My Attempt At A Low Light, Low Tech Nano

[ulster exile]

Tank is a 35litre Elite with a 14W T8, so reckon it has about 1.5WPG and is a pretty low light jobby.

Fish are a betta splendens and ember tetras. There are cherry shrimp and MTS in there too.

Filtration is an Elite Stingray 10. Has a very powerful flow, but I've stuffed it as full of filter floss as I can manage and it seems to be slowing it down to a more manageable level.

Substrate is Eco Complete - little unsure of this stuff...I'd expected it to be really black, but it's not. More of a non-uniform gray and is made up of a variety of sized stones/granules. Still, as it isn't uniform it does looks more 'natural' perhaps.

Plants - anubias barteri v. nana, java fern, flame moss, xmas moss (1 single frond ) sagittaria subulata, monosolenium tenerum and hygrophila corymbosa. It does need more plants, definitely some more anubias and I'm still deciding on stem plants, but maybe I'll try ambulia.

No CO2, but I do plan to add Excel. I have liquid ferts to use up so I am going to weekly dose NPK with trace.

Some of the occupants...

Comments, criticisms and suggestions more than welcome

 

[Ace Of Spades]

lol you got that elite tank like me ?

I think it looks really good, what substrate is it?

It kinda looks like whats happening under a tree if you know what i mean

Very natural and pretty , great job

 

[Shrimper]

It looks good, its a cross between my two tanks!

I have the same filter in my 7Gal, the top turns round and i have pointed it directly towards the glass, this helped slow the flow down and kept my betta happy (when he was in there). The Eco-complete i have in my other tank, the plants are growing better in there with similar light levels, although i do prefer the look of the plain black gravel in the smaller tank.

A word of warning... my Betta didn't like the cherry shrimp i added and ended up killing them, if yours does the same try him with some Anamo, mine hasn't killed them and they were there before the cherrys.

 

[ulster exile]

Thanks Ace - substrate is Caribsea Eco-Complete.

Shrimper - the betta used to live in a 28l with the shrimp and he completely ignores them (and their babies ) so we're fine there. I've Amano's in my bigger tank but I think I prefer the CRS possibly because of their stunning colour. I'd already turned the filter head round and it helped too.

 

[fozziebear]

because your tank is so small the wpg rule doesnt really work, small tanks need more light large tanks need less, the wpg rule only works for aquariums in the middle of that, so you definately have a low light tank, but the plants you have are perfect.

 

[Shrimper]

Shrimper - the betta used to live in a 28l with the shrimp and he completely ignores them (and their babies ) so we're fine there. I've Amano's in my bigger tank but I think I prefer the CRS possibly because of their stunning colour. I'd already turned the filter head round and it helped too.

Sounds like you've got a friendly betta there.

My Crystal red had evicted my betta from his tank now because i don't trust him not to eat them. To be honest it was his choice to move tanks, i was originally keeping the shrimp in my new tank but i put him in one day when i was cleaning his tank and couldn't be bothered to find the bowl i normally put him in. When it came time to get him out whenever i went near the tank with the net he hid in the plants, swimming out again when i moved away, after an hour of trying i decided he must be happy in there and moved the shrimp to safety in about 30 mins into his tank. He changed all my plans round as i need to find tank mates for him instead of the shrimp! He's been in there about a month now and is loving all the space.

 

[ulster exile]

Thanks Fozzie, I had appreciated just how general the WPG "rule" was, but was giving light in terms of WPG as an indication of just how low light I considered the tank. Still, I have grown most of the plants listed in slightly lower lighting with some success, so I hope this tank will do ok - the last suffered from cladophora right from the get go, so everything had a mild bleach dip before going in this one.

Shrimper - I meant to write RCS not CRS although I do love the colouring of the CRS but they were a little dear for my tastes! As for companions with the betta, my own betta's laid back attitute made me try the ember tetra's in the pics, with a back up plan ready in case they didn't work. I needn't have worried since they are so fast, he wouldn't get near them even if he tried (which he doesn't ). So perhaps small fast dither fish are a possibility for you too?

 

[fozziebear]

i like your wood, is it sumatra driftwood?

 

[ulster exile]

Pass It is Unipac wood bought from a lfs, who also supply the Sumatran stuff, but just had a Unipac label and a price on it.

 

[fozziebear]

yeah if its unipac its the sumatran driftwood looks nice m8 will be looking really good once it grows out a bit, have you considered a moss carpet or wall?

 

[ulster exile]

I had considered it. In the old set up, I'd tied the mono to small bits of slate, but as expected the mono became detached when I moved it over into this tank I will probably do it again, but will have to break up my slate into smaller bits as there's not as much room as it looks (and I'd like to keep the right side free to see how the sag does).

I intend on moving the filter to the side wall of the tank to try and make it look less imposing and will be putting some stem plants in to try and hide the heater a bit too.

 

[fozziebear]

monoselenium can get very messy, but in the foreground it can be used a bit like riccia, id use something like a christmas moss variety, i think the back and sides of your aquarium covered in moss would look really nice, especially when the moss on the wood grows out.

 

[ulster exile]

monoselenium can get very messy

Oh believe me, that is a fact I know too well!!! I ended up stripping a 200l tank of everything except fish and gravel in order to get rid of it last summer. Lessons learnt!

I like the look of moss walls, but the effort required in creating them and the patience needed to await decent growth is probably beyond me tbh

 

[fozziebear]

haha well patience is something you definately have to have with fishtanks hehehe, my monoselenium took over all my foreground plants and grew all inbetween them, id say the effort of making a moss wall is well worth it, you can get moss wall kits off ebay for a few quid hehe.

 

[Luketendo]

I will be glued to this thread as I have exactly the same tank and stuff and I want to plant it soon.

I might rip the light out and stick in a 36W or two and go Iwagumi though.

Not certain on how much light I'd need though.