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Finnex 4 Gallon

98K views 388 replies 124 participants last post by  Outlawboss 
#1 · (Edited)
**Current Picture as of 1/18/11***



Well, thanks to everyone for the initial comments on my setup. I've ordered just about everything I will need for this fun little project, and I started thinking aquascape today so I thought I'd share.

The first pic is what was available to start with. Just rocks from around the mountains where my parents live, a Manzanita burl, some petrified wood and a chunk of obsidian.


Here's a layout I'm thinking. The rock behind the taller piece of petrified wood is only there to hold it up.


Since I only have 13 watts over this I am thinking low/med light to start with. Chain Swords, Anubis Nana (petite), Taiwan Moss. Not sure what else, some ground cover would be nice. Maybe Dwarf Hair Grass?
 
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#6 ·
Finally! Tank has arrived. I got my stand built, got all my Co2 injection ready to go, and started working on a scape. I was noticing how the glass looked a little green from the edge-on view.


Silicone was really well done from what I can tell. Very tight seams.




Couple pictures of what I'm thinking for my scape. I really like that rock with the deep hole in it. Perfect for a small plant to fit snugly in.




One plant I'm sure I want to have is some taiwan moss. I've been cultivating some in my 30 gallon tank for a couple weeks. Looking about ready to go into the new nano.


Some bonus pictures from my 30 gallon. Just learning to use this new camera so I'm trying to get some nice shrimp pictures. This is a baby RCS.


Another baby RCS. Can you find it in the jungle???


I have the taiwan moss and a small anubis nana "petite" that I will put in there. Otherwise I am pretty open to exploring new plants. I've never tried a rotala and I like the red color they have. I don't have any experience with higher light plants just yet so I'm still learning.

How about this:
Rotala (background/color)
Anubis Nana 'petite' (Accent)
Taiwan Moss (shrimp haven, maybe a partial carpet?)

I need a nice foreground/carpet plant. I like HC but it scares me. I really like the look of Craigthor's pellia >here<. There's also hairgrass or micro swords but I'm really not sure what would look good.

As for the lighting, I am really liking the Aquatic-nature 26 watt. For $32, the price was right. The clip that it uses to hang on the side of the tank is a little flimsy, but the fixture is pretty lightweight so it shouldn't be a problem. I also really like the LED moonlighting, but you can't put it on a timer. You have to manually switch over to moonlight so I don't know how often that will actually happen. Overall though, I really like it. Puts out quite a lot of light. A definite improvement over the stock 13 watt that came with the Finnex.

Anyway! It's a start. Comments appreciated. :fish1:
 
#8 ·
It's a Finnex 4 gallon tank. I got it off ebay as a buy it now. The filter on the back is just the HOB that it came with. I will probably upgrade to a Tom's mini canister filter one of these days. I like the obsidian too. It's completely black. Really dark. Maybe I'll pop it in there tonight and see how it looks.
 
#9 ·
Got some plants in there last night. Here's the list!

Dwarf Hairgrass
HC
Mayaca Fluviatilis
Ammania Gracilis

Soon to come:
Taiwan Moss
Nana 'petite'

As soon as it was in, I immediately knew that the A. Gracilis was not going to stay. The leaves are just too big in proportion to the tank's size. It's a beautiful plant, though. Hopefully it will grow in my 30g tank. Lighting is a little low in that one probably (1.7wpg of T5).

Anyway, the plan is to get the Mayaca trained to grow small and cover the back. Then take the HC and get it to cover the areas that aren't already alotted to hairgrass. Add some moss in there for nice color contrast, and then some RCS or CRS and a few micro-rasporas.

It was a learning experience actually planting such a small tank. The aesthetics are so interesting and challenging because of the teeny size. :)

Pics of the tank in process.

Any comments are very welcome. Love it? Hate it? I'm learning as I go.

Just after planting...well sort of. It was 2am and I decided to wait and plant the HC later.



The morning after, water clearing up.


