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Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (month 3)

pariahrob

pariahrob

New Member
Joined
15 Mar 2012
Messages
668
Location
Warminster
Morning all,

Yesterday I picked up my nano tank. It's an Aqua One aquaspace, with a little LED light a filter and a snazzy design.

I've been planning one for a while, mostly to keep shrimp in but also try my hand at scaping something small. This is the medium sized in the range, at 20L. It also has a black background from the factory.

My plan is to go one of two ways with it.

One would be a simple mossy layout with a bit of rock (I have a load of dragonstone left from 60-P and some flame moss in the background, mostly to cover the filter.

Second idea and the one I'm favouring is to go with a focus piece of wood surrounded by a variety of plants. I'd be going for grasses and maybe some mosses, with the odd small pice of stone showing it's face.

I'll post a few pictures when I get home and start playing with ideas.
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank.

Woohoo - setting up your next tank already! There's no stopping you now :lol:

My vote goes to the wood, too. You might as well try something different to your existing tank.
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank.

Yep, I'm on a roll!

I had more bogwood soaked too, so made a start on the nano today. I stopped by Amazon Aquatics on the way back home this morning and picked up some plants.
You can try to see through the murk here and guess what's in there or check out my post on my 60-P journal, seeing as that tank was housing them while I sorted a few things out (including some white spot - what a week!).

I used some of the amazonia I had left over for this tank too, complete with the powder type on top.

I had a piece of bogwood that was perfect for the 'post' and another couple that were just interesting shapes but I only used one of those. The main post I needed to cut to fit what I wanted but the leftover end went back in the tank.

I've started the filter up and am using ADA baxter 100 under the substrate plus some sera nitrivec. It promises safety for fish after 24 hours but I'm a little dubious as to that but we will see.

Picture time. Not pretty yet. The nitirivec makes the tank pretty murky for a while. I also have more planting to do so will update over the weekend.

Crits and comments welcome as always.

7142338503_09ebb01d48_z.jpg

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Excuse lack of polarisation and smudged glass!
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

Water is pretty much cleared now. I decided I wasn't too keen on some of the plant placements, so have had a slight shuffle round.
I'm not going to go for a carpet or anything too high maintenance in this tank. This is going to be a shrimp only tank (I say that now but I'm tempted by pipefish) and I might get some mosses but nothing too demanding.
I have a couple of crypts, saggitraius and the cabomba (mostly to hide the internal filter).
There's also a moss ball but who knows what will happen with that!
You can't quite see in these photos but one of the pieces of wood has a really nice natural cave, although I think I should probably get a few tubes as well.

I need to get some gause for the filter to save the shrimplets, a heater and some floss for the filter to help it clear a bit better.

I think I boiled and soaked the wood enough. No visible leeching this morning.

All good so far. Just need to sort those things and get the thing cycled and fill it with shrimp!

Is it worth stealing some bio media from the main tank for the filter in this?
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

No fish to start with. I'll move some filter media today and check to see how well that helps it cycle. I could put in a little food to help with bio load though.

I got myself a little Eheim heater today. Shame they are so ugly! The Hydor I have on the other tank is great but a bit overkill for this nano. I'll just have to grow something to hide it!
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

OK, here is the current state of play. Still a little cloudy and bubbles everywhere but it's coming together.
Some moss here and there could look good and maybe some staurogyne repens around the base of the post.

I have to say I hate the heater. They are such ugly things! If it was a couple of inches shorter I could hide it. I know the purpose of this tank isn't to look great but still. I may end up swapping it for one of those slimline black fluvial edge heaters. At least I could hide that.

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Day_002 by
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

Oh dear, I see what you mean about the heater. It's very intrusive, isn't it. I just got a 25W heater for my nano from Orinoco Aquatics. It's matt black, and seems quite effective, but it is fixed at 25 degrees.

Apart from that, though, it's looking good! (Despite the lack of Rob reflection :lol: ). Nice placement of the wood IMO.
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

spyder said:
pariahrob said:
Is it worth stealing some bio media from the main tank for the filter in this?
Click to expand...

This is a good idea. You would want to add a bio load too. I usually use a few guppies.

I think Gill had pipefish but had issues with them feeding and such.
Click to expand...

Yes they are VVVV Picky Eaters. Make sure that the LFS that has them, Has actually seen them eating frozen foods. Or Else they will only want Live food, So be prepared to have a stock of it.
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

If you go for Pipefish it's pretty unlikely that the tropshop will have taken the time to get them feeding properly. I would suggest getting them soon after the shop receives them and training them yourself. This is what works for me;
Start with live foods, and use as many different types as you can. At first they may only take one or two kinds.
Wean them on to a greater variety by feeding a few of their favourite with another food. eg if they don't take to brine shrimps but love Daphnia, offer brine shrimps at the same time as a few Daphnia.
Next feed a mix of a live food they will (now) readily eat plus some that is dead or nearly dead. eg take some Daphnia out of water for a while so it doesn't swim around when you feed it to the fish. Ideal for this is to use the exuviae of insects, - the empty skins left behind when pupae split open and the adult flies away. You can do this with mosquito larvae and glassworms.
Once they are used to eating dead (or non-moving) foods you can add (thawed) frozen food, again mixing the same kind, eg a few live glassworms, some glassworm exuviae and some frozen glassworms.
Glassworms are particularly good for their first frozen food because they float around in the flow for a long time before sinking. Most frozen foods sink quite quickly and Pipefish may not get them before they hit the substrate, where the fish are usually not interested.
Once they are used to frozen glassworms and eat them avidly, introduce other types of frozen food in small amounts to see if they will catch them before they hit the bottom. If not, try again a few days later. This usually works best when they have learned to recognise you and associate your approach with food.
Once they accept frozen versions of foods they take alive you can try other frozen foods, lobster eggs, fishflesh, clam meat etc. Once again they are more likely to take to it if you feed a mix of one new and one familiar food.
Try to get them on to a good variety of both live and frozen, at the very least one kind of crustacean and one kind of insect and preferably some fish flesh or eggs. The more variety you feed them the less chance of any deficiency in the overall diet, also you are not dependent on availability of one particular food.
hth
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

pariahrob said:
Think one of those little inconspicuous orinoco heaters is in order!
Click to expand...
Definitely! Although the current heater does delimit the edge of the plant growth rather well :lol:

Looking good - and you've done a nice job of hiding the filter :clap:
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

Thanks Sarah, if I'd had the choice I would have bought a HOB filter, or even an air driven sponge for this tank but it was in the bundle, so can't complain too much.
I've ordered one of the orinoco heaters you have. That will look so much better and give me a little more room to play with. I'd like to get some moss of some kind in the background.

Oh and that one tiny piece of HC in the left foreground was pearling away this evening. I wonder if it will spread. I hate to think how long a carpet might take!
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (Day 1 photos)

Not too much to report here. Still cycling the tank, ready for some cherries. The plants are doing ok though. In fact the cabomba is in dire need of a trim. It's almost out of the water now!

Feels like a lot of growth for just two weeks.
 
Re: Rob's Fencepost nano tank. (week2)

LOL I saw the pic, saw the heater and before I had chance to put a comment about a mini heater I read your post ! Definitely go for one of them mate. Its looking good though. Never seen Cabomba look so healthy hehe.
 
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