BryceM

Well I did a journal here for my 180g tank so why not do another one for the 8" cube nano that I'll be setting up soon? A good friend from NEAPS (Texex94) graciously sent me one of his. I'm still not sure why (maybe it leaks? ) but I didn't argue. He also send a nano-sized heater and Red Sea HOB filter.

This will be going into my office at work. I joined another surgeon about a year ago, spent the past several months remodelling the office building to accomodate both of us, and finally, I have a place to call my own. I'm thinking of a bigger tank (75g) for the waiting room, but that's a story for another time.

The tank totals 2.2g if full to the brim. After substrate, rocks, etc it'll probably be around a 1.8g water column. Like my 180g tank I'll probably try a hybrid of a couple different aquascaping styles. I'll probably use some smaller Manzanita branches, a bit of rock, and a variety of plant shapes & sizes. Candidates from my other tanks include Blyxa japonica, HC, HM, a few smaller crypts, some Anubias nana 'petite', Eliocharis, Taiwan moss, and maybe some of the smaller-leafed rotala species. Probably I'll pick 4 or 5 of these to try to tie it together.

For light I found a "daylight desktop lamp" at a local junk store. It has a 27W 6,500K CF lightbulb. It's way, way too big from a WPG viewpoint (even for a nano), but the lamp matches the decor of the office perfectly and I think it'll be ok if I move it up and away from the tank a bit.

I'm still thinking about what the occupants should be. I already have some Galaxy Rasboras (aka Celestial Pearl Danios) in my 46g tank that might work. The trouble is that I have 7 of them. I don't think they'd all fit in the nano and I sort of hate to break them up. 3 would probably be a better number. It seems like a few shrimp might be fun too. I dunno. Other possibilities include Endler's or maybe even something else.

I haven't tried ADA's substrates before so I figured I'll try out some Amazonia II. Carbon supplementation will be via Excel to keep it simple. I'll post some photos when all of the components get here. One MAJOR advantage with nanos is the time and money it takes to get them off the ground. They're not as "ohhh-ahhh" as a nice big tank but still pretty interesting.