• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Cold water planted Nano?

Hi,

I seldom heat my nano tanks (unless I have some fish that requires it).

The tank is in the attic (not sure this is the correct word) so the temperature fluctuates with the season quite a lot between 12 C during winter to 22 C in summer.
I have maintained a variety of aquatic plants, red cherry and neritine snails all year around with no problems. Even with guppy it seems fine during winter... I would worry about ottos though... white minnows will be fine.

But for a small nano tank, red cherry and neritine snails is all you need... as for cleaning team.

Some people here maintain red cherry on ponds all year around. They do not seem to bother... little bulldozers these guys...

GM
 
sweet thats ideal advice, yeah i was curious about the ottos.. maybe ill do some more research.. I was thinking about geting a crew of tiger shrimp.. also what do people think are the best snails to clean your tank with?
 
Hi all,
so Otto's it will be! I'll just make sure I heat the tank slightly during the school holidays when they turn the heating off...&.......I would worry about ottos though
Click to expand...
I don't think Otocinclus are suitable, they require warm, well oxygenated good quality water. I'd go shrimp and snail only.

cheers Darrel
 
Ok - thanks - I'll grab some shrimps out of my 'big' tank to add to my Ramshorns that are already in there. I also do not plan to add any CO2 to this tank. What are my chances of good (slow) plant growth? And...do White Clouds jump??

Many thanks
 
Well we're not heating out shop and last year with open window the closest tank to the window cooled down to 18-19 celsius. With more light and co2 we've seen that we've got hair algae shortly after that. I guess the bacterial filtration power decrease a lot under 20 celsius. But this was with high light, so you may will be ok with a bit lower light than we had.
 
Hey, that's a good point - I hadn't thought about the effect the lower temps would have on the filter bacteria. Hopefully it will be warm enough for them to function effectively but I'll let you know in January!

Open top tank- will White Clouds jump out?? Anyone?
 
viktorlantos said:
Well we're not heating out shop and last year with open window the closest tank to the window cooled down to 18-19 celsius. With more light and co2 we've seen that we've got hair algae shortly after that. I guess the bacterial filtration power decrease a lot under 20 celsius. But this was with high light, so you may will be ok with a bit lower light than we had.
Click to expand...

I really do not think bacteria are that sensitive!!! Otherwise, what would be of cold freshwater keepers? They also run filters with bacteria etc... What about pond filters?

I have had no problems running my tanks at lower temps. Actually, I think that plants grow a lot better but this is just anecdotal evidence...

I am sure something else might have happened with your tank. Perhaps more ligh getting in due to the open window??

cheers

GM
 
Will find the study about this for you. The key was the high light - sensitive balance - vs too cold water. As we heated up the tank water to 22c again all problems disappeared.

There's a study about it that colder water cause decreased filter bacterial activity. Need to find it. But this was the first time i experienced that way under 20c with high light


Mi másról, mint iPhone-ról Tapatalk progival ;)
 
I think there is an optimum temperature for bacteria to flourish, outside pond filters most definitely slow down their biological process in the winter months & cold water reef tanks rely on skimmers & water changes rather than biological activity - however I think biological filters still work pretty well down to about 15-16c & up to about 30c.

In the outside pond situation, the spring time is a dangerous time for fish as they start to feed before the filters are fully active. It is quite common to get both algae outbreaks & fish illness at this critical time hence the fashion to heat koi pond thought out the winter months.
 
Just an additional thoughts to my previous post. However the window was open by a few centimeter, but no additional light comes in that time. We had -15C outside and the closest tank to the window had a Super Jet filter which is a steel housed thing (exchange heat quicker).

I guess at night the tank cooled down to 15 and daytime was 17-18C

I found something quickly on google but will seek for the detailed answer for you on bacterial activity vs cold water.

http://www.bioconlabs.com/nitribactfacts.html

Temperature

The temperature for optimum growth of nitrifying bacteria is between 77-86° F (25-30° C).

Growth rate is decreased by 50% at 64° F (18° C).

Growth rate is decreased by 75% at 46-50° F.

No activity will occur at 39° F (4° C)

Nitrifying bacteria will die at 32° F (0° C).

Nitrifying bacteria will die at 120° F (49° C)

Nitrobacter is less tolerant of low temperatures than Nitrosomonas. In cold water systems, care must be taken to monitor the accumulation of nitrites.

pH

The optimum pH range for Nitrosomonas is between 7.8-8.0.

The optimum pH range for Nitrobacter is between 7.3-7.5

Nitrobacter will grow more slowly at the high pH levels typical of marine aquaria and preferred by African Rift Lake Cichlids. Initial high nitrite concentrations may exist. At pH levels below 7.0, Nitrosomonas will grow more slowly and increases in ammonia may become evident. Nitrosomonas growth is inhibited at a pH of 6.5. All nitrification is inhibited if the pH drops to 6.0 or less. Care must be taken to monitor ammonia if the pH begins to drop close to 6.5. At this pH almost all of the ammonia present in the water will be in the mildly toxic, ionized NH3+ state.
Click to expand...

So as the above lines describe there's a border below 20C when you see changes with the bacterial activity. On our high energy tank this proven visible effect in a day. Once the tank got heated back above 21C the issues disappeared just as quickly as it comes before

I remember i had a discussion with probably Clive before on low pH vs bacterial activity. Since we're using soft water on our tank with very low pH 5.6 we're facing different issues than others who run only tap water.

Low pH caused similar issue in a high energy tank sometimes like the very cold water.

In this enviroment we clearly seen that the first algae what appears with the above conditions is hair algae. Since we're running same fertilization, water change, maintenance, filtration power, filter medium, light hours and light setup we got to a conclusion there's a connection between too cold water and bad filter performance and low pH (around 6.3 and below) and filter performance.

Now all of our tanks are running at 21-22C water temp and pH around 6.5-6.8
We taking care that water has enough buffering capacity so using GH/KH booster on those tanks which got super soft after water changes and has no decor what increasing the hardness.

Without telling this is all something what usually happens at everyone this was only our conclusion in the past 2 years soft water / cold water activity.

But back to the topic you're fine above 20C under that fishes will be more sensitive to diseases, shrimps will slow down and breeding will stop etc.
 
This is really interesting. Thanks for the insight Victor. I use Hydor inline heater set at 24C but to be honest it hardly ever comes on as the room is always 22C or so. .. Maybe I'll just do without the heater next time round. That'll leave more room in the cabinet for a big CO2 reactor
 
Here is my cold water nano with fire red shrimp

7697537864_fc3845e246.jpg
 
I have a small heater so it sounds sensible to set it to 21C and keep the worry of a cold snap in the room effecting the filter performance to a minimum. Also seems that White Cloud Minnows don't usually jump if they are happy with space and conditions. I thought about getting 7 of them for my 6gal - any opinions?
 
Wow - that little nano is beautiful! What kind of carpet is that? I want one!!
 
im not tooooooo sure how many litres are in a gallon and im only used to working in litres lol sorry! but I need to know how many chilli rasboras I can have in a 30cm cube.. I was thinking 12-15 max?
 
I've just found a '1cm of fish per litre' rule (on PFK) and that schooling fish do best in groups of 10 or more - even in small tanks. So...a bakers dozen for me now I think.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top