# Help choosing Equipment to go with a new tank.



## LukeDaly (3 Jan 2014)

Hey Guys, first post on the forum!

Been a long time lurker and finally decided to subscribe!
This will probably be a long boring post for the most of you but all help is appreciated!

First of all I am finally making an upgrade from my Nano tank the ''Fluval Spec III' I bought this tank not expecting to get into planted aquariums as much as I have and finally decided that I should upgrade 2.5 Gallon was getting a little small! I loved this little tank, I upgraded the light to the 'Fluval 11 watt t8 lamp' and had a miracle grow organic potting mix base with a sand topping layer. Plant growth was awesome.

Image below:


But enough about that and onto all of the new stuff:

Tank -
First of all I just ordered myself the Dennerle Scaper's tank (always fancied this tank) and at 45 x 31 x 36cm wide (18 x 12 x 14”) it fits my unit lovely!
Unfortunately I cant post links yet, but a quick Google search will find you a review!

Substrate - 
Substrate wise I plan to go dirted, again using Miracle Grow Organic Potting Mix as the base only this time around I got a 10 Liter bag of 'Colombo Flora Grow Base' to use as a middle layer is this worth while? (I want to use sand as the top layer, with possible Flora to help separate parts of the tank).

Lights -
Honestly this is the part that is slowly melting my brain the most.. Everywhere I read has something different about lights.. Is the 1 watt per liter rule something I should go by even with a tank this shallow? The reason I didn't go with the light that came with the kit is because I wasn't to fond of its appearance. The light that comes with the kit option of the tank is a 24w 8,000k bulb suggesting around 1/2 a Watt per liter? This is of course still an option as I want the scape to look as good as possible, is 8,000k more plant friendly? Would I run into any difficulties growing any species with this light? 

I am open to all options when it comes to lights as I am completely lost..

Had a look at these not sure what to think tho:
day-time.de/produkte/cluster/

the ultra-white 7,000k Option seems like a decent option again not sure if that is the optimum plant range. 

Filter - 
For the filter I was going to go with a Fluval 106 recommended for tanks up to 100 liters so I am assuming this will be more than enough for a 50 liter tank and provide me with good flow. 


Well for those who made it to the end that's all I can think of at the minute other than c02 which will have to wait to a later date as it can tend to be rather expensive. (Will dosing liquid ferts & c02 be enough for the first month or so?)

I should have the tank on Saturday, and plan to dry start the tank as soon as I can get lights sorted. I intend to keep a log of the build here on the forum for those interested. Probably this thread.

Again all help is very VERY much appreciated and i cant thank anyone who can help me out enough. 

Luke.


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## Deano3 (3 Jan 2014)

Hellow there luke and welcome firstly nice looking spec I always love nanos for some reason think they are great,

sure I seen an article on that tank and its looks great so will be watching for the journal

as for substrate you want it to be around 4cm deep or so and sure some people have problems with shrimp etc moving the sand and dirt around making a mess but someone else may assist you on that as I only have dirt

as for light like you say its a minefield and I am not totally sure but until you sort something although don't like its appearance could use the one you get for the DSM

as for filter I have a 35L tank and I have a 700LPH eheim filter (eheim seems to be the more commonly used range and seem great quality) also its external so doesn't look a mess and maybe think about the future if ever want bigger tank saves buying another filter and prices for the bigger ones arnt massively different so I would splash on a larger filter personally

as for ferts I and a lot of other beginners use this
Ei Starter Kit - Starter Kits - Dry Chemicals - Fertilisers and liquid carbon if no real co2 and without co2 just keep the lights low as if too high will cause melt

sure some experts will come and help you with lighting but best of luck and keep us updated
Dean


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## LukeDaly (3 Jan 2014)

Deano3 said:


> Hellow there luke and welcome firstly nice looking spec I always love nanos for some reason think they are great,
> 
> sure I seen an article on that tank and its looks great so will be watching for the journal
> 
> ...


 

Hey man first of all thanks for your response! Ill have to have a look around at filters and hopefully pick a better one up for the right price then as you say better to be future proof! 

As for the ferts that is a very interesting method I never even thought of using dry ferts! Surely that wouldn't be as cost efficient as CO2 in the long run though? But that could allow me to get the tank up quicker, allowing me to spend what I would have spent on CO2 on a larger filter! I can always add CO" later. 

And I sure hope so! Again thank you for your time dude.


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## Deano3 (4 Jan 2014)

no problem you might be better posting light question etc in the relevant section and hopefully get more responses   well I and most people have co2 and dry ferts the EI kit that I listed is excellent and very cheap had mine over a year and still loads left as easily explained with a vid on there website, but your plants will need defrt and many people on here have explained that bottles of liquid ferts contain mainly water and normally have to dose about 5 times they recommend lol and for a bottle you can buy a years worth of dry powders lol so much better, but you could save you money for a co2 system while dry starting or like you say use liquid carbon if needed but no were near as good as actual co2 so if you want high light plants etc co2 is an essential.

also like you said I would defiantly future proof the filter and go for a larger model   as the lph (litres per hour)turnover of the filter isn't with all filter media etc so will be very close and you need to look for at least 10x turnover of tank water per hour so for 50l tank your looking for the lph to be 500 at least

Thanks dean


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## LukeDaly (4 Jan 2014)

Deano3 said:


> no problem you might be better posting light question etc in the relevant section and hopefully get more responses  well I and most people have co2 and dry ferts the EI kit that I listed is excellent and very cheap had mine over a year and still loads left as easily explained with a vid on there website, but your plants will need defrt and many people on here have explained that bottles of liquid ferts contain mainly water and normally have to dose about 5 times they recommend lol and for a bottle you can buy a years worth of dry powders lol so much better, but you could save you money for a co2 system while dry starting or like you say use liquid carbon if needed but no were near as good as actual co2 so if you want high light plants etc co2 is an essential.
> 
> also like you said I would defiantly future proof the filter and go for a larger model  as the lph (litres per hour)turnover of the filter isn't with all filter media etc so will be very close and you need to look for at least 10x turnover of tank water per hour so for 50l tank your looking for the lph to be 500 at least
> 
> Thanks dean


 

Ok i'll give it a go in there!  definitely going to go with them dry ferts! 

