# 'freshwater reef' JG's Mr. Aqua Cube



## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

So after my summer madness at work this year I had the opportunity to move from my beloved cubicle into an office. Weird at first as to what am I going to do with all this room... now I'm getting settled in. I got clearance from the department director to set up a small cube after thinking about it for a bit. Wasn't sure if I really wanted to deal with a tank at work, definitely really don't have time or motivation to be mucking about with water changes, ferts, co2, etc.
I decided on the Mr Aqua 12x12x12 7.5 cube as the price was too hard to pass up. Never owned an ADA tank so I don't know what I'm missing anyway.  Never had a cube tank to work with either now that I think about it. 

So after the decision was made to go forward I knew I wanted several things from the tank and layout. I want virtually no maintenance other than topping off water as needed, I'm bringing a gallon of water from home once a week for top offs. This building is mad old and I don't trust the pipes. No trimming, replanting, no stems. Didn't want a fern/crypt type of tank as I have something like that at home. So in keeping with those thoughts I came up with this. 

I had some spare seiryu laying around that didn't fit into other layouts. I'm not concerned with it increasing the water hardness as our tap here is borderline RO already without even considering the aquasoil. I struggled at first with visualizing a layout for a cube... quite difficult given my self inflicted constraints of no stems which also includes any kind of carpet that requires maintenance. After a while a thought came to my head. Pile up the rocks like salty folks do with "live rock" and make a fake saltwater freshwater tank using only mini pellia (also called coral pellia haha!). So thats what I did. I'm thinking of possibly adding in some chunks of subwassertang as well depending on how plain it looks with just the pellia. We'll see in a few months. 

Heres the nuts and bolts:
12x12x12 Mr. Aqua
Hampton Bay 27W desk light
Aquaclear AC20 filter
Azoo plantbed natural (bottom substrate layer)
Aquasoil Amazonia type I (upper layer)

Not planning on stems so the substrate should never mix until I break it down. Honestly it doesn't really look that bad mixed together. Had to use two types because its what I had on hand but in the end I like the look. 

It was just "planted" a few days ago. Basically took 10 minutes and superglue gelled the mini pellia to the stones. It'll be a while before it starts getting that reef look if ever. 

Journals are worthless without pics so here goes:














































Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques welcome.


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## chris.rivera3 (Apr 15, 2008)

I like it!!! I know you don't want any other plants in there that would cause maintenance but what about e. belem??? You've used it before on your tiger tank and it looked NICE!


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

looks great! I love the rock. I have a cube in my cubical as well, it helps make the day less monotonous. 

I would add a piece of paper or something on the back of the tank to hide the filter and light but other than that it looks awesome.


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

You have the same set-up as me mr. jg  only diff is lm not going the saltwater look . can't wait to see this one grow out. Also what are your plans for fish/shrimp?


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## Moe (Jan 22, 2004)

Very nice, I like it. I agree on covering the back. 
Im not sure I could get anything done at work if I had an aquarium there. LOL


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks guys. 

Chris the 'belem' is always possible. We'll see how the pellia does for a bit first. 

Definitely agreed with all about a background. Thinking about dropping by HD to try to find some frost tint tomorrow. 

No plans for fish/shrimp yet. Still under consideration. 

Here are another couple of close-up pics that I took today to document the start. A few of the pellia plantings are already showing bright green nodes. I hope it does well in this tank for me. Might have to raise the lamp just a little more (phone book maybe?) to make it not so intense. Starting at @ 7 hours a day with weekends off to see how that goes. I've left the blinds open during the weekends so far and the tank gets 30-40 minutes of good full sun with them open.


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## Madfish (Sep 9, 2007)

I had to look at the pictures a couple of times. I think this is going to look great once its starting to fill in.


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks! I hope it turns out ok. I think the biggest thing is going to be finding the sweet spot for the light so I get good pellia growth without promoting algae.


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

I've been trying to rack my brain to think of what should inhabit this tank. I was really hoping to find something to complete that saltwater look. Needed something really colorful and odd.
Not sure if the size or temperament will lend themselves well for this tank or not but I'm ordering a pair of peacock gudgeons tomorrow. I have 3 empty mature tanks at home so I'll house them somewhere there until I can see if they'll fit the bill for this tank or not.

