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Completely Fresh 3.7g nano. Now what?

1K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Jsonic 
#1 ·
Hey guys! This is my first post so forgive me if I'm not clear enough. I'll try to be as specific as i can.

2 days ago i bought a wonderful little 3.7 gallon nano tank. Prior to this I had a well cycled 5 gallon tank with a Betta fish and a standard sword plant. When I bought the nano tank, i took the same water and substrate from the old tank and put it in the new one as well a adding a couple of new plants and a few pieces of slate. Then i started feeling bad for moving the betta to a smaller tank and decided to rehome him. One of my friends who is also a fan of the hobby decided to take him.

So now i've made the decision to do a complete overhaul of this new tank and it looks (In my opinion) absolutely awesome. I kept the sword from the old tank, added new substrate, a great piece of spiderwood and strung some Java moss to the branches. The substrate I'm using is black humate. It's designed to keep my pH low as well as assisting with plant fertilization. I also kept a snail in there that has been handing out since I had the old tank. The plan with this one is to put a few painted guppies in there once everything is cycled but that leads me to my series of questions.

1. If I were to do a fishless cycling, the beneficial bacteria that you would add from a bottle requires about 1 tsp per 10 gallons. With a 3.7g aquarium it just seems unreasonable to invest in a massive bottle like that and worry about getting the measurements wrong.

2. In our 55 gallon we have a very simple store bought Co2 kit. We are waiting on our pro CO2 kit to arrive. Once it does, I've been considering putting the simple one on the nano tank. Should I? If I do, how should I count the bubbles? Honestly even 1 bubble per second seems like a lot considering the size of the tank/how much I have in there plant wise. I may add DHG for dwarf baby tears later on down the road as ground cover but I haven't really decided yet.

So those are the questions I have right now. I'm wondering if I'm making this too complicated but honestly, I wanna say things are a lot easier with my 55 gallon because everything is much more measurable whereas with a nano, there's not really instructions on anything supplement-wise and when I look online, there's just not much info as far as cycling is concerned. I've considered putting one guppy in there or even a couple of ghost shrimp but would that be considered inhumane even if I was checking the water on a constant basis? Any advice and feedback is helpful here, guys. Thanks.


P.S. Sorry the pic is sideways I couldn't figure out how to remove it and re-upload it in the correct orientation.
 

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#2 ·
Hi there, I have the same tank as you but mine is about 20 days into being planted. You can check it out in my other posts if you'd like. I run the fluval 20g CO2 for a short time a day, no exact science i just look for my plants to begin reacting and turn it off. i just put a small school of clouds in my tank for 5 dollars to get it properly cycled and then a friend will be taking them off of my hands so i can get some CPDs. I just purchased 8 shrimp as well to go along with the one Amano and few snails that i have now and plan on carpeting the front possibly. Its a very nice system and easy to clean you will love this tank!

EDIT: forgot to mention that i added additional lighting for 20 and the growth exploded after doing so
 
#3 ·
Awesome! Thanks so much. I just went and looked at your tank I love it! Ok I'll definitely add some CO2 then and get a few small tetras maybe. Something inexpensive. I considered upgrading the light a little as well and if it made that much of a difference I'm definitely going to look into it. I really do love this tank. I work from home and it sits on my desk all day I just can't stop looking at it. The filtration system is pretty impressive considering it was only a $50 tank.
Thanks again for the info! Much appreciated!
 
#4 ·
Sure thing, glad you like my tank! here is my light from amazon in case you are interested. (Mingdak LED Aquarium Light Fixture for Fish Tank,universal Extendable Marine Lights, White and Blue) its pretty strong for such a small tank but if you have enough faster growing plants you can be alright. looking forward to seeing how your tank progresses.
 
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