 
#11 ·
Update time!

Everything planted and looking pretty good. I think there might be too much going on and may simplify as things grow in. But for now I think it will work just fine.



Now I'm starting to think about things like ferts. I haven't done a medium-high light tank before, and I expect a nano to be especially challenging to keep parameters in check. I've read some about the EI dosing schedule. Maybe I can scale that down for the 4g and follow that.

Also my first time planting HC. It was challenging to say the least. I hope I did ok.

Whatcha think?
 
#12 ·
Why is that other people's Finnex 4 is always better looking than mine?:icon_smil

Also my first time planting HC. It was challenging to say the least. I hope I did ok.

Toally agree, I'm new at this also, planted my first tank with HC and Hairgrass. I was too cheap to buy tweezers so I just shoved the stems into the substrate. More than half of them died two days later. I rushed out and got some tweezers, replanted and got new growth the next day.
 
#13 ·
Couple days later...still looking pretty good. Water has a slight green tint to it. I don't think it's GW, must be just part of the cycling process. It's pretty minor.

Ammonia is still high at 6ppm. It's only been a week, but I was hoping to see it go down by now. Doing 25% daily water changes and crossing my fingers that it goes down some by the weekend so I can add some fauna. Wonder what an average cycle time for these small tanks is?

Also. Growth! I checked the first pictures I took versus today and I can see some growth going on. Haven't even added any nutrients yet so I'm stoked.

 
#14 ·
Time for an update. Things have been going well. Ammonia levels still hovering around 6ppm after 2 weeks up. Probably another week before I can add any fauna.

I'm a little worried about the algae that has started to show up. Most of it is innocent enough and an otto would eat it, but I'm afraid to get one just yet because of the high ammonia.

I can't believe how much the HC has filled in! My first HC success and it feels oh so good.

Full tank shot now that I've moved it to the office.




The HC is really filling in. If you look back and compare it against day one, it's pretty amazing to me to see. It's pearling really nicely every day too. :proud:


M. Fluviatilis has started to take off also. Pearled for the first time today!


Taiwan moss is coming along also. Going to be a great shrimp nursery.



Could use some help on this one. This algae makes me a little nervous. Really started to show up after I dosed ferts for the first time. Would it be better to hold off on dosing ferts until the tank is cycled? Would like to hear your experiences!
 
#19 ·
It's pressurized. I'm using a paintball style regulator hooked into a 9 oz paintball cylinder with a Red Sea needle valve. Nice and compact, and it should last several months between refills.

chris127 said:
that algae will go away quick with amanos ;) but the tanks looking great keep up the good work. and Zoo, go to school...
Thanks! I'm not sure if I'll be able to get my hands on an amano. How about Red Cherries? They should help the algae as well right?

merk1_99 said:
Toss in more fast growing stemmies to get the tank over the top algae wise.
Thanks for the suggestion. I never though about adding some sacrificial stem plants in there. Maybe they've got something cheap at the store right now.
 
#21 ·
I like you got the pressurized CO2 on it. So much easier than dosing excel if you got the $. My friends think I am crazy that I have pressurized on a 4 gal but the proof is in the pudding. If I could take pics of the plants through the gw you could see the plants are jumping out of the tank. What diffuser are you using. I like it it looks cool. How well is it working?
 
#22 ·
Chris127 - Alright that's great to know. I always thought an amano would be kinda big for this tank and that he might not be happy with my cherries in there. I'll give it a try though!

merk1_99 - The diffuser I have is from Green Leaf Aquatics. It's the spiro one that acts as a bubble counter. I love watching the bubbles spiral through the glass. I started out with pressurized on my 30 gallon tank and I don't ever want to go back. It's too much fun and the benefits are worth the extra $ up front.
 
#24 ·
You were right Chris! They're readily available at my LFS, which happens to be a really nice place.

