# my first planted tank



## sa80mark (3 Oct 2007)

Just thought id share some pictures of my pico planted tank, i went for a pico setup as i have it on my bedside table

the tank is made by me from some old tank cut offs i had its 8x8x8, approx 7l, it is filtered by a home made external filter and is decorated with bogwood and pagoda rock, it runs diy co2 through a ceramic diffuser, substraite is tetra complete topped with a planted tank 2-4mm substraite, lighting is from a simple desk lamp with a 6400k 20watt cf sunlight bulb The plants are bacopa monnieri, Anubias Barteri var. Nana 'Petite', Hemianthus Callitrichoides "Cuba", Riccia fluitans
It has been set up for just under 3 weeks now and seems to be doing well,


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## Themuleous (3 Oct 2007)

Looks excellent   Is the lighting in the pic from the desk lamp, thats very white for a desk lamp, not seen one that colour before, most tend to be more orange.

Have you thought about Hemianthus micranthemoides instead of the bacopa its small leaf shape works well in small tanks 

Whats ferts you adding?  I see everything is pearling nicely.  The HC seems to be spreading as well 

Sam


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## sa80mark (3 Oct 2007)

hi sam, yes the light in the pictures is from the lamp all pictures were taken with no flash, but yes your rigth the light is very "white" i did try another full spectrum bulb a 6200k which was very yellow and just didnt look right, all the pearling from the plants starts about 2 hours after the light is on, for ferts im curently using 1ml flourish excel every 2 days and 1/2 ml of Tropica Plant Nutrition+ every 2 days, this is all experenting at the moment as its the one thing im not to sure about, but it does seem to be working and thanks for the idea of Hemianthus micranthemoides it looks great i think i will swop the bacopa for it  

mark


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## Themuleous (3 Oct 2007)

Where did you get the lamp from or at least the bulb? worth remembering that place as a desk lamp light for a nano would be loads cheaper that proper aquarium lighting!

No probs on the HM I used it in my nano.  

Using the tropica 'plus' will mean you're basically doing EI, as it contains N and P.  What's the water change schedule?  If I had to say anything I would think the HC is lacking N, I got some yellowing of the leaves when I didnt dose enough N.  But it is early days yet I guess, so could just be the plant adapting to the tank.  But worth keeping an eye on 

Sam


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## sa80mark (3 Oct 2007)

for water changes im changing 2l every 2 days hench redosing every 2 days the main reason for this amount of wc is that in the first week i had a small algae problem but since uping the wc its gone so ive just kept it going, thanks for the tip on the yellowing i will keep an eye on that and these are the bulbs im using 

mark

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-DAYLIGHT-ENERG ... dZViewItem


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## Themuleous (3 Oct 2007)

Cheers  yeh water changes seem to be vital in nano tanks to keep the algae at bay.

Keep us posted on progress

Sam


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