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Nano Tank?

Ashton

Member
Joined
7 Sep 2008
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46
I wasn't sure which heading to put this in, so please forgive me if it's in the wrong place :?

I'll be setting up a new 25 litre tank shortly for my new Betta, and as it's a nice cube tank 30 x 30 x 30 cm, I thought rather than just pop in a few Anubias and Crypts, I'd plant it properly and try a few medium light plants. I've got an 18 watt Supperfish clip on light from a bigger tank so thought this would give me the chance of trying some different plants 8)

Now, would I be better using CO2, and if so which system would be best? Or would I be better just using Seachems Flourish Excel :? And, would sand be suitable for the substrate, or would I be better buying a planting medium, if so how deep would it need to be and how much would I need?

The substrate and other calculator I've always used seems to have disappeared off the internet, anyone know another good one :lol:
 
If your growing Anubias and Crypts then CO2 injection isn't essential, excel would work fine. CO2 would just give you faster growth. It all depends one what you want from your tank and wether you want a 'hi-tech' setup. Another option is take a look into some of the low-tech methods if you were only after growing Crypts and Anubias, then you can get away with not dosing any carbon products but the payoff is you get a lot slower growth.

Sand would be fine as long as you dose the water column with fertiliser. A specialised plant substrate can be a good choice as it works a 'safety cushion' of stored ferts; if you go the CO2 route then this can be invaluable as its not the end of the world if you miss dosing.

Basically the 'best' choices for you would be what matches what you want from your tank, fast or slow growing, high or low maintenance :thumbup:
 
Hey Ashton,

What Niels saying is spot on, its really down to how often you want to prune, dose and do general maintenance.

My sister recently set up a cube tank exactly the same size, and although im no expert ive messed up a few planted tanks, and now getting some brilliant success ill just chime in to help as much as i can :)

well taking into account you have a betta, which dont do well in a high flow rate tank. Id rule out a high tech tank because it needs high flow to ensure all the Co2 and Ferts get around the whole tank and algae doesnt settle in the little nooks.

SUBSTRATES; id say to go for at very least gravel with root tabs, thats the cheapest way. If you want to go the next step its either an all in one like.

colombo flora base..this is the stuff im using in my 60cm and its doing really well looks great and im getting good growth, also i can plant new plants in and not stir up loads of dust and crud, and can move things about a little, ofcourse too much and yourll crush the granuals and it will get abit dusty/muddy.

or you can go the route where you use a nutrient rich base layer, like tropica or jbl aquabasis, these are cool, you cover them with a 2-3cm layer of gravel. they do cloud when you uproot stuff or try to plant, but there a whole load cheaper.

CO2....there are some cool nano kits out there, but for the same money you could set up a FE kit and have the bottle last up to a year, theres a sticky on this in the co2 section, id say get pressurized, that way if you have a decent light and go for a decent bottom layer and have pressurized co2 then you could go for something like tpn+, this would open up alot more plant options even capeting plants and plants such as blyxa japonica p.helefi lol the list goes on but really does open up a whole lot more choices,

flow is really important and your betta wont like it one bit, so try find a happy medium possibly by having some stems for him to chill amongst 8)

i hope this helps, and anyone that thinks im wrongly advising please let me know and ill edit my post :thumbup:

oh and i think that one 5l bag of colombo flora base would do this tank.

quick search for a few bits ive mentions and ive found

nano co2 kit (comes with all bits needed inc bottle of co2) £76
Spare bottle of co2 £13
colomboe flora base 5l £19
Tropica TPN+ 500ml would last quite some time £15
£133.00 although seems alot, this is alll brand new, so you could find a second hand co2 kit cheaper and get cheaper ferts, but with this kit youd get some good growth, and the expensive part is the initial outlay and getting all the bits togther, but with 2 co2 bottles loads of fertilizer tpn+ and flora base, itd be a while before you had to spend money again replacing the co2 bottle or ferts, and aslong as your filter is up to the job then its be a good way to go :D

man i get way to into my posts haha.


what is the turnover of you filter?
 