I got 3 to start with. The tank is still cycling a little bit, but my nerves got the better of me when I started seeing what I considered to be too much algae and other detrius. They lived overnight so I went and got 4 more today. Of course one of them immediately decided to play with fire and romp around the filter inlet. He got dead, but the others are happily munching.

I sure hope these can start to help my algae problem out. I'm quite confused (as usual) as to what to do in order to stop the spread.

Thus far, I have been dosing very minimally. NPK once a week into the water column, and I have Seachem solid ferts stuck into the gravel in strategic places.

The aglae isn't anything quite as bad as BBA, hair or fuzz algae. The best way I can describe it is detrius algae. It's clumpy and dirty looking more than anything else. Weird!

Anyway, some updated pictures. Hopefully I can get some fauna pictures tomorrow.

See what I mean by how clumpy it looks? It's very soft stuff. Not attached to the plants very firmly. The amanos should hopefully take care of it soon.


My poor HC is showing signs of algae now as well. Crap!


Full tank shot. Despite algae problems it's come a long way and I've learned a lot. I'm already thinking of future, much more natural looking aquascapes. My wife will love me.


And another bonus picture from my 30g. I brought some amanos home for that one as well and I got a stowaway! I have no idea what the little guy is, but I hope I can keep him alive long enough to find out. My dwarf gourami has been hunting him for days to no avail. :icon_bigg
 
#25 ·
Amanos in the house!!! 6 Amanos purchased last week, and they've all lived to tell the tale. They've also gone to work on my algae bigtime. Looking back at the last post, they've completely cleaned off parts of the tank. MAN they are hella fun to watch. I have coworkers getting in on the fun now. There's a few who now make a daily trip to see the progress and watch my little "bugs" for a few minutes. I'm really happy with the lessons I've learned on with this experiment. I originally thought I would tear it down and rescape once I felt comfortable with the Nano style...but now I dunno. I might leave it and see where it goes. Maybe a minor re-scape. That rock on the left seems to be detracting from things. I might remove it and use the taiwan moss as more of a carpet. It would make a really cool contrast to the HC.

Anyway, some pictures. I had a little time this afternoon so I went for some more dynamic shots. Hope you like em.

Amano-tastic!






Spreading hairgrass and HC. They're going to merge eventually. Cool!


Jungle shot.


Ubiquitus FTS. I've been noticing a slight green tinge lately. Maybe a minor case of green water. Should take care of itself soon enough.


And, since I've been too lazy to start a journal for my 30g, a bonus and completely non-nano related shot.

 
#26 ·
Looking good. I don't think you need to rescape at all. It's got enough structure to give it character, yet is open enough to allow for minor tweaks to the plantscape as your mood dictates.
I don't know how you keep a tank at work. I would get nothing done. It's hard enough not going online to check out this forum, let alone having a tank on my desk that I have to keep my hands out of.
 
#27 ·
Thanks UG! I'm lucky in that I get time to check the forums at work (SHH!) daily. It is totally hard to keep my hands out of the tank during normal work hours. Mostly I do maintenance at the end of the day when 95% of people have left. That way I get my kicks and nobody cares, or is there to make fun of me. :)
 
#29 ·
No drop checker yet. I do like the ones they have at GLA though. Surely I'll get an itch to get one before long. :) Right now, I have C02 flowing at a rate that keeps the PH steady between 6.4 and 6.8. I know my GH/KH so I can get a ballpark number if I need.

My photo period is 8.5 hours right now. The tank is just now coming off it's cycle, so it could be something to do with the spike in nitrates in the water column. I'm doing daily (or every other daily) 20% water changes so I have faith that I will conquer it soon...unless I put soup into the water. Ugly Genius did!
 
#31 ·
Something called a Solar Duo Boy. 26 watt fixture but the bulb itself says 24 watt. Saw it at the LFS and thought it was perfect. Here's a link to their site. As far as I can tell, I'm the only one running one on the nano forums.

Aside from the green algae, I'm so far free from other nasties like hair, BBA etc.
 
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