Zoom's 38l Nano

Great, so the alternatives worked out fine so far!
What is your long term plan for this little tank? Heavily covered with hairgrass and some nano fish?

 

Yes, it has worked out so far. As this tank is a "expanding my hobby" tank... any ideas are worth trying, as long as the idea fits the pocket.

I was dosing with KNO3 to try and kill the algae... but all that actually happened in the end was the algae got worse and worse, and the glass became a green haze with Green Spot Algae. So I wasn't convinced there was a NO3 shortage to begin with. However, there are now fish in this tank, so there definately shouldn't be a shortage.
The problem may however be attributed to extremely high light (24watts for a 12 litre tank) and no CO2 to balance with that.

Long term goal for this tank is a moss wall at the back, with a mini tree in the front. (Wood covered in moss). That's the idea. If I think of something else, I will try that.

It would appear that the hairgrass is taking nicely... and I think this may be because the roots are finally reaching the PFP. And already with the CFL changed from horizontal to vertiicle, in 4 days I noticed new growth...!

 

Ok... here's the lates.

As you can see, the grass is growing very well. Some of you may know that I have changed the angle of the globe... this may be attributing to the growth, although it also could be because the roots are reaching the PFP.

I was in an LPS on friday, and saw an IDEAL piece of wood that I was able to cut into the three that you see. Even better than what I originally wanted.

I was also at another LPS today... my usual hangout... and bought myself a canister filter. It's rated at 200l/p/h, but that's at 0cm height. I've got it at 22cm, so I'm probably getting 150l/p/h, which is perfect.

Hope you enjoy the pic...




Now to start looking at the moss...

 

That looks really well done - so glad you stuck with it and conquered the evil algae ... Have you thought about moving the heater out of the tank? Maybe make a chamber inline with the return from your canister? Some PVC with end-caps should do the trick.

Good job Zoom

Later Ferdie

 

Really looking good there A.
Would you mind if I give a few ideas?

Keep the middle piece of wood for your tree and put it like it is now but tilt it little left so that the top pieces are even.
Leave out the other two pieces.

Put a rock here almost at the front of the tank at the left and overgow it with some moss to look like a bush.

If you do not find a space for the heater outside simply make the moss wall to go over the heater. If the moss grows out you wont even notice it.

Anyway just a suggestion.

 

Looks stunning Zoom

 

tank looks great!...some moss grown on that wood will give the effect of a tree i think it will look stunning!....which canister did you buy?..

cheers

 

It's looking much better since the algae cleanup!
I'm also interested in the canister. Price, size, shop, PICS!

 

Growth is looking really good Zoom ^^,
I agree with Vis on the tree. That's a really nice piece of wood!

 

Thanks Ferdie. Yes, I was actually considering doing this. I need to just check with the new canister that this will actually work, as I will obviously be putting a bit more strain onto the motor. Just need to find all the odds and ends to put this into action. I was actually planning on doing a moss wall around the heater.

Perfect Vis.
I was initially going to go with one tree... but I've changes my mind a bit... going to go for 3 trees. Gonna try get 3 different types of moss.

I am considering doing the moss wall ONLY around the heater.

Still keen on the rock with moss on... just need to find the right size and shape. Granted I have not been actively searching... but the stuff I have got is out of preportion to the trees.

Thanks ma'am

Thanks brads.

Thanks wimpe... info on the canister below

Thanks Linxie. The wood was actually one piece, that i managed to cut into the 3 you see there.


The algae was finally overcome with a 4 day blackout, an increase in circulation. (from 75l/p/h pump to 200l/p/h) and introducing 5 guppies. I'm eventually going to take the guppies out and put neons in.

 

3 different trees! How interesting! Now I really can't wait to see it. ^^, Looking forward to more pics Zoom.

 

Canister filter-

Ok, I had a small internal filter in there, rated at 200l/p/h. I had it turned down to about 75l/p/h. In order to combat the algae, I turned this up to full, and added a spray bar.

I didn't like the filter sitting in the tank, as I felt this was totally destroying the "minimal" look that I was trying to achieve. I've ben in contact with Dolphin for the past few weeks discussing certain options, and at the end of the day, it came down to a DIY canister, or the Boyu EF-05 external Canister.

