New 4g nano - iwagumi inspired (55k warning)

[Siggav]

I got a new fishtank the other day. A cute little 4g tank, pretty much a cube.

Just finished setting it up, no livestock yet and I don't quite know what to put in it.

I ordered the rocks online for it and got so much grief at work for paying money for rocks and having them shipped to me, but they were well worth it.

I had initially wanted to do something with driftwood but when the rocks turned up I knew I had to let them be the main focus.

I'm currently running the tank just with the built in LED lights, it's also next to a window where it gets lots of day light but no direct sunlight. We'll see how it goes. Also not using Co2 yet, not sure if I will.

I found it quite hard to aquascape, both being this small and being basically a cube. Im really happy with how it came out though in terms of the placement of the rocks.

The tank, I ended up taking out the filter that came with it though it was really noisy and have another in there now. That filter doesn't fit into the little compartment though so the tank is a little bit less clean than in these photos. Not by much though, it pretty much blends in with the black background anyway.



Filled up with substrate and the rocks placed





Ive got the fluval plant stratum thingie in it, we'll see how that works out. I put really fine gravel on top, in part because I don't really like the look of the substrate and to make it a bit easier to plant in. I know they'll end up mixing but hopefully the plants will mostly cover things by then




And voila! flooded and planted



Ive got hairgrass at the back, staurogyne repens at the front and Pogostemon helferi in the middle. It's all freshly planted so I have no idea how the plants will do really, esp since I don't know if the light is going to be good enough but we'll see. I'd be happy if any one of these plants thrive.

[Soundwav2010]

Nice nano, what brand is it, as i don't recognize it from the brands they have around here.

Anyways, I really like your scape. Can see this as a shrimp tank.

[grogan]

Great scape bud. Yeah I also want to know brand. That light fixture looks sleek and amazing.

[Siggav]

Thanks and yeah. I'll almost certainly get shrimp for it.

The brand is superfish wave 15. I got the tank as a free subscribing present when I subscribed to Practical Fishkeeping. That offer was just inside the UK I think

One thing I find a bit of a drawback with it is that there's a touch sensitive button to turn the lights on/off and pick intensity but if I put it onto a timer the timer turns the lights off but not back on again. I need to go and touch the button for them to go on.

Maybe I can get some sort of LED controller thing for it. I don't know. Im not much of an electric engineer.

[GMYukonon24s]

That is a nice little tank. I like how the light fixture is setup.

[Siggav]

Update, plants are growing in nicely, no C02 or macro ferts yet. No livestock yet either but I'll be adding some shrimp soon

The staurogyne repens is just gorgeous, nice rich green and good leaf shape etc.

[lauralou]

Very nice scape.

And I love the tank!

[sapphoqueen]

hmmm a real nano i love it too ... nice rocks also ..

[NWA-Planted]

Gorgeous I have to agree thats a sharp tank!

"People who don't like bacon can't be trusted. - NWA-Planted"

[Siggav]

Not the best photo but I've added 3 amano shrimp to it. I was going to go for red cherry shrimp but couldn't get hold of any within a reasonable timescale and the tank was starting to really need something that eats algae in so just went for the amanos. They won't breed so that's nice and stable I guess

[pedropete]

amanos will be great in there! tank looking lovely

[Siggav]

Better FTS now with the shrimp, they finished off all the algae in no time and are munching on a fragment of a piece of sinking pleco tablet each there. Bit too much food for them really but I hadn't realised they'd pick up the food and swim away with it playing keep aways with the others and since I didn't want them to start fighting over the one bit I put in two more to have one per shrimp. It was hilarious to watch them though.

So quick at finding the food and eating it too, anyway I really like them.

[orchidman]

looks great!!! arent you happy that you subscribed!?! wish they would offer that here!

[Siggav]

Oh yes, the little tank has been so much fun, very low maintenance too so far. The shrimp are amazing as well, not kept any freshwater shrimp before so that's all new.

The plants are growing well so far, I've not been fertilising other than trace but it's a relatively low light set up (although the tank is close to a window and gets a fair bit of daylight but not direct sunlight, which helps)

[Siggav]

One of the shrimp molted and I did the newbie shrimp keeper thing of seeing the molt and thinking one of them had died, esp since two of them were eating the molt. Then the third one joined in and I did a huh? wait but.. oh right yes, molts!

Starting to get some deep green algae on the big rock that the shrimp don't eat. Doesn't look bad though, it's not slimy and doesn't come off when I rub at it with a finger. Glass is still clear though and the plants so I'm not too worried.