Lowtech Nanos - The Mossy Spider & More

[shangman]

Took out the shrimp and snails, dosed the tank with no-planaria and then had a SUDDEN THOUGHT ...

This tank has rocks from a garden centre in it that are dark grey with white streaks through them.... Could they raise the kh of the water too high for crystals? Eep! 😬

 

[Wookii]

Took out the shrimp and snails, dosed the tank with no-planaria and then had a SUDDEN THOUGHT ...

This tank has rocks from a garden centre in it that are dark grey with white streaks through them.... Could they raise the kh of the water too high for crystals? Eep! 😬

Yes, you’ll struggle to keep the pH below 7 if there’s calcium carbonate in the rocks!

 

[ScareCrow]

You can test them by putting some vinegar on them. If it bubbles it contains carbonate, which could raise your kh. If it doesn't it's fine. Sounds like the white might be quartz surrounded by a darker rock. I'm not a geologist so that's about the extent of my knowledge.

 

[shangman]

You can test them by putting some vinegar on them. If it bubbles it contains carbonate, which could raise your kh. If it doesn't it's fine. Sounds like the white might be quartz surrounded by a darker rock. I'm not a geologist so that's about the extent of my knowledge.

Yes, you’ll struggle to keep the pH below 7 if there’s calcium carbonate in the rocks!

Found one of the rocks in the garden and tested it with some vinegar this morning, nothing happened so hopefully it is quartz! Will keep an eye out on the parameters and wait a week between changing the water and adding shrimp to see if it does seem to be making a difference. Thanks for the advice!

 

[shangman]

Stage one is complete! The shrimps and snails were quarantined earlier in the week. The no planaria has worked an absolute treat, after 3 days of dosing I added a test sinking loach pellet and only a few tiny shrimp I couldn't catch arrived to eat. Previously the planaria were all over them. Also very pleased as the treatment doesn't seem to have affected my black worms at all, I thought they'd be wiped out but happily not.

Today I'll be do a 100% water change from tap to rainwater, and use that to suck out all the mulm at the bottom, plus a bit of carbon on the filter. Then test the parameters and get them good for the crystal shrimps.

I'm not sure if I should wait a week before adding the shrimps or not, since the tank is mature. Had anyone else moved crystal shrimp about? Another option is to do a big water change on their tank and add that water to this one, then top up with new water so it's more similar for them, I've heard they can be picky about being moved.

 

[shangman]

Another update - the No Planaria doesn't seem to have killed off all the Planaria yet.

I dosed according to the instructions for 3 days, with a decreasing dose each day. I hadn't seen any planaria since. Yesterday I did a 100% water change + added carbon to the filter to get rid of the treatment as I couldn't see any left. None went to the food I added to the tank on Friday, so I assumed complete death as they were usually very greedy. However after the 100% waterchange I slowly drained the water until only mulm was left so I could catch some remaining shrimplets, and I noticed that there were alive planaria amoungst the mulm. And now this morning I saw a very small planaria swimming along the glass of the tank. I'm hoping that the treatment has still worked, I think I read somewhere that it stops them from being able to eat/digest so they are alive but not a problem any more, and they will eventually die, but now I can't find that info any more. Is this a reasonable hypothesis?

I also read that I've got to dose the tank for a second time in 2 weeks, to kill any hatched planaria eggs. So hopefully this second dose kills any that survived the first time. I was hoping to add the shrimps to the tank sooner than that, and the baby cherry shrimps were all fine. Any experience with crystals?


I'm adjusting my water parameters today to get them just right for the crystals. I tested both my nano tanks, and in the one they're in now (the ferny stump) the kH is basically 0, no wonder they haven't been breeding. Interesting as we do add salty shrimp with each water change. I'm considering working out how to get it to the right parameters with a bit of tap water. I have a TDS meter somewhere that I need to get out and try.

The mossy spider:
pH - 6.6
Kh - 0
Gh - 5

The ferny stump:
pH - 6.4/6.5
Kh - 0
Gh - 5/6 (I think 5, but it was a very pale colour and became much mroe obvious at 6)

Crystals & bees
pH - 6 - 7
Kh - 2 - 6 (bees 0 - 4)
Gh - 4-8

Cherries
pH - 6.5 - 7.5
Kh - 4+
Gh - 6+

I'm hoping to keep the pH around where it is, hopefully below 7. As I want to keep crystals and cherries, I am going for a kH of 4/5 and a GH of 6. Has anyone else kept them together?

