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Newbie Nano

M

mikeperkins

Seedling
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Messages
13
Location
Tatsfield, Kent
Greetings to one and all!
I'd like to share my little nano adventure with you all and hopefully get a lot of feedback and advice along the way. I've had planted tanks before but never with a great deal of success - plants always grew but the algae grew quicker - so after a few years break from freshwater tanks I thought I'd give it another go.
SWMBO said no to another tank so whilst she was at work last week I added a 22 litre AquaOne nano to the kitchen, JBL Aquabasis for substrate with a layer of fine gravel over the top. Threw a couple of bunched plants in and a bit of bogwood so it didn't look bare and waited for the flack! Well it didn't come so it's now a fixture.



Day 1 (26/9/2012)

Next step is to aquascape while tank is cycling and get some decent plants in there. I have to say the light is disappointing so I'll try alternative bulbs. ( 9 watt PLS bulb ) any suggestions gratefully received.

I do need help with how to upload photos, the help area suggests I can't show photos stored on my PC?????
"Yes, images can be shown in your posts. If the administrator has allowed attachments, you may be able to upload the image to the board. Otherwise, you must link to an image stored on a publicly accessible web server, e.g. http://www.example.com/my-picture.gif. You cannot link to pictures stored on your own PC (unless it is a publicly accessible server) nor images stored behind authentication mechanisms, e.g. hotmail or yahoo mailboxes, password protected sites, etc. To display the image use the BBCode tag."

How do you guys show your photos?

The other area I struggle with is how to take a decent photo with my Olympus SP-620UZ so any tips would be gratefully received.
 
Thanks for the tips.
Here we go then, excuse the quality!

PA040043_zps315ab6dc.jpg


the tank is just over one week old and there's no livestock yet. I only planted it a couple of days ago,
Dwarf hairgrass (E. parvula) at the front, E.Acicularis to the rear. Some moss and Anubias nana Petite Bonsia tied on the bogwood and an unknown plant back left corner. Help with an ID would be greatly appreciated.
I have no CO2 running and could do with some advice on ferts here, The bogwood's leeching out loads so I'll be waterchanging heavily as long as it takes to get most of the brown tint gone.

Thanks for looking. I'll post more photos once I've honed my camera skills.
 
I got an EI starter pack from http://www.fluidsensoronline.com and it was really easy to do. They give you instructions to suit your size of tank and have different kits depending on whether your water is hard or soft. It really was easy and they answered any queries I had quickly by email.

Cheers
 
thanks for the responses. Had a busy week as we are expecting our first baby in about 10 days! Decorating etc.
here is a picture taken today.

PA110055_zps1bc0e70b.jpg


The tanins are still leeching out of the bogwood but to a lesser degree. I've been water changing about 20% every 2 days and since day one have been putting a tiny amount of food into the filter compartment and adding bacteria supplements. The Ammonia spiked and zero'd out about 10 days ago and the nitrites tested zero for the first time today so have added 2 cherry shrimps, 2 otos and a panda cory today. The hairgrass seems to be doing worse on the side of the tank that has pump outlet. Does the hairgrass prefer less flow? see photos.
left side with pump outlet
PA110060_zpsd4f30ada.jpg


right side with less flow
PA110061_zps23e5dc59.jpg


I've not got around to sorting out the ferts yet but many thanks for the link Idcgroomer. I'll take a look this weekend.

My intention is to keep this as a warts an' all real time thread with a weekly update. All feedback welcome and assume little or no knowledge on my part.
Thanks for looking!
 
thanks mark. There's no CO2 being used here so do you think all the hairgrass will brown and die off over time? I wanted to run this without CO2 as room is at a premium so have I chosen my plant unwisely and should it die off are there better choices.
regards
Mike
 
mikeperkins said:
thanks mark. There's no CO2 being used here so do you think all the hairgrass will brown and die off over time? I wanted to run this without CO2 as room is at a premium so have I chosen my plant unwisely and should it die off are there better choices.
regards
Mike
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

Well look on the positive side; you didn't place the Hemanthius carpet plant into the aquarium which needs a rich substrate and lot's of dissolved CO2. That would have definitely constituted bad judgement.

Personally, the carpet plant that you do have (which looks like eleocharis parvula) is something that I would have to experiment with in your kind of set-up, as you have rightly done yourself.

One plant that I think might be more suitable is the Cryptocoryne parva plant. To be on the safe side, I'd dose the tank with Excel or EasyCarbo to ensure it thrives. This plant cannot be overshadowed or subjected to massive swings in KH/GH as it will just begin to melt.


I think all of the hairgrass (eleocharis parvula) will die as it is turning brown in all parts of your tank. I have the same plant in my aquarium and it suffers die-back where it is not situated in front of a powerhead which is distributing co2 bubbles. So if I were you I'd either remove all of the hair grass now OR trim off the dead-bits and increase the light level and definitely dose the tank with a co2 substitute like EasyCarbo.
 
I have parvula in my low tech walstad tanks with no filtration or co2 and it's doing fine :) parvula is low tech so doesn't seem to require any co2 as some people believe. I hope u manage to get it looking sweet again. Looks like it's got lots of potential :)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
 
I think all of the hairgrass (eleocharis parvula) will die as it is turning brown in all parts of your tank. I have the same plant in my aquarium and it suffers die-back where it is not situated in front of a powerhead which is distributing co2 bubbles. So if I were you I'd either remove all of the hair grass now OR trim off the dead-bits and increase the light level and definitely dose the tank with a co2 substitute like EasyCarbo.
Click to expand...

I think I will go for option 2 here and I will try and adjust the flow direction. I regard it as part of the fun of the tank to see if and how I can make it work. Thanks for the advice.

I have parvula in my low tech walstad tanks with no filtration or co2 and it's doing fine parvula is low tech so doesn't seem to require any co2 as some people believe. I hope u manage to get it looking sweet again.
Click to expand...

Hope I can make it work too, after all I chose El Parv. cos I like it!
 
ha yeah! just keep on top of your water changes to begin with and just monitor it closely and you should pull it off. Ill post up a photo once I get one sorted buddy. If you trim the grass (like suggested above) down to about half an inch it forces the plant to spread runners into the soil and cover more of a space ;)

:)
 
A quick update for you. I've been dosing daily with liquid carbon for 6 days and have got my act together with ferts which I started 5 days ago. I trimmed the top off one of my clumps of eleocharis to encourage side growth as advised.
I can see new growth on all the plants but not enough to warrant new piccies - the difference is very subtle and also very encouraging.
Cardinals went in last night - it's great to see more movement in the tank. More photos at the weekend for you picture junkies (unless the missus goes into labour and life as I know it changes!)
 
forgot to say the water changes are slowly beating the bogwood browning of the water. I reckon a couple more weeks and I'll be crystal!
 
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