# 24l/5g Nano



## Mowze (4 Mar 2010)

Tank:
60cm x 20cm x 20cm (24ins x 8ins x 8ins) 24L/5g Clearseal rimless aquarium

Equipment:
15w Undergravel cable heater
Hagen GLO T5HO Linear lighting system 2x 24w T5 Daylight tubes
Fluval 103 external canister packed with bio media (Old school!!)
DIY Acrylic lilly pipe and intake (Coming soon)
Hydor 25w Submersible heater
DIY stand (Coming soon)
Black PVC background
Flora grow CO2 Nano kit (Pressurised)

Substrate and Hardscape:
Mini landscape rock
JBL Manado substrate

Fertilisation:
JBL Ferropol (Weekly)
JBL Ferropol 24 (Daily)

Flora:
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Eleocharis parvula
Pogostemon helferi

Fauna:
Undecided yet, probably 
Caridina dennerli






The aquarium, I chose this for its slightly longer narrower dimensions to your usual nano aquariums. I quite fancy setting up an aquarium of similar dimensions but much longer say a custom 140cm x 20cm x 20cm wall mounted on a shelf with reinforcing legs at each end and a small weir and sump to maintain water level but that is a project for another day!





With black backing installed, I used an off cut from an old PVC pond liner and good ole selotape to stick it on!





15w Heater cable installed, I know a lot of planted aquarium keepers donâ€™t bother with heater cables these days or think that they are of any benefit but I believe considering the substrate is more or less inert and nutrient free at least a little circulation through the substrate will be beneficial in providing the roots with nutrients. Also in the case of dry start planted aquariums (which I will be doing here) I usually use a heat mat anyway as I have found there to be a noticeable difference in the growth rate and health of emmersed plants when provided with greater warmth than those just left at ambient room temperature.





Substrate goes in, this is JBL Manado a relatively new substrate on the market. I would have used aqua soil but as I have a 25L sack of this stuff I might as well make the most of it rather than spending even more on expensive substrates! Iv had pretty good results with this substrate (Pretty good might actually be an understatement!) However in aquariums before now it has been used to cap a fertile base substrate so the results using the substrate by itself as it is intended to be used should be interesting! The theory behind this substrate is that it is extremely porous both helping the growth of roots, acting as a biological filter to some extent and actually absorbing excess nutrients through cat ion exchange from the water which in turn both prevents algae (my worst nightmare) and passing those nutrients directly to the roots of the plants further increasing plant growth.








Substrate contours and hardscape, I will have a bit of a play around with this later tonight before I plant it, I am pretty happy with it but feel that something isnâ€™t quite right yet.








Right hand hill








Left hand hill





Middle valley


----------



## ghostsword (4 Mar 2010)

Hi, it looks really nice.. Are you going to fill it half with water so that plants can emerge? That would look amazing..


----------



## Mowze (5 Mar 2010)

Built a small stand and put up some shelves to suspend the lights from. Due to the narrow profile of the tank it had to be fixed to the wall with shelf brackets to avoid it toppling over. At the moment the lights are a bit wonkey but as soon as I get some decent galvanised wire rope and smaller hooks I will sort that out!








Planted out using HC, Pogostemon helferi and Eleocharis acicularis taken today after trimming the 200L aquarium I set up in a garden centre restaurant.


----------



## AdAndrews (5 Mar 2010)

looks great!, after using a fairly tall tank(compared to the width) im very tempted to have a go with these longer and shallower type tanks.

Adam


----------



## Dan Walter (5 Mar 2010)

I really like this, Mowse    The GLO units look so much better suspended. Good choice of plants too, will look great once established. I've often looked at these tanks in my LFS and wondered what a properly 'scaped one would look like!?  Nice one.


----------



## JanOve (5 Mar 2010)

Love the dimensions on the tank, this is going to be a beautiful Iwagumi


----------



## Mowze (6 Mar 2010)

It feels really nice to scape, kinda like a scaled down 120 x 40 x 40cm 200l tank and looks a lot bigger than it actually is when you view it from a distance!


----------



## Steve Smith (6 Mar 2010)

I think there is definitely a trend in "widescreen" tanks on the horizon!  Very interesting to scape and create a nice vista.

Great looking scape Mowze   Welcome to the society!