 

[shangman]

Lol well that's the gh/kh mystery solved... When dad started getting the shrimp he bought a giant tub of BEE shrimp powder that only raises the GH, not the KH at all! Whoops!

I'm going to try just adding some tap water, a cupful at a time and testing it until the values are right I think. It's full of KH and GH.

 

[shangman]

Ended up doing quite a lot on Sunday!

Managed to get the water to kh2/3, gh6 and decided to try it at that for a while. It's hard to get the kh to 4 without making the GH too high. I'm hoping these params will be ok. Maybe one day I will cave and buy some kH buffer, but that would be very annoying.

I had to disassemble the Ferny Stump to get all the fish and shrimps out. Almost all the plants are attached to the wood or the back wall however, so that was pretty easy. Behind the wall we found 3 tiny baby black and white crystal shrimps, they have been breeding! We think this confirms that the 2 shy sparkling gouramis we kept with them have been eating babies that appear. At least one, but I think 2 or even 3 of the crystal females are berried, hopefully they didn't mind the move too much (proper drip acclimation) and will thrive in the new tank!

I also caught the 2 sparkling gouramis, along with 7 pygmy cories - we used to have 11 but there was no sign of any more. I had noticed the cories were less perky than they used to be in the Ferny Stump and I'm glad we did this move as their numbers have been dropping. I'll add an update about these creatures in my other tank - <The Nymph's Spring> v soon.

Once all the animals had been moved, we chopped off the bottom off the back emergent wall, and just used some thick plastic-covered wire (from a coat hanger) to make 2 hooks for the back piece to sit on. We also put the wood back further back, so there's a little more space at the front. The tank looks a little odd now, but hopefully without that wall which had loads of trapped algae in it I can get the tank back to health. The plan is (after a no-planaria treatment) to add my cherry shrimps and snails, and then add 6 or so amanos to help deal with the algae, along with raising the light up higher. I'm sure we'll do more too, but not sure yet. This tank is nice, but it's always been a bit awkward and difficult, so hopefully without that wall things will be easier.

My goal atm with all 3 of my tanks is to make them as easy as possible to maintain, while keeping them at their healthiest and most balanced. I know people say that small tanks can be really dodgy but so far my lowtech mossy spider has been the most easy to deal with, with minimal algae and deaths. I don't keep fish or difficult plants in it though so maybe that's why!

Here are some photos of the Mossy Spider right now, I'm really happy with it, the wabi kusa plants have really started to take over and it looks much more natural and dynamic, especially with the combo of pink and green. The shrimps don't come out into the front much yet, fingers crossed they do eventually, I did check and they are alive still lol!

 

[PARAGUAY]

Love the lush plants underneath with emmerse grow not always easy🙂

 

[shangman]

Love the lush plants underneath with emmerse grow not always easy🙂

Thanks! It definitely helped to grow the undergrowth first for a few months before adding the wabi kusas, and they're all plants that do well in low light too (moss, buce, crypts) I do still clear it a bit weekly, at this point they can completely strangle any light at all rather quickly.

 

[shangman]

45L update:
The algae in this tank when we started to redo it was A LOT, so first thing we did was add the amanos which were unhappy with the co2 in my big tank, as well as raise the light another 15cm. Then we had to do 2 planaria treatments 2 weeks apart. This seemed to really kill a lot of the algae, there's hardly any now, hooray! Once that was done, it was time to give it a great clean, so we took out the main wood (all one piece and comes out easy), and the back wabi kusa wood "pond-edge", put the amanos in a bucket and siphoned out all the sand and everything. Gave the glass a big clean so it was good as new and added a layer of playsand to the bottom. While doing all of this, the wabi kusa wood was being soaked in water with SB invigorator because it was COVERED in greenfly, they had really taken over. Then that got a few rinses and well back in. The SB Invigorator really hit the greenfly hard, and the amanos are fine, so that's great!!

At this point I added some twigs and took some photos, the epiphyte-wood is in front usually so you don't get to fully see the wabi wood back in all it's glory and it is very nice. I'm kinda thinking that a new tank might be in order, where this back wall goes in one with a black-water style tank, and the big main bit of epiphyte-covered wood goes in the other, theres just a lot of hardscape for one tank in it atm. It's also annoying because the wood is set forward to fit, so there is a lot of dead space at the back and not much in the front. So if anyone has an Aquael 49L spare I'm looking! Annoyingly you can only buy it online with a light and filter that we don't want for £134, so looking at getting a custom one made maybe (or maybe a slightly bigger one that's the same height). I wanted to start my new big wabikusa blackwater tank this year but that's been pushed back as we try to buy a house so tbh... I demand another lowtech nano. I have the light and filter and heater and hardscape already

