Questions about plants for Nano Tank!

[Fresh2o]

Now it appears another difficulty: my fluval is 17" sth then should i pick the 16 or 20" finnex?

Good question. Hopefully others who have done this before will chime in.

Until then, it may depend on if you have a lid on the Fluval. If so, then either should be fine. If not, then go with the 20".

If you go with the 20", you might wonder:
1. How the over hang (1.5" per side) will look?
2. How much light will be cast outside of the tank?
3. Can you use the leg mounts?

Answers....
1. Here is a front view of a 30" FugeRay resting on top of a standard 20 gallon long. It overhangs 1.5". I left the leg mounts in place. Please note that it is raised approximately 3/4" because of custom "rails" I added to the standard tank rim. If this does not look too bad, then go with the 20". If you ever need to use the light on another tank, then I believe it should fit onto a standard 10 gallon tank.

2. Here is an undershot of the over hanging fixture. I did not turn on the lights (too early) but you can see that no LEDs are visible (image might be a little dark).

3. The leg mounts will slide laterally on the fixture about 1/2-3/4" to allow some variance but not enough to mount on each side of a 17" from what I can tell.

Hope this helps and good luck with the build.

 

[daniel2509]

Good question. Hopefully others who have done this before will chime in.

Until then, it may depend on if you have a lid on the Fluval. If so, then either should be fine. If not, then go with the 20".

If you go with the 20", you might wonder:
1. How the over hang (1.5" per side) will look?
2. How much light will be cast outside of the tank?
3. Can you use the leg mounts?

Answers....
1. Here is a front view of a 30" FugeRay resting on top of a standard 20 gallon long. It overhangs 1.5". I left the leg mounts in place. Please note that it is raised approximately 3/4" because of custom "rails" I added to the standard tank rim. If this does not look too bad, then go with the 20". If you ever need to use the light on another tank, then I believe it should fit onto a standard 10 gallon tank.

2. Here is an undershot of the over hanging fixture. I did not turn on the lights (too early) but you can see that no LEDs are visible (image might be a little dark).

3. The leg mounts will slide laterally on the fixture about 1/2-3/4" to allow some variance but not enough to mount on each side of a 17" from what I can tell.

Hope this helps and good luck with the build.

Thanks Fresh2o, I just found a picture of someone who actually made a good modification on spec V. However, the picture couldn't really show the diameter of his/her Finnex. Can u guess this size?

 

[Rivercats]

I have a Fluval Edge 12g and have a Build My Led fixture on it that fits it exactly.

 

[daniel2509]

I have a Fluval Edge 12g and have a Build My Led fixture on it that fits it exactly.

Rivercats,
What about the led amount? They have 3 options for me to decide but idk know which will fit perfect for freshwater:
7000k+7000k
10000k/actinic
Actinic/actinic

 

[Fresh2o]

Thanks Fresh2o, I just found a picture of someone who actually made a good modification on spec V. However, the picture couldn't really show the diameter of his/her Finnex. Can u guess this size?

I am guessing it is 20". Perhaps the fixture is Ray2; looks a little different from the FugeRay.
It appears that some modding has been done to allow the legs to be moved closer towards the center of the fixture.

Off topic: Saddened about the tragedy at the Navy Yard. My sister in law frequently travels to the Navy Yard on Mondays. Thankfully she did not travel there today.

 

[daniel2509]

I am guessing it is 20". Perhaps the fixture is Ray2; looks a little different from the FugeRay. It appears that some modding has been done to allow the legs to be moved closer towards the center of the fixture. Off topic: Saddened about the tragedy at the Navy Yard. My sister in law frequently travels to the Navy Yard on Mondays. Thankfully she did not travel there today.

I've decided to stay with stock light a lil bit and got surprising result after 3 weeks. DH is getting greener n growing taller but the question is how to make them spread out as a carpet? I combine Leafzone, flourish, co2 booster and root tab. XD

 

[Fresh2o]

I've decided to stay with stock light a lil bit and got surprising result after 3 weeks. DH is getting greener n growing taller but the question is how to make them spread out as a carpet? I combine Leafzone, flourish, co2 booster and root tab. XD

I have no experience with DH; sounds like you are doing everything right. It may be the lighting. Give it more time; hopefully you will start seeing runners soon.

 

[Rivercats]

Rivercats,
What about the led amount? They have 3 options for me to decide but idk know which will fit perfect for freshwater:
7000k+7000k
10000k/actinic
Actinic/actinic

Those are saltwater you need to look at the ones on this freshwater fixture page.... Freshwater - Build My LED, LLC.

Personally I prefer the Dutch 6300K for planted tanks but if you want slightly brighter with less focus for non-green plants then you could go with the Iwagumi 7000K.