----------



## Jase (6 Mar 2010)

Those dimensions look familiar   Looks great Mowze


----------



## LondonDragon (6 Mar 2010)

Very nice indeed, I am liking this long tanks too, specially that I am a shrimp fanatic and these give a lot more space for the shrimp rather than the taller tanks  Another one to watch, congrats


----------



## Mowze (6 Mar 2010)

SteveUK said:
			
		

> I think there is definitely a trend in "widescreen" tanks on the horizon!  Very interesting to scape and create a nice vista.
> 
> Great looking scape Mowze   Welcome to the society!



 I'm really suprised I havenâ€™t seen many more aquariums of these dimensions or similar, it seems the trend with nano aquariums is usually cube or wider deeper rectangular ones. I did once have a bowfronted aquarium of exactly the same dimensions made by aqua one (Think it was 60 x 25 x 20cm including the bow front.) Absolutely amazing unique aquarium with loads of potential for scaping as a nano unfortunately I broke it and have never seen these anywhere since.



			
				LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Very nice indeed, I am liking this long tanks too, specially that I am a shrimp fanatic and these give a lot more space for the shrimp rather than the taller tanks  Another one to watch, congrats



 I'm quite looking forward to getting some shrimp, iv never really kept shrimp before outside of work and havent been very interested in them. I fancied trying CRS about a year ago when they were worth a fortune but that was only from a money making perspective and now they are common as mud and pretty boring. Personally I really like Caridinia dennerli (Caridina sp. cardinal) sold as matano blue dot by importers and LFS, they look stunning and have much more character than CRS and RCS which just seem to bumble about aimlessly eating algae.


----------



## Mowze (13 Mar 2010)

A week onâ€¦











Its 8 days since I planted the tank out (9 days since I set it up) I have been misting it twice daily with RO and airing it out to replace any â€œstaleâ€ air. Yesterday I started a â€œflood-drainâ€ regime which makes the HC pearl like crazy! I will do once a day basically filling the tank entirely for 30 mins and then draining it again entirely with 25L RO dosed with NPK stock, micro and macro nutrients. The idea of this is to let the substrate absorb any nutrients and moisture to its full capacity as well as to help remove any harmful fungus, bacteria and other nastyâ€™s that might develop in such a moist and humid environment. Also when draining this draws fresh oxygen back down into the substrate and to the roots promoting health basically the same principle as a hydroponic ebb flow system! Whilst Iâ€™m not about the heater cable keeps the water constantly evaporating and then condensing on the cling film lid which keeps the entire substrate moist from the â€œrainâ€ that is constantly falling, it also keeps the whole thing warm which Iâ€™m SURE speeds up growth hugely compared to many other dry start planted tanks.









HC is growing out a treat! Almost all of this was from rootless cuttings of individual stems and from the few bit iv pulled out they already have grown roots! Quite a bit of new growth at the top of the plant also developing where it is growing out of the water.









Pogo isnâ€™t doing too badly considering its been in a week, a few bits have fresh new growth at the top of the rosette but I think they might take a fair while to spread. Lost quite a lot that melted probably where it was rootless cuttings that had been growing immersed and the shock of being cut and going to emmersed at the same time probably didnâ€™t do too well. However today I planted  a load of mature rooted pogo taken from another display tank at work which I hope will fare a bit better!












Here is the tank half full for its evening â€œfloodâ€ just before lights out with the HC pearling like mad!

 My theory with starting aquariums out â€œdryâ€ is that for the first month or so you can blast out as much light as long as you want without having to worry about algae issues giving the plants one hell of a head start! At the moment I have it on a 12/12 photo period with 48w of light over the tank giving me around 8wpg! If the tank was full of water 24/7 I would be looking at a pea soup by now but in a months time when the plants grow out a lot more in theory they will be well and truly healthy and more or less ready to take on anything! Soon as that point rolls around I will fill the tank completely remove a tube drop the lighting down to 24w and the photo period to 7/17 hours and commence full EI dosing (Something I would never do if I had started the tank â€œwetâ€) and CO2 in combination with a dosage of liquid carbon hopefully preventing algae my worst nightmare from even getting a smidgen of a foothold as it should be unable to out compete the plants. Also with warm mature water and filter media taken from my large Amazon biotope aquarium straight away I should be able to put in about 6-8 RCS (From my Amazon aquarium sump/refugium) and about 4 Otocinclus (from the Amazon aquarium itself) again giving the dreaded algae NO CHANCES!


----------



## ghostsword (15 Mar 2010)

It is a beauty to look at ...


----------



## Bobtastic (15 Mar 2010)

This looks really nice, I'm also interested to see how this method of starting a tanks works out. It seems like a lot of work but if it works out the way you expect it would defo be worth it!


