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Lowtech Nanos - The Mossy Spider & More
- Thread starter shangman
- Start date
<In my other tank the Nymph's Spring>, things keep going wrong and massively pissing me off, but I got a big reminder that tanks take time, they take some fiddling to get the balance right, and quite a bit of experimenting and reshuffling. Sometimes I need to remember I've only been in the hobby for a bit more of a year and I can't just magically be a fancy aquascaper immediately! 😂 The Ferny Stump (which is now this journals B-tank, cos I was too nervous to make a journal when I first set it up) is a year old, and it is just right at the moment. Everything's grown in, I raised the light a little and the algae all went away, replaced the sand... and it's now fully stocked - with rabbit and wizard snails, amano shrimp, some chilli rasboras and a fabulous longfin silver alien betta named Lord Darcy. It's very watachable at the moment and every time I go in the room I get trapped by it for at least 5 minutes, which for me is a sign that things are going right. I don't even need to make a mental list of all the things I need to do to it any more, hooray!
The betta we got 2 weeks ago, he's absolutely stunning and not a mean one at all. It's my first betta and he's so funny and was immediately nto afraid of us which was great. When we got him we lowered the water - supposedly temporarily - so he wouldn't jump out, but once we lowered it we realised that it looks much better like that, cos it shows off the emergent area so well (and no sad jumping to worry about either). He's now named Lord Darcy because he swims around being dramatic, looking brooding and giving off Lord-of-the-Manor vibes, though he's actually very gentle and sweet - not a mean betta at all.
The snails have come from my other nano, and very much enjoy eating the big pile of dead leaves at the back. They are comically huge compared to the chili rasboras. I'm (semi) planning to have another nano tnak that actually is fully hard water for them so the chillis can have even softer water.
The amanos are protesting jumpers from my big hightech tank, as well as a group of juveniles who will grow up here. Some will get moved over when they are big enough to not be eaten by Mr Daffodil in my big tank.
The chilis we got last weekend and are just perfect, they really complete the tank. Their movement is so interesting and cute, I'm feeding them on bbs and livefood to get them to colour up perfectly.
The plants are doing well too, the underwater is just full of anubias and mini & trident java fern, plus a bit of interesting moss and a weird freshwater broyozoan coral-like thing that's taken over the wood. Also got a load of common ceratopteris floating, which throws up these great half-in half-out fronds that I'm a big fan of. Darcy is also a big fan of them too, this tank is quite dark from all the emergents and the light being high up to avoid algae, but the fish love it! Photographing the underwater bit is really hard because it's very dark compared to the bright top but I got out my boyfriend's camera and attempted some photos. It doesn't zoom which makes it a real pain up the proverbial!! Next need to attempt to photograph the chillis.... send good luck to me LOL
This tank has been quite neglected at times and often a pain in the backside, but now it's a really nice reminder that we will get there.... eventually. Also it has a lovely new tiny Nepenthes orchid perched at the top of the wood to keep experimenting
The snails have come from my other nano, and very much enjoy eating the big pile of dead leaves at the back. They are comically huge compared to the chili rasboras. I'm (semi) planning to have another nano tnak that actually is fully hard water for them so the chillis can have even softer water.
The amanos are protesting jumpers from my big hightech tank, as well as a group of juveniles who will grow up here. Some will get moved over when they are big enough to not be eaten by Mr Daffodil in my big tank.
The chilis we got last weekend and are just perfect, they really complete the tank. Their movement is so interesting and cute, I'm feeding them on bbs and livefood to get them to colour up perfectly.
The plants are doing well too, the underwater is just full of anubias and mini & trident java fern, plus a bit of interesting moss and a weird freshwater broyozoan coral-like thing that's taken over the wood. Also got a load of common ceratopteris floating, which throws up these great half-in half-out fronds that I'm a big fan of. Darcy is also a big fan of them too, this tank is quite dark from all the emergents and the light being high up to avoid algae, but the fish love it! Photographing the underwater bit is really hard because it's very dark compared to the bright top but I got out my boyfriend's camera and attempted some photos. It doesn't zoom which makes it a real pain up the proverbial!! Next need to attempt to photograph the chillis.... send good luck to me LOL
This tank has been quite neglected at times and often a pain in the backside, but now it's a really nice reminder that we will get there.... eventually. Also it has a lovely new tiny Nepenthes orchid perched at the top of the wood to keep experimenting
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Yesssss, come on over to the dark(er) side. Hightech is great, but definitely not the only way to a lovely luscious tank!
