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Setting up my nano planted


Rozski

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Kind of boring at the mo, but I am procrastinating going to bed, so thought I'd start a thread...

Cleaned out my 36 litre tank:

NanoTank.jpg

Got some Daltons:

Daltons.jpg

My black sand arrived today. Thanks to a kind person who posted me some:

BlackSand.jpg

And I got some glosso, and got given some rocks for free (so hardscape may change/improve in future). Iwagumi style at the moment:

NanoPlanted.jpg

Also still deciding what to have in the back. Thought hairgrass, but the only stuff available was at animates and looked quite mangy. Any suggestions?

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Thanks for the tip blueandkim! Might do that 8)

Have 3x 23watt (6400K) power saver bulbs in the hood at the mo, with another going in when my partner gets round to wiring it (he did the others last night but couldn't be bothered doing the 4th lol). So pretty high light :wink:

Caper, glosso is the plants. Little wee things that will hopefully form a carpet as they send out runner and grow more plantlets.

Not sure about fish yet. Probably ottos as an algae crew. I like khuli loaches too, and they'd probably enjoy the sand. Not sure otherwise.

Background just black at the moment, though partner is trying to convince me to use white card on the wall behind the tank (apparently the best for photographing haha)

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Nice. Exactly what i was going to do, but i ended up using normal sand and no rocks.

Thats some serious lighting :o

Iv had no light penetration issues with a power saver and and 300mm deep tank with glosso.

khuli loaches like to dig, thats why i havent used them in my tank.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tank update 2 weeks on 8)

NanoPlant2weeks.jpg

Ugly thermometer will come out soon as I only put the heater in yesterday and wanted to make sure the temp was where I wanted it. Drop checker will be shifted to the side soon too, only put that in today. Shiny heater will hopefully be hidden by plants one day.

Glosso funnily enough pearled for about 5 days after I planted it, and that was just with the lights, no CO2 or anything. Then put a little filter in and it stopped pearling and started looking sad until I hooked up the DIY CO2 2 days later. Not much pearling, but the plantlets all have little shoots and are looking green

I've run the CO2 line into the bottom of the little filter so the impellor absolutely mashes it up and spits a heap of tiny bubbles into the tank. Seems to be great diffusion and the glosso is looking happy.

Been very busy over the last week, so still haven't mixed up my PMDD and thus haven't started dosing ferts yet.

Went to LFS today to get some fish to get it cycling properly and make it slightly more interesting haha. Bit blasphemous for a planted nano, but I have some random guppies in there at the moment. Cheap, hardy and pretty :wink:

Whilst I would have liked all gold leopardy, my partner thinks they are boring and wanted to choose some of his own, so theres a bit of a mix, but they are all spotted and so kind of match :roll:

Also spied a CO2 drop checker in the fish store, and got that to check out levels, heres a pic:

Co2dropchecker.jpg

Had to add some baking soda to bring up my kh as it was 2. Now its 5 and so should buffer the pH so it doesnt swing and affect the fish. pH is around 6.6

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And took some photos of my guppies :D

Gold guppy #1, with pretty flowing gonapodium rendering him infertile:

GoldGuppy.jpg

Gold guppy #2, a bit bigger and with a little more colour:

Goldguppy2.jpg

One of the spotted ones:

SpottedGuppy1.jpg

And one of the other spotted, with red in the tail:

Spottedfiretail.jpg

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The drop checker? Well, I am calling it that but its a little different than the ones overseas I think.

Anyway, it has a bit of tank water in it, into which is added some liquidy stuff (very technical) which gives it the colour. Anway, the tank gasses diffuse into the water in the drop checker and change its colour to show you what the tank gasses are doing. The colours on the sticker aren't quite accurate in that photo, they go from very lime green to dark blue. And as you can see, green is good. If it goes blue, I know its time to change the CO2 mix, or if its too light green, theres too much CO2 in the water. My partner wanted it more than I did lol, but it is pretty cool

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Wet Pets, they have it in little pottles for $4 each (I bought 2), just ask one of the store people and they will get it out for you. It needs very high light though, and benefits from CO2 and ferts. Hence I've never bothered to try it in my big tank as its too deep with too little light. Also a fine substrate to plant it in (the sand is perfect).

I can't wait till it fills in and makes a carpet :D

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I request a photo of aforementioned cube :wink:

I posted a WTB thread and have had some hairgrass offered to me already. How tall does yours grow? The stuff I have been offered may be dwarf hairgrass (though I am not sure if we have different types in NZ?). Will send a pm though if need be, so thanks very much for the offer :D

Oh, can you take cuttings of it like with other plants and it will grow its own roots? Should really read up on it if I want to grow it properly lol...

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  • 2 weeks later...

lol, not at the moment. Went home for the weekend and came back to a fantastic green algae bloom. Have cut down the photoperiod quite a bit and will see what that does. And wont feed the fish for a few days. Unless theres another way to quicken its lifespan?

Gloss is still growing well though. And have the hairgrass and a couple of dwarf chain swords in there now. I will go see if my partner got a pic before the weekend...

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  • 2 weeks later...

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