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Beginner kitchen Nano Scape

Bobdmr

Bobdmr

Seedling
Joined
22 Jan 2018
Messages
19
Location
Sheffield
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Hi

Just a hello as new to the forum and thought i’d share my new set up.

So..
Got an old pine side board off eBay and shabby chicced it with all kinds of Laura Ashley vibes, reinforced it with 3x2” timber on the inside.
The tank is an Aquaone nano60 100litre water capacity.
The light is a diy 10w led 6500k floodlight 800 ish lumen under a copper bnq lamp shade and for the goose neck I bent a piece of 22mm copper and connected it with a 22mm brass tank connector (nice and sturdy), it will swivel away from the tank for maintenance.
The flex runs down the inside of the tube to keep it neat.

The tank is meant to come with the aqua one plant glo light but is on back order hence the diy light for now.

I cant find much info other than the wattage for the plantglo light.

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I’ve got tropica aqua soil powder and substrate.
I went trawling the local aquatics, centres for some nice hard scape, but found nothing I liked.
My original plan was to separate the front of the tank from the back with a length of bog wood and keep the front un planted with a light coloured gravel... I wasn't feeling the bog wood so opted for some shards of slate, I suppose My water will be clearer.

As im new to this i’ve gone for mainly less demanding plants with a couple more challenging plants simply to see if i have what it takes to grow them well.
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So this is the morning after planting, I still might try and cover the front with something lighter once the back has grown out.

Along the back left to right.. Hottina palustris, Rotala Rotundifloria, Bacopa Compact .. I'm hoping the Hotina will be the biggest, bushiest and tallest, the Rotala will brake up the bright green with a little red/orange and be second tallest and finally the Bacopa will carpet or cover a wide area.

In the mid ground I've got Anubis nana, Nana mini and weeping moss, in the foreground I've got S.repems again I've got fingers crossed for a carpet.

The led flood light seems to have a nice shimmering effect.




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Managed to get the Co2 under the power head and have since fitted a spray bar directed downwards giving the bubbles a second crack of the whip to desolve.
Also the original jet was blasting the substrate everywhere.

I think to start with my co2 was way too high and th drop checker was a yellowish green, I've since scaled it back to 1.4 bubbles every 2 seconds, it's still not perfect, but I guess my plants still haven't got going yet.

Surface skimmer on order, I'm getting loads of scum.

More to come ..
 
ceg4048 said:
That means you don't have enough CO2, or you have too much light, or both.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
Ah... I thought it was dust that came off the aqua soil, it's kind of the same colour..

I think I'll try reducing the light then, I'm fairly sure the co2 is on the high side of why it should be (according to the drop checker anyway)
 
Hello,
Injection rate is only part of the story. It is entirely possible to have high injection rate and yet still suffer poor CO2. Lighting, as you noted, flow rate, distribution of flow as well as the timing of the gas are all factors that, if ignored can all lead, in any combination, to poor uptake by the plants of CO2.

Of course, dust is a completely different matter. Dust from Aquasoil is dark brown-grey particulate.
Scum is an oily substance that coats the surface and can trap dust and other debris. If it appears in great quantity then it can be a harbinger of doom.

Cheers,
 
ceg4048 said:
Hello,
Injection rate is only part of the story. It is entirely possible to have high injection rate and yet still suffer poor CO2. Lighting, as you noted, flow rate, distribution of flow as well as the timing of the gas are all factors that, if ignored can all lead, in any combination, to poor uptake by the plants of CO2.

Of course, dust is a completely different matter. Dust from Aquasoil is dark brown-grey particulate.
Scum is an oily substance that coats the surface and can trap dust and other debris. If it appears in great quantity then it can be a harbinger of doom.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Thanks for this..
Just cleared what ever was coating the surface with the skimmer, so I'm guessing if it comes back then it's the bad scum as a result of what you have mentioned previously.

Re the flow.. As it stands today with the spray bar, flow is genlte but fairly evenly distributed.
There's very little surface agitation (it's pointing downwards).

With no fish is that ok? Or should I be aiming for a little surface disruption?
Obviously I will have fish in a few weeks.



I'm four days in now and the plants are showing sings of growth, outwards and upwards.

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ceg4048 said:
Of course, dust is a completely different matter. Dust from Aquasoil is dark brown-grey particulate.
Scum is an oily substance that coats the surface and can trap dust and other debris.
Click to expand...

Some bags of Tropica Aquarium Soil Powder do release an oily substance in addition to the expected (small) amount of dust, it continues to appear over some days to a couple weeks (changing 50 - 70% water every other day)
I can collect it on paper towel used to skim the surface & on the glass at the water line.
 