Another reason to be put off is the incoming CO2 shortage that's apparently happening
Karmicnull
Member
I'm on completely the same page wrt Bettas. They have huge character. Ours (Elton) is the benign but somewhat grumpy ruler of his 60L cube. I can never quite work out whether his inability to take thawed bloodworms etc. unless they are (literally) spoon fed to him is disdain or just plain dumb.
They are so funny! I am used to intelligent fish because of my apistos, but even though they are fiercely and curiously intelligent, they aren't quite so pandering as my betta is. He is so interactive and a strangely expressive face given it's so tiny. He's quite like yours - a benign and brooding ruler, who also doesn't seem to see food as much as my greedy quick apistos. Lovely fish, a very happy addition to the family! Also very pleased he isn't a shrimp monster like Mr Daffodil, I'd heard they can be violent shrimp-destroyers but he completely ignores the shrimp. He was fascinated by the chilis when I added them, but happily they don't care abotu eachother either and all swim at the front a lot of the time.
I've accidentally gone from a total shut in to an international jetsetter, went to the Caribbean last week, and now tomorrow off to Venice! Luckily it's not on my dime (I literally couldn't afford it lol), haven't been on holiday in 12 years so it's such a big treat.
Sadly have been too snowed inbetween with work and recovering to start that botanicals thread yet! Next week, I promise... there will be leaves!
Here's a pair of arty pics from both of the tanks in this journal to tide you over in the meantime
S
Sadly have been too snowed inbetween with work and recovering to start that botanicals thread yet! Next week, I promise... there will be leaves!
Here's a pair of arty pics from both of the tanks in this journal to tide you over in the meantime
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However I'm not reallllllllyyyyyyy into it any more? IDK I think I might do a bigger rescape of the tanks, taking the best bits and redoing the rest. All 3 of my tanks heavily feature mossy wood, maybe I don't need EVERY tank to be mossy wood time. My favourite part is this tank is the top, but I can't see it that well as it's high up on the desk.
The tank doesn't have a heater any more because the crystal shrimp seemed to die in their previous tank at temps of 23+. I also added some tancho ricefish temporarily which will go in a pond outside in late spring (the pond is new and doesn't have much plant cover so thought it best to keep them inside this winter), if they have babies maybe the fry will live in here idk they are very cute fish but I don't want the bioload to be too large. Also don't worry about the white dots on the ricefish I was very worried at first it was ich but they have all gone away on their own.
I'm thinking I have 4 options. Option 1 is to take the nymphaea micrantha and nympaea gerfleckt which are currently in the back kinda hidden in my big tank into this one where I can see them and base the tank around that. I'm not sure if they will be happy in an unheated tank though. A B option for this is to pinch a bit of the helvola lily living in a pot pond outside and use that as it would be happy in cold water and apparently grows nice flowers.
Option 2 is to lower the waterline so I have a bit more space under the light and make it a really emergent pond-style tank like Shrimpery on Instagram. I had already had the thought that I could use some nice outdoor pond plants as emergents in this tank because of the colder water, and then I realised he does this and it looks great. I would merge them with the plants that look best in the tank atm like the very pink ludwigia, maybe with just some nice stones holding in soil.
Option 3 is to do both, having the emergent style with lilies at the front/coming out from under, tho it is a tiny tank so lol at that maybe.
Option 4 is that I fiddle with it again and just change what I have, because it used to look nice and could look nice again with a better haircut, repositioning and take for things to grow, but idk I'm getting itchy feet.
What do you guys think?
Courtneybst
Member
This was the first thing that came to mind! Maybe like a mini island style scape with the lillies as a centerpiece since they don't get too large.
It is lowtech so the leaves won't get toooooo huge, and in my big tank the leaves are maybe 5cm MAX, often 3-4cm, so if I was strict with trimming them I think it would be ok. I'm sorta intrigued by how nice or annoying it would be now. I'll probably buy an extra red tiger lotus too, one thing I really loved in my original tank was mixing the red tiger lotus with the ludwigia red making it look like a fancy more complex single plant. Only 3 types of lily together in a 23L lols.
