The big small set-up...is born :-)

And it came the day when my 11 gallon aquarium became alive. I got all I needed today to start the thing. Since this is going to be mainly a Red Cherry Shrimp tank, I decided to go with Box filter rather than power head. Shrimps will breed and power head would very likely "eat" my shrimplets.
I bought a very cheep air pump for the Box filter... ah well, budget is budget, one can't escape it :-) as well as some aquarium carbon. This is my first experience with Box filters. Will see how it goes. I use no heater for this set-up.
I installed two compact fluorescent lights over the tank. 2x5Wats which equals 2x25W (energy saving lightbulb - SPARSAM).
Since I discovered that this air pump of mine is very noisy, I decided to pack it a bit so that the box contains the sound. Even now it makes too much sound.
Check valve is a very secure, inexpensive thing to have. It will prevent water from back siphoning into the air pump that is driven by electricity.
I weigh down the Box corner with some gravel and ceramic plant weight, so it stay in tact.
I placed the filter in the right corner and will bury it in the gravel. The filter box is not very nicely designed so one should hide it as best as possible :-)
I chose dark grey crashed slate gravel that looks very nice submerged
I buried the box filter so that it still can be maintained without being pulled out completely. The catch is not to close the lid, but rather placed over and weigh it down with a small stone. Because when it comes to changing carbon and rinsing filter wool it would be very hard to open a closed box, trust me tried it.
I am very pleased with my stone-scape. The stones are not of the same color but will do anyway. The rest of the gravel is in, scape finished and it is ready to be filed with dechlorinated water.
I planted one Anubias nana and two stems of Hygrophila Rosanervig. I wonder how will the Rosanervig react to compact fluorescent lights. The Box filter is working well, and the O2 bubbles are agitating the water surface.
Yes, the water looks very cloudy, but that is very normal with new set-ups. The gravel particles need to settle down. Give it a week or so. The filter box is hidden behind the Anubias. Will soon plant a Java fern instead, that will totally cover the filter box.
Now lets wait two weeks for everything to settle down and some nitrifying bacteria develops in the Box filter. I will probably add some more Rosanervig to help the Silent cycling.

Photos by Dusko Bojic.