So on a whim I put together a nano

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fish_n_vw

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 19, 2008
846
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Tacoma Wa.
Here is what happend. I took my 110 C. American cichlid tank out of my living room last week and put it in my bed room. And for the last few days my living room has felt incomplete with out a tank in it. I have plans of putting my 90 in there in a few months. I was really sick of there not being a tank in my living room so I took a 3 gallon hex that I got for my son when he started out in the hobby out of storage. Filled it with sand from an old tank sprinkled a little pea gravel over that and stole some plants from my sons clown knife tank. And then I looked around online for something to inhabit the tank. I have decided on a dwarf puffer and a trio of ottos (algea control). So here is what I have: 3 gallon hex, built in biowheel filter, small 25 watt heater (I don't think it works though), 10 watt screw in compact flourecent light, sand, piece of drift wood, a rock, 1 baby amazon sword, 6 crypt. Wendtii, 4 small vals, and a single otto. Here are a few pics.

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I like it, but after looking at other planted nanos I have decided to go with something else. Now I don't have any experiance with nanos and am looking for confirmation on my plans to see if they seem sound to others.

So here is the plan. Substrate is going to change to eco-complete. All the plants are going to go back into my sons tank with the exception of one or two of the cypto's. I really want to try a ground cover with dwarf hairgrass poking through. I don't know anything aboout making a ground cover or carpeting affect. And use the crypto's in the background. I am going to get flourish excel and dose whatever amount the tank does best with. Are ther any other ferts or additives I should add? And I'm going to let my tank go through a complete cycle before I get my other two ottos and the dwarf puffer.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a carpeting plant with this lighting? Also does it seem like I'm missing anything? I really want to be succesful in this new project. So any help or suggestions will be grately appreciated. Thank you.
 
Carpeting takes a lot of light and CO2. You can achieve it with your current setup by using excel, but it is going to take a while. I would recommend buying a new lighting setup (A Glo T5 HO Electronic Ballast would work well and would cost about $50 for a 12 inch ballast) as this will allow your plants to receive all the light they need. This will encourage spreading and will also allow them to be shorter and greener. Farther down the road I would probably invest in a CO2 system. This isn't necessary, but it will make your plants grow a LOT faster.
 
co2 is unnessesary. strong lighting is and u should do alittle dosing.
 
My tank isent even 12 inches long I think its 10". The bulb I have for it isent enough? I went and paid $12.00 for it because I knew it would give more then 3 watts per gallon. Its a colormax brand mini compact its for aquariums its not one of those energy efficient replacement house bulbs. I did a diy co2 system on my sons tank and it did work well but I was trying to keep this simple. I always though that a balence of high light, carbon (co2 or excel) and nutrients were all I should need to make a real nice little nano. I have no problem investing a mere $50 but this tank is a complete system and I would have to remove the top to incorperate a diffrent lighting system. Is there another option?
 
Here is a pic of the full tank shot with my lighter next to it for size comparison. And a picture of the under side of the hood to show the light.

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If what I have here plus some seacham products won't work to give me the effect id like to get I will use another tank. I have two 5 gallon tanks in storage. And I have no problem useing them instead. The problem is I can think of 10 diffrent things I can do with a 5 gallon and really nothing I can do with 3 gallon hex. So I really wanted to use it for this. If there are any suggestions of what I can do with this set up I can go that route. And do the 5 gallon too. I have 8 tanks right now and I have kept up to 17 before so there's no problem with setting up tanks. Also they only sell eco-complete in 20 lb bags anyway so it just gives me a reason to use the whole bag. Maybee go for the forest look in this tank and try the carpet effect in one of the 5 gallon tanks. I think dwarf puffers like taller plants anyway.

So if I can't do the aquascape I would like to with the hex then I will have to do something else. So any suggestions for what plants to put in with 3.3 wpg (compact flourecent), eco-complete substrate, 50 percent weekly water changes, 7.0 ph, and regular dosing of excel and ???????? (Other additives)? Just like I said in my first post I really want to be succesful at this and I am taking all suggestions to try to get the best outcome. Thank you for your time. And I appreciate the responses and suggestions.
 
You should check this out:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73446
It explains why Watts per gallon shouldn't be used anymore.
I decided to see if I could help you out. I tried to calculate about how much light you have in your aquarium. I estimated that your aquarium was roughly 12 inches tall and that each face of the hexagon is about 6 inches long. I also couldn't find out how many lumens are in your lights, but I estimated it at 6000K which I think is an overestimate for this light. When I did all this, I found that you get about 117 lumens per gallon of water which means that you can only have low light plants. For most plants, you would have to buy new lights to have the planted aquarium.
If you do not change the lights, I am sure there are other things you can do that will make it look great! There are some cool things you can still do with low lights plants if you combine them with rock formations. I might try using mosses along with drift wood. Mosses, like Java, would probably work well and could grow up the driftwood towards the light and thrive. You can also grow an anubais or something in the background for depth.
I have also heard of riccia fluitans being used in a low light and still live. These would be nice to line rocks with and will also look great in your aquarium.
And you don't have to go straight to a CO2 system. You can use Flourish Excel and have good results with mosses.
 
That sounds good so mosses instead of carpet. Mosses can be trimmed short and will still give a nice look. This sounds promising. Could I keep one or two of those crypto's in there or do they need better light? They have lived for a long time in my sons tank its a 55 with 130 watts (compact flourecent) and they even sent off runners. But that tank has a diy co2 system. I do have a rock that's really cool in there and the wood can stay too. I think that would look cool any other suggestions like fertilizers or additives. It would bee cool to go lush and fill it with leafy plants. I hated java fern it has to have "babies" picked off all the time. But any other low light plants that grow tall and are leafy? Thanks for the help by the way.
 
I have read that cryptos can survive low light aquarium. So you can probably keep them in there. Just take them out if they look like they are melting and place them in the other aquarium were they are stable.
And I don't blame you for not liking java. I personally don't care for it.
If you wanted a carpet, I would probably use riccia fluitans. They don't have a root system, but I have had success by sandwiching some of it between two pieces of this crafting material.
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I don't know the name of it, but you can find it in any craft store or walmart. It is normally used to place string or yarn in between the hole to make designs, but it is nice because it can be cut to fit the aquarium and the riccia can grow in the holes. Just use a couple of pieces of string to tie them together and then place rocks on top of it to keep it down. The riccia will grow and become visible. This is what it currently looks like in my tank.
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You can always add ferts to help in growth. I use a thing from my local aquarium store that is called Kent Marine Pro-Plant. It adds all the things plants need, but doesn't add the stuff that algae uses to grow. I can't stress how much you will need the Excel as your CO2 source, too.
It should look good. Make sure to check that all the plants you add are low light plants and you should be fine. Try to utilize your wood and stones for the best look.
 
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