With the popularity of Nano Tanks, I thought I'd write this thread on my experiences/issues with the maintenance of nano tanks, as there's several unique and accelerated issues in comparison with larger tanks....I have several 24 lt Nano tanks, with approx. 50-100 shrimps in each, and over the past years, I've designed a maintenance routine to ensure most issues are "theoritically" avoided.

I'm not a biologist or H2O expert, so the technical depth of the issues mentioned here, is best answered by those who can...but I can briefly discuss issues ... The catalyst of these theories came through an issue I had with the solubility of CO2, and a correlation with Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC).

Oliver (Aquotix - Forum Sponsor), answered my SOS, and posted this reply ..."my theory - there are a group of DOCs called Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) - these include Methane (from decaying organics in anaerobic environments like in the gravel) and plant leaves give off chemicals such as terpenes.... my guess is methane as the main culprit from the organics in the gravel... These volatile organics can be removed by aerating the water .... just bubble some air from an air pump or agitate the surface to purge the VOCs....water changing does the same thing btw...."

In a nano environment, everything is accelerated, and I believe in a quarterly 25% gravel cleaning of my substrate.... this reduces the main source/issue of DOC, and improves the environment of the water/tank...again, I'm not technically able, but with 3-4 years of nano tanks, this has worked for me, together with frequent top ups, and a 5-10% weekly water change. Simply keeping the tank with the recommended WP (PH, TDS/Ec, Gh. KH...) is critical, but I believe it comes to a point in time, that if the DOC level is too high, the tank comes crashing down, and a difficult issue to fix. So, as always, the prevention is better then the cure.

Increase bacterial activity, nitrate spikes (avoided with frequent cleaning of filters)...etc are all important, espacially with nano's. These issues are again accelerated with the warmer weather.

Please do jump in to add, challenge, discuss any of the above statement, as I believe that many of the issues members/hobbyist are experiencing is correlated somewhat to the above situations mentioned above.

Just out of curiosity Marcus. Are you doing gravel cleans on tanks with organic substrates or just gravel substrates?

On benibachi and up aqua soil.