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First planted tank: hi-tech nano

luckyjim

luckyjim

Member
Joined
26 Jan 2015
Messages
156
Hi everyone.,

I am going to post a journal and post some photos here in the hope that if anyone spots obvious blunders, I can get some pre-warning! Any advice or opinions on any aspect of this project will be appreciated.

I have very basic experience in aquarium keeping. Back when I was about 14, I kept a large very low tech "pond style" tank with the aim of breeding sticklebacks. I was successful in so much as my sticklebacks bred...then a rival male ate the eggs. Fascinating mating behaviour though, and I would recommend to anyone with a coldwater tank. More recently, about a year ago I tried a c.50 gallon high with pretty ropey equipment. I maybe all the newbie mistakes and it crashed after a couple of weeks.

A few weeks ago I bought myself a fluval chi 6 gallon when browsing amazon through boredom. This is now cycling as a low tech "jungle" tank which I aim to put a siamese fighter in. With that intention in mind, I wondered down to Charterhouse Aquatics last weekend (only a few minutes walk from me).

They had a 35l aqustyle on display which, I found after chatting with the staff, they were getting rid of. So I bought at a knock down price with the stand. Also picked up a piece of redmoor root for a fiver and a bag of eco complete substrate (if I'd done some research and bought ADA aquasoil).

Having browsed around for ideas, I came across James Marshall's amazing "forest edge" scape here (http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/...a-retrospective-journal-iaplc-2013-158.28745/), which I decided to use on as a guide for planting. Bought some in vitro grown stock as I decided my best chance at a carpet was through a dry start.

Last night I took the plunge and put in the hardscape and plants for the dry start. Here is the tank spec and photos:

Tank: Eheim aquastyle 35 litre nano ( Charterhouse Aquatics ) 35cm high, 31cm depth, 31cm width.
Lighting: For now, stock Eheim powerLED (7w unit, 3100 lux, 6.500 Kelvin). However, after a bit of research, and a brief tussle with my conscience over IP issues, I've ordered a Chinese knock-off of the ADA Aquasky, which I have read has a very similar performance to the original ( ebay ).
Filter: Stock Eheim internal corner filter ( link ). 200 litres an hour turnover.
Heater: Interpet Aquatic Heater - 100W Deltatherm Heater.
Substrate: Eco complete ( link ).
Hardscape: Redmoor root, which I put through the dishwasher 4 times (no detergent) but is not soaked.
CO2: Bought the basic kit from CO2 Art and a 2kg fire extinguisher.
Plants: Hemianthus callitrichoides, Eleocharis parvula, Staurogyne repens, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Christmas moss, monte carlo, and a random rotala species (pearl) and a red looking species that the vendor included ( keenshrimp, ebay )
Stocking: Dry start and I'm not totally decided, but I love the look of Galaxy Pearl Danios and I would like to get some small shrimp, maybe red cherry shrimp although it might be nice to get some unusual if I can.
Ferts: I added a couple of squirts of Tropica specialised fertiliser, I also mixed in a few opened up osmocote root tabs and crushed up fired clay peat balls with the eco complete for the dry start, as it has no macros.

Hardscape only:

atLVCro.jpg


Planted:

s4yLDxv.jpg


Staurogyne repens is largely in background, a few plans around base of wood. Lilaeopsis brasiliensis around base of wood. Dwarf hairgrass is mid left, HC is bottom left and centre. Monte carlo is front right. Random rotala pearl (?) is mid right. Christmas moss on the wood.

I "sprinkled" the HC on the substrate. I found the dwarf hairgrass challenging the plant. Monte carlo is in largish clumps lightly pushed onto substrate. The stauro I tried to bury roots in substrate, same with the Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, although I found it difficult as roots seemed small and delicate.

Side view:

svrg52i.jpg


The water is at the top of the substrate at the front (i.e. lowest point). I have put the heater in a plastic bottle full of water set to around 25 degrees, as its freezing outside and pretty cold in the flat even with the heating on. Makes it a bit tricky to seal the top with clingfilm though.

I plan to have the light on from around 7:30am to 10:30pm each day. I will open up the clingfilm for air circulation and to mist in the morning and evening.

