My new nano(ish)

[jxr182]

I'm excited to announce the arrival of my new Fluval Flex 9g

.... they're on clearance at Petsmart for $70 (109 on their site). They also have a 15g for $90 in store. Anyway I stared at it for weeks, i'm surprised there was still one there when i finally decided to pull the trigger.

I set it up with a fluval planted substrate, moved a few of my small plants over, and just dropped a dirty filter into it since a used filter won't fit in the sump in the back. I plan on giving the filter through the day to disperse a little gooey goodness to the Flex's filter and then i'm going to drop in an injured fish from my other tank. He's probably not the best 'volunteer' but he needs away from the other fish anyway.

What do you guys think? Will my fast cycling work? You can see my used filter just hanging out . My main tank is a 39g bowfront that's been running about 5 years.

 

[Uberhoust]

If it were me I would put more plants in. Give the plants time to establish, then move the fish in. The dirty feeder will inoculate the tank with the appropriate bacteria but the plants will respond faster to the increase in ammonia in the tank once the fish are placed in it.

 

[jxr182]

i have an overwhelming collection of floating pads, not sure what they are but i can scoop out two measuring cups of them every couple of days. I threw a few of those in there and assuming everything is good in the tank they should explode in quantity shortly. My other tank is heavily planted so i could definitely spare some more over here, i just didn't want it to get out of hand with the small size of the tank.

 

[jxr182]

I've also been looking at some nano plant varieties online. My LFS is awesome but they don't have a great selection of really small plants.

 

[Uberhoust]

Floaters are great for controlling ammonia, they have access to atmospheric CO2 but take their nutrients directly from the water.

 

[emeraldking]

Any ideas of what kind of nano fish you'll put in once it's been cycled?

 

[jxr182]

I’ll be honest I don’t know much about nano fish yet. Haven’t gotten that far yet. I’m going to be looking for a rather tiny species I can get a whole school of in my little aquarium. Then maybe one or two slightly bigger ones that will pop. The tank will eventually be heavily planted so I’ll have the bio capacity for 10-15 inches of fish I think. Any suggestions?

 

[MaloK]

If you're doing a "Fish in" cycle, The more plants the better.

If you put together a tank with all "cycled" material, it will need an immediate source of ammonia to continue working. Bacteria colony will decline rapidly if no sufficient food source is available.

Keep your dirty filter in the place it has nutrients for the moment. Let the plants get a head start.

Put the fishes in there and wait for ammonia, seed the tank and switch the filter when it start rising. the next days you should be monitoring nitrite an nitrate. If both appears, It's kicking in. It will always go trough a "mini-cycle" anyway.

But your plants should be coping well with it. There's no such thing as "fast cycling" But there's a lot of ways to make it a lot smoother.

Some Tap water conditioner binds ammonia for a while, but keeps it available for bacterias . You can quickly ease an ammonia spike with a dose of one of these.

You see the fence like thing all around the top of your tank. The bottom line is the expected water level. This will leave the place for your floating plants to get air and thrive.

As for the fishes, I'm hooked on Celestial pearl danios

 

[jxr182]

I still don’t know what nano plants I’m going to order but I have put a few from my other tank in there that I don’t think will grow too big. I love the idea about the danios. I’ve never heard of them. Otherwise the only small fish I’m familiar with are neon tetras. Thanks for all of the input. My little sick swimmer is doing ok on the tank. No ammonia or nitrites but I’m testing about 10 for nitrates. I’m sure that’s mostly from the dirty filter in there.

 

[gwand]

I still don’t know what nano plants I’m going to order but I have put a few from my other tank in there that I don’t think will grow too big. I love the idea about the danios. I’ve never heard of them. Otherwise the only small fish I’m familiar with are neon tetras. Thanks for all of the input. My little sick swimmer is doing ok on the tank. No ammonia or nitrites but I’m testing about 10 for nitrates. I’m sure that’s mostly from the dirty filter in there.

Like Malok said. Celestial pearl danios are terrific peaceful nano fish. They coexist nicely with dwarf emerald rasbora, another nano fish.

 

[MaloK]

If your going to choose real nano fishes, Like under an inch adult... If your water permits it, and you are willing to add a little more hideouts. A bunch of cherry shrimps could make a living in there.

And add a stunningly graceful touch to your tank.