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I've luked here for a while, and gotten a lot out of it. Because of this, I decided that I would start a journal since I am starting a new tank in hopes that someone will get something out of it.
So, this is my second planted tank and my first Nano.
The tank is a Picotope
The Light is the HD "robocop light"
The filter is the little one that came with it
Substrate was just sand...
Initially, this tank was set up with some playsand I had laying around. I like sand, but this tank it tiny. Because it is so tiny, I can't think of anything alive to put in it. Like I said I like sand, but I was staring at the tank and thinking: "it's pretty sterile in there, it's no place for a plant to be."
I should take a minute to say, that I have always been cityfolk, I love nature but am thouroughly citified when it comes to my roots. When I able to I escape the binds of urbanity, but my plants won't have that luxury. Furthermore, it has been months since I have been able to thouroughly decompress. I looked into that tank and I knew what it was to be a little bit of green in a hard and concrete world. I knew what it was to be inundated by something alien and unnatural, to be immersed in it. I knew wat it was to feel like you were chained down to something lifeless and cold and dead. I knew what I had to do, and I knew I had to do it for both of us!
But I digress. My 20 gallon uses just sand, but it also has tons of alive things in there. While the sand has worked out well for me in that tank, I have had a hankering to try a tank with a...um... (ert?) substrate. that being said I do not have a hankering to tear down the twenty until I move. I also didn't want to be stuck with most of a twenty pound bag of something or another.
So I quickly looked around the apartment. It was there that I saw "it." I knew it was "it" as soon as I saw it. Out on the balcony in a lonely white bag: dirt! What is more natural than dirt? Plants! Dirt and plants: an unstoppable force!
I know that some people are old hats at this in aquariums, but this is my first try at it. I put about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of pretty firmly packed potting soil under about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of playsand. We will see. To be fair, and to try to be helpful I will do my darnest to keep this updated. The only thing I really gleaned in my rash decision was that the first couple of months might be kind of rough.
enough talk.
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So, this is my second planted tank and my first Nano.
The tank is a Picotope
The Light is the HD "robocop light"
The filter is the little one that came with it
Substrate was just sand...
Initially, this tank was set up with some playsand I had laying around. I like sand, but this tank it tiny. Because it is so tiny, I can't think of anything alive to put in it. Like I said I like sand, but I was staring at the tank and thinking: "it's pretty sterile in there, it's no place for a plant to be."
I should take a minute to say, that I have always been cityfolk, I love nature but am thouroughly citified when it comes to my roots. When I able to I escape the binds of urbanity, but my plants won't have that luxury. Furthermore, it has been months since I have been able to thouroughly decompress. I looked into that tank and I knew what it was to be a little bit of green in a hard and concrete world. I knew what it was to be inundated by something alien and unnatural, to be immersed in it. I knew wat it was to feel like you were chained down to something lifeless and cold and dead. I knew what I had to do, and I knew I had to do it for both of us!
But I digress. My 20 gallon uses just sand, but it also has tons of alive things in there. While the sand has worked out well for me in that tank, I have had a hankering to try a tank with a...um... (ert?) substrate. that being said I do not have a hankering to tear down the twenty until I move. I also didn't want to be stuck with most of a twenty pound bag of something or another.
So I quickly looked around the apartment. It was there that I saw "it." I knew it was "it" as soon as I saw it. Out on the balcony in a lonely white bag: dirt! What is more natural than dirt? Plants! Dirt and plants: an unstoppable force!
I know that some people are old hats at this in aquariums, but this is my first try at it. I put about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of pretty firmly packed potting soil under about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of playsand. We will see. To be fair, and to try to be helpful I will do my darnest to keep this updated. The only thing I really gleaned in my rash decision was that the first couple of months might be kind of rough.
enough talk.