Yeah I'm thinking like a tall island to get some emergents in the back, with lilies as the main/only plants grown underwater in soil. Maybe a pile of rocks to support the emergents with some holes to get the lilies in the soil the rocks hold. I'm also really feeling some nice gravel and mixed sized little rocks for the base instead of sand. I really like the grey pebbles @Ady34 uses in one of his scapes, and actually now looking at his Instagram also the mixed colour pebbled in another scape too! The grey ones I think might really contrast colourwise nicely with the lilies and mixed colours, but then the other pebbles would look quite naturalist hmmm
The big question is which rocks? I have some quite nice rocks in this tank already that have never really been seen (they're rounded grey with white veins), maybe I can reuse them and make them more of a feature, I have extras that are more grey less white veining in the garden still. I'm just trying to rescape while keeping it cheap af lol!! Also the water is soft so can't use any nice rocks which affect the hardness. Might message Riverwood and see what they have and if they have anything that would work just in case.
I already have some soil leftover from my big tank, have p much all the plants I'd need, just a question of how it all works together! How exciting
I think I'm gonna have to try both in this ridic small space... It's a challenge, but I'll enjoy trying it! if it goes wrong can always simplify.
Haven't done an update on this tank in a while! Mostly cos it's so easy, nothing much goes wrong (occasional greenfly mean I have to trim back a few emergents) and it looks consistantly lovely. I was thinking of rescaping, but now I'm redoing my main tank it's nice to have a consistent nice little tank. For a lowtech it does just fabulously, things grow well and colourful with very little algae.
I have 10 ricefish in the tank now, which are sort-of waiting to go outside, but also I've grown very attached to them and don't really want to put them out there. The fish have been breeding and laying eggs (I tidied the tank up a bit 2 days ago and had to inspect all the greenery for eggs, there was lots of the mosses). So this may just become a ricefish fry raising tank instead once the adults go outside. Just waiting for the waterlily's leaves outside to reach the surface for some cover. Ricefish are awesome, they're quite simple and a bit stupid, but also they are greedy and not shy AT ALL which makes them v charming, and they seem super hardy.. I haven't lost a single one yet, despite them being ni the same room as the tank of death.
I'm thinking ricefish might become one of those things I like to collect, since they're so easy to look after and hardy, and can live outside. There are lots of beautiful colours that are v hard to get hold of here, so they'd be a nice fish to keep and breed over a long period of time. I really feel like they should be more popular and cheaper, perfect for cute pond bowls on patios and balconies, and survive all our UK weather.
This first pic is just of the tank in-situ, where you can see my skylight is above and to the left of it. I'm thinking of growing some climbing plants like philodendron from the tank up and around the skylight, and installing some small hooks for the plants to be supported by, I feel like that would be cute. I def want Philodendron micans, which was lovely in my big tank, but maybe want a second one too? What plant would you guys use? Ideally something resistant to greenfly.
I have 10 ricefish in the tank now, which are sort-of waiting to go outside, but also I've grown very attached to them and don't really want to put them out there. The fish have been breeding and laying eggs (I tidied the tank up a bit 2 days ago and had to inspect all the greenery for eggs, there was lots of the mosses). So this may just become a ricefish fry raising tank instead once the adults go outside. Just waiting for the waterlily's leaves outside to reach the surface for some cover. Ricefish are awesome, they're quite simple and a bit stupid, but also they are greedy and not shy AT ALL which makes them v charming, and they seem super hardy.. I haven't lost a single one yet, despite them being ni the same room as the tank of death.
I'm thinking ricefish might become one of those things I like to collect, since they're so easy to look after and hardy, and can live outside. There are lots of beautiful colours that are v hard to get hold of here, so they'd be a nice fish to keep and breed over a long period of time. I really feel like they should be more popular and cheaper, perfect for cute pond bowls on patios and balconies, and survive all our UK weather.
This first pic is just of the tank in-situ, where you can see my skylight is above and to the left of it. I'm thinking of growing some climbing plants like philodendron from the tank up and around the skylight, and installing some small hooks for the plants to be supported by, I feel like that would be cute. I def want Philodendron micans, which was lovely in my big tank, but maybe want a second one too? What plant would you guys use? Ideally something resistant to greenfly.
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great suggestions thank you!! This tank really needs something extra to make it fabulous again... otherwise I'm getting bored
I've changed the name of this journal so I can post my most recent lowtech nano tank on here too. Love nano tanks
This is a bowl from Riverwood Aquatics that I got for Christmas along with the light & stand. I didn't do much with it for about two months, until I realised I had a great bit of wood in the garden for it, a piece leftover unused from the Nymph's Spring tank. And then I realised I also had a 9L bag of mini tropica soil leftover from that tank too, and that it would be very easy and cheap to set up the bowl already having this stuff, + it's small enough to only need a few plant pots to get started. Then my dad realised that he could attach a selection of mini orchids to the emersed wood, and that was that. The inspiration was a James Wong waterlily bowl, so we added a helvola to this tank too. It's another one of my collaborations with my dad.
