# 12" slate cube



## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

My fiance has generally been supportive of my obsession with keeping water, plants, and fish in glass boxes. Never a lot of enthusiasm, but he didn't hold me back. So when he happened to move into an apartment in my complex, I decided that now would be a great time to start expanding my hobby. Thus began my search for a good tank.

I didn't want one that would take up much space, given that he has a tiny apartment, but I wanted something no less than 5 gallons. I also didn't want anything too large that would get in the way of everything, and it just do happened that fiance had a nice nightstand that would perfectly hold a 12" cube tank. I looked at several tanks, but they all pretty much came out to within $10 of each other, so I went with the highest quality I could find. 

I also knew that I wanted to use the cube in a way that might be a little inconvenient in a tank that wasn't so wide or deep. I've been seeing a lot of fantastic 3D backgrounds, and decided that I wanted one. I mean, if I'm going to a high quality tank, I want something really cool in it. I decided that the easiest way to make a smaller background would be stacking up slate rock. I was originally going to make the background go all the way across the back of the tank, until I realized how much rock it would take to do that. I cut it back to only doing a partial background to hide equipment. I ended up liking this much more, and it leaves more swimming room for the fish. 

Looking back, I definetly would have done something different for the background, but what's the harm of trying something once? I would have gotten a 12" slate tile and just used that flat against the back wall of the tank. For a 3D background, I might consider going with the usual foam and paint thing. 

*Equipment*:
TruAqua High Clarity Low Iron Glass Cube, 7.13 gallons
Finnex Fugeray-R
AquaClear 20
Substrate Source Midnight black sand
Osmocote+ homemade root tabs
Slate rock. lots of slate. 

*Plants*:
Baby Amazon Swords
Baby Vals
Baby willow hygro

More to come!


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Did some more planting and now it's just time to wait for things to grow in. I'll probably only add some moss and anubias, if I do add more plants at all. I'll also tuck the heater back behind the wall once I get that set up properly, but I'm still trying to figure it out. I'm mostly going for plants that are easy to care for, but can still look nice. I'm hoping the marselia does well, despite extreme trimming. It took a looooong time to plant all of it, but if it does grow and carpet properly, it'll look amazing. 

*Current plant list:*
Baby Amazon Swords
Vals
Baby willow hygro
Crypt. Undulata
Crypt. Wendii 'Bronze'
Crypt. Lucens
Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Cuba'
Marselia sp. (probably either Quadrifolia or Minuta)
Nymphaea Stellata (dwarf lilly)


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## Threnjen (Jan 10, 2013)

This is looking great! What kind of fish are you planning?


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

A reverse trio of betta albis is what I really want, but they tend to like more densely planted tanks with dimmer lighting and lots of hiding spots. I can add floating plants to cut out the light and give them cover. Hopefully with the rock wall and cave, they should have places to hang out in as the plants grow. I'd love to be able to speed up the growth more on the plants too, but that would involve adding a source of carbon and adding more ferts (and even more light). Since messing with those can upset the balance of a tank, and this tank is so young to begin with, that's pretty much asking for an algae bloom. Not to mention that most plants do have a limit to how fast they grow. I picked out the crypts and swords specifically because of this, although the swords will get huge eventually. 

As a consolation prize, some of the marselia is already perking up and it looks like a few tiny leaves might be about ready to open in the next couple days.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

10 days can make quite a big difference! The marselia is doing great, all of it is growing despite doing an extremely heavy trim and cutting it all into nodes. All the little clovers are adorable, and I can't wait to see what it looks like all grown in. 
I added a couple of plants, a few pieces of java fern (I don't like them, I'll pull them soon) and some anubias, including a piece that I put in the outflow of the filter in hopes it will grow emersed and recover from a really bad algae attack. I'm thinking about moving over more anubias, to fill out the wall, maybe even a buce or two. I also added a handful of floaters to help with the cycle (I'm guessing the cycle is done, but I don't want to get in fish right before leaving for Thanksgiving)

Sorry for all the bubbles, I was excited about noticing all the marselia growth and forgot to turn down the filter for pics. 




I keep forgetting to set up the heater and tuck it away, forgive me, it's close to the end of the quarter at college, but I'm thinking the plants would appreciate a little heat at least.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Looks great, the albis will love it! Dont forget to cover that gap in the back. You may not think so but albis can and will make it through there. Little magicians, they are.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

The gap is only 1" (plenty of room, I know) but I have no clue what to put over it. The top I'm using now is a piece of glass from an 11"x14" picture frame. It's a fantastic fit, aside from that bit in the back. But hey, for $1, I'm not complaining


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Been awhile since I updated, and things have been changing, not necessarily in a good way. I'm on my winter break from school, but I took some pics before I left. New tank syndrome has struck big time, and there was a pretty good sized algae outbreak. I cleaned what I could before I left, added some new plants and moss, and a couple berried shrimpies. The plants seemed to be doing ok, despite the algae. Not seeing much growth from the stems, but that could be from adjustment or not having a carbon source. The crypts seem to be doing really well, and swords are just puttering around. Hopefully the swords won't get too overgrown soon, but I'll probably have to remove one of them eventually. The marselia is doing fantastic, why was I worried at all? I'm planning on removing the java fern, look wise, it doesn't fit in the tank. The dwarf lilly seems to be taking a beating from the flow from the filter. I turned the filter down, and added the original bulb from the lilly, there's several baby plants that can will hopefully do ok.

