tank, but sooooooooo slow!  Maybe in a couple more years I’ll have a decent carpet of them.

Here’s a pic from today of this tank.  Can you see how the Crypt parva has put on a burst of rampant growth?  😉 😃  I moved the E. vesuvius  I had in there to another tank where it’s just floating right now.  The Crypt. ‘Pink Panther’ just seems to fit better and give it more color in a tank with only a few young ramshorn snails as inhabitants.  Plus I wanted to try the ‘Pink Panther’ in a shallower tank to see what the color would do for me.  By the way, that other pic I posted is from February 4 of this year.  I added 2 more pots of parva since then, and it finally seems to be prospering.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Odd Duck
To add pic. Duh! 🤦🏻‍♀️

[Odd Duck]

On 1/4/2023 at 4:37 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

I recognize the plant as a crinum.

update: I see it was identified as Vesuvius sword. 
 

They look similar.

That texture does look like it could be a Crinum, doesn’t it?  But it’s very small.  The leaves are only about 1/8” wide and the plant rarely gets over 6” tall in my tanks despite what most references say.  Maybe the 12” is with CO2?  This tank is only 8” square and has 1-1.5” of substrate with a very slight slope.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Odd Duck

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

So. The stocking plan keeps kind of morphing for this tank. I had dreams in the beginning of 6 white Guppies with my pretty rescue Betta, White - nature apparently had other plans. I'm down to 2 - weeks later in QT, and one of them isn't looking so hot. Not that there's any real SIGNS of illness- nothing obvious- they just get lethargic then boom, dead. That's the way all of the deaths have happened. I tested their tank water- a fully cycled 3 gallon QT at this point. So frustrating. I put salt in their water, and some Alkaline buffer as the pH was pretty low - hoping to make them more comfortable- but that was the only parameter that was off. 

Anyhow. The plan has changed again. The Medieval tank had a Nitrite reading yesterday so it's continuing to go through the cycling process. 

After some reasearch of the twinwall @Odd Duck suggested I actually decided to skip it. Honestly didn't much like the looks of it online but nowhere I could find sold it in stock (had to be ordered) and I only wanted to look at it closer. In desperation for a lid yesterday I visited the plastic shop, ordered a thick piece of acrylic and will have them polish the edges to make it look nicer. I'll start with this for now. It will be finished next Friday - which is hopefully the day I can start adding fish. 

Back to the stocking plan. I took out my 6 baby Black Neons from my Angry Man tank and traded them yesterday to a local for 4 male Grass Guppies. I told him I didn't care about color - I got 3 red and 1 blue. They will go in the Medieval tank now. My Mum's Guppies, which were also headed there will not, they will go in my Flex9 with Serket and the other Endlers and Guppies. I will take out the Ember Tetra and put them in the Medieval tank too (6 or 7 of those they are hard to keep track of). If any of the white Guppies make it, they'll live in my Flex9 too. But since they keep dying that just keeps extending their QT time. Such a shame. 

Anyhow, here are the Guppies I picked up last night: 

We soldier on!

Edited January 6, 2023 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Small update on what's going on in the tank. Today I picked up the piece of polished edge plastic that I ordered for the top of this tank. And maybe some of my intrepid friends here can help me with an idea as to how to keep the lid on here! I've already done something for the meantime. 

So I think it looks great personally. It sits right where i need it to and has just enough space in the back for the tubes/wires (and hopefully not enough for fish but we all know that isn't much room). I'm glad I got polished edge- which doesn't translate well in pics. 

First, here is a full view of tank with lid: 

Edge of lid: 

Top of lid (fogged up already): 

So what I did for now or maybe permanently we'll see, is put the original glass clips onto the bottom side of the lid with doublesided silicone tape. This raises it slightly off the lip of the tank, but it also bows the nth of an inch in the middle and makes contact with the lip again. I knew it would do this which is why I made the front stick out that far- for support. Here: 

They are at the very front edge and the other set as far back as possible so if the feline persuasion gets on the tank or something knocks it, it won't just go sliding off. It is actually a little tricky to even lift the lid which I find to be a good thing for now. Intrepid partner has offered to make a bracket at the back for support but I'm wondering if you all have another idea to nix the original clips and trade for a nifty trick, some sort of corner bracket perhaps that would attach to said lid and let it rest along the whole front of the lip? I'd still need a way for the back to also have a way to hang on. I think I just need a trip to the hardware store. Or perhaps there is a small acrylic knob I can attach to the inside under the lid....wheels are turning....

