journal 22L Ocean Free Nano

[JacksonL]

This tank is still a long way off from having shrimp in it but I figured I would start a journal from day 1!

The tank itself is a nice neat unit purchased from Aquotix, it was surprisingly cheap considering the build quality and great lighting unit. It has the filtration and pump in a compartment in the back, with two pull out cartridge style filtration units that can be filled with whatever filter media you choose, mine will be full of ceramic rings and a bag of purigen as with all my freshwater tanks. The light unit is a 12w LED that seems to have a good spectrum and a separately comtrollable moonlight (2 blue LED's). Hopefully the pump provides enough circulation for good plant growth so the only mod I have to make is some fine mesh over the intake to the filter section.

plans for plants are mini pellia moss, HC 'cuba', mini alternanthera and some pogostemon helferi stems.

stocking plans are a couple of Oto's and hopefully some good quality Red Rilis. Maybe some Darwin Algae shrimp for bba algae control, do they play nice with Red Rili shrimplets?

The tank will be 'dry started' to let the HC take root and carpet before I fill the tank with water, it will be the first time I've used the DSM to start a tank, so I'm interested to see how it goes.

here are some photos of the scape so far, any comments and suggestions are most welcome!

Tank and rocks ready to go:

front on view

view from the angle the tank will be most viewed from

 

[revolutionhope]

nice looking tank::-)

subbed!

[Disciple]

Cant wait to see how this develops

[jc12]

Nice one. Great looking setup. :-)

[JacksonL]

This is now planted!

Picked up some HC and Lilaeopsis today and did some planting.

Hopefully it does ok with the colder weather and my lack of experience with the dry start method.

 

[raukem86]

It's very nice set up. Are you gonna run your tank with CO2?

May I ask what sort of rocks those are? I'm looking for some plants eg. HC, Pelia Moss. Where did you get yours?

Cheers

[JacksonL]

It's very nice set up. Are you gonna run your tank with CO2?

 

May I ask what sort of rocks those are? I'm looking for some plants eg. HC, Pelia Moss. Where did you get yours?

 

Cheers

the rocks are Seiryu rocks and I got them in one of the aquascape rock packs from City Farmers, the boxes are a bit of a lucky dip so make sure you open them and have a look what's inside. I just took to them with a hammer and chisel to break them down for the scape I had in mind. Another good place to look for rocks is Lees Bonsai World in Bedford, a bit pricier but you can choose each rock individually.

The plants are from Perth Aquarium and Display Centre, they nearly always have pots of HC in stock, although the ones there on the weekend weren't in great shape, I grabbed the 2 better ones and as you can see in the photos they had started to yellow a bit, might pay to ring them to see when they get fresh stock in.

The Mini Pellia was bought out of one of their display tanks a while ago and put in my other planted tank and the small bits I have put in here are from that tank, not sure if they still have any as they are in the process of changing out all their displays but if so they will normally sell you a small piece.

[Disciple]

Its so refreshing to see store names that i can relate too haha

Good to have some more Perth members that post haha

[raukem86]

Thank you so much for your info Jackson.

I have been a few aquarium shops and pet stores in Perth eg. City Farmers, Pet City, Aquotix and Vebas. I found that those rocks are too pricey as they price them each unit.

I just bought 5kg of Seiryu stones from Smiling Rock in Wangara today. Guess what! Only $2/ kg lol.

They have all different sizes and other types of rocks too. It's worth to have a look.

I had HC before when I was still in Brisbane but they died out without CO2. That's why yours turns yellow?

I will stop by Perth Aquarium & Display Centre this week.

Cheers

[Disciple]

Raukem,

Make sure you do some test with the rock and make sure it is inert. I made the mistake before with stone that was suppose to be inert but messed up my WP. 

[JacksonL]

Thank you so much for your info Jackson.

 

I have been a few aquarium shops and pet stores in Perth eg. City Farmers, Pet City, Aquotix and Vebas. I found that those rocks are too pricey as they price them each unit.

 

I just bought 5kg of Seiryu stones from Smiling Rock in Wangara today. Guess what! Only $2/ kg lol.

 

They have all different sizes and other types of rocks too. It's worth to have a look.

 

I had HC before when I was still in Brisbane but they died out without CO2. That's why yours turns yellow?

 

I will stop by Perth Aquarium & Display Centre this week.

 

Cheers

Yeah you will need CO2 and high light for HC, this tank is currently dry start so the plants have unlimited CO2, they are yellow as the shop tank was unfertilised and HC goes yellow when it is Nitrogen deprived.

Once this tank is flooded it will have a CO2 system installed, currently leaning towards the Ista tank and reg combo as they are the better looking unit, all stainless steel with mini gauges and smaller 0.5L bottles available, the tank has no cabinet so the co2 unit will be visible.

I will have to check out Smiling rock next time I re-scape a tank, cheers for that. As Disciple said, make sure you give them a vinegar or acid test before you use them as they can cause your KH, GH and/or TDS to skyrocket.

[raukem86]

Sure will do.

Thanks Disciple :)

[raukem86]

How's your tank going @JacksonL?

[GotCrabs]

Yeah, got an update on this tank?

[JacksonL]

Not a lot to report for this one, I can see some root growth, and the HC has gone nice and green, but not a lot of growth in the first week of the dry start. I will post the 1 week photo once the light comes on.

[JacksonL]

Here's the photo of the tank at 1 week:

The 2 Pogostemon Helferi stems have taken to emmersed life well and are starting to put out some new leaves already:

Tank maintenance so far has been nice and simple, every day after work I take the cling wrap off the tank for half an hour to let in some fresh air then give it a bit of a mist of water from a spray bottle then cover it back up. If only every tank could be such low maintenance!

[raukem86]

Nice. You are getting there.

Did you get the Pogostemon Helferi from Perth Aquarium?

[JacksonL]

Yeah, got a couple of stems out of a display tank a few months ago. Super fast grower, I have about 10 stems in my other tank now plus these two.

[raukem86]

I have been looking for these ones for ages. I went to Perth Aquarium last week, they said they had them but they died out so they won't have them in stock atm.

If you have any for sale, please let me know. I'm after like 2 stems.

Cheers.

[JacksonL]

I can no doubt spare a couple of buds, about the same size as the ones pictured above. Do you have CO2 setup on your tank? They will generally just melt without it.

[raukem86]

Perth Aquarium said they have 0.5l cylinder co2 system coming in the next couple weeks as I have a small tank.

I guess I gotta wait until I'm ready. I'll let you know. Thanks Jackson.

[JacksonL]

Cool, let me know. I should post up a journal of my other tank, it has a lot of harder to find plants in it that grow like weeds that you can take cuttings of if you like. Let me know when you have the co2 system up and running and i'll let them grow out for a week and you can grab what you want.

[raukem86]

Thanks Jackson. I appreciate that.

[JacksonL]

Week 2 update:

still not a massive amount of growth, the cold weather we are having is preventing much from happening I think.

I have taken the gladwrap off the top as I was getting a bit of spiderweb looking fungus in amongst some of the Lileopsis, with the loose fitting glass lide which has gaps all the way round I am still getting 85% humidity which from my research is plenty.

a small patch of Lileopsis has yellowed out a bit, but the rest seems fine. P. Helferi continues to grow well and I found what I think is a moss growing in a patch of HC so I have poked it into a crack in the rocks, looks a bit like star moss.

Photos:

The 'moss'. Anyone know what it actuall is??

pogos

[raukem86]

I'm not sure what the moss is. Some experts on here can tell I guess. Looking good Jackson. So you're gonna have shrimp in the tank?