Thanks both of you for your advice, I'll do a bit of reading up on the info you've given me, I haven't set the tank up yet, but am maturing an Interpet PF Mini filter in my bigger tank. I thought I would use this filter as it's directionable and I can point the flow to the side for the Betta, but I'm thinking now Shouldn't I have the flow going into the tank to turn the water over more. The Max flow is 200 lph (44 gph) Power 5w. I've also got a couple of Hagen mini Elite filters that have 220 lph flow, but am not sure on the wattage and they are only supposed to work up to 20 litres. I was thinking if I used 2 would it be better than the Interpet, but the flow on the Hagen is pretty powerful and my present Betta really struggles with it on the low setting at the moment, however, I'm planning on a Plakat for the new tank and he should cope better.

Thanks again, I'm looking forward to reading up and planning what to do
 
Hey

Well the 2 hagens would be better but do you really have space for 2 filters? i would try to sell all 3 filters and put the money towards a fluval 105 external that turns over 480lph so you would be turning over 24x, i think you could slow it down a tad. but that would be good if your fighter could find a calm place and still have a turn over like that, second hand they pop up for £15-£30 or an eheim 2213 theres on on aquarist classified for £20 they turn over pretty much the same. i know it sounds over kill, but if you had a 105 im sure they do have a flow control valve of some sort so you could find a good medium where your fighter can deal with the flow and your also getting good circulation.

This sort of turnover and pressurized co2 ferts and nutrient based and your light is like medium-high tech,

i you could go the route of gravel ,root tabs ,tpn+ liquid carbon and just pick your plants really carefully, 200lph would be a minimum though. Have a looks on google for diana walstads 'el natural' method. Its the complete other end of things, and quite cool.,

and i have a plakat he deals with my filter pretty good im only turning over about 12x but im going to add another filter and try and get atleast 20x
 
I haven't room for an external, the tank will be on a cabinet in the lounge and everything will be on display. Same with the pressurised CO2, I could have hidden the container in an empty speaker cabinet, but all the wires and pipes would be on display.

So I guess I'll have to go the tpn+ and Excel. I've not decided on the substrate yet, but I've got quite a lot of Hagen's fine beach gravel from an old tank and I've been sterilising it and drying it out. I could use that with root tabs I suppose, or get a bag of the Colombo flora base.

I'll think more about the filters, 2 mini Elites are only about the same size as 1 Interpet, but I'm not keen on the strong flow for the Betta. I suppose I could try something other than a Betta, but I've always had one and would miss it.
 
My personal choice would be to have small filter pipes running to and fromt he tank rather than power cables, but this is a very personal choice (and you could then run an inline heater and CO2 reactor to minimise the amount of stuff in your tank) but this is a very personal choice. In a tank your size with the plants you mention I'd not worry too much about the subsrate but make sure you get your water column dosing right. As has been pointed out very eloquently b other members using root tabs or a specialist substrate will give you a bit of breathing space with your dosing, but they are horrendously expensive.
Hope this helps!
Matt
 
Yeah they are abit pricy, you could use tropica base or jbl agua bases is cheap. Its all about getting a good mix.

Keep your fighter !! Lol I love betta's just have a resting place for him amongst a fern or stems. What matts saying is right. Your have a filter cable and heater cabe and light cable for the tank. If you can store a small cannister filter then you could have an inline heater and if you wanted co2 and inline deffuser so urll have a few cables going into the box your storing the in but only 2 pips going into the tank, plus no equipment in the tank, but like matt that's my personal opinion and obviously I don't know your budget.

Keep us updated :D

And check out that diana walstad style of planted tanks a lot of betta keeps use it.
 
I'll have a look at the canister filters but I don't really understand how they work, and exactly what would be going into the tank.

I've had a quick look at the Diana Walstad style of tank, and I'm afraid I'm too hands on to keep off it for 6 months. I don't mind actually messing around with my tanks, but I've never tried other than basic type plants and this time I thought I'd have a go. I'd like to start with Cardamine lyrata, Cryptocoryne willisii and either a Eleocharis parvula or Lilaeopsis mauritiana and I must just see how I'd cope with a Rotala wallichiia as I always drool when I see that plant, and I've also got to put in a Anubias nana as every Betta I've had love to just sit either on them or in them.

Thanks for all your advice, gotta look at the cannister now
 
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