All this happened, I planned to post, and then the whole fishTB saga started and I kept this tank as my private little bowl of calm. Not really out of any intention, I just didn't have the energy, but at that time this lil tank warmed my heart a bit. There is a lot of hair algae in the tank, but I'm forbidden to worry about it, especially as it gets light from the window, so it's to be expected. The growth has been fantastic, I even have blyxa thriving in there, along with mini hairgrass, lilaeopsis, marsilea, hyogrphila lancea, and a selection of cuttings from friends. It's been really enjoyable to set up a pretty little tank that fits in with the room so nicely. So nicely that I've bought a second, more spherical bowl to go in the same room
The orchids are.... er... I don't know, I'll have to check with my dad later. So far all are growing, so we hope for some flowers at some point. My dad used to collect orchids about 10 years ago, but the collection was hard to view so he got bored and sold them. Doing a collection like this above a tank works much better - it gives a bit of extra humidity (we do also spray daily), and goes nicely with the pond below, giving great interest. One day I might rescape under the water, but above the water will be there for a good few years so they can really thrive. There is bun moss around the orchids, which is doing very well with the daily spray.
In the bowl I keep a selection of rice fish, and about 25 crystal shrimps which very annoyingly all live around the back. It's especially rude as without them I could dose some algae fix and get rid of the spyro, but heyho. Remember... bowl of calm!
This is a bowl from Riverwood Aquatics that I got for Christmas along with the light & stand. I didn't do much with it for about two months, until I realised I had a great bit of wood in the garden for it, a piece leftover unused from the Nymph's Spring tank. And then I realised I also had a 9L bag of mini tropica soil leftover from that tank too, and that it would be very easy and cheap to set up the bowl already having this stuff, + it's small enough to only need a few plant pots to get started. Then my dad realised that he could attach a selection of mini orchids to the emersed wood, and that was that. The inspiration was a James Wong waterlily bowl, so we added a helvola to this tank too. It's another one of my collaborations with my dad.
All this happened, I planned to post, and then the whole fishTB saga started and I kept this tank as my private little bowl of calm. Not really out of any intention, I just didn't have the energy, but at that time this lil tank warmed my heart a bit. There is a lot of hair algae in the tank, but I'm forbidden to worry about it, especially as it gets light from the window, so it's to be expected. The growth has been fantastic, I even have blyxa thriving in there, along with mini hairgrass, lilaeopsis, marsilea, hyogrphila lancea, and a selection of cuttings from friends. It's been really enjoyable to set up a pretty little tank that fits in with the room so nicely. So nicely that I've bought a second, more spherical bowl to go in the same room
The orchids are.... er... I don't know, I'll have to check with my dad later. So far all are growing, so we hope for some flowers at some point. My dad used to collect orchids about 10 years ago, but the collection was hard to view so he got bored and sold them. Doing a collection like this above a tank works much better - it gives a bit of extra humidity (we do also spray daily), and goes nicely with the pond below, giving great interest. One day I might rescape under the water, but above the water will be there for a good few years so they can really thrive. There is bun moss around the orchids, which is doing very well with the daily spray.
In the bowl I keep a selection of rice fish, and about 25 crystal shrimps which very annoyingly all live around the back. It's especially rude as without them I could dose some algae fix and get rid of the spyro, but heyho. Remember... bowl of calm!
Wookii
Member
Very nice - what is that mini lily?
Nymphaea 'Pygmaea Helvola'. We also have one outside in a pot where it's doing much better with 30+ tiny purple leaves, but in this tank just a few leaves is fine with me, more with overwhelm. Fingers crossed for a flower one day, I added 2 root tabs last week to encourage.
