# "XL Nano"



## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

Hi, I posted this in another aquarium forum by the name of clwatkins10, well, here goes.....
substrate- play sand
lighting- 40 watts compact fluorescent screw in (i think 6700k)
tank- aga 10 gallon
co2- diy with "powerhead diffuser
flora- dwarf hairgrass, hc
fauna- none, yet
filtration- no idea what its called
i just set this up the other day, i used 4 "pots" of hair grass and the equivalent of 2 "pots" of hc, i tried to plant these in very small "clumps" tweezers help! planting took about 1.5 hours and filling the tank took about 2, i didnt want to wash away the sand and have the hc come floating to the top
i am not sure what kind of ferts to use, i dose iron every once in a while, recommendations would be great*edit*- i am dosin excel now, will see how it goes








(the water sprite was in there for cycling, although, it was only 3 days worth im sure it wasnt done


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

here are some shotes after i planted the stuffs


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

okay so you are using just play sand inthe tank?!?!?!? um i dont think your going to get much growth in this because think the substrate is blah and i have not heard of people using as planting media...as blank area yes but hmm interesting


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

i am experimenting, i didnt want to spend the extra $ on the substrate, all of the stuff used in this tank i already had. the hairgrass has already started sending out shoots


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

well, actually i shouldnt just say play sand, it is river sand that i got from a feed store, i had it in one of my 29 gallons and the plants grew fine
if it doesnt work out, i may have to find something else to use, i wanted the white sand look for this tank so, i dont know, if anyone has any recommendations on subs. send them my way, thanks


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

okay i would go with a bag of the shultz aquatic soil...its just like flourite and is only $7 a bag for i think 10lbs....have it in my tanks and have great results i had my buddy get it for his 75 and the tanks are just taking off....talk about a great buy


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

sounds good, but ive heard it mess with po4, what color is it?


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## andrew__ (May 18, 2007)

I use play sand and have for about a year now with no problems. (not saying it's great though, and haven't grown those plants you're trying in it...)


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

so far the plants are doing well, in my next one, i will add a bottom layer of mud to see how it works


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

i use river sand it works fine. i do add root tabs. ive been using the sand for 4+years


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

the shultz stuff is fromw lowes sorry i dont think i said that and its a brown clolor its nice though


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

lowes! that very convieneint, how many lbs would you recommend for a 55 gallon? 60 lbs?


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

oh lord no maybe 2- 2.5 bags it kinda expands a bit...the stuff is great


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

dang, and i just bought 2 big bags of gravel from home depot and put them in my 55, oh well, ill try it in my 29...


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

bratyboy2 said:


> okay so you are using just play sand inthe tank?!?!?!? um i dont think your going to get much growth in this because think the substrate is blah and i have not heard of people using as planting media...as blank area yes but hmm interesting


it really is growing good tho, ill post pics at the end of the week


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## jimsuy (Feb 19, 2008)

nice tank... looking foward for the updates..


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## lonepeace (May 1, 2007)

This tank is going to looks very nice once everything starts to spray  ~~ great job!! Keep us updated~~


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## orion2001 (Mar 20, 2008)

Are you dosing macros though? I'd assume that the play sand is fairly inert and lacking in N, P, K nutrients? Sooner or later I think that is bound to become a limitting factor for your setup if you aren't dosing ferts.


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

all i am dosing at the moment is iron and excel. i was going to get some potassium, and maybe phosphorus, but i ran out of money 
.... oh, and its really funny how i can tell that the new growth is more curly than the emersed gowth on the hairgrass, its really sending out runners also, i probably shoulda put in dividers to keep it out of my hc, but ive never been able to grow either plant befor, so this is a first for me. oh and on a side note, this weekend i might start a journal on my 2.5 gallon. it has a bottom mud layer, with river sand on top, i harvested some oak from my yard to use a dw. because my lfs doesnt have any small twiggy dw that i could use. i also am using lava rock as hardscape. more details later


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

update:
the white film stuff came back when i remixed a new co2 batch








the hc is growing!


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/50631-2-5-gall-emersed-w-mud.html
i set up my 2.5 gallon with mud


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

what can i say i underestimated you foo!!! its looking damn good hmm am i jealous? yes i am :-D


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

hello
been watching your thread and i like your tank it looks good!!!! i had a white film a long time ago and it was from diy co2... i added a gas separator to my setup and did a couple of big water changes and it cleared up, it was from the yeast flocating to the tank(one of the reasons i switched to pressurized co2). a separator is easy their are post with pics all over


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

if the gas seperator is the extra bottle with the co2 intake and the co2 output, then i have one, so there is no way that yeast could be getting into my aquarium, when i put my new filter in, it cleared up until i did another batch of co2, i dont know why


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

bratyboy2 said:


> what can i say i underestimated you foo!!! its looking damn good hmm am i jealous? yes i am :-D


thanks alot


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

is the film on top of the water? kinda hard to break by sticking finger in it, and repairs itself fast?