Any other freshwater fish that strike you as being a saltwater doppelganger? I wish I could find some true freshwater bumblebee gobies. I think they would be a good fit as well but I don't want to subject some poor brackish fish to super soft acidic water.


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## !shadow! (Jan 25, 2010)

a bit of algae might give it that natural look it's just how much and how it looks that's going to be the main concern.


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Yea I'd imagine at minimum that I'm going to get some going on the upper stone. If nothing else it'll get a nice patina as it matures a little. 

Just made me think of something though. Might have to hack up a marimo ball and make some plugs for another type of "coral". It is algae after all right?


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## Jorge_Burrito (Nov 10, 2010)

MrJG said:


> I've been trying to rack my brain to think of what should inhabit this tank. I was really hoping to find something to complete that saltwater look. Needed something really colorful and odd.
> Not sure if the size or temperament will lend themselves well for this tank or not but I'm ordering a pair of peacock gudgeons tomorrow. I have 3 empty mature tanks at home so I'll house them somewhere there until I can see if they'll fit the bill for this tank or not.
> 
> Any other freshwater fish that strike you as being a saltwater doppelganger? I wish I could find some true freshwater bumblebee gobies. I think they would be a good fit as well but I don't want to subject some poor brackish fish to super soft acidic water.


What about dwarf puffers? I have seen some real brightly colored exotic looking black/yellows (of course I have also seen some that look quite dull).


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## monkeyfish (Jul 5, 2010)

I like the goby or puffer suggestions. Not sure about tank size requirements, and possibility of jumping out, but what about some killifish? Some, like gardneri,certainly have the saltwater coloring. Cool idea btw, subscribed. 

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## monkeyfish (Jul 5, 2010)

Maybe some star moss, disguised as some polyps?

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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

Endlers have some cool saltwaterish colors. I have some in my cube tank and dig em


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks for the suggestions all! 



Jorge_Burrito said:


> What about dwarf puffers? I have seen some real brightly colored exotic looking black/yellows (of course I have also seen some that look quite dull).


I've had the pea puffers before and this layout doesn't really have much cover for breaking up sight lines which would be needed with more than one in such a small tank. The larger puffers I think prefer brackish.



monkeyfish said:


> I like the goby or puffer suggestions. Not sure about tank size requirements, and possibility of jumping out, but what about some killifish? Some, like gardneri,certainly have the saltwater coloring. Cool idea btw, subscribed. Maybe some star moss, disguised as some polyps?



Funny you should mention killies. I'm picking up a few pairs of clowns from a local breeder at our meet this weekend and they might make their way in here. The star moss would be awesome but from the things I've read the stuff doesn't do well submerged long term. If you have some exp. with it otherwise definitely let me know as the look of the stuff would be a sure add.



shane3fan said:


> Endlers have some cool saltwaterish colors. I have some in my cube tank and dig em


Endlers! yea thats a good thought too. I think there was someone in our club keeping some registered ones... Black bar N? don't know much about them.

It doesn't appear at the moment that the peacock gudgeons are going to work out. My pair came in today and they look great. Currently tooling around in my 10 gallon 'tiger in my tank' layout. They may just be settling in but I've seen both of them slam hard right into the top rim already. So much so that I'm considering moving them again tonight into a half filled 29 gallon with some clown plecos and pygmy cories. Its too bad because I though they had the most potential for being saltwater fakers.

Some other nice suggestions from folks in my local club. Dario Dario aka scarlet badis, other darters/shiners, microfish like boraras. 

Now that the gudgeons might not work out I may switch up and try to do a micro community (within reason of course). I think the hardest thing to get a line on is Brachygobius xanthomelas. Both of my lfs don't have them on their order lists and Franks is out of stock. Of course they may not fit into a community very well either. I'll have to sleep on it a while. The fortunate thing is I have quite a few empty tanks at the moment so I can afford a few mis-firings.


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## defiesexistence (Sep 13, 2010)

Some shrimps could look like lobsters/ other shell fish combing along the 'reef'. Maybe one of the bumblebees (if that is the black and white kind?), or a red shrimp?

Love the current rock layout, but maybe if you added some porous-y pebbles (like lava) of varied colors and hid them so they made a subtle effect in the rocks? This is an interesting idea, and I like how it's coming along roud:

Oh, and yes, Marimo balls are a type of algae. They'll grow flat if you don't turn them.


