# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Photo Journal: Natural 2.5-Gallon (56k warning)



## littleguy

Thought I'd start a new thread and post more detailed pictures of my one and only tank. All comments and critiques are welcome and much appreciated.

This tank was inspired largely by Diana Walstad's book, _Ecology of the Planted Aquarium_. This single book changed the entire way I looked at this hobby.

The setup:
Tank: All-glass 2.5 gallon
Lighting: Coralife Aqualight mini, one 9watt 6700K compact fluorescent, one 9watt 5000K compact fluorescent, natural sunlight not available
Heating: none (temp stays 72-75 F from room temp)
Filtration: none
Substrate: ~1" Onyx Sand over ~1" waterlogged peat
Artificial CO2: none
Fertilization: fish food, natural decomposition

Plants:
bacopa monnieri
cryptocoryne walkeri var. lutea
cryptocoryne willisi var. lucens
eleocharis parvula (dwarf hairgrass)
rotala rotundifolia (a.k.a. r. indica)
vallisneria spiralis
vesicularia dubyana (java moss)

Livestock:
Three male guppy or guppy/endler hybrids
Two red cherry shrimp (male and female)
Two tiger shrimp
One bumblebee shrimp
One blue rainbow (?) shrimp
Ten or twenty pond snails
Several dozen malaysian trumpet snails


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## littleguy

January 28, 2006
Initial setup









To start, I put an underlayer of waterlogged peat (the kind used for houseplants, with no vermiculite/perlite/etc.). I put it extra deep in the back and sides, where the deep rooted plants would be.

Over top of this, I put a mixture of Seachem Onyx Sand and potting soil. This was reclaimed from my previous setup of this tank. At this point it was all mixed together, so I did not bother trying to restratify the peat/gravel layers. I figured after a few months of pruning and replanting, much of the stratification would be lost anyways. The ratio of Onyx Sand to potting soil was probably 60/40 by volume.









Next, I started filling with water. Pretty much a mess, but most of the dirt settled out within an hour. I just reused the same old water from the tank I had just broken down.


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## littleguy

January 29, 2006
And here it was the next day...








Some of the plants are a bit straggly, but I hoped that in a few weeks they'd fill in and I could prune them to shape.

In the back two corners are the vallisneria. Bacopa is also in the rear areas, some on the left and most on the right. Rotala rotundifolia (indica) is the reddish plant in the rear center. Java moss on the bogwood. The two crypt species fill in the midground. The dwarf hairgrass is planted in the front left. I felt like I was doing hair transplant surgery with all those little tufts of hairgrass LOL!


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## littleguy

February 9, 2006

Here it is, about ten days later. You can already see the plants starting to fill in, especially the rotala and the java moss....









So far everything was looking great! I was really pleased.

A closeup of the hairgrass starting to fill in...









Note: the algae on the plants was preexisting. Planning on removing those leaves shortly.


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## littleguy

January 21, 2006

Really getting dense...

























At this point, I was starting to find green spot algae growing on the glass, and the first sprouts of what I believe to be some type of cladophora algae.

I'd like to put in a plug for a really cool product - the Nimble Nano ultra-miniature algae cleaner:
 

This thing is incredibly tiny and works really well at getting to all the nooks and crannies on my tiny tank. Note: I have no relation to the person who sells these; I just want to give praise where praise is due, and hopefully some other folks will also find this useful.


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## littleguy

March 4, 2006

The tannins were really starting to accumulate. I think most of them came from the driftwood.  You can see that everything in the tank has a real warm brown/green tint.








The fish were looking really iridescent. Based on some discussions elsewhere on this forum I was going to leave it alone, especially since I liked the look. But then this weekend the water started looking more turbid - like little particles were suspended in the water. So I gave in and did a water change.

Here's how dark the water was!









Here's a picture of my DIY tank cover. Made from 1/4" acrylic. I attached some handles that I picked up from Home Depot, makes it easy to feed the fish and do maintenance on the tank.









And here's the tank afterwards...

































And my pregnant cherry shrimp... guess she approves of the scenery.


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## Miss Fishy

Wow! Your tank is looking really beautiful. Are you going to leave the _Rotatla rotundifolia_ as tall as it is, or are you intending to prune it? Just out of interest, why did you decide to use peat instead of garden soil or potting soil when you redid the tank?