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

the film is on the plants and glass, and after a while it gets stringy, the snails eat it tho! lol


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

i ha had that stuff before and really i thinkits olg hair algae that was getting started and then died.but you got to love snails!!!!


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

ok, update time....
















and a sneak peek of my new 29 gallon anubias garden... (this is not the same tank, i am just showing it here until i set up a journal on it)








(right now it is currently baby nana rhizomes, more mature nana, coffefolia, and frazeri, I have a bottom mud layer to see how it will go large scale, I know I need some fast growers in there pronto but I ran out because I just set up my 55 gall planted tank (did have catfish) and all my shrimp eat my watersprite (I currently have red cherry shrimp and 3 huge amanos in it, I am doing diy co2 and excel and iron, I hope to expand my anubias collection soon, but I had all of these plants already (stripped them from my 20 gallon when I decided to switch to eco complete) 
well, thats it for now, please drop a comment, thanks


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

my water finally cleared up and I was thinking of adding a red dwarf lily, should i add it to the back right corner or behind the rock?


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

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the tank is just amazing after 28 days!!!! holy crap! i hate you and i hate myself for thinking this would be crap!!! ~starting to think he is doing this in the playsand 10 he has setup~rayer:great job

as for the other tank...i will have to see sorry not gettign the vision just yet


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

the other tank is just starting to grow out, im not sure wat to do with it yet, suggestions would be great, any ideas on where the dwarf lily should go?


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## chadly (Dec 19, 2005)

I like em' 

I'd put the dwarf lilly in front of the wood on the right and move that anubis somewhere else.


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

chadly said:


> I like em'
> 
> I'd put the dwarf lilly in front of the wood on the right and move that anubis somewhere else.


oh, lol, i was talking about the 10 gallon


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

okay well i was looking at the pic for the lily an was thinking of the layout...if you put it in the left area it might shade out some of the HC if you put it next to the rock on the left sid it would do the same. now if you put it on the right kinda in the middle of the hairgrass i think it would do less damage. my vote is in the grass field


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

yep good idea, that is where i decided to put it, i have a bald spot in that corner because i have a rock sitting back there that you cant see that is holding down my co2 line


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

well you hid it well i cant even se the damn thing lol


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

lol, it wasnt in that picture, i just put it in


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

update:
i took out the rock so i could add more of a different type, but never got around to doin it 
took out some of the hc to get store credit, needed amano shrimp


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

i had a ton of hc in that little area, i took out a good portion (got $21 for it, which got me 5 amano shrimp and 2 pennywort plants) and also had left over to put back in the tank and put some in my 2.5 gallon terrarium thats in my sig


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

oh... and i trimmed some of the hairgrass that was invading the hc


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

wow foo that tank has just astounded me! i love the betta. infact i have two just like him now. are you adding anymore fish or is he it?

again im sorry im stupid but what is the lighting you have over this tank?


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

okay never mind i saw...wow was that a diy hood or did you find a hood for it?


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

bratyboy2 said:


> wow foo that tank has just astounded me! i love the betta. infact i have two just like him now. are you adding anymore fish or is he it?
> 
> again im sorry im stupid but what is the lighting you have over this tank?


ok, i might add fish later, i have had about 4 red cherry shrimp it it from the get-go and i now have about 10-15 in there (no they didnt breed in there) and the hood is not diy, though i could probably make it smaller if it was, it is 2 of the incandescent light hoods that come with a lot of 10 gallon aquariums, one has 2 10 watt 6500k bulbs in it and the other has 2 14 watt 6000k(i think) bulbs in it, the photoperiod is around 12 hours and for about 30 mins, every day it gets direct-setting sun-sunlight and i dose iron and potassium every other day and excel every day


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

okay thanks foo for the rundown. im going to try that in my 10 gallon to get it to grow more. i have hairgrass and some other high light plants in a soil tank but im need the extra light in there to suppliment for the no sunlight


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

man, i love taking pics on macro, i wish i had a better camera
pics:
































and an fts with more accurate color than the others, though it is darker and needs more yellowish green:


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

a small update, the water is crystal clear now!


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

wow, i just realized how blurry the pics are, oh well


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

some better pics:
































i am prob gonna sell some of my plants, so stay posted if you want some


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

wow looks great!
jealous!


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

well, i sold/ traded some of my hairgrass, and im not sure what my next move is, i need some ideas
pics:


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

some cool pearling, dont know if my shots are that great though....
























some mystery moss pearling:


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)




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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

i am going to trade/ sell all of the hc in here, it is mixed with hairgrass, but the hairgrass has been dying back since I started trimming it and the hc has been getting thicker and has started to choke it out, if you are interested, pm me


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

gonna change this tank to an all moss/ anubias tank with plants I already have. Gonna go low-budget since I'm gonna save up to do a reef tank 
sold the hc:
















might add some snowball shrimp or crystal red shrimp if I can get them for a good price


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## foofooree (Mar 11, 2007)

you can check my redo of this tank here: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/52468-rimless-10-gallon-moss-scape.html
I removed the rim and it looks GREAT!
Now to fill it with water and test it.


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