----------



## rad89 (15 Mar 2010)

As someone who is very new to all this and looking at all the different ways to bring a tank to life, this seems very promising way to beat the algae problems!
Love the rock formation and tank dimensions as well!


----------



## Mowze (15 Mar 2010)

Bobtastic said:
			
		

> This looks really nice, I'm also interested to see how this method of starting a tanks works out. It seems like a lot of work but if it works out the way you expect it would defo be worth it!



 Iv done it with a few tanks now and it has worked very well every time, just give the plants that little head start in life without any competition. I also find that a lot of plants settle in a lot more quickly if you start them growing emmersed as you can tell from this by the fact that the HC has already taken root very well and even began to spread! Its also a lot easier to plant as you dont have to worry about bits floating away from the substrate when gravity is on your side!


----------



## Mowze (22 Mar 2010)

Another week on and its growing out even more! Pogo is still quite slow with the odd plant melting here and there but plenty of new growth, hair grass has finally started to spread and the HC is INSANE for around 2 1/2 weeks growth! Another few shots of the tank filled:













If all goes well I am planning on filling the tank permanently this Thursday or Friday which means reducing the lighting down from 48w to 24w starting up my smallest external filter  (700Lph) with mature media and water from my larger aquarium and dosing full EI and double dose of easy carbo as well as introducing around 10 or so shrimp after the weekend to keep the algae under control.

I'm really not sure about the hardscape something just doesnt feel right its not dynamic enough, the hills donâ€™t look right because they are the same height, too late to change it much now anything with the plants settling in moving rocks would be too destructive. Maybe once the pogo and hairgrass grow out it will make it feel a bit better.
 I also think the "valley" between the two hills needs something each side other than hairgrass/HC/Pogo to make it stand out more... I'm thinking something spiky! Blyxa?


----------



## Garuf (22 Mar 2010)

Do you have any links explaining the ebb and flow? I'm really impressed with the growth, I'd suggest it's the extra warmth from the heater adding to the warmth of the house making it lovely and humid in their. 
The scapes nice, but it feels like two scapes in the same tank, I'm no iwagumi expert but I'm sure you have one side supporting and the negative space created becomes the focal point.


----------



## Mowze (22 Mar 2010)

Garuf said:
			
		

> Do you have any links explaining the ebb and flow? I'm really impressed with the growth


Unfortunately the way I learned this method was from past experiences that many users on here would probably frown upon and any links I do have would probably not go down to well. A quick google of "flood drain hydroponics" or "ebb flow hydroponics" will turn up plenty of information on how this method works and the theory behind it. Although the method I am employing is a very basic version of the automated versions many people would use for the long term growth of emmersed or terrestrial plants the same principles are there.



			
				Garuf said:
			
		

> I'm no iwagumi expert but I'm sure you have one side supporting and the negative space created becomes the focal point.



 I think this is where I went wrong, went a bit OTT with the rocks and the "hills" Iv learned from this just because you have a lot of something doesnt mean you should use all of it (speaking about the rocks and substrate of course!) I feel it is a bit too late to change much without disturbing the plants but next time I will go for something much more minimalistic and not have the rocks pointing in all random directions like the pile on the right! Once it fills out it may look a lot better and hopefully soften the hardscape and substrate gradients a little with some larger more "spiky" plants taking the focus off the harsh scape.


----------



## Mowze (22 Mar 2010)

Did a quick re-scape, its late and I really should be getting to bed but this was bugging me and I wouldnâ€™t have slept if I didnâ€™t!
 I feel a bit more comfortable with it, I didnâ€™t like the big rock at the top of the right hand â€œhillâ€ but it seems a little bit symmetrical now but much less chaotic.


----------



## CeeJay (22 Mar 2010)

Hi Mowze

This will look great when it's grown in.
I prefer this layout a lot more  



			
				Mowze said:
			
		

> Did a quick re-scape, its late and I really should be getting to bed but this was bugging me and I wouldnâ€™t have slept if I didnâ€™t!


Oh, how I know what you mean


----------



## Piece-of-fish (23 Mar 2010)

Hi, amazing scape so far....



> I'm really not sure about the hardscape something just doesnt feel right its not dynamic enough, the hills donâ€™t look right because they are the same height, too late to change it much now anything with the plants settling in moving rocks would be too destructive. Maybe once the pogo and hairgrass grow out it will make it feel a bit better.


