# nano El Natural



## Drunk miau (Apr 29, 2007)

this is my first tank, 16 liter (something like 4.5 gallon)
*the tank was established in 28/04/07*

substrate: some soil that one of our guys in israel mixed with some special stuff....dont know what is it)

on it i put red soil (in israel it called "Hamra", but i dont know how to explain it in english)

some back gravel in different hights, to create some interest.

most of the plant ware bought in thies imerged form, and now im waiting so they will get thier imerged form.

lightning: one compact flourocent 20W day light 11 hours a day, no sunlight

fish: none (yet)

no filtration, no fertilization





































and now some quastions:
should i change some water from the start? if so, why?

when should i insert the fish? (2 moli as a starter)

should i cut the hidrocotyl heds that came imerged? (they lifted thier heds up 2 days ago)

b.t.w. Hello, my name is yana, im from israel, very nice to meet you


----------



## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

Hello yana.

you should do water changes just in case the substrate you are using leaches nutrients into your water column causing algae outbreaks or such. mollies should be ok if the water is fine. i cant see in your tank that they might uproot. but if there are any chances of uproot, i would suggest that they'd be left aside for a while

there is no need to trim your hydrocotyl. however, if you want to... there is nothing wrong with it...welcome to the forum!


----------



## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

Don't trim anything until it becomes more established!! I agree with Stepheus.....no fish for right now. Let your tank mature for a few weeks so the plants can form nice roots without having fish uprooting them.

Mollies would probably work fine, but I would go with smaller fish in such a small tank. If the fish are too big, it will make your tank look too small. With nano tanks, it is all about creating the idea that the tank looks much bigger than what it actually is. Maybe leopard danio, microrasbora, and cardinal tetras would be much better.

WELCOME TO APC!!


----------



## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> Don't trim anything until it becomes more established!!


I agree. The hydrocotyle will either adapt to underwater growth or shed the emergent growth leaves on its own. You do not need to trim it. Nice looking tank


----------



## Drunk miau (Apr 29, 2007)

so what u say is that for now i should do some water changes? but for how long? and in what quantity? 

and when should i put the fish? 2 weeks, 3? how can i know when the tank is ready? and one more thing, for how long should i keep the light on?


----------



## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Do small water changes every other day or every two days for the first 2-3 weeks. This will ensure that any leaching nutrients are not in the water column. 

I also would not trim the plants yet. Wait until the tank is filled in a lot before disturbing anything. 

Wait to add the fish until the plants are grown in. This will ensure that they have good biological filtration seeing as how you do not plan to use a filter.

Oh, and welcome to APC


----------



## lljdma06 (Sep 11, 2005)

Do *not* put mollies in that size a tank. They need a lot more space. In addition, mollies, though sold as a FW fish are idealy a weak brackish fish. If you like livebearers, try smaller species from the genera _Heterandria_ or _Gambusia_. Other fish to consider are Boraras species and pygmy corydoras.

That being said, the tank is very nice.


----------



## Drunk miau (Apr 29, 2007)

thank you. the real idea of theis tank is for some cherry shrimps and maybe, if ill wish, so ill put there some rasboras' but im not sure....the main idea is the red, amazing shrimp (love them!!!)

aaa, and maybe one oto, i love to see them clean the surface.


----------



## plantblr (Feb 27, 2007)

Hi Yana....

Welcome to APC.

Thats a nice looking tank for the 1st attempt,keep it up.

What's the wood you have used,is it some sort of driftwood or something else?

Thanks
Ravi


----------



## Drunk miau (Apr 29, 2007)

i think it is some kind of root. i just donk know where is it from.


----------



## Drunk miau (Apr 29, 2007)

here is some update after allmost amonth
i dont do water changes (just top off alot because my cat likes the water...)
no ferts
i have 2 guppys, lots of snails, and thats all.... i think.....


----------



## usdm420 (May 23, 2007)

I like it a lot! I have no advice to add because I'm new to all of this, but going off aesthetics, its very pleasing to the eye.


----------



## treesmcdonald (Mar 14, 2006)

Wow that is a really pretty tank, and I have to agree that root is cool looking. I'm glad you went with the guppies they are fun pretty fish for small tanks.


----------



## Drunk miau (Apr 29, 2007)

thank u for the replays, but the guppy had been eaten by my kitten! he just took his little paw and took them out i think, because when i came back the other day, i had no fish in my tank, and a cat t hat tried to drink some tank water 

now i bought 3 ghost shrimp, and apearently 2 females have eggs. so i hope to have some babies, but i think that nothing will come out of this, because the tank is to young to feed the post-larvae.

here are my guys


----------

