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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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#107 ·
I just read the whole thread and I hope you come up with a solution soon. I've attempted to grow hc for 2x and failed at the end. Just ordered everything and doing another attempt next week. Your thread is very educated for me. Once again Good Luck!
 
#110 ·
Thanks! I really enjoy having it at work. It's a fun conversation piece too. The tank doesn't look nearly as good as the glamour shot I took after I flooded it. There is lots of brown from HC die off from the massive diatom outbreak, but it's slowly recovering. To green it up I added a several stems of Rotala 'Gia Lai' (it has pretty tiny leaves) and some hydrocotyle tripartita japan and 2 little anubias nana petite. Not sure if I'll keep that stuff in there long term or not, but I'm guessing not.

I just did a glass cleaning and water change over lunch. I'll post an up to date pic after the water clears.
 
#114 ·
Sure... I went on vacation for a week and it turned into a bit of an algae farm. I had noticed that some hair algae blooming up just before I left, but I couldn't do anything about it. I had a guy at work take care of the tank for me, but it got bad by the time I was back. Not his fault at all, there was nothing he could do.

I pulled out all of my CRS on Wednesday and put them in a temporary 1/2 gallon tank I keep here for emergencies. I put the media and sponges from the filter with them, and then did 2 back to back over the top H2O2 treatments with water changes in between. Then I did a double dose excel treatment.

After changing the water a final time yesterday, I put the CRS back in, and put the media and sponges back in the filter. Hopefully the algae dies over the next few days. It already looks way better this morning.

The plants all look okay. The HC is still doing quite good, considering no CO2 and low lighting. I'll take a pic next week after the algae goes away.

As for the future of this tank, I'm contemplating a rescape. When I went backpacking/fishing in the Big Horns, I managed to grab some really cool nano sized gnarly wood that would be fun to work with. If I do this, I'll abandon the Iwagumi style and probably stop using HC and try something totally different. It'd be a while out though, because I'd need to pre-cycle the aquasoil that I'd use.

I'm also contemplating swapping out the tank completely for a 3.4 gallon low iron truAQUA. It'd give me a bit more room, and the low iron tank I have at home spoils me.
 
#117 ·
It's all actually going quite well.

I haven't been using anything for the last few months. Since my last post, I have not added a single drop of excel or ferts. It's now 100% low tech. I had some HC die off after I treaded for algae, but since then it's been doing just fine. I haven't even trimmed a single plant.

All I do now is scrub a the front glass every couple of weeks. I'm getting almost no algae (just a dusting on the side and back glass), and everything seems happy. I haven't scrubbed the sides or back since the treatment, so what you can see below is 3 months worth.

I might start dosing a tiny bit of ferts and excel soon so that I can stimulate some more HC growth, but otherwise everything is going well.

I only have my iPhone with me today, so this is the best pic I can muster:

 
#123 ·
It's just sitting on the floor under the desk. I have 3' long hoses running up to the tank. There is no reduction in circulation by doing this, but since the filter isn't "designed" to be lower than the tank, I have it sitting in a 3 gallon Tupperware container in case something goes wrong.

How did you have Co2 getting pumped into this tank previously?
I've never had CO2 in this tank.

How did your shrimps do when you dosed excel into your nano tank?
They didn't seem to have any issues, but I was dosing at pretty low amounts. It's now extremely low tech with virtually no fert dosing or excel. The plants do okay, but exhibit close to zero growth. On the other hand, I have almost zero algae. I'd like to tinker with it more, but I'm so busy at work right now that it's kind of perfect.
 
#125 ·
It's doing okay. Over a year in and the HC is still kicking and I have about 30 CRS in there. However, I recently started getting hair algae, and when I pulled some out today it took almost 1/2 the HC with it. So, it's not looking too fabulous right now.

I'm still tempted to start over with something else.
 
#126 ·
Well this tank is coming to an end very soon. I got a wild hair yesterday and decided I wanted to change it up. It's been serving well has a home for about 40 cherry shrimp, but I want more plants, more color, and more room. I'm a bit bored with iwagumi.

I warned my wife that I was dropping about $300 for an office aquarium change out. :)

I've ordered a Mr Aqua 6 gallon long to replace it. I was tempted to do a 12 gallon long, but the water changes would just be too big and too much of a PITA to be hauling that much water around the office. The 6 gallon long (which I think is actually 6.5) is 24" long, 6.7" deep, and 9.4" tall. It's basically the same length, but half as tall and half as deep as a 60p.

I'm also addicted to CO2 now, so I'll be going high tech and ordered a pressurized paintball CO2 setup. I will be lighting it with a 24" Current Satellite Plus. It'll be auto-dosed EI ferts and all controlled via an Arduino so I can do full RGBW color fades for sunrises and sunsets. I'm going all in.

I'll start a new journal when I get going on it.

After decommission, I think this one will find a new life on my desk at home. Is 3 tanks MTS?
 
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