At the first glance something caught my eye as well with the rocks. It is probably as Garuf pointed you have used 2 different rock formations. The rocks on the left are all leaned to the right and the ones on the right are arranged pointing upward and spreading outward. 
As see two options:
1) Point 2 very left rocks to the left creating upward spreading outward look.
2) Point 2 very right rocks to the left creating two rock formations that would lean toward each other.
Have a look here:
http://www.aquajournal.net/na/iwagumi/  (especially styles section)

Now this all does not make sense anymore as you have changed the layout 
I personally did like the first one much much more and with a little adjustment it would have looked perfect...


----------



## whitey (26 Mar 2010)

Hi Mowze. 
The tank looks great! I'm really, really jealous . 
See you soon mate.


----------



## Mowze (8 Apr 2010)

Tank has been filled since Sunday now, doing really well especially the HC carpet which has EXPLODED since I filled the tank and pearling like mad! The pogo isnâ€™t doing so great with the transition from emmersed to immersed and Iâ€™m getting a little bit of melt although there is evidence of a little new growth. I got rid of the hairgrass in favour of using some stem plants and Blyxa, for the moment I have Micranthemum umbrosum until next Thursday when I can order some more plants for it. I chose to go for stems in the end as I can grow it out and trim it to give a bit more of a busy textured feel to the background and maybe some colour if I decide to add some smaller red stem plants.
 From day one I have been dosing NPK daily along with JBL ferropol 24 and JBL ferropol (split into 7 daily doses rather than a single one off dose.) I am also dosing easy carbo at a double dose of 2ml a day as I am getting a little green hair algae, this isnâ€™t the normal hair algae I am used to rather than bushy soft green clumps this is more like single long wiry strands growing in various places but at the moment nothing that isnâ€™t manageable!
 I also dropped the lights down to a single 24w Arcadia plant pro T5 rather than the double 24w 6400k daylight bulbs I had before and this is much more aesthetically pleasing as well as working wonders for the plants!
 Filtration is an old school 103 I have had for YEARS and still works brilliantly, I filled it with mature media from another aquarium and am also using it as a CO2 reactor which works very well with very high (nearly 100%) dissolving although up the CO2 to about 5-10BPS (it is normally at around 1-2BPS) which will overfill the canister it sends out a very nice fine mist of CO2.


















P.s. Sorry for the poor quality of photos, unfortunately I broke my camera yesterday so I had to use my phone until I get it replaced!


----------



## ghostsword (8 Apr 2010)

bad photos? It looks amazing.. An inspiration..


----------



## Celestial (13 Apr 2010)

This tank is fantastic! I wish I could have a tank as green as this  How much JBL Ferropol do you pour in weekly?

Thanks, Celestial.


----------



## Garuf (13 Apr 2010)

Very nice, I thought ferropol was just iron however? 

Celestial, Mowze states that he doses every day rather than once a week.


----------



## Celestial (13 Apr 2010)

I meant like how much ml per week of the normal Ferropol not Ferropol 24.

Thanks, Celestial.


----------



## Ben M (13 Apr 2010)

wow.   first time i looked at this journal, i didn't really look at the title, and i thought it must be at least 5ft. i don't know how it's possible to fit such a great scape in a tiny tank.

cheers


----------



## Mowze (13 Apr 2010)

Celestial said:
			
		

> This tank is fantastic! I wish I could have a tank as green as this  How much JBL Ferropol do you pour in weekly?
> 
> Thanks, Celestial.





			
				Garuf said:
			
		

> Very nice, I thought ferropol was just iron however?
> 
> Celestial, Mowze states that he doses every day rather than once a week.



I overdose slightly with 0.5ml of JBL Ferropol and 1 drop of JBL Ferropol daily giving me a total of 3.5ml Ferropol and 7 drops of JBL Ferropol 24 daily (should be around 0.35 daily Ferropol and Â½ drop JBL Ferropol 24 daily for this size aquarium) Both preparations contain Iron and most of the required Micro and Macro nutrients plus a few extra elements in the Ferropol 24 all with the exception of NPK which I dose daily separately along with 1ml daily of Easycarbo.
 I am overdosing these slightly to allow for the fact that the substrate does not contain any nutrients and should absorb any excess hence dosing daily rather than dosing all in one go where nutrients may be absorbed by the end of the week. I do a 50% water change on Sunday and begin dosing all over again, water changes are done with pure RO water with no additives required as the *@#$ Manado substrate seems to buffer the KH to around 70-80ppm and the GH to 140ppm (something you donâ€™t exactly want from a plant substrate considering the fact that already does not provide anything really beneficial to a planted aquarium as it is.)
 Speaking of JBL Manado, DONT BUY IT, it really is a @#$Â£ Substrate, it provides very little to a planted aquarium and effects the water chemistry way more than it should (Raises KH and GH A LOT!) Next time I see the JBL rep I will be making a few complaints to him about this product. I made the mistake of buying a 25L bag of the stuff when it first came out back in September, used a little in a few tanks and now I am stuck with about 15L of what is a next to useless substrate... Iâ€™m just going to bin the rest of the bag I have left.



