My new 30 litre nano scape "New beginning"

[AquamaniacUK]

Hi

I recently decided to downgrade my scaping. I put my big tanks in storage and turned to the smaller, less time consuming and more affordable nano tanks.
More than cheap i wanted to find a way to still keep my scaping despite a more demanding professional and personal life.

The tank is a 30 litre that i picked up online on the cheap, and all the rest of the equipment and materials i already had in my box of left overs.

Here are some pics:

Day one:

2 months after:

Video:


At the moment there is only some red cherry shrimps and some Chilli rasboras in the tank.
I will add some more in the future.
Hope you guys like it.

 

[EnderUK]

I actually like this, it looks very natural.

 

[Andy Thurston]

Nice!
how many tubes are you using?

 

[Mr. Teapot]

What a great looking tank. Made all the better for the patina on the stones making for a very natural look. Really like the rock reaching the surface.

 

[1stgolf]

Hi just wondering what hob filter that is?

 

[AquamaniacUK]

Nice!
how many tubes are you using?

Thanks.
If by tubes you mean light bulbs I am using three T5's 3x8 watts.

What a great looking tank. Made all the better for the patina on the stones making for a very natural look. Really like the rock reaching the surface.

Thanks.
I am loving this one too.
The green look on the rocks was left on purpose to make it look natural and older.

Hi just wondering what hob filter that is?

The hang on back is an allpondsolutions.
Not the best of the bunch,but for less than 10£ it does the job.
Been thinking about replacing it because its not the most silent one, but In the end it does the job quite well and does not bother me.

 

[AquamaniacUK]

Here's an update and the setup of this tank.

Tank : 40 cm x 20 cm x 25 cm
Filtration : all pond solutions HOB
Heater : 25 watts
Lighting : 3x 8 watts T5
Hardscape: Landscape rocks
Substrate : unipac black sand
Fertile soil : Tropica plant growth
Fish : 4 Chilli rasboras ( more to be added)
Plants :
Hemianthus Callitrichoides (cuba)
Hemianthus Micranthemoides
Weeping moss

The tank looks awesome.Plants really took over, got some minor problems with brown algae but nothing major.
On the other hand my sherry shrimp died for no reason, since the fish seem fine, i am not sure what it is.
Suspect the fertilizer or easycarbo might have something to do with it.
I will not add any more shrimps to this tank.
Here are some pics:

Hope you guys like it.

 

[Jaap]

What is the litres per hour rate of your filter?

Do you dose easy carbon as well? How much?

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

 

[AquamaniacUK]

What is the litres per hour rate of your filter?

Do you dose easy carbon as well? How much?

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

The filter is rated for 400 liters per hour.
According to the manufacturer its good for tanks up to 60 liters.
You can increase or decrease the flow at your wish trough a valve on the filter.
I cannot confirm if it gives the exact flow stated, what I can confirm is that for this 30 liter tank is more than enough, and gives enough flow to ensure a good co2/nutrient distribuition.
Mind you its cheap, but its a bit noisy.

I dose easycarbo to help keep algae at bay.
Used to do it everyday in the begining but now only when I do water changes. The tank is well balanced and fully grown now.
I do not use it for co2, this tank uses a pressurized system.

 

[sciencefiction]

Very nice, I love the combination of colours between the carpeting plants and the moss and also the algae on the stones in the previous pictures was awesome. Pity about the shrimp. It's probably the co2.

 

[AquamaniacUK]

Very nice, I love the combination of colours between the carpeting plants and the moss and also the algae on the stones in the previous pictures was awesome. Pity about the shrimp. It's probably the co2.

Thanks.
The algae was awesome, unfortunaly I had a bit of a brown algae problem and its all but gone.
I really do not think they died because of co2.
Easycarbo or the fertilizer are my prime suspects, a pattern emerged of losing shrimps hours after every water change, and the only change was that I was adding more fertilizer because of the increasing plant mass, and easycarbo to help keep algae at bay.
If excess co2 was the problem I think the fish would also be affected, and until this day they are fine.

 

[sciencefiction]

If excess co2 was the problem I think the fish would also be affected, and until this day they are fine.

That's not necessarily true. Shrimp are the best excess CO2 indicators as they are the first to respond and show distress symptoms. And fish too differ per species.
Although despite that I can't rule out easy carbo overdoses because I've seen distressed shrimp when I was overdosing liquid carbon. I had a couple in a breeder box I forgot about and they tried to get out of the box literally but didn't die outright. I just moved them out of the tank.

 

[AquamaniacUK]

That's not necessarily true. Shrimp are the best excess CO2 indicators as they are the first to respond and show distress symptoms. And fish too differ per species.
Although despite that I can't rule out easy carbo overdoses because I've seen distressed shrimp when I was overdosing liquid carbon. I had a couple in a breeder box I forgot about and they tried to get out of the box literally but didn't die outright. I just moved them out of the tank.

Thanks.
I am dosing easycarbo but I am not overdosing.
So maybe you're right and it was excess co2 in the tank.
I've dosed easycarbo with shrimps lots of times and never loss a shrimp before.
But it was on a 240 liter tank.
This one is just 30 liter though.
I feel sorry for the those shrimps they looked lovely on tank and I loved shrimps since the first time i had them.

 

[sciencefiction]

Well, it's not excess for the plants or fish but for the shrimp Unless they had some bacterial infection but then you would have noticed symptoms such as in fish, like funny white milky colour or staying motionless for days, missing legs, etc..
I've dosed 1x easy carbo and excel with shrimp and although I can't claim they were truly happy they didn't die though I remember one death at that time that I decided to attribute to the liquid carbon at the time.
A bigger dose of liquid carbon for sure isn't tolerated well but I haven't done a big enough dose to see if they'd die from it.

 

[AquamaniacUK]

Hi

Its been sometime without any updates on this tank.
Here are some pictures:

May:
This light unit was just being tested here, i purchased it for another tank.
But it did make it look much better.

Video:



Then i got injured during football match and without the use of one of my hands and in pain the tank was left to its own design and the algae came.

Video of the tank covered in algae:



Hope you guys like it.

 

[AquamaniacUK]

Hi

This scape has come to an end after 7 months, it was disassembled two days ago and a new scape as already replaced it.
That said before closing this thread i would like to share a final video of the tank.
This tank was called new beginning because it came at a time where was even considering leaving the hobby.
My busier life was not allowing me to keep my bigger tanks, so this small 30 litre tank, was not only the tank that allowed me to stay in the hobby but opened a door to endless possibilities, i am already on my 3rd scape this year, all of them infinitely better than all my scapes in the last years.
Mainly because these small tanks allowed to create scapes that can afford and at the same time maintain.
It proved to be perfect for my needs.
Before i had planted tanks, some more sucessfull than others but nothing major, but this little tank finally allowed me to take aquascaping more serious.
It was indeed a "New beginning".





Hope you guys like it.