This canister is also rated at 200l/h... this is obviously rated at 0 height. The maximum height is 50cm, and at that height it'll give 150l/h. From there it drops drastically. I have the canister sitting at roughly 25cm, so I'm getting approximately 175l/h... which is slightly less than what I was getting on the internal filter, however the volume of filter material is probably 40 - 50 times more space, so I am getting a higher filtration.
I've had the filter running for 24 hours. Obviously I have not been home today, so I can't tell you right now on the performance on this filter. What i can report is that it is slightly noisy, so I wouldn't recommend this in a bedroom of anyone who is a light sleeper. Having said that, my Boyu canister on my main display tank also started out noisy, but over a period of 2 weeks this quietened down substantially... so I am hoping this will happen to this one too.

The "down" side I have with this particulate filter is:
* It is running a UV light in it as well. Now I'm not against UV lights, however I'd like to think they are only necessary when they are needed. This particular filter doesn't allow you to turn the UV light off. HOWEVER, I know UV lights have a certain life span, and obviously once this light has reached the end of it's life, I won't need to stress about it. (I know there is a slighlty more expensive one on the market which enable you to turn the uv off... I'm not sure if this is available locally, as I've only seen the one I have)
* In order to clean the canister, you unfortunately HAVE to disconnect the pipes from the inlet and outlet IN THE TANK. In my other canister, I can simply unplug these pipes from the canister, and a valve stops the water from syphoning out. This particular model doesn't have this valve in. HOWEVER, it is VERY easy to "unclip" the pipes from the inlet and outlet in the tanks.

Here is the picture, and the specs from the Boyu website:

Where I got it, how much I paid... well contact Dolphin!! He will me MORE THAN HAPPY to supply you one at a HUGELY competative price!!!

 

Wow Zoom
Looking good , cant wait to see what the end result is going to look like....

Keep the pics coming...
Cheers
:bigsmile::bigsmile:

 

Ok, thought you were only looking at one initially, but three would be very interesting.
One thought though, if you overgrow the tops with moss, how will this loss of light effect your hair grass underneath?

What moss are you thinking of?

The moss rock idea, I thought about it today and remember Dolphin saying he is bringing in some pellia. Those can grow a little bush without a rock and looks quite neat. I think they will also suite your par.

 

Good point Vis.

I'd like to point out an interesting phenomenon that is currently happening in my community tank. When I set up my Nano, I couldn't source the hairgrass anywhere, so I removed it form my communuty tank completely and planted it in my Nano.

Over the past few months, I have noticed that the community tank actually started sprouting new shoots of hairgrass... so obviously the roots were still in the tank.

This is where it get's interesting... the hairgrass was actually shooting UNDER MY DRIFTWOOD where there is almost no light getting to it directly! The grass is growing very slowly... but the fact that it is actually growing is baffling me.. because everyone on TASA says that hairgrass needs good to high light, with decent ferts. Ideally CO2. (I'm not giving ANY CO2, and obviously under the driftwood it's not getting high light!!)

If I remember tomorrow evening before the fish "go to sleep" (i.e lights out), I'll take a pic of the grass and show you!

 

And here comes the difference between someone that read it somewhere and telling it over again and on the other hand keeping fish for some time giving the experience to say otherwise.

 

Is there not perhaps a lot of reflected light off the sides of the tank?
Obviously not much, but enough to keep the hairgrass growing?

Edit: that's the exact filter I thought you were talking about. Will speak to Dolphin when he gets the pygmy cories in

 

OK, as promised, herewith are the picture of the hairgrass growing under the log. Please remember that I REMOVED all the hairgrass from my community to put into my Nano. These pictures are hairgrass that grew after I had removed everything. So I can only assume that roots were left behind.

This picture is from the front. Most of the light is covered from the plants around it, as well as the driftwood over it.


This picture is taken from the side. If you look carefully under the log you will see a few strands of grass growing. Sorry the picure is so bad. I've been taking pictures for the past 20 minutes, and just cannot get the camera to focus on the right stuff.


And here is another angle

 

My LB is doing the same under my driftwood, and I don't get it because there's one little patch in the highlight part of my tank that just does not want to grow.

Glad to hear the hair grass has decided to give some back to you They must like your substrate.

 

hey zoom hows this coming along ?
im really keen to find out how that boyu canister is doing?

cheers