That Nimble Nano algae cleaner looks like just the thing for cleaning around the plants in my 68 litre tank. Have you had yours for long? How long does the algae cleaning pad last for? I'm wondering because I have had algae cleaners in the past which lost all their cleaning power in under a year because the pad wore thin.

From Alex.


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## littleguy

Thanks! I will be trimming the rotala but I wanted to see just how fast it grows so I didn't do much to it this first month. It does grow fast!

I used peat rather than potting soil because I didn't want to deal with the perlite and vermiculite - which finds its way to the top of the substrate for me. I avoided garden soil simply because I wanted a product I knew would be consistent from location to location (I'll be moving in the next six months) and be more repeatable for other people trying to do the same thing as me.

The pad on the nimble nano reminds me of the scatchy side of velcro. It's not as aggressive as some of the other magnetic cleaners I've used, but it works nonetheless. Don't know about longevity... thought I could replace the pad myself if it ever comes to that.


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## javalee

littleguy, I love your tank. It has the perfect amount of negative space vs. plant growth; I like the way it allows you to appreciate each plant.

I've been struggling to find an appropriate potting soil around here. I think you may recall my pine bark struggles. Everything bagged around here (they all say "regionally formulated) seems to have pine bark in it, and if that is still the problem in my 10g, I don't want to repeat the mistake, SO, I'm interested in your peat/onyx sand combo. I really like the look of onyx sand too. I've certainly learned that every tank has it's own chemistry so I wanted to check to see if I have comparable water parameters to yours. What pH, KH is your tap water?

Thanks, this may be a safe way for me to proceed with reworking my 10 and/or starting a natural 29g.

Oh, also, your tank and top look so nice and neat! I love the acrylic top! I had some glass cut for my 10g and I do struggle with it. Where did you get the acrylic and cut it? And does it hold up well with the lights directly on it over time. I avoided plexiglass because I heard that it warped over time.


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## littleguy

Thanks javalee







. I've really enjoyed reading about your experiences too. I just went with what I thought looked good. I'm still waiting for the plants to fill in a bit before I start pruning and sculpting the scape.

Your experience with the pine bark was one of the things that made me step carefully when choosing the soil. That's how I ended up with pure peat. I wanted to make sure that whatever I used, it would be repeatable for myself and others, and not variable based on locale. I ended up using plain old sphagnum (peat), which is the base for most potting soils. (Most potting soils also contain vermiculite, perlite, bark, fertilizers, wetting agents, etc. which I didn't find necessary for a tank.) Here's the actual product I used, which I picked up at Home Depot:

 
I would imagine other brands would be virtually identical, since there's only one thing in the bag.

I chose the Onyx Sand simply because I liked the color and that it was not painted. Has kind of a rough texture which I knew would be good for the substrate bacterial colonies, etc. I like the looks of Eco-complete even better (darker and warmer than Onyx sand, almost the same color as the peat and driftwood) but I couldn't get it at the time. My next tank will use Eco-complete. By the way, Onyx sand is supposed provide a slight buffering capacity to the water. I haven't noticed any hardness or alkalinity changes, but then again, my water comes out of the tap at moderate hardness. This buffering may or may not be helpful to other folks, I can't say.

Good question about the parameters. I'm pretty lucky, I seem to have nice mid range tapwater:
pH - mid to high 7's
general hardness (gH) - 120-200 ppm (moderate to high)
carbonate hardness (kH) - 100-120 ppm (moderate to low)

Sorry I can't be more precise - I'm using those 5-in-1 test strips at the moment since I can never seem to get the titration tests to work well for me.

Yeah, I like the top too. I had used it for a long time without the handles, then one day I saw some simple clean handles and thought why not. Plexiglas is just a brand name for acrylic, I believe. You can often pick it up at hardware stores - I've seen it at Home depot for sure. You could also buy it online if you don't have access to a store that carries it. Try www.mcmaster.com. For a cover, I would go no smaller than 1/4" acrylic, because as you say, it will deform slightly, either from the heat or possibly (?) from initial moisture absorption (just conjecture). If you go with acrylic, you shouldn't mount the handles right away, but wait for some of the initial bending to take place. When it bends in a U-shape, flip it over and wait a week or two for it to bend itself straight again. After this initial bending and straightening, it pretty much stops deforming and is a stable shape. Glass of course would work even better, but it is harder to work with - I like being able to drill holes in the acrylic at will without much worry.