I should be getting back in a few days, so new pics then, and I'll be able to start working on the tank. 

Current plant list:
Baby Amazon Swords
Vals
Baby willow hygro
Crypt. Undulata
Crypt. Wendii 'Bronze'
Crypt. Lucens
Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Cuba'
Marselia sp. (probably either Quadrifolia or Minuta)
Nymphaea Stellata (dwarf lilly)
Anchor Moss
Peacock Moss
Bucephalandra Sherry
Bucephalandra ???
Java fern (to be removed)


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Alright, so I'm back from my 3 week break. The moment I saw the tank, I realized I'd made a terrible mistake. I didn't get a timer for the lights. I knew there would be algae, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

While I was cleaning the walls of the tank, the slate wall started falling down, and all of the glue holding everything together let go. Even the SS mesh behind the wall came loose. I was mostly just trying to clean, so I gave the rocks a quick scrub and then put them back in, without really trying to make something look decent. I actually like this more than the original scape, but I do need to get a prefilter methinks. In this scape, I can actually use those dorky java ferns, and make them look halfway decent here.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Wonderful, now the heater's not working. -.-
In other news, I picked up a thing that I'm hoping I can use as a hanging/suction cupped-on planter. I would have gotten a riparium kit, but unfortunately I have college student syndrome at the moment, and the possible planter thingy was only $5. Since It doesn't have holes in it, I can use plants that don't necessarily like having their feet wet, but like high humidity. Han't figured out what I want in there quite yet though.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Well the planter thing didn't work out at all, but I suppose that's ok. Moved the heater to see if it will work if it's not buried by rocks. Doesn't look quite as good, but hopefully there's a way to at least partially hide it. I also made a prefilter for the tank, by taking a piece of AC20 foam, cutting it in half, and trimming to shape. Should work fine, although it might need to be cleaned out frequently

Did another cleaning and rearranging of rocks, and added more java fern. Started a heavy Excel routine, and that will hopefully take care of the last bits of algae. It's pretty amazing how much algae has already been removed just with a little scrubbing and vacuuming the substrate. If your tank gets as bad as mine did, try scrubbing before flat out giving up.



prefilter:

Little tiny tiny Buce Sherry (I think)


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

So just a couple days with the excel and the tank seems to be getting better. The biggest problem algae I can see is stuck to the crypt, sword, and java fern leaves. Some marselia could use some help as well, but we'll see how things look by the end of the week. 
No pics until then, so you can judge for yourselves whether the Excel has made a difference.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

A quick teaser pic. Remember this being covered in algae a week ago?


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Alright, so remember how this was the tank less than 3 weeks ago?


After a good scrubbing and rescaping, it looked quite a bit better, like this:


A week after that, I gave it another cleaning, and started a week of heavy Excel dosing. Before:


Aaaaand after!


I just wanted to do this to show people to not give up on your tanks. I know I still have a ways to go, but that was a BIG transformation in a really short amount of time. I was very skeptical about the Excel when I started, but honestly, it's hard to argue with the results. 
Here's a closeup of our favorite Marselia patch to show what's left to clean up. As you can see, most of the algae is coming off, and I've come to realize how awesome marselia is. While the other plants were just dealing with being covered with algae, the marselia was actively growing. I don't know how much of this is from the Excel, but I'm loving it either way.

Seems this lil guy made it through just fine. Still won't stay in one place, I may have to super glue him.

Java fern looking significantly better.

I will allow some algae to grow on the rocks, it looks much more natural with a little green on it (or brown I suppose). 


I can't wait to see this thing really take off!


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

I've fallen a bit behind in updating this thread, which is a bad on my part. School's been starting to pick up the pace, so it can get a lil hecktic. 

On the algae front, seems to be improving, I've continued using Excel to wipe out what I can. The snails I've been moving over seem to be helping munch dead algae. Have noticed a spot or two of cyano popping up, so I'll need to get that taken care of quick, before it gets much bigger. 

Plants seem to be doing ok, except for one of the amazon swords. I added a stem of Ludwigia Gladulosa that wasn't doing well in another tank, and a stem of willow hydro to help fill things out. They seem to be doing ok. Marselia is still growing strong, and I've begun noticing much smaller and shorter leaves than before, a few with single lobes instead of the 4-lobes clovers. Considering adding more to help things fill out faster, but it's probably not necessary. 