Been having a wee look at filters again and found I can get:

Fluval 106 does 550LPH at £72.45
Fluval 206 does 780 LPH  at £82.49
Fluval 306 does 1150 LPH  at £98.32 

of course that is coming from Fluvals spec sheet so what to believe I dont know? 
Im assuming you would choose the 306 out of the 3 listed filters? 

Thanks again, Luke.


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## darren636 (4 Jan 2014)

When you fill the filter with media it will lose a lot of flow , so get a biggun


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## LukeDaly (4 Jan 2014)

darren636 said:


> When you fill the filter with media it will lose a lot of flow , so get a biggun


 

I was hoping that it came filled, is the stuff that comes in it not to good?


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## darren636 (4 Jan 2014)

Yeah, they come with media, but the flow statistic is from empty filters. Supplied media does the job well.


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## LukeDaly (4 Jan 2014)

darren636 said:


> Yeah, they come with media, but the flow statistic is from empty filters. Supplied media does the job well.


 

Ok no problem man, so im assuming you would go with the Fluval 306 option as well?


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## darren636 (4 Jan 2014)

I would. If its too powerful you can slow it down with filter media


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## Iain Sutherland (4 Jan 2014)

Hey luke, dont go fluval, money better spent on a JBL crystal profi filter, they are silent and work like a dream.

Personally id say just use the light that comes with it, the scapers tank has been set up ready to grow plants so why even change the filter?
1 WPL isnt worth paying attention too, spend more time worrying about co2, flow, maintenance etc
Also the plants dont  care whether your light is 6500k or 8000k, the choice is an aesthetic one for you to look at the tank.  

Just get some substrate and plants in there and away you go... you can always change things as you go along and for now you can spend your money on having a larger plant mass to begin with


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## darren636 (4 Jan 2014)

Jbl are great filters


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## LukeDaly (5 Jan 2014)

Iain Sutherland said:


> Hey luke, dont go fluval, money better spent on a JBL crystal profi filter, they are silent and work like a dream.
> 
> Personally id say just use the light that comes with it, the scapers tank has been set up ready to grow plants so why even change the filter?
> 1 WPL isnt worth paying attention too, spend more time worrying about co2, flow, maintenance etc
> ...


 

See I didn't get a light with the tank I bought the tank on its own, nothing came with it I have bought my own substrate etc, I also believe the filter wasn't great anyway.. Are the JBL actually better performing filters or just better value for money? If better performing what model would you recommend for this tank? And really I never knew that, learn something new in nearly every comment I read on this post lol!


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## Iain Sutherland (5 Jan 2014)

the e701 would be more than enough for this size tank, i run it on my 60 without issue.  The filters are just good, work well, good value and simple.  Personally i hated my 205, was the first thing i changed when i started out.... stupid ribbed tubing and pretty gutless.
JBL CristalProfi Greenline External Filter e701 | Charterhouse Aquatics

Light wise... on a 45 cm tank its tricky as most companies dont really cater for nanos.  While i havent seen anyone using one high tech the fluval led looks the part and imagine it would be just fine for 90% of plants.  Alistair has just started using one on his shrimp tank and he like it a lot.
Fluval Nano Aqualife & Plant LED Lamp - 7800k | Swell UK
otherwise beamworks do a 45 model i believe which should be fine but personally never used one.


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## castle (13 May 2016)

As there aren't too many reviews for Dennerle nano cubes around, I'll necro this post to give my short opinion.

I have had a base 60L with no additionals for over a year, I think.

Tank is bigger than you would think, but your stocking options are limited. It is a tank that shines with smaller species, and with it almost being a 40x40x40 it can house a wide variety of plants. 

An external filter is a must as space is at a premium, I went for an Eheim 250T in the end, so no internal heater either.

I have chipped my tank with the cover glass, so that cover glass is strong. Speaking of the cover, I don't have a cover on at the moment, personally I found the cover clips to not be too aesthetically pleasing, coupled with no room for in/out flow. As others have said, cutting some corners off could, and would work. 

Lighting again is a little tricky, but I managed to get a TMC GROBEAM 600  to work well enough, think it could be a little too bright at times, but plants enjoy it.

There are also the curved edges on the fron of the tank, I'm still not sure what I think of them, as they slightly warp the front viewing angle. Yet are cleaner than standard 5 piece tanks.

Like any aquarium that isn't optiwhite, it has a slight green tinge to it. On the flip side, the Dennerle 60L doesn't look so 'medical' like a ADA tank does. Me and the missus are both into our minimalist design, so it feels a little countering, but we like it enough.

I'm slowly thinking about upgrading to two, 24"x24"x"24 optiwhite cubes, but the dennerle will see me through for a while, it's a well built tank, which is nice to look at. Fish species that can live in the tank are numerous, but I'd always insist you try and keep it as a species tank, I think that's it's best use.


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