A while ago I rescaped the 45L, taking out the original piece of wood and move all the plants onto a new, twiggier bit of wood my dad picked out at Riverwood Aquatics. I did it partly because the duckweed was in the emergent moss and wouldn't go away, and all my chilli rasboras disappeared which was very mysterious. Current thought is my betta ate them? Though I never saw any suggestions that he might, pure guesswork, he never ate any shrimps though they were fine. Anyway, this change of wood caused the tank to crash completely, most of the shrimps died and I had a massive smelly bacterial bloom. I didn't take any photos because it just didn't look like much, just very grey which was annoyingly reflective. It looked like the upsidedown, luckily my betta renamed Vecna and the one remaining chili rasbora survived luckily and eventually it cleared with some Seachem Clarity & filter floss. A few weeks after, decided to try some ember tetras as I thought the betta can't fit them in his big mouth, but in the 45 I literally never saw them, they were so shy and hid in the wood (which has a lot of good hiding places), even during feeding time. They did survive though!
After all that palava, I was looking for something to improve it, and so I jumped at the chance to buy one of the 60cm tanks @LondonAquascaper was selling on here, dimensions 60x30x36. I moved the epiphyte-covered wood from the 45L, added some Wio Wetland Artist Pale as an experiment (I can't quite tell if it is nutrious for plants from the description tbh, but it looks nice), then added the hydrocotyle-marsilea-eleocharis carpet that was in my 90cm stickleback tank to this one too. Huzzah, with a bit of scape recycling I have an immediately fully planted look! Added in a few beautiful extra buces from a lovely friend (including the fabulous big one on the right side), and a few extra plants from trusty Wildwoods (Cyperus helferi, Ludwigia helminthorrhiza and Ceratopteris thalictroides), and we're going places! Lowtech, and looking p lush.
Immediately this tank has been a pleasure... it's in a much better spot with some sunlight on one side, the spotlight light I pinched from my dad's terrarium is fabulously shimmery, and the tetras are loving it. Now when I feed they are VORACIOUS. I can lie on the sofa and watch it for maximum enjoyable relaxing viewing too. Last week I went to the LFS to get some marine stuff and I was randomly offered some free mixed red schooling fish and shrimps that had just been given in from a customer who was moving country. It looked like mostly embers, so I took them. It turned out to have embers, some ruby tetras and two beautiful coral red pencilfish! All very healthy and thriving together now. I would love more of the pencils, not sure if these ones will be moved to the big South American tank when that's set up in a bigger group, or if I could add 4 females to this tank and keep it a smaller group. They're just so ££££ that a bigger group is a bit of a stretch.
Of course a week in my beautiful blue betta completely disappeared, nothing can ever go completely well apparently. I think sadly it might have jumped out, and become a delicious snack for one of the kittens The water line isn't very high, but I guess in a new place it needs to be covered for longer!
After all that palava, I was looking for something to improve it, and so I jumped at the chance to buy one of the 60cm tanks @LondonAquascaper was selling on here, dimensions 60x30x36. I moved the epiphyte-covered wood from the 45L, added some Wio Wetland Artist Pale as an experiment (I can't quite tell if it is nutrious for plants from the description tbh, but it looks nice), then added the hydrocotyle-marsilea-eleocharis carpet that was in my 90cm stickleback tank to this one too. Huzzah, with a bit of scape recycling I have an immediately fully planted look! Added in a few beautiful extra buces from a lovely friend (including the fabulous big one on the right side), and a few extra plants from trusty Wildwoods (Cyperus helferi, Ludwigia helminthorrhiza and Ceratopteris thalictroides), and we're going places! Lowtech, and looking p lush.
Immediately this tank has been a pleasure... it's in a much better spot with some sunlight on one side, the spotlight light I pinched from my dad's terrarium is fabulously shimmery, and the tetras are loving it. Now when I feed they are VORACIOUS. I can lie on the sofa and watch it for maximum enjoyable relaxing viewing too. Last week I went to the LFS to get some marine stuff and I was randomly offered some free mixed red schooling fish and shrimps that had just been given in from a customer who was moving country. It looked like mostly embers, so I took them. It turned out to have embers, some ruby tetras and two beautiful coral red pencilfish! All very healthy and thriving together now. I would love more of the pencils, not sure if these ones will be moved to the big South American tank when that's set up in a bigger group, or if I could add 4 females to this tank and keep it a smaller group. They're just so ££££ that a bigger group is a bit of a stretch.
Of course a week in my beautiful blue betta completely disappeared, nothing can ever go completely well apparently. I think sadly it might have jumped out, and become a delicious snack for one of the kittens
The water line isn't very high, but I guess in a new place it needs to be covered for longer!Attachments
What a result! Lovely fish and even better considering how much coral reds go for.
