Spur Of The Moment Aqua40 Nano. (lots Of Pics)

[DevUK]

Hey all. I've had an Aqua40 kicking about for a few months. It was my first tank, which was stocked with 3 blue oranda, 4 WCMMs and 1 CAE. Wow, was I sold way too much for one tank. Anyway, 2 years on I've learnt far more

So, what to do with it I ask myself. Its due to go to my sisters house, but she has been umming and ahhing. She may be moving house sometime in the next few months so she doesn't want it yet. So, I figure what the heck!

Here it is as it was at 8pm:

After some theraputic removal of cotton wadding from the bottom of two Microsorum pteropus (java fern) "Narrow" which took some time, I've tied them up and also tied on some Taxiphyllum alternans "Taiwan Moss". The white cotton looks a bit bad, but it won't be on for too long I hope

And finally

I hope to maybe add a Cryptocoryne crispatula var. balansae (Thank you George Farmer for the inspiration on that one!). I'm not sure if the lighting will be up to the job though. The tank setup is as follows:

11w built in light unit
27 Litre / 7 US Gal
Fluval 1+ internal (Hope to replace with Eden/Resun style external canister)
Tetraplant Complete Substrate (1cm)
mixture of largish and small gravel on top, topped with more small gravel on the surface

Unsure on whethe I'm going to do any dosing, could do with advice on this I will more than likely be sticking my Nutrafin canister CO2 onto this, or perhaps a DIY CO2 setup. As I say, it was sort of spur of the moment

 

[Liam]

Looks good, really nice placing of the wood and its a nice shape, the moss will grow over the gravel if you want given time, its a fairly fast grower. Only advice I would give is to add a few fast growers for a few months, small tanks even with low light are more algae prone I think. I would hide the heater with the wood if possible. Crypts will grow with that level of light, I have a couple of crypts (parva and another small one) in a five gallon with 11 watts, they hardly grow but they are fine, Crypt balansae can grow very tall, and is quite big when it grows, so you might want to consider that. It is a great plant though.
Looks very nice, dont know about the dosing, the fern and moss can do without it, depends on what else you decide to plant I guess.

 

[DevUK]

I had thought about the heater and wasn't sure what to do with it, but after some fiddling about its now snuggly sitting behind the wood Also got my nutrafin ladder in the back now, tucked up next to the filter. Can't really "hide" one of those so easily I have a small diffuser comming from AquaticMagic which I was going to use on my 24x12x12 project, but I think I'll be puttin that on hold with the arival of my new BIG tank tonight (its big to me )

Good point about the balanese. I'm definately going to add one to my large tank when I get that set up. Problem is, I'm not a fan of the larger leaved plants, like most of the other crypts.

I was thinking of some Bacop australis for a foreground carpet style plant. Also, failing the balanses, and after a bit of looking around, I quite like the look of Najas guadalupensis (Southern Waternymph). From what I've read its very happy in low light, if a little overbearing. I don't mind trimming it though, and it'd make a nice background plant. Unsure exactly how tall its likely to grow, but possibly a little too tall.

The tank will either have 4 leopard danios or maybe 4 or 5 Pentazona Barbs (depending on bio load etc). I'd love to have some Japonica/Amano shrimp, but I believe its best to add them to an established tank? Maybe in the future if its still running in 6 months

 

[lljdma06]

7g is too small for barbs and danios. Both stay small and produce minimal waste, but IMO they require a lot more swimming space. You're better off with a small rasbora species, or even a trio of sparkling gouramis (Trichopsis pumila). In addition, pygmy corydoras would be a wonderful addition as well. Imagine either...

6 microrasboras
5 pygmy corydoras

or

3 sparkling gouramis
5 pygmy rasboras

You could even opt for a small livebearer if you've got access to them. There are several species of gambusia (moquito fish) that are really quite attractive, and there are other livebearers that only reach an inch or so in length. Bumblebee gobies and dwarf puffers would also work. If keeping gobies, you can either choose to make the water slightly brackish, specific gravity of 1.005, which the java fern and mosses will tolerate, or you can keep the water soft and acidic. Either way works well. I'm sorry I butt in so much regarding fish, but stocking is my specialty.

11W over 7g isn't a lot of light. I do not use CO2 in my 8g and I've got 24W over 8g, so I don't even know if it would be productive in your case. I bet you could even double the lighting and you may not need CO2. I would stick with the java fern, mosses, anubias, and crypts if you can find. You might have enough light for the hardiest of stemplants, but growth will be super slow. But if this is what you want then go for it. Sometimes it's great not having to have to prune every week.