Thanks again, hope it helps!


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## javalee

Doh!







I'm embarrassed to say that I thought plexiglass was something different. Thanks for clearing that up







! But it sounds like the warping of the acrylic is not a problem afterall, the way you handled it (hee, hee, no pun intended). I may go with your plan for my 29g. I've been trying to figure out how to top it once I get the CF lighting. Glass would be too heavy and awkward. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with the peat/onyx and the top!


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## littleguy

Glad it helped!


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## Chris Noto

That's really a beautifu little tank you've got going there. Thanks so much for sharing its story. Please continue to post as it develops, especially with photos.


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## dwalstad

Your tank looks great! AND I love the male guppy and cherry shrimp.

Thanks for all the useful information on substrates.


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## Robert Hudson

any updates on this?


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## vollman1

Please update this so that we all can see how the tank is progressing :madgrin:


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## Rattail

I am in the process of setting up my first El Natural tank in 8 years and am also considering options like Rose and Shrub mix (from our local garden centre in Cape Town, South Africa), mixing that with River sand and toping it with aquarium gravel. As you can see, this will be pretty similar to what you have used....

PLEASE post an updated picture of your tank??

thanks.


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## John N.

Any updates on your nano tank? I think it's really neat. The people demand an update.

-John N.


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## littleguy

*Long overdue update*

Okay, first off let me say it has been a crazy year. This tank has suffered a *LOT* of neglect for most of the year. And that's an understatement. I moved from Boston to Virginia in the middle of the summer, and the fish and shrimp spent a week in an insulated cooler while we lived out of suitcases. Then the tank was neglected all summer and fall while I got settled into my new life, house, job, etc. I was so busy every weekend that I didn't have time to do much of anything except feed the fish.

*Today, January 15, 2007:*








*
Compare to March 6, 2006*









As you can see, it's quite different in there. Most of the shrimp died off within a month after the move. I don't know if it was stress, new tapwater parameters, starvation, overcrowding, or predation. That's the part I feel worst about .

After months of no pruning, the java moss took over and blocked out a lot of light, green thread algae took hold, and things started to look ugly in September. So I removed the bogwood and as much moss as I could (there's still a little bit in there).

After a couple more months without much maintenance (only feeding the fish) I finally had a free weekend and took a good look at the tank in December. One of the two bulbs was shot and needed to be replaced. There was a ton more green thread algae. And the malaysian trumpet snails were out of control. So I replaced the light bulb, ripped out as much algae as possible, trimmed several plants that were really infested with algae, and did a 50% water change. I also added three amano shrimp to replace some of the shrimp losses. Finally I pulled out about 90% of the snails, leaving only about a dozen in the tank. I thought they might have been competing with the shrimp for food, or shifting the tank's balance somehow. I put all the excess snails in a holding tank with treated tapwater - but for some strange reason they all seemed to die within a day (bad tapwater supply? :?). But finally, after some intensive care the tank seems to be on the rebound.

So this tank has been through he*@#^ and back. I don't at all advocate such neglect. In fact I feel quite guilty about what I put those little guys through. Still, I'm amazed that things hung in there as well as they did. A couple cherries (male and female) and a bumblebee shrimp survived it all and look just fine. The three (male) guppies seem totally unphased as far I can tell. And all the plants are just fine. Looking now at the pictures, I see that the crypts have really filled in, a lot more than I had thought. And the algae is starting to clear up again.

Hope I never let a tank get this bad again. Thanks for reading.


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## Jimbo205

Little guy, thank you for this thread! It is very motivational for me.

I read that you have both the 9 Watt 6700 K bulb and a 9 Watt 5000 K bulb. 
What is the biggest difference between those two bulbs? (I only have a CF bulb.)

I have a 2.5 Gallon tank which I created El Naturale 
with 1 1/2 inches Soil & 1 1/2 inches SoilMaster Select Red.

My son wanted fish only in this tank, but so far I only have snails (I thought they would help 'cycle' the tank) and 2 shrimp. I have not been able to get the shrimp to multiply. (Shrimp are multiplying in my other 'El Naturale' tank). I have added plants hoping it would help the shrimp.

I have been afraid to put a fish in my 2.5 Gallon out of fear they (or it) would eat the shrimp!

In your tiny 2.5 Gallon Tank (which looks WONDERFUL in ALL your photos!), how did you get the fish and shrimp to co-exist together?


