The clueless blog

[zoon]

My friends and family think I’m a bit of a geek setting up a tank and taking it all so seriously. I used to have big 600l Malawi tanks before and they thought that was fine - big tank, loads of rocks and fish, easy. But scaping and planting a tiny 19l nano, they can’t see the point in that.

I had a brief attempt at planted tanks about 10 years ago. The big tank was stripped and planted out, low tech, left to its own devices. Some plants died and some survived and after a while those ones thrived and look fab. Tried my hand at a smaller 150l tank and had algae issues. Tried adding ferts and co2 and still didn’t get the hang of it, so I gave up. Hence the clueless.

So over 5 years later, here I am. My son won a goldfish at the fair with his grandparents and the resulting panic of getting the poor fish into more suitable accommodation (it came home in a tiny fish bowl) rekindled my desire for a tank of my own.

So this little journal will see how well I handle the challenge second time around

Here is what I’ve got - 19l Fluval Spec 16 x 44 x 27cm.

I’ve sealed up the bypass holes in the filter section and drilled some very small holes in the outflow pipe so I can put a small 25W heater in the pump compartment.

I have to admit I have no idea what my substrate is! Some sort of aquarium soil that came with the tank (I found a bargain secondhand). There wasn’t quite enough, so it’s been mixed with black sand. Initially I had soil on the left and sand on the right. Planned to plant heavily on the left and slope down to an open sandy area. After a play around with the hardscape, the substrate mixed up a bit and I though “sod it, I’m just going to mix it completely to make my life easier”.

Here is what I started with.

 

[zoon]

So that I thought was a bit of a crap attempt. Asked some people in the know on here for some help and ended up with this

 

[zoon]

The remainder of the plants arrived today and I spent an age poking them in the soil.

In there is -
java fern mini
Anubias bonsai
Sagittaria dwarf
Staurogyn repens
Salvinia natans
Limnophila sessiliflora
And a mystery plant down at the front on the right

All except the anubias and fern are tissue cultures so are teeny. Not heard of tissue culture plants until last week so no idea if I’ve planted them correctly. There was an offer on the tissue culture plants, so that made the decision for me! We will see what happens

No CO2, original old spec LED light, some ferts from aqua essentials and liquid carbon that I’m not sure if I should use.

It could be a disaster

 

[rebel]

The scaping looks to be very harmonius. Keep going!

Given the small tank, perhaps it's an idea to consider a trident java fern rather than the big variety you have there.

 

[zoon]

That is apparently a mini java fern and is as big as it’ll get according to K2Aqua

 

[Luciën]

I really love your wood.. Maby you need to dose some kind of carbon. Good job overall for your one of your first planted scapes..

 

[zoon]

Given that the light is low is carbon a good idea? I don’t want to use CO2 gas, but I do have a bottle of liquid carbon. Wasn’t sure if I’d be creating more problems by using it when I have low light?

 

[zoon]

And I’ve read some things saying liquid carbon is a big con. But I have no idea

 

[Edvet]

Liquid CO2 can help (it's not a con) but not needed if your plants grow well with this light.
My advice would be: keep dosing some ferts ( look into EI ferts, cheap and easy, or use an all in one solution, just don't know which are best) and do waterchanges, try to do twice a week, about 50%. Add ferts after wc. After a week or 6 you should see good growth.

 

[Keith GH]

Zoon

That is a massive improvement on your first effort.

It's what I call a Keep It Simple KIS Aquascape. Dark substrate and wood with a softer light green plants.

I would be thinking of a tall eg thin Val at the rear of the tank as this would highlight the dark drift wood even more.

Keith

 

[zoon]

So, pretty much all the dwarf sag melted overnight after a week or so
But actually I’m half glad as it didn’t look right. The roots are all still in there and new roots have grown looking at the ones I pulled up, so maybe something will come back, no idea???

So I had a little fiddle about with things

The ambulia is now peeking over the wood (it was teeny tiny in vitro plant). Have planted that the whole way along the back.

The staurogyn is turning a nice shade of green, it was a little yellow when it arrived. Pulled off all the random roots from the upper parts of the shoots that were there when it arrived too and it looks much better.

The little wood with the anuibias has gone, that anubias is now on the big wood.

The salvinia is a nice dark green shade and growing well, which according to you knowledgable guys is a very good sign.

 

[zoon]

Also, can anyone tell me what this tiny plant in the foreground is, arrived unlabelled so I shoved it in and hoped for the best. It’s growing fast, but is clumpy and difficult to plant as doesn’t really have a part to poke in the soil as such! Some bits are growing well and some look stupid, but the spec being so narrow and the BW taking up a large area of the floor space mean it is hard to work in there! Any tips for how to plant this mystery little plant better? One of the pics shows a bit that has grown better, I guess because it was smaller - should I pull the larger clumps apart more and poke them deeper into soil???