The tank looks soooo much better now, the playsand somehow makes it look much better, and while the wood was out I gave all the dodgy plants a nice trim. I especially like the trident java fern so I'd like to add a bit more of that, it grows vvvv slowly in this tank but it's really healthy. Also, that white fungus-like stuff I found before, has spread throughout the wood and is growing all over. Still very interesting, I do like mystery life appearing. My dad is also OBSESSED with some water sprite we bought, which as a floating plant is really beautiful - it puts out new fronds out of the water and keeps a lot of the leaf out of the water, it's a very nice halfin/halfout plant. Is a bit cramped in this tank but oh well. I'm so pleased that this tank is finally seeming to be balanced and healthy, we started it in Sep/Oct last year so it's almost a year old,it's been v interesting to learn how to balance it, with a very different challenge as it's by a window with an unusual light (a grow light LED set in a chinese lantern suspended above the tank lol)

Anyway, we added all the wood back, and added the snails who were in quarantine (all still alive hooray!). I also found another baby white wizard who was born in the quarantine tank. We've now ordered a beautiful silver alien longfin betta to go in the tank later this week, and I want to add some more amanos too to make sure the algae doesn't come back (and cos they're v funny). My dad wants to add blue cherry shrimps but I'm a bit hmmm about it with the betta so will try with some cull shrimp from my pond first to see if he's interested or not. I'm also adding a solid layer of floating plants to the top and the water will be lowered so the betta doesn't jump out, and will have clingfilm for the first few weeks.

 

[Wolf6]

45L update:
The algae in this tank when we started to redo it was A LOT, so first thing we did was add the amanos which were unhappy with the co2 in my big tank, as well as raise the light another 15cm. Then we had to do 2 planaria treatments 2 weeks apart. This seemed to really kill a lot of the algae, there's hardly any now, hooray! Once that was done, it was time to give it a great clean, so we took out the main wood (all one piece and comes out easy), and the back wabi kusa wood "pond-edge", put the amanos in a bucket and siphoned out all the sand and everything. Gave the glass a big clean so it was good as new and added a layer of playsand to the bottom. While doing all of this, the wabi kusa wood was being soaked in water with SB invigorator because it was COVERED in greenfly, they had really taken over. Then that got a few rinses and well back in. The SB Invigorator really hit the greenfly hard, and the amanos are fine, so that's great!!

This SB invigorator, do you have any idea what is in it? It sounds like a great option for my vase project-fly issue that I'm having atm.
Looks great again green jungles like this just have this vibrant alive look that I can never get enough of.

 

[shangman]

This SB invigorator, do you have any idea what is in it? It sounds like a great option for my vase project-fly issue that I'm having atm.
Looks great again green jungles like this just have this vibrant alive look that I can never get enough of.

Thanks! I love a jungly tank too, I like a big dollop of wildness in my tanks, it makes them feel more magical I think, and also the creatures act like they feel more safe in them.

The ingredients I found online for the SB are "Foliar Lattice, Linear Sulphanate, 0.074% w/w Iron Chelate (Fe), 1.914% w/w Nitrogen (N), natural products." So idk if that tells us much.

My dad uses it all the time on houseplants, he is a professional gardener who likes to be eco and finds it really effective. It's an insecticide which is physical rather than chemical, instead of chemically poisoning the insects it has a tiny structure that blocks their breathing pores, so if a creature comes along and eats them they aren't harmed at all, and they don't become immune to it either. I have amanos in the tank and they didn't react at all, and I used to try spraying it on the plants when I had crystal shrimp in with no problems. I knew it was an experimental treatment but my dad was confident it would be fine so gave it a go!

I think it's easier to use on houseplants with big leaves than delicate emergent aquarium plants though, you have to make sure all the plant gets sprayed/covered or some won't die and they breed so quickly, they are great at hiding amongst the hydrocotyle leaves. This time dipping worked v well though cos it was infested throughout, and the following rinse in tap in sure helped get rid of extras too.

 

[Wolf6]

Thanks! I love a jungly tank too, I like a big dollop of wildness in my tanks, it makes them feel more magical I think, and also the creatures act like they feel more safe in them.

The ingredients I found online for the SB are "Foliar Lattice, Linear Sulphanate, 0.074% w/w Iron Chelate (Fe), 1.914% w/w Nitrogen (N), natural products." So idk if that tells us much.

