# my first tank & journal... slowly failing?



## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

Hi everyone, I was browsing the internet a little bit ago and I randomly came across an aquarium by Takashi Amano. After seeing his work, I knew i wanted to build my own... so I spent the month researching what I'd need and I have just gotten the full tank up and running a few days ago... but things dont look like they're going well! Can you experienced gurus tell me what is going on?

Here is my journal thus far:


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

So I started with a small 2.5Gal tank just b/c if I utterly fail at this project and turn out to be a horrible aquascaper, I didn't want to be stuck with a huge bill and a huge tank. This is my awesome 2.5G tank:









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17

As you can see, I already put the substrate in it (Eco-Complete)


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

I found some volcanic rocks at my g/f's parent's house that actually fit in my tank...









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17

and this was how I decided to lay out the aquascape in terms of non-living stuff 









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

A few days later, I got all the equipment for my tank

I am using:

--Hardware--
Lighting :: 5W Mini Clamp Lamp Fixture
Filter :: Whisper 10 Power Filter 
C02 sys :: Hagen Nutrafin CO2 Natural Plant System

--suppliment/treatment--
Tetra Easy Balance
Seachem Flourish
Nutrafin Plant Gro
50W aquarium heater

--Plants-- 
1x Anubias Nana
Christmas Moss for the back wall
Dwarf Hairgrass
Bacopa Monnieri


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

I put the Anubias on the smaller volcanic rock and tied it off with some thread









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17

and then I put the Christmas Moss in some plastic mesh so I could build a back-wall








By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17

The dwarf hairgrass and Bacopa Monnieri went towards the background and in between my main rock formation:









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

After that, I installed the filter, installed the C02 system and installed the heater... This is how everything looks about now









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17

I know it is not asthetically pleasing as far as other tanks I've seen around here, but I'm more worried about my plants surviving than the look of the tank right now.


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

So I put in the required amount of Flourish and EasyBalance and I have been leaving the 5W light on for 8 hours per day (or so).* Keep in mind that this is the 3rd day that my tank has been running.*

The filter is always running smooth but my *thermometer reads closer to 78F - 80F* which I know is too high for any of my plants. I moved it close to the air-conditioner and turned the aquarium heater on (set to 72F), so hopefully the two will work together to get my temps closer to 72F.
*
Here are my current issues that I'm trying to overcome right now...
1. My Anubias seems to be catching some sort of red dust (that is easily brushed off)
2. My anubias seems to have gotten a few light brown spots (and one of the smaller leaves seemed to shrivel a bit)
3. The Bacopa Monnieri on the left side of the tank has definitely lost it's lush shade of green and I am seeing it fade towards a lighter green/yellow at some ends. This one is the farthest away from the C02 generator and the filter was basically pouring the clean water on top of it.*

Now, this is only the 3rd day and I am being quickly discouraged at the rate my plants seem to be withering. Can anybody help me with what I am doing wrong or what steps I am missing? Tomorrow I will go to the store and try to pick up some water testing equipment. Please hellllp meeeeeeeeeee!

Here are some pics to describe what my words fail to describe:









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17
close up (a little too close, I guess... since it's so blurry) of the Anubias leaves









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17
see the tiny withered leaf? poor little guy. He never had a chance.









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17
The Bacopa Monnieri turning greenish yellow... kind of like Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes when his mom made a casserole









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-09-17
hmmmm... up close it doesn't look like my dwarf hairgrass is doing all that well either.


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## MARIMOBALL (Jun 20, 2007)

For starters 5watts is not going to be enough! You need at least 13watts of power compact lighting but 27watts would be better. Your bacopa and hair grass will die with only 5 watts. home depot has 27watt full spectrum lights for $20. Don't dose any flourish or any fertilizer yet, that will only attract algae. 72-78F temp is fine. what type of substrate are you using. do a 30-50 water change if you dosed any ferts. is your CO2 set up working? if your gonna use CO2 you definitely need more light.


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

oh wow! Thanks for the quick reply Marimoball... I didn't expect anybody to reply until the next morning haha. I've been keeping up with your 3.5G nano postings... it looks fantastic with the cherry shrimp.

I will search the HomeDepot store today for the light you're talking about. I was hoping I could get away with 2-3W per gallon... guess not! Does HomeDepot have the light you're talking about on their online site? I've been searching and all I can find using the search "full spectrum" is this: *Hampton Bay Antique Brass Full Spectrum Floor Lamp*, $59.87


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

You can go with the coralife mini aqualight, I used that one and it worked great....plus I bought it for like $25 and if you search for the leg mod you can have it suspended over the tank.


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

If a full-spectrum bulb (27W) says it is equivalent to a 100W incandescent bulb, is this just referring to amout of visible light to humans?

So if I wanted to calculate how many watts per gallon the bulb is giving my plants, I use the "27W" and not the "100W"?


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## Carissa1 (Aug 25, 2007)

Wattage is just a measure of how much electricity it burns. It doesn't have anything to do with light output.

When people in the plant world talk about watts, they are referring to florescent watts. Comparing florescent watts to incandescent watts is like comparing apples and oranges. As you probably realize, incandescent bulbs produce a lot more heat than florescent. So they're burning 100 watts of electricity but a lot of that is coming off as heat, not light. So go with the florescent wattage. That's the most important thing, even the spectrum etc. isn't nearly as important as simply having enough wattage there.


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

*update! 3-months later...*

Here is the most recent update to my nano. Thankfully (due in most part to the great input from APC members) my plants are looking lively. The Dwarf hairgrass is not propogating as fast as I would like, but everything is looking green and coming in.

Since the beginning I have re-arranged the hardscape and added cherry shrimp. I also put together a DIY cage/canopy for the tank just last week and (considering I haven't done any woodworking since... probably middle school) I think it turned out looking good. Just need to add an official shelf to the bottom layer to bring the tank a bit closer to the lighting.









By booleys1012, shot with Canon PowerShot S80 at 2007-12-05


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

Your tank is really looking good now. The new layout makes it seem roomier and your plants are nice and healthy. Your cage/canopy is a great idea and looks good too.


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## CmLaracy (Apr 28, 2007)

I think you should take that slowly failing part of your title out! :wink:


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## MARIMOBALL (Jun 20, 2007)

Its good to see that your tank is coming along nicely. Im glad your plants bounced back. What light are you using now? anubia nana petite might be a better choice for that small tank. Soon you will have shrimp babies cuz they breed like rabbits.


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## booleys1012 (Sep 18, 2007)

I originally purchased this lamp from Home Depot to just stand next to the aquarium:
Lamp

And it uses this bulb:
Bulb

Eventually it felt like hanging a lamp over the aquarium was just a temporary solution, but I didn't want to make the purchase go to waste, so I gutted the lamp for it's parts, re-soldered some new switches and attached it all to the new enclosure I built.

Since I've done the switch, I've seen good improvement in all aspects of the tank... the hairgrass seems to be spreading out more, plants seem more green and a snail that I thought died/disappeared finally came out again. It's HUUUUUGE now after it's hiding excursion.


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## Dryn (Sep 6, 2007)

Nice. It looks like you are doing well. It is wierd, but I did a little 2.5 Gal. tank with eco-complete, a DIY light, porous rock, hairgrass, anubias, moss, just like your tank. I even used a walmart 10gal filter too! HA, HA. I had the same problems. My hairgrass all turned brown. My anubias did do well. The moss and grasses I used didn't do well at first. Then, when I though it would fail, it did a 180 and burst back to life, almost over-night. Maybe there is a trend or something.


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