Also, (!) how do I get rid of the “dust” over the wood and the plant leaves? Tried hoovering it with a siphon with limited success. I know the shrimps will clear everything up when they’re introduced, but I worry it won’t help the plant growth of the leaves are covered in crap

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

Looking good

Do you mean the Hydrocotyle tripartita? It can be grown planted or floating - eventually it will grow some small roots - for now I would suggest some led plant weights attached at the base of each portion to keep it in the soil. I'll be interested to see how you get on with it as I've never had much success with it, but not sure why as many others have! You can certainly separate it out a bit more if you like. I would be tempted to leave it for a couple of weeks to see how is settles in and go from there...

The 'dust' could be removed from some of the plants by what we affectionately know as 'stroking' them!. But it shouldn't harm things in the short term and the shrimp will definitely sort it out. Is it duct or diatoms (brown algae) which is very common in new set ups? Doesn't look too bad anyways!

 

[zoon]

Definitely dust as I can swish it away, but also risk uprooting plants in the process. When I set up, I rinsed the substrate as much as possible, but still managed to make particularly murky water. And then did the same the other day when I uprooted the melted dwarf sag. Think I may try a small paint brush as so little room in there and I’ll be less likely to knock it all over the place

 

[zoon]

So things have grown a little and I have some cherry shrimp arriving in the post tomorrow.

The dwarf sag is starting to sprout miraculously from the substrate after it dramatically all melted overnight in the first week.

Have been clearing out handfuls of salvinia each week and wondering if everything else would grow a little faster if I took it out? Could it be sucking up all the nutrients to the detriment of he other plants, or do things not work like that?!

I want to trim the tripartita to hopefully make it a bit bushier - how do I go about that? Literally just give it a haircut to the desired size? Will it sprout new shoots where I trim it do I risk killing it? It was a free mystery plant sent by accident , but I actually really like how it looks in this tiny nano tank.

Waiting for some long tweezers to arrive in the post as working in this narrow tank isn’t easy. The sessiliflora needs a trim soon, but not a chance of getting the trimmings planted back in the substrate as the space behind the BW is so narrow.

 

[Konsa]

Hi
Cant see clearly but it seems your java fern is planted in substrate.It is to be attached to decor.Get a stone and glue (tie it to it) if U want it in that position or move it on the wood or it will die.Once it grows in U can trim of most leaves and tge new ones will be smaller in size .Thats what I used to do when had it in 20l tank.Just make sure it grows well before that or U may kill some rhizomes.
Regards Konsa

 

[zoon]

It’s all tied to a small flat piece of bogwood that’s sat on top of the substrate

 

[zoon]

About 25 of these little critters moved in today

Now just to decide what fish, I can’t find any stockists of Boraras Brigittae locally. I was then going to get a few tiger endlers and can’t find them either

Lfs suggested a single female fighter - they have some very attractive koi ones.

 

[Matt @ ScapeEasy]

View attachment 119264

Have been clearing out handfuls of salvinia each week and wondering if everything else would grow a little faster if I took it out? Could it be sucking up all the nutrients to the detriment of he other plants, or do things not work like that?!

I want to trim the tripartita to hopefully make it a bit bushier - how do I go about that? Literally just give it a haircut to the desired size? Will it sprout new shoots where I trim it do I risk killing it? It was a free mystery plant sent by accident , but I actually really like how it looks in this tiny nano tank.

The salvinia will definately take up nutrients to the detriment of others so to speak but it will also always be able to grow faster as it has access to atmospheric carbon dioxide. Your other plants look to be putting on healthy growth so as long as you don't have too much salvinia and continue to pull it out regularly I don't see a problem. It will help reduce nitrates too which is very useful once you have stocked up with fish.

The tripartia can basically just be trimmed like a haircut as you say.

 

[zoon]

So, a little less than 12 weeks in and here is the current state just after a big trim.

About 3 weeks ago had an issue where the pipe came off of the pump and the heater went crazy and I lost a load of shrimp.

Java fern is sprouting new leaves so have trimmed many of the old leaves away as they were a bit yellow. New growth is bright and healthy, is t normal for the original leaves to die off when moved to a new tank? Is there a trick to make it more bushy?

Sessiliflora needs weekly trimming as the stems reach the water surface so quickly. I’m running out of space to replant the trimmings!

5 tiny male endlers have moved in and the shrimp are now breeding. Do I need to add shrimp from a different source Ito the mix to widen the gene pool? Will it cause issues that they’re all closely related?