New Experimental Nano

[Mosaic]

I've always been interested by nano tanks, and I've also been reading Ecology of the Planted Aquarium and wanted to test out some things. Has anyone tried to follow the recommendations in the book? I wanted success with plants without the exponential complications of CO2, ferts, etc.

I set up a little 2.5 g low-tech with a soil and gravel substrate. The tank will get window light for most of the day but also has a 7w desk lamp over it.
I went out and bought about $20 worth of plants to put in it (along with 2 mystery snails and 2 giant ramshorns. I'm amazed I didn't come home with a betta or three). The tank residents are 2 ghost shrimp and a few MTS.

It's place in front of the window

About an hour after set-up

Cabomba, Myriophyllum sp., C. wendtii, Hygrophila difformis emersed form, Rotala rotundifolia (debatable. another emersed form, I think), Ludwigia repens, and some unknown sword I've had for a while.

And I still had enough left over to plant my ugly bare 10g:

It was a good day

Comments and critiques are very welcome.

 

[joannde]

I can't believe that's a 2.5 gallon tank ! it looks great !
Watch out for algae with all that sunlight - but I'm sure the snails will eat it all up and thank you for it.
Please post photos of this tank once in awhile - I'd love to see the progression

 

[Mosaic]

Thanks joannde. I was trying to make the tank look bigger than it is. If anyone has tips on how to work on the scale of the tank I'd appreciate it.

I have a lot of fast growing plants in there so hopefully they'll take hold before algae does. We'll see. It's an experiment!

 

[rich311k]

Looks great, interested to see how this works out for you.

 

[SkullJug]

I have just bought this book my self because I have heard it's excellent, am still awaiting delivery though.

Would love to hear about how this goes for you. I have just bought a 6 gallon for my daughter to keep a betta and would love a nice low tech plant tank.

Keep posting : >

 

[JRagg]

I've heard this book is a little contraversial. I haven't read it, but I've gotten the jist of what it's about. I'm interested to see how it works. Do you need more of a bioload for it to work how it's supposed to?

 

[czcz]

Really cool, Mosaic. Excited for updates too. Have you decided on the fish?

Has anyone tried to follow the recommendations in the book?

FWIW I read Ecology of the Planted Aquarium while using a 10g, but didn't have the guts for soil and instead went with Schultz and plenty of organics and substrate ferts. So I didn't start right, but the tank worked well, then drifted toward CO2 and dosing (while keeping ~medium light and sunlight), and now for the past couple months is back with no/little dosing (I add K sometimes) and no CO2. It is a really pleasurable tank, and tempts me to be brave and use soil and do it right. (I personally feel "safer" dosing in the water column.) I use plants as filters on all my tanks.

Its most interesting to read the how and why of an aquarium as a practically self-sustainable thing, but I find it challenging at times. I need to read understand Ecology of the Planted Aquarium again.

Good luck! Keep the pics and info coming.

*edited for grammar and spelling.

 

[Mosaic]

I had the idea of fish + plants being self-sustaining a long time ago but never really looked into it again until I got into planted tanks earlier this year. This seemed like a less scary way to learn a few things before investing in a big system. I do want CO2 eventually, but I've had so many false starts with just about everything else I'm hesitant to try it yet.

I hadn't even thought of fish for it, czcz! I was only thinking of shrimp and snails. I hate to cram anything into a 2.5, but now I'm wondering if it'll work as well without them. According to what I've read so far (maybe I should have finished reading the book before starting!), a lot of the nutrients comes from the fish food and not much from the fish themselves (other than products of the nitrogen cycle). I will have to re-read.

It's a pretty amazing book though. It's very well-researched. It's a very dense read however, and sometimes I wondered how a lot of the stuff in it was even relevant. But coming on the forum, I see a lot of questions that the book can answer, and ways that plants could benefit fish. Lol, my answer to everything now is "add plants!" It was worth my money.

I will definitely be updating. I think it'll be especially interesting to compare the plants in the natural tank to those in the 10g, which has CF 2.8 wpg, ferts, but a poor substate (Onyx Sand. Boo). I'm excited guys, thanks!

 

[JRagg]

I think I may pick up that book. It’s not expensive as I had thought it was, and it may be fun to try eventually. I think after I get my 90g up and running as a high tech tank I might try to convert my 10g tank to a low tech “Diana Walstead” prototype. The ideas are pretty amazing, and I think most people would call foul on it, but it is neat. The idea that with a tank set up correctly you should never do a water change (only topping off) and the only thing you add is fish food is just too intriguing to pass up.

 

[CaysE]

Those pictures honestly look like two 10 gallon tanks. Nice!

 

[Mosaic]

It's been about a month, so I'd like to update.

First I'd like to say my experience has contradicted at least one thing from Walsted's book: Plants do grow sideways when getting a lot of natural sunlight. The rotala, ludwigia and cabomba grew towards the window. But they grew a LOT. They've doubled since I put them in there, so I trimmed and replanted in the 10g, where they straightened out. The cabomba started dying off shortly after the trimming though. Other than the cabomba, all the plants are very happy and growing.

There has been no algae. Yay! I wish I could say that for my other tanks.

The water is brownish (probably from the soil?), but clear, even with no filter or aeration. I'm thinking I'd like to put a small filter in it.