As I say, would be grateful for any pointers, warnings, or suggestions. Hopefully its not too late to make any adjustments.

Thanks!
 
Thanks Chris. I've just used a pipette to draw out a good amount of water. The water level is now sitting a good 3cm below the top of the substrate at the front.

I wondered about the lighting. My logic was that the eheim "power" LED is not really "high light". Will reduce it down to 10 hours using a timer.
 
Thanks Jordi. I partly wish I'd seen your low tech before I went all out and committed to hi-tech, it is beautiful.

However, I suspect I will end up getting another nano at some point to do a low tech like yours, in which case I would just get an external filter for this one and switch the eheim led / corner filter fitting across. :)
 
Since I've ordered a minimalist high lighting system, I am considering going the whole hog and installing an external / lily pipes system. Partly because I am pre-empting issues with flow rate and CO2 diffusion / distribution once the tank is flooded. Also, aesthetically the internal corner filter is already jarring.

Can anyone recommend an appropriate external filter / inline heater / CO2 reactor for this project? Bearing in mind it is a 35 litre tank, 35cm high, and has a (overly?) large central hardscape feature. Also difficult carpeting plants!

If anyone has second hand hardware for sale, that would be ideal. I am not in a huge rush, since I guess the emersed start will be going for around a month or so.
 
Hi I like it, nice choice of wood. Have you looked at the Eden external range they don't look bad for the money. They have a built in heater too. If your in no rush I'd imagine as the mth passes you will of posted enough to enter the forsales section. They will be lots there you had no idea you needed. Keeps happening to me.:D
 
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Thanks kirk, the wood is probably a little bit dominant in the scape but I quite liked the look of it. It reminds me of the upturned roots of the big trees in Richmond Park that were blown over in the great storm of 1987 that I used to play on as a kid. Thought it might make a nice personal inspiration for a first tank, will have to see how it looks once grown in.

Thanks for the suggestion on the Eden range, I will have a look.
 
OK time for an update.

Some fairly substantial changes. I went away for 4 days 4 - 8 February with instructions to my flatmate to mist once a day and peel back the cling film for ten minutes to allow gas exchange. However, since he has a life that doesn't involve looking after difficult to manage plants, I suspect that didn't happen. Thankfully there weren't any major disasters. The only annoying casualty was the stauro which dried up/rotted. I removed that.

The other, more focal, plants seem to be doing pretty well. The HC is growing nicely and filling in. The Lilaeopsis brasiliensis also seems to be doing well. The dwarf hairgrass didn't seem to be doing anything at all, except brown at the ends, until a few days ago when new shoots have started to emerge, although it still looks much more sparse than the HC. The monte carlo on the right hand side has seen mixed success. Some clumps have clearly died and are now gradually rotting away. About 70% of it seems to have survived and is growing out quite nicely. In retrospect, I think this is because it was the last of the in vitro plants I planted, and I had begun to run out of patience and planted in larger clumps, rather than carefully breaking up as I did with the HC. The rotala pearl melted and the moss dried up and came out with the redmoor wood. The random red plant, which I think is hygrophilia sp. aruguaia, seems to be doing pretty well. I have continued misting, and occasionally adding a small squirt of tropica + to empty areas of the eco complete substrate. I am keeping the water level a couple of cm below the top of the substrate.

Secondly, having thought on it, I realised I was never going to be happy with the hardscape wood. It is a nice piece of redmoor but simply too big for this tank. It also made maintenance and general fiddling awkward. I've now taken that out.

I was a little bit lost on a new hardscape so I just put in some small bits of flint to create a mini iwugami style scape for the time being. Given this is a first real attempt I expect there will be a degree of change/evolution as the tank progresses. Taking the wood out also left some blank substrate so I ordered two more pots of HC and one dwarf hairgrass which I filled in the gaps and planted around the stones. I also stuck in some sprigs of Hydrocotyle sp. Japan at the back for the time being. The logic is that they will help in the tank cycling and fill out the back a bit, I suspect I will take them out and put them in my betta nano tank, and replace with nicer background plants once the tank is established.