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## OoglyBoogly (Oct 19, 2010)

Those lace plants remind me of some sort of weird coral but they get huge if I'm not mistaken. Endlers definitely have lots of color but they breed like they are the last of their kind in existence and it is their duty to repopulate the world. LOL I took lots of endler pics if you want to take a looksie:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.mucciardi/640x480?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrb_e7KqKuFlQE&feat=directlink

Recent pic in a different album:









I've seen some crazy looking killifish pics on aquabid from these sellers that sell killi eggs + artemia eggs. I never see anyone bid on the ones i've checked out and they seem to expire without any bids.


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## monkeyfish (Jul 5, 2010)

I want some clown killies myself. Definitely jumpers though, so no good for open top tanks. I have no experience with star moss, just thought the look would fit. 

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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

If there are not gonna be plants why not use plain white sand instead if substrate? I think It would look more like a SW tank. Maybe some dario dario for fish or harlequin shrimp but not both together. A small school of embers maybe. If you could find some blue axelrodi. Axelrodi would look like chromis and are nano fish so 10-15 would be ok. The hard scape looks great BTW. Maybe stacked to create shelfs like the reefers do.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

really diggin this. looks awesome


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks for all the kind words folks. 



MARIMOBALL said:


> If there are not gonna be plants why not use plain white sand instead if substrate?


Mainly because I was trying to use what I had lying around for this setup instead of buying new stuff. I really only made the decision for the reef concept after monkeying with the stone in the tank for a while and once it was set I didn't want to have to redo it. 

On that note after looking at the tank for a few weeks it seems too plain with just the MP on the rocks. I think I'm going to get 2-3 pots of Crypt 'parva' to plant around the base to get a little more greenery in there. 

Still not in a huge hurry for tank stocking as I'm off of work for three weeks out of the next six. If I can get them I'll throw a few amanos in to help keep things tidy in the meantime.


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## Sushieraser (Jul 28, 2010)

Also to give that SW feel, you could get a nice knobbly piece of wood, paint it a high gloss red and have it as a stand in for real coral while adding a pop of color.


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## Pooky125 (Jul 30, 2002)

What about a Sumatran Blue Neon Goby or two? They're pretty saltwater looking... And can be found at franksaquarium.com

He doesn't have any in stock at the moment, but he can probably get his hands on a few different species of freshwater bumblebee gobies as well. They're on his list most days.

A small school of Boraras brigittae might be my choice though. They get some really incredible color.

Personally, I think it's begging to be a sulawesi shrimp tank.







They're relatively new to the hobby, and probably on the pricey side, but definitely have the right look for a mock saltwater.


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

Did you ever do anything with this? 

Oh, and what the heck is up with the Braves? They look like last years team losing all of these close games.


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## VaultBoy (Nov 11, 2010)

This tank looks great would love to see it now that it has had a chance to mature any new pics/news?


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## Loop (Jan 8, 2011)

VaultBoy said:


> This tank looks great would love to see it now that it has had a chance to mature any new pics/news?


+1

I never noticed this thread before, but I'd like to see an update as well. Looks cool.


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## akdmks (Nov 15, 2009)

Update!!!!


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Heeey folks! I've been really busy lately so not much time for surfing and updating threads but I'll see what I can do. Thanks for pinging me with some replies! 

Tank is still up and tooling along. The mini pellia didn't take off quite like I'd hoped but its still there. Added some bits of fissidens in as well as some kind of gnarly red algae that I grew in another tank. Heck it looks kinda coral like so I threw it in there. 
Currently its a bit of a mash of plants. I put in 4 different types of ground cover type plants to see what would do well given the lighting (eleocharis 'belem', dwarf sag, staurogyne 'repens', and crypt 'parva'). Seems like the parva and sag is going to work best, the others are just barely hanging on. 

I'll try to get some pics in the near future but the tank is just as I wanted it. No maintenance. Top off the water once a week and let it roll. It hasn't had a single water change since the first fill-up. 

I finally decided on a baby dwarf honey gourami to inhabit the tank along with a few female cherry shrimp. 




shane3fan said:


> Oh, and what the heck is up with the Braves? They look like last years team losing all of these close games.


Ahh we'll come around. Its early in the season.  At least we didn't get a start like the Sox.


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