The fiance was getting antsy just having a glass cube of water and plants, so I added 3 male Heterandria Formosa. These are very tough little fish with a TON of attitude, and he's started to enjoy having them as his roommates. I hope he'll like the future bettas as much. One thing I did notice was that the current from the AC20 filter was really strong, and the lil guys were struggling. I happened to still have the mesh I used for the rock wall, so I bent it into a shape to weaken the flow, and seeing how ugly that was, I put gravel and plants on top. There's marselia, dwarf hairgrass, a couple random stems of alternathera reineckii, and a bit of random moss. As I've now come to expect from the marselia, it decided to start growing within hours of being planted. The moss seems to be doing well also. 

Forgot to take a full tank shot this time, sorry!
Our favorite marselia patch is doing well, but the boy is over feeding the fish a little. Yay for snails.

It's hard to take pictures of fish. Especially tiny, fast moving fish


Here's the filter baffle before and after planting


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Not too much plant growth to report on, aside from the marselia starting to spread, and the new growth having smaller, 1-lobed leaves. Looks nice, but I'm not sure how well that will look when seen with the larger early growth. Still, I'm happy it's growing well. Starting to see more life from the crypts, but the tank is still too bare for me. I'll see what I can do about that, I've been getting more more plants, and especially moss, in the mail. The planted filter basket is doing well, the marselia seems to be growing in more compact and well-behaved than I've ever seen with emersed marselia. Seems the current from the filter is keeping it in line. 

In the fish department, the boys are having a blast. They're so much more active and outgoing now that the filter has been slowed down a bit. One of them does have an unhealthy interest in going caving under the slate, so I'll be trying to keep him from doing that, but other than that little problem, the boys are doing well. 

I also ended up adding a bunch of male cherry/rili shrimp last weekend, and one oddly colored male. I don't have many female shrimp, so the tank is a boy's only club for now. Fitting  I've continued using Excel, and now Flourish as well, but at low doses only, and only a couple times a week. The plants do seem to be responding, slowly. There doesn't seem to be a need to continue with the heavy excel, especially with the floating plants going nuts. Pics...maybe


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

So this week I ended up not dosing Excel or Flourish at all. Everything except the needy Ludwigia Glandulosa seems to be doing fine. The sickly looking sword I was going to pull out has actually started putting out new roots, so maybe it will pull through. The marselia is doing the usual marselia thing and is being happy. The filter basket is doing fantastic, and while the alternathera still looks dorky, it's growing on me. I uhh kinda broke the glass top for the tank though, so I hope it's adjusted enough to handle low humidity, cuz that's what it's getting for the next couple days at least. 

As far as the fauna is doing, I actually found a female shrimp, which is fantastic because I thought I'd lost all but 2 of them in another tank. 

I got in faaaaar too many plants after trading some stuff away. I ended up with enough moss to carpet a 20, but I managed to use it up mossing this and another tank. I just wrapped the moss around extra chips of slate I had lying around. I get the feeling the rock pile will turn into a big fluffy hill, and I'm actually fine with that. It's really hard trying to get anything to look decent with the cave, but hey, I like the cave, and I hope the critters at some point do as well. Never seen the fish using it so far though, hmm.. Also added some sunset hygro (don't know how well that will do here), and some crypt balanese (leaves trimmed) to the back. Also, some hydrocotle 'Japan' in the middle, and moved the sprouting lilly bulb.

Pre-floater clearout

The alternathera stem in the back is sprouting more leaves, so it shouldn't look quite so goofy soon

Our Marselia corner. The floaters blocked out a TON of light.

Sorry for blurry!

A closer look...

Only "eh" quality shrimp, but they're alive and doing their job. Also, one is female, so no complaints.

I like this funky purple snail. Kinda fits me


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

So I asked for a jungle, and got a jungle. Pretty sure I'll never be able to remove the het formosa boys now, LOL. Shouldn't have worried about the sunset hygro, it's not particularly red (the top was totally grown over again), but it's been growing well. The leaves closest to the light were actually fairly orange. The crypts are doing well, the lilly is doing well, everything seems to be doing well, except for that one sickly sword. I pulled that, and trimmed and planted the hygro, I'm getting to the point I'm pretty happy with the plant growth. The crypt balanese is growing as well, very pretty red leaves.

Not a whole lot else to report on, the shrimp are growing well, the fish are overjoyed, and while there was a TON of evaporation from not having a lid, pretty much everything did ok. The filter basket is thriving, although the marselia took the chance to stop behaving and grow tall. Ah well, I think it's starting to look pretty cool. Algae has been reduced to a nice bit of green on the rocks, and a few hardly noticable smudges on the glass.

Pre-floater clearout

Cleaned up

Not much to report on the marselia corner

The filter basket is doing well

What I see when I walk into fiance's apartment (noticing the mess comes 3 seconds after)


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

Been awhile since an update, eh? I don't have time for a full rundown, but let's just say I should've been careful when I asked for a jungle! The filter basket thingy is doing fantastic as well, and I'm contemplating if I should try and figure out how to make another to fill that gap by the filter. Also, found a random giant snail after I was gone on vacation for a week. Freaked. Me. Out. It's still in there, but still kinda scares me every time I see it unexpectedly.

Also, playing with "new" camera.


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