High-tech nano?

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dapellegrini

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Sep 10, 2003
Messages
870
Location
Phoenix, AZ
I bought this 3-gallon Eclipse aquarium a few months back to house some shrimp... Came with a built in filter and 6-watt T5 light. I have been able to grow guppy grass, crypts and hygro under that light for months and have never seen a sign of algae...

Well, I was looking for a new project, so I bought a 26-watt CF fixture for the tank with an Aqua Clear Mini HOB filter (rated at 100gph)... Also swapped out the same substrate with Eco-complete...

Now I am wondering how I should go about dosing this thing and CO2... Just scale EI down? Any special techniques with nanos? I have been dosing Excel and Comprehensive irregularly but plan on fixing that. Also, I am guessing this is now high-light, but can someone who knows what they are talking about confirm this?
 
Lol, I don't know what I'm talking about, but I have a similar set up.

I have a 2.5g with 13w CF, and I'm able to grow high light plants like l. aromatica and tonia, so I consider it high light. 26w is double that, so I think that'd be some pretty high light. It'll be intense.

I'm considering going there too.
 
Definately high light. I would recommend doing straight EI dosing and either daily Excel dosing or CO2.
 
OK. I think I will make up a batch and dilute it out with water for dosing. Dry dosing at this level seems un-doable... Is is better to dose Excel in the morning or does it matter?

I put a few small trimmings from my other tank in there to see if I can't get some nice layers... Glosso as a carpet, Pearlweed as a midground, with a couple of small crypts and java ferns that should be shaded by the hygro when it grows out (thinking of letting it grow out of the tank)

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Maybe see a little bit better the scrawny beginning here:

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I am using a 10-inch Catalina hood:

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I have an 8 gallon nano tank with 52w of CF lighting (4x 13w). That tank is a monster. It demands daily ferts, micros and macros, and CO2 injection, and Excel. If given all that it flourishes and grows very nice plants. any break in the routing and it quickly becomes an algae monster.
The main thing with high tech nano tanks is the margin for error is greatly reduced from a large tank.
For mine, I set up a toms aqua-lifter pump. It runs to a 2-liter bottle that has my macros (and some excel). This runs 1 minute a day, on a timer. This dumps about 100ml of fluid, so the bottle only needs to be refilled about once every 3 weeks. I have this go on about an hour before lights out. Every morning, when I feed the fish it gets about 2.5ml of flourish and 5ml of excel.
For Co2 I use the ADA nano CO2 setup and mist diffusion.
This tank is a lot of fun, though it has taken a long time ot learn to keep it under control. The maintenance is less tedious than it might sound, esp with the auto dosing of macros.
 
I have a 3g high tech nano with 27w of light over it and DIY CO2. I used Chuck Gadd's fert calculator to figure out how much to dose. I had some 250ml Seachem fert bottles that were close to empty and I just used the fert calculator to figure out how much to add to the bottle. I have Aquasoil as my substrate and I think that, paired with the high light gave me alot of algae in the beginning. It is calming down now (crossing my fingers), so hopefully it will be down to a minimum soon.

I don't think my DIY CO2 is getting diffused good enough, still tweaking that. Also, I sometimes miss my ferts, but I'm trying to do it every day. :)

edit: Picture is in my avatar. ;) I'll try to add an updated one soon though. The HC is not spreading at all. Alot of it got uprooted and died, so there isn't as much as in the avatar picture now.
 
Wow... I don't know if I am ready to spring for the mini-ADA setup (very spendy), but it is very nice... Zezmo, why do you do CO2 and Excel?

The idea of dosing pumps is not bad... What kind of things do you have dangling in your tank for that? Just an 1/8-inch tube? I just mixed a batch of scaled down EI into a twin-neck bottle, enough for a couple of weeks (took the 20-gallon formula and divided by 10). I have never depended on Excel for CO2, so this should be interesting.

What I love about the nano is how easy it is to start over when you get frustrated or sick of it... Makes it easier to try new concepts, etc...

Kristin - That is a nice 3-gallon, looks like more than it is... I am working on that a bit at the moment... We'll see how far I get, but not sure that huge rock is helping my cause. I think keeping the plants to scale is a huge part of it and am hoping that some HM and Glosso will help my cause there.
 
Kristin - That is a nice 3-gallon, looks like more than it is... I am working on that a bit at the moment... We'll see how far I get, but not sure that huge rock is helping my cause. I think keeping the plants to scale is a huge part of it and am hoping that some HM and Glosso will help my cause there.
Thanks! It doesn't look quite as good as when I first planted it. The algae kind of ruined that a little. I also tried to have small plants to keep them to scale, but really wanted to have Tonina sp. Belem. Its not doing too well right now though, so it may not stay. I also have the HC and Blyxa japonica. I had a couple Downoi plants, but they melted. I may add some small Crypts eventually, but I'm not sure how they'll do in the high light.

Your tank is looking good so far! I'd definitely try to find a smaller rock, if you can. That was my dilemma in the beginning. The tank is rather small, so I tried to find smallish rocks.

Zezmo, I'd also like to learn more about the dosing pump. Perhaps maybe a post on how you put it together?
 
Zezmo, I'd also like to learn more about the dosing pump. Perhaps maybe a post on how you put it together?

That has been on my, "i should post about that" list for a while. I will try and put something together this week. (with pics). My nano is a cube type nano with a sump type filter. So nothing dangles into the tank per se.

Wow... I don't know if I am ready to spring for the mini-ADA setup (very spendy), but it is very nice... Zezmo, why do you do CO2 and Excel?
It cost more than my full CO2 setup on my main tank...but it is oh so cool ;-)
In order for my wife to allow me to put a tank in our bedroom, it had to be quiet, good looking, and "not stinky". The ADA nano helps with goodlooking and the "not stinky" part. Scented CO2 is definitely form over function.
I dose Excel to save cost on CO2 replacement. For me to run the Nano CO2 at a bubble rate that prevents algae, the bottle only last a few weeks. So I turn down the bubble rate and compensate with excel.
 
Well, as an update, I have gone RO/DI on this tank, have a 2.5lb CO2 tank with diffuser waiting on a regulator/solenoid that should be arriving before the end of the week.

In the interim I have been using Excel and dosing a scaled version of EI. At this point I don't think I can fit anything else in here.... Everything is growing nicely, but I never see pearling, so I am definitely looking forward to adding CO2

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- Lobelia cardinalis
- Heteranthera zosterifolia
- Blyxa japonica
- Ludwigia arcuata
- Hygrophila polysperma
- Glossostigma elatinoides
- Riccia fluitans
- Riccia sp. ''Dwarf''
- Myriophyllum mattogrossense
- Echinodorus tenellus
- Cabomba furcata
- Microsorum pteropus
- Vesicularia dubyana
- Fissiden
- Limnobium laevigatum
 
I picked up the Dwarf Riccia, Fissiden and Myrio on Sunday... I am floating the riccia for now, as I really don't have anywhere to put it. Here is a more squared off shot (forgot to turn the lamp off):

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The java moss is growing in really well in the back corner (that is a piece of wood it is on), the fissiden is just starting

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Its beautiful! I wish my 3g looked that nice. ;) I just setup a 5.5g...will be injecting pressurized CO2 into it soon. I hope it looks atleast half as nice as yours! Great job!
 
wow stunning. really.

currently i have a 3 gallon with 40 watts over it 8O and the advice I have to say is, get your plan down tight before you introduce fauna if you want to keep such a nice looking aquatic paradise..and dose everyday! the most obvious is please please dont let your your ammonia get out of the yellow zone and keep many common pond snails, even if its your main inhabitants.
 
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