13 Litre Nano Office Planted Low Tech with Emergents

[azawaza]

A fellow colleague is moving on to greener pastures and suddenly I am a recipient of a nano tank which used to house a betta.

I took down some measurements so that I won’t forget the important details when shopping at the LFS in the days to come.

I’m still finding a suitable space at my cubicle so will have to clear some junk tomorrow during lunchtime.

The tank isn’t a high end optical clear one, and the silicon work is not pretty but beggars can’t be choosers so I’ll work with what I’ve got. It has one side curved (not a fan of curved tanks!) so I’ll use the back as its front, vice versa.

More pictures soon after I have cleaned the tank and set it in a suitable location.

For now, i’m thinking of getting the following:
- IKEA work table lamp
- HOB filter
- mini breeder box to house emergent plants
- aquasoil for emergents
- timer for light
- sand substrate
- anubias, java fern, java moss on rocks

I plant to do as little water change as possible; also, I would like the plants to grow slowly yet healthily.

Lifestock will be my last concern; they’ll be small and few, just to augment some nutrients for the plants.

One last thing: I will try my best to keep the budget low and try to source out second hand items and materials

 

[oscarlloydjohn]

Possibly look at the Walstad method?

 

[azawaza]

Possibly look at the Walstad method?

It’s possible. I’m still considering the options.

 

[azawaza]

I was doing clearing my workspace and found this:

Could prove useful as decor beside the tank, and hide the HOB filter perhaps?

 

[azawaza]

Got myself a HOB filter and a tiny breeder box. Also, found a second hand IKEA work lamp.

I still have some spare Matrix which will go into the HOB filter for extra bio-filtration.

I have two bulbs: an Ikea 7W warm light and a Philips 10W LED clear light. Which should I use?

Also, I’m still undecided whether to go for sand substrate or just go full aquasoil. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Konsa]

Hi
Aquasoil will take longer to cycle but will make your life much much easier as plant health is concerned as will give greater margine for error than plain sand.
Sand is not the best growing medium but is doable if U know what U are doing.U can always have sand front if U not planing carpets and Aquasoil in areas where U will have rooted plants in substrate.
I have found for myself that cool light spectrum arround 6500k working very well for me compared to warm 3500k lights
What plants are you thinking about apart from the ones U listed above.
Its a small tank.I will go for less invasive mosses as Fissidens and Riccardia.The Java fern even the mini (pettite variety ) is getting quite big for that size of tank once it sets in.Think some small Buce varieties too grow slow and not very demanding along with Anubias pettite.
Regards Konsa

 

[azawaza]

Hi
Aquasoil will take longer to cycle but will make your life much much easier as plant health is concerned as will give greater margine for error than plain sand.
Sand is not the best growing medium but is doable if U know what U are doing.U can always have sand front if U not planing carpets and Aquasoil in areas where U will have rooted plants in substrate.
I have found for myself that cool light spectrum arround 6500k working very well for me compared to warm 3500k lights
What plants are you thinking about apart from the ones U listed above.
Its a small tank.I will go for less invasive mosses as Fissidens and Riccardia.The Java fern even the mini (pettite variety ) is getting quite big for that size of tank once it sets in.Think some small Buce varieties too grow slow and not very demanding along with Anubias pettite.
Regards Konsa

I don’t like the idea of mixing sand and aquasoil due to the unsightly mess should one get into the other.

I’m deliberating whether I can maintain a carpet should I go with aquasoil.

Don’t wish to do any sort of maintenance weekly. Monthly or bimonthly would be desirable.

As for plants, it depends on budget and what’s available at the LFSs. Ideally, given deep pockets, I’d go with Tropica 1-2 plants. I have a few ideas but will have to scout the LFSs in the days to come first. The biggest mistake is to hurry in setting up a tank without careful consideration of all its variables; each depends on the other and if one goes awry, there’s a chance of imbalances, thus up creeps issues like algae etc.

I would like to start the tank with as much plant mass as possible: with aquasoil or with sand. If I go with the latter, then I’ll use plants attached to rock and wood like mosses, Java Fern and Anubias or Wabi-Kusa ones.

 

[Aqua360]

if livestock is least concern, why not just do emersed growth? Eliminate the need for everything except light, so minimal maintenance aside from a water spray in the morning and end of shift, and very colourful, healthy plants.

 

[azawaza]

if livestock is least concern, why not just do emersed growth? Eliminate the need for everything except light, so minimal maintenance aside from a water spray in the morning and end of shift, and very colourful, healthy plants.

This crossed my mind too but I would like to perhaps introduce some tiny livestock further down the road.

