My nano tank

[Mikeyboy123]

Hi. A pic of my nano tank. I‘ve been out of the hobby for over ten years and I had this little tank knocking around in my shed so decided to set it up. It’s an old 18 litre Arcadia arc tank. I’ve got 8 chili rasboras and 8 red shrimp. I’ve got hydrophila polysperma on the left, bacopa monieri on the right and Java fern (standard and Windelov) on the bogwood, moss balls, and Java moss attached to a plastic frame. Hopefully the Java moss will start to look a lot better as it grows and takes over the frame. There’s also a few java fern leaves on the same frame but I’ll attach these to the bogwood when I next do a water change. A few alder cones and mini catapa leaves. the Floating stuff top right is hygrophila cuttings and they will be planted in the substrate once they’ve got a few roots. Pretty happy with it so far. the plants obviously need to fill out and I hope that the hygrophila and bacopa will reach the water surface and then grow horizontally. I’m using nt labs light trace ferts which I add just once a week, also using seachem flourish excel just twice a week, I’m using a teaspoon of api phoszorb in the filter. No algae so far and nitrates are being kept at zero by the plants. I’m tempted to get a few more chilis actually but I’ll wait and see. Will post another pic in a few weeks and hopefully there’ll be a real difference with the plants.

 

[flowman]

Nice tank!

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Lovely

 

[Ch4rlie]

Nice little tank, I like nano tanks as I've kept a number of those over the years and mainly had them as shrimp and snails only set ups.

I find that these nano tanks are much easier to set up nicely and easy for those little water changes too

Though do keep an eye on water parameters as nano tanks with the small volume of water are more susceptible to parameter swings.

 

[Mikeyboy123]

Updated pic attached. I’ve used a different piece of bog wood and superglued the Java fern to it. It’s looking a bit straggly right now but I’m excited to see how it will fill out with new growth. The h polysperma is filling out nicely. I’ve concentrated on replanting cuttings to create a thick bushy effect rather than just letting it grow tall, although I did let one stem reach the surface. I will leave it all to grow tall and across the water surface before taking any more cuttings. The bacopa is growing at a more leisurely pace but one stem is almost at the surface and there are side shoots appearing toward the bottom of the stems so that should start looking really good soon. The Java moss still has some way to go. It’s obviously not the immaculate planted nano often seen on social media but I am pleased with how it’s going for what is a low tech tank and that’s all I want really.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Nice developments, I love watching a planted tank evolve! It's ever-changing

 

[Mikeyboy123]

Updated pic. No major changes. The h polysperma is growing quite actively but the b monnieri is pretty slow. One stem of the bacopa has breached the surface and is growing quicker now. I’ve been gluing shoots of the Java fern to the boxwood at the back so all the original leaves are gone now and it’s just the younger shoots growing. I’ve got nine chilli rasboras and god knows how many shrimp. Started with 8 shrimp and I’ve stopped counting now, but I reckon there’s about 50. Using rooibos tea to stain the water.

 

[BkkprGal]

Hey @Mikeyboy123 , I'm curious to see how your tank has evolved since your last pic in January. I'm considering doing my 10gal as a nano and I've started researching plants. I love how yours looks!

 

[Mikeyboy123]

Hey @Mikeyboy123 , I'm curious to see how your tank has evolved since your last pic in January. I'm considering doing my 10gal as a nano and I've started researching plants. I love how yours looks!

Hi. Thanks for your comments. It has changed quite a bit. I gave up on the Java fern as it was turning brown for some reason. I’m on vacation at the moment but will post an update next week.

 

[Back in the fold]

Noice !

 

[Retired Viking]

Nice looking tank

 

[Mikeyboy123]

Hello again. Latest pic attached. As I said I got rid of the Java fern at the back as it was just going brown. I’ve now attached the Java moss to some bogwood arranged into a little cave whereas it was previously growing on a plastic frame. I’ve also added some elodea rear right and some vallis rear left (vallis in prior pic was plastic). I am waiting for the vallis to fill out more and I’m also going to keep the h polysperma front left and the b monnieri front right well trimmed to encourage more compact bushy growth. i’m using TNC lite ferts and root tabs for the vallis, and the plants are growing really well and I have pretty much zero algae. I’m fairly pleased with it and my shrimp are thriving but sadly I’ve had a bit of a nightmare with the chilli rasboras. I had 8 until not so long ago and they were doing really well, colouring up amazingly. However, my mini filter (Hagen elite mini) was making a weird noise and so I assumed it was on the way out and I put another filter in that I had knocking around. unfortunatley, the higher flow rate of the other filter seems to have completely freaked the fish out and 6 of them jumped out so I now only have 2 left. My tank has a glass cover but there are fairly big gaps around the edges. I managed to give the Hagen mini a good clean and it’s back in the tank and working fine and the remaining 2 chillis seem fine, if somewhat lonely. I’ll be getting some more, but before I do I‘m going to transfer everything into a new tank, probably an aquael Leddy 40 (25 litre). I am definitely only using tanks with proper covers from now on. I’ll scape it pretty much the same, although as it is a bit wider than the current tank there may be some room for another foreground plant. I’ll post a pic of that when it’s up and running.

 

[BkkprGal]

That looks really nice. Lotsa shrimp!! Thanks for posting an update.