			
				pest control said:
			
		

> wow.   first time i looked at this journal, i didn't really look at the title, and i thought it must be at least 5ft. i don't know how it's possible to fit such a great scape in a tiny tank.
> 
> cheers



I really could do with a name for this aquarium but I am way too technically minded and unimaginative to provide anything more than the specifications of the aquarium used!
 I think I owe the unusual dimensions in comparison to the usual nano aquariums you see a lot when it comes to the way it looks so much larger than it is. It really does feel like a scaled down 4ft aquarium when you look at it and I guess if you doubled the dimensions in each direction then it really would give you the standard dimensions for a 4ft aquarium (120x40x40cm!) Iâ€™m seriously considering getting another one of these aquariums drilling it, adding a weir and making it into a systemised (sumped) pico marine aquarium I recon with these lights and some extra equipment you could utilise both T5s and go for SPS corals and it would a lot bigger than it really is! A serious DIY project in the pipeline!

 New pictures to update soon after the next waterchange, come Sunday it will have been a full 2 weeks full and considering I am still only half way through the second week of actually having water in it the growth has EXPLODED! I think the emmersed start helped a lot but as soon as there was nutrients and CO2 circulating around the plants the HC went absolutely MENTAL!


----------



## Mowze (16 Apr 2010)

Another update, again pictures (and editing) arenâ€™t too great as I am still stuck using my camera phone! Tank will have been filled 3 weeks come Sunday and the growth from all the plants is fantastic! Added a few more stem plants in favor of the hair grass that was in there initially which have quite a bit of growing out to do yet. I also added some red crystal shrimp and assassin snails.

 Plants are:
_Hemianthus callitrichoides
Pogostemon helferi
Micranthemum umbrosum
Micranthemum micranthemoides
Rotala wallichii
_
Plants are pearling VERY heavily within 30 mins of the light coming on.

For those who want to know my daily dosing regime:
3ppm NO3
0.15ppm PO4
0.5ml JBL Ferropol
1 Drop JBL Ferropol 24
1ml Easycarbo

 The NPK is a bit on the lean side, I was dosing 5-6ppm NO3 and 0.5ppm PO4 every other day but I have reduced it slightly and upped the dosing to daily as I was getting a fair bit of algae growth and I am still wary dosing NPK in excess in a nano tank.

50% RO water change every Sunday.

DIY CO2 (2x 2L bottles of yeast and sugar.) direct into filter intake with near 100% dissolution rate/occasional misting via plastic lilly. Air pump to filter outlet on timer that goes on when the lights go off and turns off about 1 hour before lights on
External fluvial 103 approx 400LPH with mature Ehiem substrat pro as media (no sponges or floss)
No heating yet, will add one when I introduce fish, heater cable maintains at about 20c
1x 24w T5 Arcadia plant pro + 24w 6700k Hagen Day glo for photography only. Light is currently suspended 5cm from water surface but can be raised/lowered on the chain for increasing/decreasing intensity or for maintenance as required.

 I would really like to get pressurised CO2 and glass/acrylic lilly pipes on here but at the moment I cant afford it.


----------



## fandango (29 Apr 2010)

Looking really good. How is it doing now?

Regards,
fandango


----------



## Mowze (2 May 2010)




----------



## Nelson (2 May 2010)

this is a fantastic tank.whats happening in the back right corner.


----------



## fandango (2 May 2010)

Really nice tank.
fandango


----------



## Mowze (2 May 2010)

nelson said:
			
		

> this is a fantastic tank.whats happening in the back right corner.



 Not much really! That is where the filter intake normally sits (I took it off to take photos) there is a stem plant there which I am unsure what species it is that has not really done a great deal of growing. I'm waiting for the stems around the back to grow out still so that I can start pruning them and shaping the planting a bit more which should hopefully enable me to hide the equipment a little better.


----------

