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Office Nano: 3 Gallon Iwagumi (coming to an end)

55K views 125 replies 38 participants last post by  AnotherHobby 
#1 · (Edited)
Tank Shot (6/20/13):



I have decided that my aquarium obsession would be best served if I had a nano tank in my office at work. In the interest of keeping maintenance easy to handle and to keep a relatively low profile, something less than 5 gallons seemed like a good size for this. I didn't want to spend a ton on this project, so Mr Aqua's 3 gallon rimless at just $34 shipped was a good fit. The goal was to keep it relatively cheap while looking slick, so here are the other equipment selections:

Tank: Mr. Aqua 3 Gallon (MA-109A-2)
Lighting: Finnex FugeRAY 12"
Filter: Zoo Med 501 mounted under the desk
Filter Input/Output: Ebay 10mm Lily Pipes
Heater: None (office is kept at 72 degrees 24x7, which will suffice)
Substrate: Fluval Shrimp Stratum
Plants: HC & Staurogyne Repens
Hardscape: Seiryu Stone only
Care: 1/4 EI fert Dosing and Excel

I'm doing a dry start with the HC in hopes that it roots well. I've read that Fluval Stratum is light and notoriously difficult to plant in (buoyant plants tend to let loose). And HC is notorious for floating. So let's hope all goes well in 4 weeks. Thus, the next 4 weeks will be uneventful here, with the occasional growth update.

With everything finally here, I scaped it out yesterday and today and got some great feedback from people here. It's amazing how small of a space 3 gallons is to work with. Just a little under a foot wide, about 1/2 foot deep, and only 8" tall. I'm happy with how it turned out though, so I planted the HC this afternoon.







Live webcam (only updates between 7am and 4pm CST):

 
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#80 ·
I am dosing Excel and a reduced version of EI (somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2). The pearling was pretty nuts with the lights at first, but I dimmed them with some screen. They still perl some, but nothing like the first days. With that much light, I think I'd be algae city without real CO2.
 
#81 ·
My HC is doing well, but my s. repens has melted quite a bit. Here is a pic of it. You can see the stem on the left (and pointing left) with no leaves, and the plant in the middle looking pretty poor also. Several of the others look similar. Ignoring the diatoms from being a new tank, is this kind of melt normal and an adjustment thing, or do you think I'm just slowly loosing them?

 
#93 ·
I wouldn't put an oto in a 3 gallon. You know I like pushing the boundaries with what people recommend but 3 gallons is definitely too small of a tank even for one oto (plus they are shoaling fish, so a group of 3 or more oto's are recommended) You could possible buy an SAE (Siamese's algae eater), I believe they keep hair algae and diatoms in check till the blooming phase passes. (diatoms typically a sign of a new tank, they go away over time) Once your done with the SAE, you can just give back to the LPS or find someone that wants him/her. RCS and Amano's should take care of the diatoms as well, so just let them do their job.

Also, don't get your hopes up breeding with shrimp in a 3 gallon. I haven't heard many people achieving this even if it was RCS's in a nano tank. Now you can always throw them into a 10+ gallon breeder tank for a month and start a colony pretty quick.
 
#89 ·
I've just read this whole thread in one sitting. Amazing set up, my HC has been in a DSM for 46 days (20l) its been killing me but I'm still looking around for a good co2 rig for a decent price. Its my first tank and reading this thread has helped me understand a lot. I hope my HC doesn't melt after the DSM just as much as I hope yours doesn't either.
 
#90 ·
Thanks! I hope it doesn't melt too. It has definitely grown since flooding, but at only 9 days old, it's hard to judge if it will or not. This time lapse is from this week (Monday-Friday), starting just 4 days after I flooded the tank. You can definitely see the HC still growing (and the pearling looks cool if you flip to 720p!):



I switched to a better camera angle today, so hopefully the time lapses look better in the future. That side shot wasn't that great.

Be patient with the DSM. Once the HC roots, it actually fills in pretty quick. As far as CO2 goes, I built my own using a dual stage regulator for my home setup, and I found it really rewarding.
 
#91 ·
The webcam slideshows are really neat!
I started off with 4 plants covering the bottom and they rooted about 2 weeks ago and have begun to take off. I've heard great things about CO2 but never had any experience, how do you like it? I'm looking into an aquatek regulator with a 2.5-5 lbs tank. Do you think that would fair well for a 20g?
 
#92 ·
I love having CO2. When I was looking at regulators, I was going to get one from GLA. I don't know much about the commercial units though, because once I figured out I could build a super high quality dual stage unit for the same price, I went that route. If you are handy, it's not really that hard. Lots of people on here can help you and also supply parts. Some even build them.

I used diffusers for the first couple of months, but got sick of them quickly. Last week I made a cerges reactor and love it. No more hoses and CO2 gear in the tank, no more bubbles in the tank, and no more clogged ceramic discs.
 
#95 ·
Yeah, I had read up on otos and came to that same conclusion. Even if you could biologically filter it, you'd have some very unhappy fish. I'm sure the shrimp will do cleanup duty. For now I'm going to try and not change anything and just observe. I like to tinker, so it'll be good for me.
 
#96 ·
Well it's been about 3 weeks since flooding the tank, and some stuff is going well while other stuff isn't. The HC seems to have transitioned just fine to immersed growth. In general, it's doing okay.

Nearly all of the s. repens I got has died, which is really lame. There is one lone s. repens survivor in the back. I'm assuming it's because I got it from Tom Barr's CO2 tank and it just didn't transition well to my water parameters. I'll probably pull it and find something else to plant in here.

The biggest annoyance right now is diatoms. Lots of it (quite visible in the webcam and the pictures below). I know it'll go away and it's common with new tanks, but it's really annoying. If I don't clean it off the HC, it blocks out the light for that area of the plant and kills it. Overall, the HC is doing pretty well, but there are some melted areas from the diatoms.

I can fully conclude that I don't like Fluval Shrimp Stratum at all. It looks nice, but that's about it. It crumbles easy and doesn't hold plants well. The HC struggles to stay planted in it because it's so light. This is super annoying when I'm trying to clean diatoms off the HC. How much do I not like it? I have a ton of aquasoil left over from my Fallen Tree Branch 60P project, and I'm tempted to pull all of the shrimp from this tank and move them to my tank at home, and then pull all of the HC, clean off the diatoms, and redo this tank with Aquasoil. Will I? Probably not, but maybe, and that's how I feel about FSS. I might cycle enough at home just to leach the ammonia out in case I decide to do it.

The CRS in this tank are doing well. They are growing, molting, and appear to be pretty happy little critters. I had also tossed in some fully grown RCS to help clean up the diatoms, and they have now produced some offspring. I think one was berried when I tossed in there. Well now I've spotted at least 3 tiny little shrimp. :)

Full Tank Shot (you can see my diatom issue):



As you can see, as long as it's not getting smothered by diatoms, the HC is doing pretty well so far:



Here is an area where the diatoms were on the HC for a while and blocked out enough light where it started going clear and melting:

 
#99 ·
I just finished reading thru your thread. Very neat tank, I love the way you set it up. I hope you get the rest of the kinks worked out of it. The results will be well worth your effort. Nice to see HC growing w/o CO2 and high lights in an aquarium though I doubt I'll be trying that any time soon.
Rodney
 
#100 ·
The lights are definitely not high. I have window screen over the FugeRay, so it's cut by about 40% brightness. The HC doesn't perl anymore, which is a good sign if you aren't going for fast growth. If it was high light, it'd be an algae farm.

Who knows... I may give up and go paintball CO2 on this little tank someday, but not without a solid effort first. :)
 
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