The MTS are very happy and reproducing.

I broke down and had to do a PWC when I got back from vacation. According to the book, there should be no need to, but it smelled like pickled carrots (and there were a lot of tiny worms that I wanted to suck out). I found the bodies of my two shrimp, so they perished while I was gone. I tested the water, and Ammonia was 4 ppm(!), Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0(ish). Whether the ammonia is the cause or result of the deaths I don't know since I didn't test before I left, but obviously you still need to worry about cycling with plants, despite what I've heard.
The shrimp could have also died due to temps (no heater, but none of my other tanks have them and do fine) or somebody overfeeding while I was gone (they were told not to feed this tank at all). My biggest concern is that something is leaching out of the soil. So I'm gonna work on keeping this system stable, then set up a duplicate and see how it goes.

 

[Purrbox]

Cycling with plants does minimize the risks, but you do have to go slowly to ensure that you don't overload the extra cushion that the plants give you. Depending on how long the shrimp were dead they we probably at least contributing to the high Ammonia levels if not the sole cause. Shrimp are highly sensitive to elevated Ammonia and Nitrite levels. Definately check the soil to ensure that the soil isn't leaching Ammonia as this would definately be a large part of the problem.

 

[7Enigma]

The problem with this tank theory for me is the lack of water movement when no fish are present. I think a vitally important piece to this is that without a filter in place, you really need some fish to cause some turbulence in the water, otherwise it will stagnate and go anaerobic (at least create some low O2 pockets). I keep an eye on the toxin levels, and when/if they bottom out to safe levels would get some fish in there to keep the plant leaves in contact with carbon (CO2).

 

[czcz]

Mosaic, your control can just be some soil and water in a jar, instead of another tank. Then you can see how much ammonia or color is leeching into the water column. Some call this the "jar test."

 

[Mosaic]

There's really no reason not to have a filter in it, other than I was seeing how minimally I can equip it. Obviously it needs to be stepped up a bit. I'd like to put a fish in there, but I don't want to subject anything to a tank of that size.

czcz, yes, but that takes away my excuse to get another tank . But really, the jar test would work just fine and I probably should have done it before setting everything up. I will definitely do one now to test for the ammonia. The only reason I wanted to set up a whole new one is because I didn't monitor the first one as closely as I should have to satisfy my curiosity. I will make a horrible scientist someday.

 

[czcz]

Heh. 125gal might be useful. You know, for science It sounds like it's growing great. I keep thinking it's a 10gal, not 2.5gals. Thanks for continuing updates.

 

[JRagg]

I finally got that book and I'm going to read over it this weekend. I'd like to start up a nano tank as well, but I was looking at the price for the aquariums, and they were the same!

2.5, 5.5, and 10g were all $10 (granted $10 is nothing compared to what you spend, i was surprised).

I'm probably going to do a 5.5 low tech nano. I look forward to updates on this when you get it working.

 

[mr funktastic]

i have a 5.5 low tech nano and i love it. my betta is currently in it. just some mosses and low light stem plants. no ferts no co2 justa little filter and a heater. i dont even really need the filter since my mosses eat up all the nitrates and ammonia. i have a 1 gal jug next to the tank(which is near a sink) so i just scoop out a jug whenver i walk by and thing about it. 1 minute max water change and away it goes.

 

[Mosaic]

Yes czcz, for science. *cough cough*

JRagg, I know about the prices. Kind of a bummer. But a 2.5g is way easier to sneak into the house (for everything else though, it's probably harder). I'd like to hear about it if you go for any of the suggestions in the book. It's a fascinating read.

 

[Mosaic]

Experimental Nano Update 10/16/06

My nano went from a low-tech tank to a no-tech tank. Most days I didn't even bother turning on the little lamp, or I'd forget to turn it off for days at a time. I haven't fed or done water changes since the shrimp died. The ammonia got under control shortly afterwards, so I doubt it was leaching from the soil. Probably just due to the dead shrimp. The soil does seem to leach tannins though. The water is yellow.

Despite my complete neglect, everything has gone really well. The MTS and pond snails reproduce but stay at around 12 or so adults. The plants have done even better. Most have emerged from the top and I'm letting them grow that way. I have been using this tank as a nursery to grow plants for my other tanks, and as a hospital for sad specimens I've nearly killed in my bigger aquariums (they recover nicely). I wouldn't say the growth rate is wild, but it is steady. The crypt especially (the right of the pic) has loved it. I've already had to split it once, and its back up to 40 or so leaves.

And for all you doomsayers: no algae!

However, the experimental phase has ended. The tank got evicted, as the prime space it once occupied in front of the sunniest window is now to be used as a home office. There is no other window that gets sunlight the whole day. I threw such a fit about it (this little tank has become important to me!) that I was compensated with the promise of a new tank. But that's another saga.

Sorry about the bad photography. The lighting is very bad in the kitchen. I bought a light for it (because it needs one now, grr :x) so when it comes I can get a better pic. I'm thinking about getting some shrimp again and trying some real aquascaping with it. Right now it's obviously just a jungle and many plants are just floating in order to rehab.

Well, unless something else major happens, this will probably be the last update. I'd encourage others to try it; it's been fascinating. I think this would be a really great way to go for someone who just wants to be able to keep some easy plants alive and grow them in a low-maintenance set up.