Bobdmr said:
Hottina palustris, Rotala Rotundifloria, Bacopa Compact .. I'm hoping the Hotina will be the biggest, bushiest and tallest, the Rotala will brake up the bright green with a little red/orange and be second tallest and finally the Bacopa will carpet or cover a wide area.
Click to expand...
Hottonia palustris is more likely to remain mid-height, especially if you're trimming to promote "bushing"
R rotundifolia loves to keep on going - to the surface & beyond ;) of course you can trim to limit its height, but if you want a shorter Rotala you might consider R 'Vietnam H'ra' (though not as "easy" or fast growing as R rotundifolia it should be happy enough in your set up)

If you haven't already, it's worth watching the Tropica plant handling video on Bacopa compact - the trimming is important in successful carpeting with this plant
 
alto said:
Hottonia palustris is more likely to remain mid-height, especially if you're trimming to promote "bushing"
R rotundifolia loves to keep on going - to the surface & beyond ;) of course you can trim to limit its height, but if you want a shorter Rotala you might consider R 'Vietnam H'ra' (though not as "easy" or fast growing as R rotundifolia it should be happy enough in your set up)

If you haven't already, it's worth watching the Tropica plant handling video on Bacopa compact - the trimming is important in successful carpeting with this plant
Click to expand...
Thanks will do
 
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Two week up date..
The Rotala (centre) is really taking off and looks nice and healthy.
The Hottona is also filling out nicely though the single light is obviously affecting its growth.
S. Repens is looking well, slowly filling out and sending out plenty of new roots.
Basically the only thing that doesn't seem to be thriving is the Bacopa ... It looks ok on the surface but there is a fair bit of leaf melt going on underneath..perhaps this is normal.?

Ammonia levels are still at 0.50ppm, so no fish yet. been doing two 50% water changes per week.
Still getting a bit of surface scum, so I do use the surface skimmer for a few minutes in the morning and again when I get in from work.
Have also noticed a small amount of alge on the glass (green spots) I've left a small patch to see how it develops or dies off.
Nothing on the plants as yet.

Also started dosing 3ml per day of TNC complete.

I've got a Chihros RGB on order and looking at some plants with different leaf tones and structure to cover the black soil at the front.
My original plan was to cover it in gravel but I think it'll all end up mixed up after a few water changes.
 
Last edited:
4 Weeks in now, the ammonia has finally dropped to zero so added a few fish, there's a dozen Galaxy Rasbora and 5 Otto's.
The bottom of the tank was covered in patches of diatoms but the Otto's have taken care of that almost over night.

I've also taken delivery of a Chihros RBG from Hinterfield .... I think it represents reasonable value for money, it looks great and the plants seem to be benefitting but the quality and finish isn't the best.
Mine came with a ding in the corner and a couple of the screw holes that tighten on the glass haven't been drilled and tapped properly so won't clamp to the glass, also theirs something loose inside.
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To brake up the mass of green I've added some Crypts, to the right, Wenditti, at the front Hobbit and Petchii in the centre, they only went in a week ago so still look a little rough.


The spay bar had to go... The Rotala was almost completely blocking the flow to the rest of the tank so re fitted the jet that came with the power head.
Originally I swapped to the spray bar as the power head was blasting the substrate and plants around the tank so I thought I'd try inserting some pond foam to slow the flow... I think I've hit the sweet spot only now I'm sure about the co2 distribution.
Before I could see the bubbles and where they were going, and now there are no bubbles making there way in to the tank.
I'm wondering if, with the foam the bubbles now become trapped until they desolve, surely the co2 has to go somewhere.


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I think my next move will be to get something larger to plant in the back right hand corner.
 
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Week 6 now I think, added some ludwigia Rubens and moved a few things around.

The Rotala is turning pink as it reaches the surface but it's ever so pale and is only on the under side of the leaves, it is a tropica Rotala and have read posts describing them as being difficult to turn red, I don't know if that is the case...

I do have a couple of issues.
Firstly, I think I have a few deficiencies, the Hottonia has quite a few deformed stems, the leaves are all crinkled, not sure why this is..
The Rotala has quite a lot of translucent leaves, a few deformed leaves like the. Hottonia .. I think this is a nitrogen deficiency.. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
And I think the Anubis have potassium deficiency's in the form of small holes in the leaves.
To try and remedy this I have doubled the TNC complete fertiliser from 3ml per day to 3mm twice a day and have reduced the water changes slightly to try and increase the nitrogen.
I suppose while the plants have increased so to should the frets.


Second issue .. And it might not be anything to worry about but the Anubis have little fan like algae growing on them, is it worth removing these leaves?
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And the glass has a green hair like algae growing on it as do the rocks, and again I might be worrying for nothing.
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Possibly the same algae.

The lights are on for 7hrs a day and the Chihros RGB light is on about 70%.
Co2 is 1.5bubbles per two seconds, from one hour before the lights and goes off one hour before the lights go off.
PH is about 6.4, and doesn't seem to change much through the day.
I've given up on the drop checker, it's always blue, even with fresh fluid and a clean it's still blue.
I'm doing regular ph test with a ph test kit.

I'm not too worried (maybe I should be) any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Looks like BBA. Yes remove it and clean the filter/ remove dead leaves and detritus from tank and do a fairly large water change.
 
Bobdmr said:
few deformed stems, the leaves are all crinkled, not sure why this is..
Click to expand...
It's most likely a CO2 problem, so 1) more CO2 or 2) better distribution
Don't forget growing plantmass 2) needs more CO2 and 2) blocks flow more easily.
 
Kitbag said:
Hi, I’m looking at possibly getting the same aquarium. One thought I had about the CO2 was to put the pump on the base of the filter section and use an inline diffuser, something like the link below. Do you think that would work? I saw that the tank comes with some 12/16mm tube and an elbow.

http://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/co2-atomic-inline-diffuser-for-1216mm-hose-by-intense-667-p.asp
Click to expand...
Sorry for the late response... I think that diffuser is for external filters... I think the co2 would have more exposure to the water the way I have it.

I'm very much a beginner and not sure how good the co2 distribution actually is.
I'm having a couple of issues.

Can't seem to shake the alge
 
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