But I won’t discount the suggestion entirely; I may fall in love with emersed growth from this little experiment and go full emersed-retard!

 

[Aqua360]

This crossed my mind too but I would like to perhaps introduce some tiny livestock further down the road.

But I won’t discount the suggestion entirely; I may fall in love with emersed growth from this little experiment and go full emersed-retard!

Interesting description for it...

Here is my small emersed set-up, just looks cleaner without filters etc, still to grow in though

 

[azawaza]

@Aqua360 Tell me more about your setup? What kind of plants are in there and what’s the plastic covering for?

 

[Aqua360]

@Aqua360 Tell me more about your setup? What kind of plants are in there and what’s the plastic covering for?

It's a flexi mini scape et by Oliver Knott, I had it set-up briefly with plants before using aquarium soil, but I broke it down with the intention of starting as an aquascape, then decided to remove the aquarium soil and go with normal cheap garden soil, as I've had very good results with it elsewhere for emersed growth.

So basically as it stands, its garden soil, with reineckii mini, lobelia cardinalis, rotala, hydrocotyle tripartita, dwarf hairgrass, pogostemon helferi, and monte carlo.

Just really enjoying not having the hassle of water, algae, co2 issues that come with it etc. I think this tank is on the small side for any livestock anyway so it makes sense for me to go down this route. I'm hoping for very quick growth due to the soil and intense flexi mini led combo this time.

I have a journal for it I can link soon, where i'll be updating the progress!

Forgot to mention the plastic covering is to maintain humidity for the plants so they don't dry out and die, though they have been emersed for a while anyway

 

[azawaza]

Decision time!

It's hard to move forward when I was uncertain about what to stock in this tank, so I've decided on a single pea puffer. I'll seed the tank with a couple Ramshorn snail once the tank is cycled so that the dwarf puffer can have some munchies.

Feasible?

This way, I can go full aquasoil (I had thoughts of keeping a few dwarf corydoras, hence the sand idea).

I'm thinking of Tropica soil. Normal or Powder version?

 

[alto]

Powder!
Looks much better in a nano tank, also easier to plant in, plants grow more dense etc etc

Single dwarf puffer sounds excellent

BUT

no algae crew so choose plants accordingly

Note Cory’s seem perfectly happy with aquarium soil over sand - mine completely ignored the sand area (in favour of the soil) & I eventually replaced the sand with Tropica soil

 

[azawaza]

Powder!
Looks much better in a nano tank, also easier to plant in, plants grow more dense etc etc

Single dwarf puffer sounds excellent

BUT

no algae crew so choose plants accordingly

Note Cory’s seem perfectly happy with aquarium soil over sand - mine completely ignored the sand area (in favour of the soil) & I eventually replaced the sand with Tropica soil

Could you help suggest a few?

Especially for foreground and midground ones.

 

[Konsa]

Hi
Puffers are great fish with loads of personality .I have 5 SAP puffers myself.But are a messy little things.The way they feed makes them unstable for low maintenance tanks as they add high bioload to the system.
U want maintenance free tank so my advice is to go cherry shrimp tank only.
Regards Konsa

 

[azawaza]

Hi
Puffers are great fish with loads of personality .I have 5 SAP puffers myself.But are a messy little things.The way they feed makes them unstable for low maintenance tanks as they add high bioload to the system.
U want maintenance free tank so my advice is to go cherry shrimp tank only.
Regards Konsa

Hi Konsa, could you help elaborate how you feed them?

Cherry shrimps are a good alternative too since they are algae-eaters.

 

[Konsa]

Hi
Puffers eat only live and frozen food.
Mine get mixed diet of Brine shrimp, Daphnia, Bloodworm, Glass worm, mysis shrimp,Californian black worms, earth worms,odd snail they find in tank ( but gave up on ranching my own as not very interested in them. My puffers are a bit more good behaved than pea puffers they live happy with minows and adult amano shrimps)
Regards Konsa

 

[azawaza]

@Konsa Thanks for the advice. It makes sense not to stock a pea puffer. I completely forgot about the low maintenance part.

I’ve decided not to go fully planted.

Here’s the plan: fill the breeder box with aquasoil and grow stem plants emersed.
Use sand to grow rhizome plants immersed. Then use floaters to limit the light as the latter will be slow growers.

Hopefully that will keep algae at bay.

My only quandary now is the light: I don’t know if the 10W LED will melt the plants. Could limiting photoperiod to 4 hours initially help?

 

[Konsa]

Hi
Yes short light period will help if needed.U can raise light higher too to reduce the strength. U plan floating plants that will limit light too.Sylvania best or Dwarf water lettuce will be good option for those as frogbit grows too big.
Regards Konsa