Birthday Aquanano 30

[Nutty]

Hi All,
Been stalking the site for a while and has been very helpful sorting out some issues with my fishbox 40, but its not really a "scapers" tank so hasn't been seen here .

However!! it was my birthday recently and my girlfriend of all people suggested to get me a new tank! (I know! MTS and i didn't start it!)
So i always thought a big tank would be awesome but seeing here what people have been doing with nano sizes has amazed me and not really having the space i thought i'd like to try something similar so she lovingly bought me a Aquanano 30 (with the help of a voucher was a spot over £50 )

The only stand made for the Aquanano range is 40 cm x 40 cm and a bit big and a tad expensive! So went looking and found a Aquastart 320 stand which is 30 cm x32 cm so a much better fit and saved the wallet a couple of quid too!

Now onto business!

It is going to be low tech - the Aquanano 30 is a smaller version of the Aquanano 40s seen a lot on here so some tank space is sacrificed for the filter which has a sponge and ceramic noodles and a 400 L/Hr powder head to get things moving, the heater is also housed back there. It also comes with a 9w clip on PL light.
Fauna: Wanting to house shrimp, as a first time shrimper i'm thinking Cherry shrimp until i can prove my shrimp keeping abilities!
Hard Scape: Inert black sand from old faithful P@H
Also picked up a couple of nice bits of redmoor wood from a LFS to play with too
Flora: This is where i need some help!
Hardscape - I would like to put some mosses on the Red moor but not sure which would be best? could go classic java or try some flame/christmas
Foreground - if i want to see the shrimp should i think about something to carpet? maybe the Elatine hydropiper thats been talking about a little lately?
but i also like the look of Pogostemon helferi but not seen it much in low tech tanks...
Mid - As its a nano, wondering if Staurogyne repens could be grown tallish to fill the space? or i could look at a Crypt or two?
Back - I have some Rotala rotundifolia i could move across as i'm not sure what would be a good to go here considering there isn't a massive amount of height in the tank itself?

Had a bit of a play with the wood and a couple of positions i like but can't decide which (pardon the photography)

lots of ?? i know, but i'm open to all opinions

Thanks for reading,
Nutty

 

[sa80mark]

Nice start nutty,

Nanos are fantastic very challenging to scape due to trying to keep everything size appropriate but they are great fun and cheap to do so can be rescaped every 6 months

 

[oldbloke]

I bought swmbo one of these for her birthday.
Imho, a spraybar is a good addition. Apparently All pond solutions sell them. I have bodged one up from bits this very day!

 

[Lindy]

Better make sure the black sand hasn't been dyed. That caught a member on here out when setting up a shrimp rack and he lost some valuable shrimp. Turns out the dye used contains copper(or something like that) Nice wood though. I have a 30cm cube shrimp tank and the shrimp seem happy enough.

 

[Nutty]

Better make sure the black sand hasn't been dyed

thanks lindy! will check the packaging see if i can find anything!

 

[Andy Thurston]

Uni pac black quartz sand is ok for shrimp. My mate Dans just put a bag of pets at home black sand in his tank. He asked staff if it was safe for shrimp and they said yes it was but I don't trust their staff knowledge

 

[Nutty]

mmhh the bag says "This product is made from a natural material" no mention of dyes or multiple components... but reviews on the product say that it colours their water a day or so after being submerged hmmmmm

 

[Nutty]

I've put some of it in a jar of water will give it a day or two to see what happens!

 

[Christian Walker]

Nice start. The third option is the best for me Looking forward to seeing this progress. Remember sometimes in a nano its good to get a bit of height at the back to give greater impression of depth, depending on what you want to achieve.

 

[Nutty]

been over a week and nothing has come off of the substrate so i'm going to assume it should be OK *crosses fingers*

wood is soaking...

The third option is the best for me

i do like that positioning too, but when i tried to recreate it again, the wood was touching the front glass, might trim it slightly, but we'll see!

I've also ordered some plants which should be here tomorrow hopefully!

hope to have it set up a running so i can get some shrimp in at the weekend/next week!