 

[Rivercats]

In lower light DHG will grow slowly and sometimes decline over time. There is nothing you can do to get it to carpet better other than to upgrade lighting. DHG really needs high light, CO2 or a higher dose of liquid carbon, and preferably dry ferts so the plants get all the micro and macro nutrients they need. You might want to dose your liquid carbon at 1ml per 5 gallons of tank water.

 

[daniel2509]

In lower light DHG will grow slowly and sometimes decline over time. There is nothing you can do to get it to carpet better other than to upgrade lighting. DHG really needs high light, CO2 or a higher dose of liquid carbon, and preferably dry ferts so the plants get all the micro and macro nutrients they need. You might want to dose your liquid carbon at 1ml per 5 gallons of tank water.

Thanks Rivercats, I just ordered 2 new lights to make a test. 1st is Ray2 from Finnex and the second one is ur suggestion coz i want to test both of them. So far for the new update: DH are growing pretty slow but im sure that they've reached taller. Furthermore, i have my tank fully cycled in 2 weeks by fishless cycle method. Does it mean that i'm having an entablished tank?

 

[Rivercats]

How are you determining the tank is fully cycled? Just curious.

 

[daniel2509]

How are you determining the tank is fully cycled? Just curious.

0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
5 ppm Nitrate
7.2 PH

 

[Rivercats]

I'm assuming that was fishless cycling and you are now processing 2-4ppm of ammonia (which ever amount you used to cycle) within 24 hours to get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite readings? A fishless cycle doesn't go this fast unless seeded media from an established tank is used.

 

[daniel2509]

I'm assuming that was fishless cycling and you are now processing 2-4ppm of ammonia (which ever amount you used to cycle) within 24 hours to get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite readings? A fishless cycle doesn't go this fast unless seeded media from an established tank is used.

I started without any seeding media. Yeah, 2 to 4 drops of pure Ammonia everyday until now. I count total 16 days. I guess it's my lucky one or just my tank has alot of neccessary spaces for BB , especially with big piece of filter foam and bio bag.

 

[Rivercats]

Did you actually test how much the ammonia in the tank was reading after adding 1 or 2 drops of ammonia. The only reason I'm asking is that isn't much ammonia but then it's not a big tank either... lol! Just want to be sure it's truly cycled before saying it's good to add your fish.

 

[daniel2509]

Did you actually test how much the ammonia in the tank was reading after adding 1 or 2 drops of ammonia. The only reason I'm asking is that isn't much ammonia but then it's not a big tank either... lol! Just want to be sure it's truly cycled before saying it's good to add your fish.

Yeah, i did it couple times. From 0 it goes up to 2 or 3 ppm for first hour, after 12 then drops to 1 or 1.5ppm and finally 0 after 24 hours. I want to use this tank to help another fluval edge that i just got, what kind of seeding media should i transfer? Do i need to wait more time for my tank to become more stable?

 

[Rivercats]

No you don't need to wait but keep dosing the ammonia daily to keep the BB fed and alive. So if you want to use some of the seeded media in this tank I'd actually probably find a way to add more to what you have so you could use that to seed the new tank with. If you just use some of the bio-media in the cycled tank your going to have to give the tank time to once again build it's BB levels up again before stocking.

 

[daniel2509]

No you don't need to wait but keep dosing the ammonia daily to keep the BB fed and alive. So if you want to use some of the seeded media in this tank I'd actually probably find a way to add more to what you have so you could use that to seed the new tank with. If you just use some of the bio-media in the cycled tank your going to have to give the tank time to once again build it's BB levels up again before stocking.

Can i use couple pieces of big rocks in my spec V to help? Like u suggested, i shouldn't touch the filter parts of my cycled tank....

 

[Rivercats]

Honestly that's not going to help much at all. Trying to add a little filter pad piece or some 100% Polyfill and allowing it to build up some bacteria would be the way to go. Also I've heard many people talk about using the seeded sponges they sell on AngelsPlus website. That might be a possiblility.

 

[daniel2509]

Honestly that's not going to help much at all. Trying to add a little filter pad piece or some 100% Polyfill and allowing it to build up some bacteria would be the way to go. Also I've heard many people talk about using the seeded sponges they sell on AngelsPlus website. That might be a possiblility.

Thanks RC, atm i got 3 babies to take care, lol. Thats why i want to seed one by one. Here are they: 1) Giant Halfmoon Plakat (3.5 inches), I named him KingKong: 2) Halfmoon (2.2 inches), i named him Lee: 3) Halfmoon (2 inches), I named him Snowman:





For the KingKong, i have intention to re-do my 10g with T5 and high light plants. Fluval Edge 6g for Lee. Spec V for snowman. I kinda need ur suggestions on 10g n Edge @.@