As far as dosing is concerned, I wouldn't if I was in your situation. This is a low-maintenance enough tank that the fish food and fish waste should provide well for your plants, if you stock well with the right type of fish. If you do get crypts, I'd recommend a good rootab, but that's basically it. If you are consistent with your water changes and if your tapwater has a goodly amount of dissolved minerals (moderately hard, slightly alkaline) and coupled with the presence of the wood (which leaks tannins and trace elements), you shouldn't have to dose trace either.

Good luck, this sounds like a fun little project tank that shouldn't give you too much of a headache. I like my low-maintenance tanks, they are fun.

llj

 

[DevUK]

Thanks for the stocking ideas The leopard danios will go in my big tank in that case as I want to move them out of their current tank (70L) which is slightly over stocked.

I like the idea of pygmy cory's. When I first saw corydoras I didn't like them. Infact I thought they looked uggly. I think they must of been albino cory's. Never really gotten on with albino/see through fish. I think they freak me out a little Looking at the 3 dwarf cory breeds, I think I'd opt for true pygmies (silver with black stripe). They look pretty cool

I've put an order in with Aqua Essentials today for some low light plants:

Cryptocoryne crispulata var. balansae
Marsilea hirsuta
Eleocharis "parvula"

The idea being the crypt will go in my large tank when its set up this week, and maybe split the other two between the small and large if possible. I like the idea of some grass like planting patched around the wood, and maybe the Marsilea in the open area. They claim to be fine in low light, so lets hope so

Eventual plans, after the filter upgrade, might be to increase the lighting if possible. I think I could engineer something into the hood, if not it does detach, so I could go open top maybe.

 

[DevUK]

Well, this didn't last too well. Within a few months I'd stolen wood from it and used them in my larger tank. This tank has sat half empty/full (depending if your the pesamistic/optamistic type) for 4 or 5 months! Anyhow, I stripped it down and gave it a good clean, and got it ready for some livebearers!

Heres a pic:

Anyhow, that lasted a week! The fish from this tank are now in a larger tank with some new tank mates:

I have replanted the smaller tank again with some Eleocharis Acruata (hair grass) and a really nice bit of redwood I got very cheap from my LFS! I'll post a pic later when I get home, still needs some work though

 

[Themuleous]

Nice little tank that is Steve would make a cool little marine (did I just say marine... )

 

[DevUK]

(did I just say marine... )

Noooooo!! I refuse to go marine

Anywho, heres a pic of it now:

I bought the hair grass from a garden centre for £2. The pot is about 4" square and I've used about 5% of it for what you see in the photo! It took about 3 hours to seperate off enough hair grass and plant it, and its not finished

I've got some HC on its way from JamesC, so I will re-plant some of the eleocharis towards the back and make room for the HC up front. I hope it grows!

Edit: Thought I'd stick on stats:

36w lighting (Interpet T5 PC with reflector)
Eco-Complete substrate

Ferts regime will be along the lines of 2ml TPN+ every Sun/Tues/Thurs with a 50% water change on Sunday before dosing. Looking into assembling another pressurised CO2 system if I can source a cheap regulator.

 

[Themuleous]

Looking good, should fill out nicely. Lighting doesn't seem very bright though? HC will struggle under low light.

Sam

 

[DevUK]

Its a 36w T5 Power Compact light. No CO2 or anything though, so I suspect it might be an issue. Might go with the HC somewhere else... Main tank perhaps

 

[fozziebear]

i love that piece of wood, every fish shop i go to in london only does mopani or plain old bogwood, i can never find the unipac sumatra wood or the redmoor wood.

 

[DevUK]

Need to get to a maidenhead aquatics My LFS never used to sell the redwood, but I got lucky I ask every time I go in and they say they can't get hold of it at the moment.

 

[dingweding]

May i ask where did u buy those woods? how much? they are very attractive. why all the bogwood i found, no matter in the shop or from the internet, all quite chunky without many branch?

 

[DevUK]

The tree looking bit is called "Redwood" and I was lucky enough to get it from my LFS. It cost me £1.09! (The LFS lady did it by weight and its quite small).

The wood in the larger tank is Sumatran wood and I got one piece from a local World of Water for £8.50 and the other from Maidenhead Aquatics for £10.50. Its supplied by a company called Unipac. Ask your LFS if they can get stuff through Unipac

 

[dingweding]

i am so jealous i paid more than £30 just got a big chunk, so ugly, and i even can not put it porperly in my tank