My dad uses it all the time on houseplants, he is a professional gardener who likes to be eco and funds it really effective. It's an insecticide which is physical rather than chemical, instead of chemically poisoning the insects it has a tiny structure that blocks their breathing pores, so if a creature comes along and eats them they aren't harmed at all, and they don't become immune to it either. I have amanos in the tank and they didn't react at all, and I used to try spraying it on the plants when I had crystal shrimp in with no problems. I knew it was an experimental treatment but my dad was confident it would be fine so gave it a go!

I think it's easier to use on houseplants with big leaves than delicate emergent aquarium plants though, you have to make sure all the plant gets sprayed/covered or some won't die and they breed so quickly, they are great at hiding amongst the hydrocotyle leaves. This time dipping worked v well though cos it was infested throughout, and the following rinse in tap in sure helped get rid of extras too.

I've ordered some and will try it, I'm getting really fed up with these little flies.

 

[shangman]

I've ordered some and will try it, I'm getting really fed up with these little flies.

That's great, good luck I hope it works for your project!! The flies are the worst tbh, I just pulled out a load of fly-infested hydrocotyle from my nano tank too (I could've SB'd it but they were looking straggly anyway so needed a change). The flies seem to appear in every emergent planted tank I try, I find it so weird that they're not talked about more!

 

[shangman]

Another lil update on the Mossy Spider...

The hydrocotyle in the wabi kusa got completely overrun with green fly, and the ludiwigia, while growing great, was taking over under water and getting very long, so I've pruned them back to the balls. I'm going to replant them soon, and I'd like to try some new plants with it too to keep experimenting. Let me know if anyone has any random stems they're happy to give me to try! Above is a photo before I cut it back where the floating plants and wabi plants just looked sooo vibrant and lovely. The red root floaters have gone red now and IDK why but it looks fabulous!!

The rest of the tank is doing great, I've had 2-3 lots of baby crystal shrimps born, and now my big red female (seen above) is berried, so that's a big success on the water parameters and no heater!! I'm thinking of adding a few (not many they're expensive af) high quality red and black crystals in there to up the quality of the babies. Really glad this tank is very stable now, I only do small waterchanges every 2 weeks and everything si good with no deaths since I added the shrimp. The plants are growing well too I did "trim" the moss a week ago, it grows very well and super thick. It's really good for making Japanese garden-style blobs, and actualyl I think is better in the lowtech than in my hightech where it's fluffier and less dense.

My next plans for the tank are to upgrade the light at some point to something higher-up so I can fit more wabi kusa plants in, and to decorate/upgrade the little stand. The stand is very practical for getting the tank to the right height for viewing, but it's really basic and I want something more decorative

 

[ScareCrow]

I really like the mix of floating plants and emergent growth, great mix of colour.

 

[aec34]

Ahhh more moss envy! Might have to try and beg some off you for my next tank 😜

 

[shangman]

I really like the mix of floating plants and emergent growth, great mix of colour.

Thanks! I'm really enjoying cultivating plants that mix at the waterline like this, it is very easy and so effective at giving a natural feel. Wish my bigger tank had less flow sometimes so that could be filled with more lovely floating plants.

And I'm so pleased about the colour too, I didn't really think I could get such great colour in a tiny lowtech with a not particularly powerful light! I suspect the redness is stronger because the tank is 80% rainwater and not much ferts (a bit of TNC complete weekly) so it's quite nitrate limited. I added a little ludwigia red and hydrocotyle to the hightech on bit of the wood and they're growing well, but the ludiwigia is a deep green rather than red/pink/purple.

Ahhh more moss envy! Might have to try and beg some off you for my next tank 😜

I'm sure I can rip some clumps off for you, but be warned there is some sort of long hair algae amongst it. It's not spyro, if I see any and pull at it long strong strands of it come out so it is quite satisfying and easy to remove if it grows more, a bit like that pond algae. tbh I've decided to have an easy life by not caring about it, but you might care and that's fair enough!!

I do have another nice little plant you might be interested in, a lovely little nymphoides floater (not sure of the actual name) from my LFS which gives real waterlily vibes but with small leaves (5cm across max for me). The main leaf in the photo is dying but it's very old now and got very battered in my hightech flow - I wanted it for my hightech but the flow is too strong, it needs something more gentle and it's just in my quarantine tank atm. Each leaf is it's own plant, and it forms runner leaves to spread, the roots are nicely bright green and pretty with a cool structure. Happy to send you some for free and well as the moss, I owe you for those floaters for my tank a few months ago!

I only have the space to keep a bit of the plant so happy to give away some mature runners.

 

[CSouthgate]

looking good still, i still cant keep fissidens xD