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First Attempt - Planted Nano Tank

75K views 93 replies 27 participants last post by  somewhatshocked 
#1 ·
Hi fish tank people! I have a betta fish currently living in a small bowl and wanted to do something nice for him. This is my first attempt at planting an aquarium so I hope it works out.

It's an 8 gal planted Fluval Flora with - Anubias / Crypt / Micro Sword / Java Fern / Wysteria / random betta bulb

The wysteria should fill in the back / grow taller. My main concern is aeration in the front.

I hope the thin layer of sand allows enough gas exchange with the substrate.

Hardscape: (Found / boiled - driftwood / rocks) Fluval substrate / AQ sand


The Rest:







Minnows for the Cycle:
 
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#64 · (Edited)
I currently use two of the stock 13W CFLs. I lucked out and wound up with two, which landed me in the WPG range I was looking for.

Up until this past week I've been injecting CO2 using a solenoid / regulated 5LB Co2 canister. (ran out - refilling soon) It turns on one hour before the lights come on and turns off one hour after they've turned off.

The lighting schedule is a 4x8x4
5AM-9AM on
5pM-9PM on

I fertilize the roots with worm castings and fertilize the water column with a macro/micro very lightly. The tank is heavily stocked with bottom feeders and heavy feeding of a varied diet provides most of the remaining nutrients. Nerites (4) and an otto (1) have done an excellent job of keeping the glass clear.

Thanks,
Rob
 
#67 ·
Wasn't sure what else to do, buggers had grown 9 inches tall and were shading everything around. Tried pulling out a clump, but the roots are set deep. Any clipped leaf will surely die back, but at least I'll be able to see the rest of the aquarium. lol.
 
#68 ·
lol! I find the best way is to trim off the larger leaves :).
to separate a daughter plant you can pull the crypts out a little so you can see the rhizome then snip the rhizome between plants. then you can snip out the roots of the clumps you dont want and pull it out :) you can still regrow this but it will usually melt first when trying to regenerate new roots
 
#70 ·
Thanks Exie, it's all about how much care you put into it. I let mine down a bit in the past month or two and the tank suffered. I ran w/o Co2 for 5 weeks and plants started getting stringier / algae reared its ugly head.

Just refilled the tank today - here's a couple shots. I removed many of the plants I didn't really care for. May tear out all of the lacy stuff to the left - it just grows too quickly. The bottom leaves of the ludwigia sp red are looking a little gnarly. May have to trim that up a bit more as well.





Don't worry about the betta, he's away on holiday in my 20g sump. I wanted him out of the tank for a bit to let the RCS population grow a bit more. Once the next gen hits juvenile stage I'll move him back in.
 
#73 ·
Exie: it is the stock fluval backdrop

Lyzza: I do love this betta, he got me into aquariums. 4 months ago he was living in a little bowl maybe 2 qts large. At that time he was completely white. Unfortunately, the water conditions weren't the best and he ended up with a terrible case of fin rot that nearly took him. In trying to save him I purchased the aquarium you see here.

Anyway - Angelo has what's called the "marble gene". It means that his colors will vary over the course of his life. When the shots above were taken he was blue and white with a yellow face. Recently, black has been showing up around the face and tips of the tails. I'll have to get a few more shots soon.
 
#76 ·
Amazing pictures!
 
#77 ·
Quick update:

This tank has been ignored a bit more than I'd like and my WC/Fertilization schedule has dropped off. The betta has a touch of the fin-rot again due to a power outage a month ago. One of the ottos was trapped behind the filter sponge and passed. Fortunately the shrimp / pygmy cories had him cleaned up and gone within 24 hours.

The tank has been trimmed a few more times. Due to the lack of fertilization the ludwigia SP red has not been thriving.



 
#83 ·
Greedy, it is actually made out of wood. If you're interested in the process, I have a build thread here http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=294610&highlight=

Adam, shamefully, in the last set of images the water is just at its weekly low point due to evaporation. Generally, I keep the water level about 3/4 of an inch below the rim. I've lost 2 amanos to higher fills than this.

Thanks,
Rob
 
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