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## littleguy

Thanks for the kind words Jimbo. I'm still bummed I let so many shrimp die though.

My only fish are guppies/endler's livebearers. They really don't bother adult shrimp at all, unless they're really hungry and a shrimp has a food pellet in its clutches. Even then, they are pretty evenly matched, seems like the shrimp can hang on to the food more often than the guppies can steal it away. It's kind of funny actually, like watching rugby or something as they chase each other around the tank trying to get control of the pellet.

As for baby shrimp, it wouldn't surprise me if they get eaten by the guppies. When I had a lot of java moss in the tank, and the guppies were well fed, I still had some baby cherries survive to adulthood, I believe. But I think I had a LOT more survive when a cherry gave birth in a shrimp only tank. At that point I had at least 30 babies in a 1/2 gallon nano - which freaked me out - I was sure they would be overstocked. But they all seemed to survive for several months until I transferred them over to the 2.5 gallon.


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## littleguy

Oh yeah, regarding the lights.... My fixture takes two bulbs, so I tried one of each color spectrum (5000K and 6700K). The 5000K is a little warmer in color, the 6700K is just *slightly* bluish. I've heard mixed reviews on which is better for plant growth, if at all. Probably not a whole lot of difference either way. Also, keep in mind that if there are any tannins in the water, it totally cancels out any slight blue in the 6700k bulb, so really they don't look much different. The only thing that I like better is that for the particular bulbs that I own, the 6700k (made by coralife) seemed to last longer (6-12 months) than the 5000k (made by philips) probably because there was a lot of heat in the fixture and maybe the 5000k bulb wasn't designed for that ??? 

If you're getting good results with your current setup I see no reason to change.


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## Jimbo205

> The 5000K is a little warmer in color, the 6700K is just *slightly* bluish. I've heard mixed reviews on which is better for plant growth, if at all.


 This is good to know because I tend to obsess when I come across a good idea. I have been trying to find great bulbs for use with both my tanks and my house and the 'bluish' look is driving me nuts! I mistakenly thought that 6700K was NOT bluish because the one I purchased for my cubicle from ZooMed is called 'ULTRA SUN - SUPER DAYLIGHT'. (It actually is 'bluish' now that I look at it again.) Here I keep looking for DAYLIGHT bulbs and keep getting disappointed when the DAYLIGHT bulbs look bluish. So I guess what I really am looking for is 5000 K. Very good to know.
Now I hope these 5000 K work and look nice in both tanks and my house. What do you think?



> At that point I had at least 30 babies in a 1/2 gallon nano - which freaked me out - I was sure they would be overstocked.


 Wow! Do you have a photo of that?

I have no clue what type of shrimp I have. They look clear.


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## littleguy

Jimbo205 said:


> Now I hope these 5000 K work and look nice in both tanks and my house. What do you think?


Considering house decor, I find the 4100k ("cool white") and 5000k to look best in a room, if they are all by themselves (not over a tank). Diana Walstad's book also documents excellent plant growth with 4100k ("cool white") - see her book on page 180.

However, over a tank with an ordinary amount of tannins in the water, I find the 6700k looks just as good aesthetically as the 4100k and 5000k (the tannins take out the blue and make it look warmer). But that's just my opinion.

By the way, for certain small sizes of compact fluorescents, I found this website to be quite good: Plug In: Light Bulbs Etc, Inc. The last 2 digits of the serial number are an indicator of color spectrum.



Jimbo205 said:


> Wow! Do you have a photo of that?


Unfortunately, no. Plus, they were too small to show up with my ordinary camera (don't have a macro lens).


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## Jimbo205

> By the way, for certain small sizes of compact fluorescents, I found this website to be quite good: Plug In: Light Bulbs Etc, Inc. The last 2 digits of the serial number are an indicator of color spectrum.


 Umm.. those don't screw into a normal bulb socket. 4100K and 5000K. I'll try to remember that. Thanks!


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## Jimbo205

littleguy, after all this time - I still love this thread. 

My shrimp are still alive and thriving in my 10 gallon tank in the basement. I have given some away. 
El Exorcisto and Grim both let me know that when the shrimp were under bright light (not shaded by duckweed) - they turned red. 

Can shrimp work out in a tank where you attempt to grow a Daphnia culture?


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## tames

Glad you revived this thread! littleguy how is the nano doing? Any new pics?


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