Thirdly, I decided to get some more equipment. As kirk suggested above (thanks!) I got a second hand (but unused) Eden canister filter from ebay (link). Hopefully that should provide enough filtration, flow, and temperature control for a 35 litre - although given its a dry start I haven't tested it yet. My only concerns are that I want to have it about a foot under the tank, which might underpower it, and I read a few reviews that said the ceramic media isn't up to much. However, given it is advertised at 600 litres an hour, and I am planning to understock the tank, fingers crossed that neither of these should cause an issue. I also bought a basic inline diffuser from CO2art ( link ) and some basic lily pipes (link). Again, these are nothing fancy, but I am hoping that given they are designed for standard sized tanks they should do the trick in my (albeit large) nano. Finally the "chihiro" "aquasky" (as discussed here) arrived. From my position of complete inexperience I am impressed. In the week I have had it operating there has been a noticable increase in growth. My only gripe is that when the remote fixture is added, it only comes on at half power (you have to turn it up to full with remote), which is an irritant as I have it set on a timer, so it is not fitted for the time being.

Two and a half weeks in and it seems to be doing quite nicely - well no crash yet anyway. My main concerns are:
1) I have no idea if the plants (in particular the HC are actually rooted, or just growing at the surface. Given I am using eco-complete I worry it is the latter, and they will all just float to the surface once I flood the tank.
2) Is it only a matter of time before I start getting mould / fungus on the emersed plants?
3) When is the optimum time to flood the tank? Is there a point where continuing emersed growth damages ultimate chances for success?

I also still need to think about hardscape before flooding. I don't want to be faffing around with major changes once the tank is going. The other option I was considering was a largish "bough" of wood covered in riccia. That would have the advantage of being removable for maintenance purposes.

Anyway here is a photo from a few days ago showing roughly where I'm currently at:

0bWbpJo.jpg



As before, any suggestions, criticisms, comments, all welcome. Already been on a steep learning curve, would appreciate warnings or directions from those who have been here before. Thanks for reading.
 
luckyjim said:
Thanks kirk, the wood is probably a little bit dominant in the scape but I quite liked the look of it. It reminds me of the upturned roots of the big trees in Richmond Park that were blown over in the great storm of 1987 that I used to play on as a kid. Thought it might make a nice personal inspiration for a first tank, will have to see how it looks once grown in.

Thanks for the suggestion on the Eden range, I will have a look.
Click to expand...
I was born in that storm and not all that far from Richmond either!

Lovely looking scape. Will certainly keep watching out for the progress


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I'll echo, lovely tank :)

Some thoughts about EC, if you like to mess about with the scape (hardscape or plantscape) it's awesome, tank will clear very quickly. And it's a nice color/texture (much less sharp than Flourite etc).
It's a bit light so vigorous current, or substrate vacuuming during water changes, or substrate sifting fish will easily lift it - this combined with the fact that it doesn't seem to promote rooting in the same manner as some other substrates, will mean that, yes, there's a good chance the HC etc may begin to lift when you flood the tank: local solution is toothpicks! LOTS of toothpicks done in a X pattern through the HC, Glosso etc carpet; these are then removed after a couple weeks.
(I've seen this toothpick method used in ADA soils as well).

You might also scatter more EC (if you've some leftover) across the carpet before flooding, this also helps & is soon grown over (or black sand would work well for this).

I set up a tank with EC a few months ago & then a second tank with Tropica substrate + sand: when I rescape, I'll add some Tropica Substrate under the EC.

If you've not secured the new root wood, it may float upon flooding - the EC won't do much to hold it down; especially once you have current.

If the emersed growth gets too thick, lower plant matter may suffer so consider trimming these areas (read schruz's journal)
 
Thanks chaps, and thanks for the advice alto. I have some very fine black gravel, more like coarse sand, so I might give this a try. Will this not block the light and CO2 uptake though? How much are we talking about?
 
Just a sprinkle, you should still be seeing mostly green when 'done' - plants will grow through it just as any other substrate, over time the sand will disappear into the EC.
You might give a few plants a tug to check rooting.
 
I think I am now in a position to flood the tank.

