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Hi all!

I saw in the LFS a 2.5 & a 5 gallon tank, and i thought, "Nano." Since then, i have been planning this step by step. I have decided to go with a betta forthe 5 & shrimp for the 2.5. I was looking at an 11 watt Screw in flouescent blulb. I am going to have a basic 10gallon rated tetra HOB, and no Co2, xcept for Excel. I want glasd lid, but dunno if they havve it for the 5. I plan to have glosso, 4 leaf clover, micro sword, Maybe crypt, some anubis nana and some riccia if available! I will put this really cool rock i got, and some DW. I cant wait. The ferts will be Flourish, Flourite/Eco Complete, NPK Flourish, Excel, Iron. Diy co2 maybe or a store bought unit. All in all, i hope all goes well....

Advice from gurus and loggers is greatly appreciated!

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With an 11watt bulb you won't be able to grow the glosso, microsword or riccia. Stick with a chain sword or mosses for foreground plants. If your using an 11watt bulb on the 5g stick with just mosses.

My Scapes

How bout if i were to try another size bulb, lets say around like 15-18 watts? I heard that the WPG rule fails badly with the nanos, and i would like to know what kind of light and what wattage it is at. I am going to have daylight bulbs of course, and i definately want to make sure it is enough. Will the high wattage "burn" the plants? As i said earlier, i will have some source of Co2, whether it be Excel or A store bought or DIY co2 generator. I could have a 25 watt bulb, but I really think it is not too good for the plants, and inhabitants!

I am going to over filter the tank a little bit, and i am going to use this power filter, as it is not too strong, and i like the convienience of the filter bags, which i will be replacing with sponge. Also it dosent have a lot of splash, so co2 is going to be kept in. Anybody have any suggestions?


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Hi GobyFan

I started a nano "desktop" planted tank with a betta not too long ago and I'm having so much fun with it

My tank is a 3.5 gal tank with an [link=Elite HOB filter]http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=107&PROD_ID=01000500021101 [/link] (rated for 5 gal) and a 13 watt clip-on compact flouro light (giving 3.7wpg). The substrate is just ordinary small grain gravel.

I have been dosing only Dino Pee for ferts but will be starting to dose with excel as well next week (now that I have found a local stockist). So far I have not noticed any problems with the plants that would indicate a deficiency of any nutrient, but it is still a young tank and has a bit more settling in to do yet; I'll add additional ferts as I think they are required. I did consider CO2 addition for this tank and looked at DIY, commercial fermenter systems and pressurized. In the end I decided that the DIY was too messy and smelly to be on my desk at work; the commercial systems were a bit too pricey for what IMO tend to be glorified DIY systems; and the initial outlay for pressurised was just not justifiable for a single tiny tank IMO.

I've never had a tank that could be considered high light before so I'm trying all sorts of plants that I couldn't possibly grow in my larger but much lower-light tanks. So far I have gone through a variety of plants as I try to work out what grows best and looks nicest. Some of the plants I have tried for brief periods (the tank has only been going for 3 months after all) include ludwigia, bacopa, moneywort, watersprite, dwarf hairgrass, wisteria, rotala, crypt wendtii and anubias nana. I'm pleased to report that almost everything I have plonked in there has grown fast and well (I'm espescially pleased with progress of the Rotala wallichii which really suprised me as I believe some other members have been having considerable problems growing this recently); it's just been the constantly evolving picture in my head of what I want from the end scape that has resulted in the rotation of so many varieties of plants through the tank.

What I have learnt as far as the scaping of this tank goes is that you need to scale down the size and number of plant species considerably (I know this is a fairly basic concept with small tanks - but I'm a doer... I just had to do it and learn it for myself before i truly believed lol.)What this means is try to limit the plants to only 2 or 3 species and choose the plants carefully; you want ones that are either low-growing or small leaved (or both) or they will make the tank look even smaller than it is.

Anyway... enough rambling about my nano. Try a few things with yours, see what works for you and most importantly have fun with it.

G_T



Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

Thanks Gone_Troopo!

I have not seen one of those elite filters anywhere here in my area. I will just use the planned filter anyway....

Besides the filter, i have no clue as to what plants would look good that is for sale in my area.....I have 4-leaf clovers, Glosso-I think, Moneywort, Dwarf Hairgrass, micro or chain swords, and some stem plants, like wisteria, cabomba, and anacharis. I saw simething like Nesea sp. I might get it, and some water sprite, rotala wallachi, and I MAYBE might order in a few mats of Riccia fluitans.....Maybe.....

I will have an 18 watt spiral compact daylight. Flourite or Ecocomplete or small gravel mixed with laterite or pure laterite or pure small grained gravel, or pure pea gravel.... I will use Excel, Flourish, And Iron. Maybe Trace....

Thanks!

PS: What is Dino Pee, G_T?

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Dino Pee

It's not a complete fertiliser and as I mentioned in my earlier post I may need to add additional ferts as my tank matures, but for now I'm happy with the results I'm getting.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.