AussieNoGi - While I’ve been waiting for my cube to dry start, I quickly put together a small breeding tank with the left over gear.
Nano Breeding Tank
DSM Progress Week 1
Trying out new lens
Hmmmm Algae
Planting using Dry Start Method (DSM) 
Trying out new lens
Watfish from the AL forums gave me a few tips on how to use my new 100mm L macro lens today. I think these came out ok for a first timer.
Hmmmm Algae
Good news is that the grass seems to be doing ok. Still nice and green.
The bad news is that I seem to be having an algae problem:
Planting using Dry Start Method (DSM)
My hairgrass is in along with the fissden on the breeding caves. The soil is damp and I will spray mist daily for a few weeks before filling the tank with water.
And it finally begins
Now that most of the peripheral equipment has been taken care of, time to start doing stuff with the actual tank.
Fluval Edge stand mod
Working to a tight budget, I had ruled out getting the Fluval Edge tank early on in this project. However, that hasn’t stopped me from trying to achieve a similar look through DIY. I made some minor modifications to my first attempt:
DIY Light Stand
Firstly some materials from Bunnings:
These bottom 2 pieces I will join to make a lip for a splash back cover and also a lip for the LED plate to sit on. The top sheet was a thin flat piece of aluminium with fins that I noticed while looking at the stand frame. Thought to myself that they would be much better for the LEDs to attach to instead. A pic of how those 2 bits should stick together:
They didn’t have the 3 way that I needed so grabbed a 4-way and hacked it. LOL
All the pieces cut to size. I only had a cheap saw so the cuts were not straight. Rather than cutting again, anyone know if I can putty and paint the gaps? Also, those stickers are a PITA to take off, I gave up and will come back to them later. Didn’t want to use metho in case it damaged the paint.
I filled the base with some gravel substrate that I had leftover. I think I needed crusher dust though as it’s not heavy enough to weigh it down:
This is where I stopped. It’s not clicked in fully as I just wanted to see how it looked. I still need to cut the other strips to house the LEDs.
DIY Shrimp Breeding Caves
I used 1m sections of 25mm ploy pipe from the irrigation section at Bunnings. Cut them in 10cm lengths and superglue together. Due to the nature of the pipes, they will float in the tank so weigh them down with something. I used aquarium safe silicon and glued it to a piece of slate.
25mm poly pipe in 1m lengths
Pipes superglued together
The final product