# 30cm cube



## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

This is my latest bit of fun.










It's an Orca MT30 that's roughly a 30cm cube with bowfront and curved edges - no silicon.

Volume is 25 l.

Lighting is 18w PC T5 with built-in refelctor and cooling fans. I replaced the 50:50 marine lamp with a 6500K for £3.70 from here -

http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs-Tubes/860-865-Daylight_4/PLL-4-Pin-18-Watt-865-Philips

The filter is integral and has huge capacity. It covers the entire rear 5cm of the tank. Flow is 320lph.

No heating yet.

Substrate is ADA Aqua Soil Amazonia (Powder).

Rocks are mini-landscape rocks courtesy of Aqua Essentials.

The plan is to grow HC _emersed_.

Drain the water down to the substrate line. Then plant 6 pots of Tropica HC.

The HC obtains all required nutrients from the Aqua Soil. No need for CO2 or dosing.

12 hour photoperiod. No algae.

All I need to do is keep the HC moist....


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## cozmoz (Nov 7, 2006)

Looks nice so far, look forward to following your scape.


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## Kip (Jun 29, 2007)

Nice beginning! Lighting is clean


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## Jdinh04 (Oct 7, 2004)

That is a sweet hard scape you have there. Looking forward to see what it looks like once the HC is grown in fully.


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## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

please let us know how it grow


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## gotcheaprice (Sep 4, 2007)

Giving this a bump to hopefully get an update.
Nice hardscape though. Need to find rocks for my tanks...


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

Thanks for the comments.

The tank is still empty, except water. It's been running in the dark for 4 weeks now so the Aqua Soil will have settled, no more ammonia spikes etc.

I'll be draining it down to the substrate line soon.

Then planting with HC and growing it emersed.

I'm hoping that once the HC carpet is complete (and algae-free!), I can flood it, add fish etc. and hey presto. 'Instant' HC Iwagumi with none of the usual early algae issues. 

I'll be adding the HC in the next week or two, hopefully. 

Thanks again.


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## fluffiebuggie (Sep 25, 2007)

It's looking very nice.

I'm growing HC at the moment and wonder if you know what has caused a slight darkening of some leaves and browning/yellowing of others?
Could this be excessive light?

I'll keep an eye on this thread, think it's going to be interesting.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

George, here is another plea to keep us informed of your progress as the HC grows emersed, and after you submerge it later. I'm planning on doing something like this with a 10 gallon tank I picked up just for experiments. But, I'm several days away from starting. And, I plan to use zeolite sand as the substrate. My rock layout won't compare to yours, but at least it will reflect my artistic skills - which are minimal. New methods like this are a shot in the arm for my enthusiasm for the hobby.


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

fluffiebuggie said:


> It's looking very nice.
> 
> I'm growing HC at the moment and wonder if you know what has caused a slight darkening of some leaves and browning/yellowing of others?
> Could this be excessive light?
> ...


Thanks.

How much light do you have? I doubt 'excess' light is causing your issues. Generally one cannot have excess light per se, but poor nutrients in combo with high light will give you no end of problems.

Thanks, Hoppy. I look forward to both sharing my experiences and learning from yours. Zeolite sand sounds interesting. The ammonia uptake properties should help I guess, and it has high CEC?

'New' techniques rule...


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Zeolite sand has a CEC 100 times that of Soilmaster type substrates. That sounds unbelievable, but I checked and rechecked the numbers. Surely that property can add something of benefit (but I'm not yet sure just what that is.) We can only learn by trying it.


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## Yoshi (Apr 7, 2007)

I'm doing a very similar thing too...  I'll be looking forward to updates on this thread.

This seems to be the new trend! Click my banner to see my Journal...


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## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Hoppycalif,

CEC isn't as important a factor in enclosed aquatic systems since we're artifically enhancing the nutrient levels in the plants' environment. What it will do in your tank is help to bind positively charged elements and nutrient molecules to the substrate and allow them to be easily exchanged with another. 

CEC's very important in systems that are drained through the soil. It's a direct measure of how easily the soil will bind plant important things like Potassium and Calcium as the water infiltrates through it. Since we're not getting a lot of infiltration in our glass boxes CEC doesn't play a role.

All that surface area on those Zeolite crystals will be a huge help though! The more room there is for the microscopic and tiny little visible roots the better able the plants will be to take up nutrients.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Phil Edwards said:


> Hoppycalif,
> 
> CEC isn't as important a factor in enclosed aquatic systems since we're artifically enhancing the nutrient levels in the plants' environment. What it will do in your tank is help to bind positively charged elements and nutrient molecules to the substrate and allow them to be easily exchanged with another.
> 
> ...


I hate to hijack George's thread, but does high CEC help protect the tank from minor ammonia surges in the substrate?

I'm still looking forward to seeing how George's emersed carpet works out, by the way.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Yoshi said:


> I'm doing a very similar thing too...  I'll be looking forward to updates on this thread.
> 
> This seems to be the new trend! Click my banner to see my Journal...


This one is on my list to watch too, now! You have a really sparse planting of HC now, it looks like. How long should it take before they can carpet the substrate? I suppose that would be your question too?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

George, do you have a progress report ready for us yet? This thread keeps sinking down he list to where I can hardly find it now!


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## Yoshi (Apr 7, 2007)

hoppycalif said:


> This one is on my list to watch too, now! You have a really sparse planting of HC now, it looks like. How long should it take before they can carpet the substrate? I suppose that would be your question too?


Yea, the sparse planting was because I didn't want to uproot so much HC from my existing tank, so I just took a small patch and planted what I could.

After about 2.5 weeks of growth, I've noticed that the growth extends upwards more than it does horizontally. I can't get really good pics of it, but when I can, I will try and get an updated shot. The HC is definitely growing, but it's still somewhat slow (probably b/c I didn't plant that much to begin with).

Also, sorry for the hijack!


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## gf225 (Mar 26, 2005)

hoppycalif said:


> George, do you have a progress report ready for us yet? This thread keeps sinking down he list to where I can hardly find it now!


Ah, sorry old chap. This has been put on the back burner for a while as I'm too busy with my other two tanks ATM.

I've been given a 120cm to look after for a while until a friend moves house and settles in. This is what I've done so far to it...



Sorry, I'm hijacking my own thread now too! 

Anyway, I'm considering taking this 30cm cube into work and playing with it there. I'll keep you updated with any progress.

Thanks.


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

nice hijack, lol
That large tank your looking after is pretty impressive!!! do you know much about its specs? just currious. I love the glosso, its been a while since i've seen glosso used in a way that really wows me like this has. 

not to take away from your tank, I'm looking forward to your update


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