Squirrel's Nano

[Themuleous]

Oh I like the new scape SB it looks great! I think the biggest difference is the rocks, previously they dominated the scape and ruined the whole nano feel, now they are more 'reserved' and it looks much better, the tank could be 100lt for all I know and I think thats the key to nano tanks, its the ultimate miniaturisation.

Good work

Sam

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Thanks for the encouraging words!

The diffuser is now a sweet little glass thing I ordered off of ebay. It's very small - just the right size for a tiny tank. I'll try to take a picture of it.

It takes up much less space than the ladder did.

I would like to try riccia as I haven't ever had that before. I'm placing an order this weekend for a few things so perhaps I'll include a little riccia!

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Time for an update -- been away for a bit.

I had to pretty much overhaul the tank because I let the CO2 run out for 2 days and the algae took over. This is what I did:

took out the rocks
put back the bogwood
removed the vallis
removed the hairgrass
added watersprite (fast grower)
put back the nutra fin ladder

There is still some algae as I only removed 75% of it. (I read somewhere that it is bad to remove algae entirely at once?) The other 25% will be gone this weekend (mostly on the heater and the bottom of the back glass.)

I tried using the glass co2 diffuser (it's so sweet!) - but the noise drove me nuts. Can only imagine what it sounds like underwater! Is it normal for them to make noise?

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

I'll take pics after I clear out the rest of the algae! It still looks rather "unkept"!!

 

[Themuleous]

Pics, pics, pics

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Well, there have been no pics because I've been battling a terrible round of algae. It just won't go away. I plucked all of the plants except for the rotala indica and added some spare "fast growing" plants from other tanks. Upped the CO2 as well. The algae continues to grow out of control even on the substrate.

So, I decided I would move the two guppies into the 72 gallon tank and strip the nano. I disconnected the CO2 for a day and was planning on moving the fish tonight.

As a precaution, I just tested the pH and it's 8.2!!! My tap water is only 7.2. The KH is coming in at 8 and it's 4 degrees in all other tanks. Tapwater also reads at 4 degrees. It has to be the eco-complete as that's the only thing different compared to the other tanks. The eco complete packaging claims to not change the water chemistry - but it certainly has! I tested the pH three times just to be sure and double checked the test kit by testing the other tanks.

Poor little guppies -- what a swing they had to endure. I'm going to leave them in there for now as I don't think they'll do well going from 8.2 to 6.5 -- especially since they just endured going from 6.2 to 8.2 in the last day. Perhaps I can siphon out the substrate and do small water changes to get the pH back to tapwater level (7.2 ) and then acclimate them slowly to the 72 gallon.

Here's a picture of the sad state of affairs:

The rotala actually still looks pretty decent. I may be able to salvage some of it. But I'm tempted to just bin it all and start all over.

 

[mark.w.jones]

The joys of maintaining a small tank . I hate it when people with 50 gal+ tanks poo, poo us smaller tank owners and patronize us with tales of all the wonderful fish they can keep in their massive tanks. Small tanks are much, much harder to keep stable and I think you have to be a better fish / plant keeper in order to run one well.

 

[speedingorange]

The joys of maintaining a small tank . I hate it when people with 50 gal+ tanks poo, poo us smaller tank owners and patronize us with tales of all the wonderful fish they can keep in their massive tanks. Small tanks are much, much harder to keep stable and I think you have to be a better fish / plant keeper in order to run one well.

50 gal... pah..... ive got a 2000gal pond! now thats what the ladies are looking for

lol

sad to hear about the algae

its never good fun when things decide to go bits up

 

[Themuleous]

First off, sorry about the algae its a complete sod hey? But if can be permitted to get a small plus point out of all this? It demonstrates the wonder of CO2 and its ability to control algae, just think about having to do the planted tank before CO2 had been discovered! It'd be less aquascaping and more algaescaping!

As a precaution, I just tested the pH and it's 8.2!!! My tap water is only 7.2. The KH is coming in at 8 and it's 4 degrees in all other tanks. Tapwater also reads at 4 degrees. It has to be the eco-complete as that's the only thing different compared to the other tanks. The eco complete packaging claims to not change the water chemistry - but it certainly has! I tested the pH three times just to be sure and double checked the test kit by testing the other tanks.

I would say yes most definitely SB, the eco-complete very definitely changes the water chemistry, my nano went from 2/3KH to a stead 8 and has been there for the last 3/4 months. There is absolutely no denying it increases KH and GH. Since changing over the main tank, I have watched KH rise by about 1dKH per day to its current 8KH.

If you check the caribsea sea website it actually says

Nitrate and carbonate free - will not increase pH or carbonate hardness in the long term.

I tried to email about how long 'long term' is but no response, could be years! I will add that it seems strange that the pH has gone to 8.2 though, seems very high even with KH of 8. Even with no CO2 I only get pH of 7 poss 7.2.

The joys of maintaining a small tank . I hate it when people with 50 gal+ tanks poo, poo us smaller tank owners and patronize us with tales of all the wonderful fish they can keep in their massive tanks. Small tanks are much, much harder to keep stable and I think you have to be a better fish / plant keeper in order to run one well.

I would agree wholeheartedly about this, the more I struggle with my nano the more I think small planted tanks are harder to maintain than larger tanks, much like nano reefs. There just isn't the same room for error. One slight change and the whole lot goes tits up, this is probably the reason for my staghorn, one very small change that I doubt I'll ever fully work out.

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Boy, am I glad I didn't opt for eco-complete! I'm sorry about the algae too! That's aweful!

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Thanks for so many replies! This has been a great "nano" experience. What I have learned:

1. Eco-complete is great stuff but not necessarily good for a 4 gallon tank. When I rescape the tank, I will be using fine gravel.

2. No matter how busy I get, the Nutra-fin MUST be changed at regular intervals. Do not let the CO2 run out for even one day.

3. Do not add ferts if the CO2 hasn't been properly sorted out.

I took the tank apart tonight. It's been scrubbed of all algae. I binned the plants and the substrate. (The plants went into the compost pile and the eco-complete is in the garden.) The guppies have been relocated to the 72 gallon.

So here I sit with a sweet little (empty) tank and a pile of books, thinking about what the next setup should be!

 

[Themuleous]

Humm what next.....