I'm posting again with a plea for any advice or warnings, this is my first high tech tank. Thanks again for all the help offered so far! And apologies for the phone-camera quality pictures.

So, I have continued to fiddle around to try and make sure I am happy with the hardscape. I am settled now, decided to try and keep things simple, but that the previous pseudo-iwagami wasn't right for this tank. I picked up a piece of bogwood that I think fits the tank dimensions reasonably well. Nothing spectacular but this is a learner tank really. I also flipped the tank round because I wasn't a huge fan of the bent glass/rounded corners.

I have had the filter (Eden 511 with built in heater) set up and running in a bucket for a couple of days. Really it is to make sure it works, but I put half a dozen balls of Eheim SUBSTRATpro from the filter in my cycled nano in with the ceramic media, so I am hoping it will give it a head start on the cycling process. Also put some fish food in there to provide an ammonia source.

I've also put together the fire extuinguisher CO2 setup and fed it into the filter output (via inline diffuser). All of the kit comes from CO2art. It seems to be working well. However, I'm slight lost on what the regulator values should be reading (and if adjustment is necessary, how I go about this). This photo is rotated 90 degrees, the regulator is positioned sideways if that makes a difference.

cDCF62i.jpg


The insides of the dials are slightly misty because I put it all underwater to check for leaks, didn't realise it wasn't watertight.

I was planning on blasting the CO2 in for the first week or so to help the transition of the plants from emersed to submersed states. I haven't set the dropchecker up yet, will do so once the tank is flooded.

Here is the full tank shot (and side shot), with the lily pipe inlet/outlets in the position I hope to use them in so they aren't too intrusive. To be honest, they are too large for the tank. This is because all of the hardware is slightly oversized/overpowered. My logic was firstly that this would help deal with any problems (high filtration rate and flow, ability to push in lots of CO2, and ability to nuke the tank with light if necessary). Secondly, it should give me the ability to upgrade to a slightly larger tank in the future. Hence the larger lily pipes. Any opinions on whether this will give me sufficient flow around the tank? Or do I need to reposition them?

JjkCvbg.jpg


Side view showing position of the lily pipes:

0103bgw.jpg


And finally a top shot showing the plant layout:

NKbq16Q.jpg


The rotala indicia and ludwiga rubin I have ordered online and should be arriving in the next few days. The HC seems pretty healthy and, hopefully, well routed. Monte carlo semed a bit more fragile on the dry start and I imagine will be overcome by the HC. Hairgrass has survived, but hasn't exactly thrived, although there has been a little bit of new growth. The two holes in the carpet are bits of brasiliensis that I hope will grow in and break it up a bit. Slightly worried about how quickly the hydrocotyle has grown, and whether it will choke the other stuff once submerged. Trim it back? If anyne is wondering what the little circle is at the bottom right, its a length of pipe I put in so I could control the water level in the substrate (using a pipette to extract excess after misting).

Anyway I think that's it, advice appreciated!

Thanks for reading.
 
Disaster strikes!

Whilst I was writing the above update I put the CO2 on to give it another check. By the time I was finished, the readings on both dials had dropped to zero!!!

Presumably this means something was wrong - a leak perhaps - and the FE has emptied itself of CO2?
 
OK now I'm confused. I switched everything off and back on again (and straightened the regulator for luck) and it seems to be working again. Values have gone back up to the same level as before on both dials?

I have to admit I'm a bit lost here on how this is supposed to be working. Also feeling like I shouldn't be screwing around with high pressure CO2 canisters! I am going to leave it switched on for now and see if it happens again.
 
Thanks Andy. It seems a bit ridiculous that I'm essentially already on version #3 before I've even filled the tank! The first bit of redmoor wood is nice, but on reflection just too big for this tank. It made trying to adjust stuff very difficult and didn't leave much room for anything else! I am going to keep it in reserve for the inevitable third tank.

If you are after a piece like it and in London, I got it from Charterhouse aquatics, they have quite a bit there and very reasonably priced - I think it cost a fiver. Suspect they do hardscape materials at pretty much cost price to get people in to buy the proper hardware.
 
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