# 0.9 Gallon Marina Cubus



## kcharm (Apr 1, 2007)

Saw it and had to have it.

Just added about 2 inches of black flourite sand and I'm running my little aZoo canister filter with a bunch of carbon in it to help it clear up faster.

I plan to run an airstone for a little circulation, although I'm think the aZoo might work nicely instead.

I'm open to opinions!

I plan to run the little LED lighting that comes with the tank and run lower light plants. Other than Java fern, I haven't decided on which other plants to use.

but...

I'm open to opinions!

A buddy used to have a pile of endlessly breeding RCS, I think I scrounge a few from him. But I'm also thinking about a fish or two. But a Betta won't play nicely with the shrimp so I'm not sure what sort of fish would work well in this tank.

The final question is, to heat or not to heat? I have a heater that will work well with this tank, I just need to decided whether or not to use it.

I'd post a pic, but it's a glass cube, with black sand on the bottom and some tubes that are far from permanent. Oh, and the water is rather cloudy. Thus, no point in taking a pic. When there's a reason to take a pic, I'll post it here.

For now, I'm digging for suggestions on plants, filtration and fish.


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## TLE041 (Jan 16, 2010)

Here's my Cubus before I retired it.

That stock LED light will have trouble growing anything (including Java fern) so I wouldn't even attempt any other plants without supplementing with another light source. 

As for fishes, I can't think of anything other than a betta that will be happy in that tank for long. I would stick with cherries alone.

See the link above for the heater that I used. It worked quite well and easily hidden behind the planting. Depending on your room temperature, you can get away with an unheated tank for RCS.


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

I was actually in petsmart the other day and picked up one of those. I thought for a few bucks I'll come up with something that would look good on my desk. I probably won't use the light. It doesn't even have an off-switch. 

On a tank this small I won't be using a filter, I think semi-weekly water changes should do the trick.


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## WeedCali (Jun 21, 2010)

a betta wouldnt be happy in that. 5g minimum IMO.


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## kcharm (Apr 1, 2007)

Ok. If I could find my camera, I'd take a picture of where things are at. But my camera has a habit of hiding from me.

So, where it's it is...

Have the tank on this Ikea shelf thing that looks like it's leaning against the wall. It has 4 shelves, 10 inches square each, each one a little further from the wall then the one above. I have the tank on the top shelf which is about 5 feet off the ground.

I built a light fixture to replace the LED one out of a little copper pipe, 1 copper elbow, a 5.5 inch shop light, and a 13 watt, 6500k PC lightbulb from home. All told, the lighting cost me about $12. Right now it's about 18 inches above the tank. Since everything is simply friction fitted on the light, I can lower the light if needed by simply cutting the vertical copper pipe shorter. 

Since it cleared up a bit, I swapped out the little canister filter for the airstone, again, just for a little circulation.

So far no scaping except for sloping the flourite black sand. Eventually I'll have a piece or two of wood in there, but that 'ill be it.

Clearly I can no go with high light plants since I figure I have less than .75 gallons of water and 13 watts to light it with. 

I still like java fern but I'm worried I'm gonna fry it with all this light.

Any other lighting suggestions?

What about the airstone vs. the mini canister for circulation?


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## kcharm (Apr 1, 2007)

Pics, finally.

I got some Java fern, red milfoil and some susswasertang from a buddy. He gave me so much stuff I may need to set up another tank! 

Water temp ranges from 68F to 70F so I think I'll keep it unheated.

I really gotta get better at my tank photography!


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