Square One

[daftndirekt]

Hi guys, some may recognise this from another forum- (my alter ego is Rhysiboy ) Been directed here by Garuf, dont know if he goes by a different name here but thanks for the tip!

Right down to business,

Im starting a nano planted tank as a nice cheap and less time consuming alternative to marines... Less time consuming :? I hear you shout, but believe me trimming plants, daily dosing and water changes will be a nice change

The tanks is an aqua one 15 litre cube, no trim or anything like that. The filtration will bedone by the Dennerle Corner filter that I got for free from my work- seems that the fish store i work for is one out of a handful of stockists of the new nano range- The co2 supplied from a hagen yeast reactor with cal glass ware diffuser. Oh and the heater- a 25w hydor theo. Oh and I almost forgot, the lighting is provided by an 18w power compact 6500k light.

For the hardscape I have orderd 3kg of seriyu stone, ordered that bit more than i need to be able to have a play.

The plants will be Pogestemon Hellferri, Hemianthus Callitroichoides and others that I will get from work.

The fish- 5 Ember Tetras; I like the reddish colour to them, I think they would make a nice accent colour

Inverts- 5 Cherry shrimp and 4 Amano's

Heres my ongoing picture journal:

Painted background black

Placed it into its resting position

Added hardware:

At this very moment I am two days off receiving my stone and diffuser. Also i receiving some HC later in the week. Planting is imanent!!

 

[joyous214]

oohhhh nice i love the cubes!!

 

[deMastro]

Nice.

Where did you get that light unit?

 

[daftndirekt]

well i got the light off of ebay, cost only about £20 thought it was very good. Its not a branded product though but still a good quality product from the uk.

 

[Garuf]

We have the same light, it's the supafish aquidistri lamp, you can order them as spares over the counter in some shops or get it off ebay. They're good but when they blow you have to replace everything.

I can't wait to see this get scaped, cubes are always interesting.

 

[daftndirekt]

the thing is i can afford £20 at the moment and will be able to afford £20 when it blows... £30 for an arcadia however is a bit more of an issue there are certain things that iwould much rather do short term gain Im actually getting pretty excited waiting for everything to turn up, should be started on thursday, fully planted by sunday.

 

[LondonDragon]

Nano looks great, looking forward for the hardscape and plants keep us posted

 

[Stu Worrall]

looks like its going to be one great tank. looking forward to more pics

 

[Garuf]

You know what you're doing scape wise yet? sneaking some wood in there I hope!

 

[nikko]

Hi

would anyone have a link for that lamp (or any other suggestions). I have three of the 30cm AquaOne cubes under a 90cm T5, but I would like to do a standalone nano and can't really find anything much suitable here in Australia.

Looking forward to your hardscape

Thanks

 

[PM]

Only thing that does my head in about nanos is the equipment!

I had an external - so only had a small in and out flow pipes in the tank, but they still annoyed me!

Can't wait to see the scape

 

[daftndirekt]

Yeah i know, there just arnt enough nano suited equiptment available and of the stuf that is its either poor quality, looks ugly or incredibly expensive. With regards to the hardscape, I'd like to put some redmoor wood in there but £13.99 for a tiny bit... i think ill leaave it for a bit... well atleast till i check my bank balance. With regards to the hardscape im going seriyu stone (will decide what layout when i see the shapes of the stuff I have) some hemianthus callitroicheds cuba, Pogestemon Hellferi and Anubia var. nana. I will then get some stem plants from my work, get them for free you see, so i might aswell as take advantage.

 

[daftndirekt]

well everythings been set up, received my rock and HC today, planted it. Man the aqua soil really does go weird whenyou add water, lets just say i wasnt expecting it to be so 'sloppy' yno. Anywya heres a cloudy picture:

I shall be picking up the rest of my plants on sunday so it should look fine and danday

 

[Garuf]

Wait till it clears, you didn't get aquasoil II did you? There are lots of reports of it turning to an unusable mud.

 

[daftndirekt]

yeah it is the actual aquasoil, it seems to be okay now, justs if anything a bit powder like, afterall i did by the powder form.

 

[daftndirekt]

Well through the fog this has emergerd!

and found this little gem this afternoon:

Im actually quite pleased with how the HC looks and the stone. I shall be picking up some Pog. Hel.amongst others. Will post a pic of it with all the plants tommorow.

Also ive decided that im not going to run co2 but do daily dosing of easy carbo excel as suggested by aaaronorth on another forum, whilst I am waiting it for it to be delivered I am still running my yeast reactor.

 

[Mark Evans]

i love that rock...all twisted like that.

set up looks great mate.

 

[daftndirekt]

Thanks saintly, by the way you know in The Henge how did you achieve the impression of almost layers because it looks like some of you riccia is siting on a raised plateua.. i think id like to try and replicate some sort of stack on the right.

 

[Mark Evans]

by the way you know in The Henge how did you achieve the impression of almost layers because it looks like some of you riccia is siting on a raised plateua.

nothing fancy realy. i have a big difference in height from front to back. i inch to 5 at the back. the riccia slate is sat on an area that i "dug" out. so it sat evenly. ive also used smaller rocks to create higher levels. the smaller rocks stop the AS falling/ subsiding.

 

[big chris]

looking good matey,

i think i remember the name from Ur?

i like that rock where did you get it from?

cheers chris