Anyway perfect opportunity to show some progress in the tank. We've started some hair algae on the moss that gets the most light and a little on the glass even- yay new tank problems! Haha : 

One of the pieces of Monte Carlo possibly out the door forever though there are some green limbs left I hope survive. Sadly this piece did get pushed around when the Arch decided to float when filling the tank. While it looked cool at the time kind of pushed up against the arch then it doesn't look like the Monte likes it: 

Still loving the rock floor. I haven't changed anything yet with plants, still mulling it all over. What I have done is when I see a stray piece of Java Moss I throw it over there and it's been attaching itself to the floor and I'm starting to like the look. The moss all over the tank is doing well, some that was brown are starting to come back and that which was green is just getting bigger. Anyway, peek at the arch and floor (look closely and you can see in the top of the pic the shadowy Subwassertang on the shelf above the rock floor): 

Then the tree, still very happy with that, and the repens is doing quite well still. Especially the Repens at the back because it hasn't been disturbed unlike the ones at the front. As mentioned moss doing good- the stuff I thought was dead is coming in a little like @Odd Duckadvised it might:

Hoping later this week I'll be able to add some livestock!

Edited January 10, 2023 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

Looking very great!  I think a lot of your moss will come back, even if it’s from a tiny little section of the original piece.  I think the moss between the rocks might end up looking really cool!  You’ll just have to work hard at preventing it from really over growing the rocks if you want to keep them visible.

You can always take a new little clipping from another section of Monte Carlo as it needs trimming.  It’s essentially a tiny stem plant and you can root the trimmings with enough patience.  It will spread gradually but you can speed up the process by planting each tiny trimmed stem.  So you can get it growing by your arch if that piece doesn’t bounce back.

If you look close at the brackets I linked, they might serve you better than your current brackets.  The current brackets you have are designed for the lid to sit down into the top of the rimless tank on that tiny tab.  The brackets I linked are a bit “clunkier” looking, but they are designed so the lid sits directly on top of the rim of the tank and the tab is to keep the lid from sliding off.

Since your fabulous new acrylic lid is sitting on top of the top rim already, this type bracket would keep it from moving around and would hold the lid up just enough to be able to get a grip on it if you didn’t want to add a lifting knob.  The packet comes with 6 brackets I think, so one at each corner and one in the middle front +/- in back (might not work in back with the little gap) if you find don’t like that bit of sag and don’t mind the bracket in the center of the tank.  6 clips would be the most secure.  You could use the “spare” clips to do 1 each direction at the front corners.  That would also make it very secure and not “slidey” at all.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072C3NJ46/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd Duck thanks for the tips! 

Question about the clips, hope they're an option but see they're for up to 5mm. This is 6mm glass on the tank, do you think they'd still work?

[Odd Duck]

On 1/10/2023 at 10:35 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Odd Duck thanks for the tips! 

Question about the clips, hope they're an option but see they're for up to 5mm. This is 6mm glass on the tank, do you think they'd still work?

I don’t know.  Let me go measure mine.

Yes, I think it might but it will be very close.  Those clips are loose enough on my glass that they will slide with pressure from my not very strong magnetic algae scraper (the magnet on the inside is tiny and it can slide them).

The glass on that tank is 0.191” = 4.85 mm.  The clip looks like it has almost 1.5 mm slack at the top and has enough flex that I think it will work.  Added an extra close up for you with the ruler.  I used hubby’s most accurate micrometer (measures down to 0.0001”) to measure my glass, then my handy conversion app to calculate the mm for you.

  

Edited January 10, 2023 by Odd Duck
Typo

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd DuckI really appreciate you taking the time to do that. I know sometimes with things like those they have a little give. I've been searching on Amazon since you sent the link for others like it to no avail so far (I'm on page 4 I think). I may just order those and try them. Worst case scenario I return them. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

They were a little hard to find even though I saved the pic from somebody else that posted it.  I had forgotten about how hard they were to find until we started talking about them more, so I figured I better post the actual link.  😆  When I found them, I was actually looking for something like the Aqueon clips that clip onto the lid and the tab part goes over the top tank rim so it holds the glass level with the top rim - very sleek look.  Those clips are far less visible and I wanted to get glass for the top of this tiny tank since it already has an obnoxiously big light over top of it.

But I still have never found the Aqueon clips available separately (or their extra wide back trim strips for their rimless tanks - one of my 6 G cubes has an ugly, cobbled together back trim strip made from 2 pieces of trim).

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Odd Duckif you haven't already you might try contacting Aqueon directly. The only reason I say that is that I couldn't find the official Aquatop clips so I emailed them and they sell them separate (and adding shipping) through direct contact with the company. I've found most aquatic companies have been really responsive to inquiries. 

The clips you've mentioned here, tho, they are one of a kind as far as I can see so I'm saving the link too even if I don't use them!

Edited January 10, 2023 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

On 1/10/2023 at 11:18 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Odd Duckif you haven't already you might try contacting Aqueon directly. The only reason I say that is that I couldn't find the official Aquatop clips so I emailed them and they sell them separate (and adding shipping) through direct contact with the company. I've found most aquatic companies have been really responsive to inquiries. 

Good thought.  I just need to find contact info now.  I think I searched for info initially, but didn’t have much luck.  I’ll try again.