# Been given a Baby BiOrb (30l).



## ian_m (4 Jun 2013)

Just been given a Baby BiOrb (30litre) tank & setup from some ones son who found maintenance too hard and just killed fishes.

Anyone got any killer planted thoughts ?

I was thinking, adding bit more ceramic filter bits, as don't appear to be that many in the filter, and using sand as substrate + a few rocks + "easy" plants and obviously keeping low tech. Fertilising with low doses of liquid carbon and my EI mixture as I have those for my bigger tank.

Anyone planted and been successful with one of these tanks ?


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## Yo-han (4 Jun 2013)

You can't use fine substrate because the substrate is part of your filter. And second the air bubbles will throw out all CO2. Only thing I could think of is the use of epiphytes which are not that CO2 dependent, Anubias, ferns and mosses on some nice hard scape. Maybe cover the whole bottom substrate with mosses, but it will be a challenge


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## Gary Nelson (4 Jun 2013)

It is possible to get a planted Biorb  ... here is mine from a couple of years ago and how I started off...


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## ian_m (4 Jun 2013)

Fantastic, that's just what I want/need.

What were your plants grown in ?

Did you leave the light on 24/7 or was light & air on a time clock ?

Wasn't going to use gas CO2, just liquid carbon so won't effected by air bubbles.

Like the idea of moss, would really like HC but supplied light is not very bright and not aiming to be a high tech tank.


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## Gary Nelson (4 Jun 2013)

I changed the original media (ceramic) to a medium sized pea gravel instead... you need a larger gravel as the filter will drag in smaller bits and it will block.  I think I placed a circle of the original media around the filter area and then added the pea gravel around that, I found this more than enough to grow swords in and get them to root well, various anubias on wood with a few crypts thrown in all added to the scape.

The light was on its on timer, which if I remember correctly is 14hrs light followed by the built in blue moon light phase over - 14hrs seems allot, but they are only 3 LED's and to be honest I never had algae trouble... liquid carbon will be fine too if dossed right.

I would not think HC would do too well in there though and the filter would block easy with debris - you are best off sticking to the low energy plants with a few Ottos... maybe shrimp to for keeping it nice and clean


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## Ady34 (5 Jun 2013)

Hi Ian,
Why not ditch the water and utilise it as a wabi?....could grow anything then and closed top would help retain humidity?...windowledge provide additional light etc. just a thought.
Alternatively maybe use lava rock as your substrate with some larger focal pieces for hardscape then go moss only or epiphyte like already mentioned. I'm sure the lava rock would work as both a substrate medium and a biological filter much like live rock in marine tanks. Mosses would look great on this rock and all sorts of plants fix to it including crypts.
You could even get creative with hardscape using epoxy to fix rock together for something a little unusual.
Cheerio
Ady


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## ian_m (5 Jun 2013)

Not really decided, what to do yet. Came with loads of rocks and pebbles, some of the rock is lava like, so might be able to make use of this.  Also came with white plastic fern and white plastic fake coral....Hmmmm what bin do I put them in 

Shrimp would be nice.

I have a spare desk in my office at work I am currently eying up. Main issue is our backup server, that contains terra-bytes of disk and terra-bytes of attached USB disk that all our companies PC backup to is located at the end of this desk. Not too sure that company IT disaster plan incorporated leaking fish tank as a disaster type......


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## Deer (12 Jun 2013)

I was given a 60l biorb a few months back for the same reasons. I threw out the original "filter" , if it can be called that, and replaced it with a spare aquael min pat shrimp filter. I used sand substrate with a tiny amount of pond soil under it as I no longer needed the ceramic media. I also have a 11w light for the plants as the lights they come with are pretty low. Its now planted up with java fern, dwarf hair grass and anubias and looks 100x better than its previous condition. It has the original owners fish, mostly tetras, and a cherry shrimp colony from my other tank.

So planting can be done! I would just recommend replacing the filter with a small internal and perhaps finding a way to clip on a more powerful led.


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## ian_m (13 Jun 2013)

Still not decided what to do with it yet. I think any other filter, in the 30l orb, will be "rather visble", so will have to work with what I have got for for the moment.


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## DrRob (13 Jun 2013)

A controversial option, and depends how much you actually want the biorb, would be to remove the base entirely (which destroys the seal) and use the existing hole in the bottom to run a sump system or external filter with a modded intake/outlet. Then you could have an external heater as well......


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## ian_m (14 Jun 2013)

DrRob said:


> A controversial option, and depends how much you actually want the biorb, would be to remove the base entirely (which destroys the seal) and use the existing hole in the bottom to run a sump system or external filter with a modded intake/outlet. Then you could have an external heater as well......


No I am just going to try with what I have got. Modifying like you suggest would be nice if the Orb was on it's own stand to hide all the equipment, but I think the Orb might end up on a desk at work....


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## justissaayman (14 Jun 2013)

@gary: is that the 105 liter? What light are you using in that?


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## Gary Nelson (14 Jun 2013)

justissaayman said:


> @gary: is that the 105 liter? What light are you using in that?



Yes it is the 105... Well spotted! It was the standard light unit, but I modified it with extra LEDs... Basically doubled what it had.


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## justissaayman (14 Jun 2013)

Nicely done. I really need to learn how to modify leds....


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