# Aquanano 40 (55l)



## houndour (27 Mar 2012)

I've just bought myself an Aquanano 40 which is 55 litres and 40x40x40cm for the kitchen (the only place in my entire house I can fit a tank).  But I have to wait for the plug sockets to be installed before I can start.

In the meantime I've been doing a lot of reading and trying to come up with what I want to do and I think I might need some advice as so much has changed in the planted aquarium world since I left it about 5 years ago.

Being realistic and having a baby I don't have a lot of time anymore, so I think I'm settled on the fact that it needs to be fairly low maintenance.

Light: The light that came with the tank is an 18W PLU.  This means 1.24WPG.

Substrate: I've bought sand for substrate just because I prefer it.  My current tank is gravel, and I had sand prior to that and I think I prefer sand.

Fish: I have 3 botia striata to go in.  This doesn't leave me much room for anything else, so any suggestions are welcome.

Fertilisers: I still have all my EI stuff (does it go off?!), also have some Kent bottles, I believe iron and something else.  I need to dig out the box and have a look.  I recall EI being time consuming, so is there something easier on the market these days you can recommend? I see many new products (had a good look at green machine and aqua essentials).

CO2: I have the JBL pressurized system, but don't want to use it as I have nowhere to hide the gear.  So either I go without CO2 altogether, use the liquid carbon, or get the nano disposable pressurized kits that hangs off the glass edge.  Any opinions?

Aquascaping: I had wanted to do some carpeting with maybe some of the smaller anubis species (always liked these).  But from a google last night it seems the carpeting plants are quite demanding.  Maybe I need to add more light?  But then is carpeting quite time consuming in terms of maintenance, I vaguely remember forever pulling it all up and replanting it before!





I'm going to remove the picture behind and tidy up the fridge paperwork!  Don't want it ruining the aesthetics of my tank!


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## hinch (27 Mar 2012)

APF do an all in one where you just add water its basically a premixed EI contains trace and macro so you're good to go it doesn't get any simpler than that and more to the point its cheap


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## George Farmer (27 Mar 2012)

Is that the same "houndour" from TFF circa 2004?!


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## houndour (27 Mar 2012)

Yes it is George   I posted in the intro forum...so much has changed, I can't believe how much planted related gadgets there are to buy and how CO2 has come on, my LFS sells a variety of CO2 stuff which was unheard of when I first started.

And look how well you've done for yourself!  Writing articles, designing aquariums setups for PFK!  You've done some gorgeous tanks


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## Antipofish (28 Mar 2012)

That is a great tank mate !  It wasnt, by any chance, the one that was listed on Ebay recently and sold within 2 hours of being listed was it ? Or did you buy it new ?  I've been looking at those for a while myself.  I like the filter set up at the back...  lends itself to a decent amount of filtration options without being intrusive at all.  The only modification I considered was to put a short 90 degree elbow on the pump outlet, hooked up to a spraybar.  This would give more even distribution if you are going to go down the CO2 route   Looking forward to seeing this develop


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## houndour (28 Mar 2012)

I bought it from my lfs for 90 quid.

For me it's ideal as everything is hidden and I don't need to worry about hiding an external filter as I don't have a cabinet to hide it in and I need the cupboards below for food!

I think I read a journal of someone with one of these tanks modifying the outlet so that's something I'll definitely look into.

I've been looking at the ada glass thermometers and am very tempted to get one of those.


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## Antipofish (28 Mar 2012)

houndour said:
			
		

> I bought it from my lfs for 90 quid.
> 
> For me it's ideal as everything is hidden and I don't need to worry about hiding an external filter as I don't have a cabinet to hide it in and I need the cupboards below for food!
> 
> ...



Sounds like a "World of Water" deal ?  I know they sell them at 99.99 and were doing 10% off anything you buy OVER £100 so I was going to buy an airstone to bring the total over that magic limit.  Either way, its a good choice.


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## hinch (28 Mar 2012)

take a look at what the reefers do with the built in "sump" system on these little tanks you can modify them quite heavily to get better filtration + heater in the back out the way and a larger outflow pump to get flow rate up


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## geaves (28 Mar 2012)

hinch said:
			
		

> take a look at what the reefers do with the built in "sump" system on these little tanks you can modify them quite heavily to get better filtration + heater in the back out the way and a larger outflow pump to get flow rate up



Ok, you've got 'my' attention, I was watching this one, having found the tank online for 99 quids...


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## George Farmer (7 Apr 2012)

Hey Sam, any progress?


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## houndour (10 Apr 2012)

No, I'm waiting for the sockets to be installed in the kitchen! That's happening next week. So hopefully a week Saturday I can fill the tank up and make a start.

My ADA thermometer arrived today  it's nice, hope it fits in the gap in the tank.


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## houndour (27 Apr 2012)

This journal is going to be delayed further by our decision to get a new kitchen. On the plus side I'll have a lovely new plastered wall behind to make my aquarium look better 

Also gives me more time to get sorted, still not bought a test kit yet and yet to decide on plants and need to find out where to buy them from.

Sent from my SK17i using Tapatalk 2


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## spyder (27 Apr 2012)

houndour said:
			
		

> still not bought a test kit yet



Spend your cash on something more useful.


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## Antipofish (27 Apr 2012)

spyder said:
			
		

> houndour said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I kind of agree and disagree with this.  Ammonia and Nitrite kits are useful when you are starting a tank so  you can tell roughly when it is cycled.  Apart from that though, spyder is pretty much right.


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## houndour (21 Jun 2012)

Finally the kitchen is finished and I have my dedicated spot for the aquarium.

I need to start thinking about plants now.  I'm trying to re-learn everything, but I don't get much time these days.

The tank comes with an 18W light which based on US gallons makes it 1.24WPG, low light.

I honestly don't know what to do.  I've always gone for the same plants - java fern/moss/anubias.  What else could I go for with a low tech set up?

Where do you buy your plants from?  The sites advertised on this site?


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## Aqua sobriquet (21 Jun 2012)

Can't help with plant suggestions but will say that some of the folks on here sell some really nice Moss!


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## houndour (27 Jun 2012)

This is the start of my tank. I tried to pick plants that were supposedly suitable for low light and nano tanks. Got them from the green machine and quite happy with the amount...it doesn't look like much at first but when you start separating them there's quite a lot. 

I have vesicularia dubyana christmas, pogostemon helferi and bacopa Australis.


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