# My first planted tank Journel. Lot of pics! Nano 2.5 gallon.



## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Hi all,

Well today I just was in the mood to final get started on this. I have been reading for the past 3 months about planted tanks and learned alot. This tank is more of an experiment. It is more of an experiment to test my capability of making a nice tank. I have been blown away by ADA tanks. I just love them. Ok now to the tank.

Yesterday I went to the beach and got about 40-50 pounds of different rocks and such. I really love the texture and color scheme of the rocks seems to fit really well with eachother. Well I think this will be a journel becasue I will be taking pics of different steps and such.

Right now The only plants I have are hornwort, java moss, Marimo balls, and riccia. I was going to make this tank into a nice riccia lawn but then I thought about it, riccia has more of a jungle look and goes good with driftwood and wilder looks. also while landscaping the rocks just seemed perfect for a iwagami layout. So later on I will be ordering HC, and Dwarf Hairgrass.

Here are some pics. To tell you the truth the pics do not do justice to the land scaping.









Here are some of the smaller rocks I picked up that was part of a huge hill at the beach.










Just added the ADA Aqua Soil Amazonian type 2.










Added some rocks.










I just washed some rocks and put more in and now this is the finished scape. At least I believe.
This is about a hour after landscaping.

Anyways critism is allowed. Again pictures do not do it justice.

I will being making DIY CO2, today or tommorrow, Also just so I'm certain. Should I change the water everyother day until Ammonnia goes down? Then I can add new plants?

I will update tommorrow with lots of pics of the landscape and plans about the tank.


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## StereoKills (Sep 15, 2007)

Good start! Can't wait to see it once it's planted!


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## bratyboy2 (Feb 5, 2008)

good start got plants yet?


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Thanks for the comment both of you.

Here's some pretty good photo's today when I got home from school.


















Left side.









Left side.























































Ok so there are the pics of the layout. I really want to know if you guys like it. Of course I want it to be the way I like it but I really think I can improve. Also important do you guys think the pictures are good. They just don't bring that "wow" of seeing the tank in personal.

For the ADA soil. Do you think I should instead of having a wavy type action try to make the right and left side more of a slope? I like the right side becasue it is like a nice little open area.

As you can see I have alot of riccia in those to container. The pump is a Elite Mini and then I have a automatic tetra heater. The tetra heater I find is inaccurate ( keeps it about 72 F) I plan to get HC, and Dwarf Hairgrass maybe next week.

Next thing is Lighting. Right now I have a 25watt incandecent (sp) lighting. It has a UV filter on it. does this do anything? Also I do plan to get something much more profosoinal but I do not know much about lighting. Please if anyone knows where to start what types of lighting are there? What would fit and look good on my tank?

I plan making this rack that I have the 2.5 on to have 8 tanks. I want to make 6-7 of them planted and I plan to breed different shrimps ( Tiger, CRS, RCS, and blue tiger which I would selectively breed.

I have many more questions but for today I plan on making a DIY CO2 Bottle.

I read that topic in DIY forum but for now this is what I am going to do.

Make the bottle.
Make the mix with Sucrose, Yeast, and water. And then wait for bubbles.

This is a first for me. But I would like to make my DIY CO2 effective and safe. So Where can I get a efficient and reliable Diffusor? Also I am looking for CO2 line and what other precuation should I make?

Thanks you for reading.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I would get some plants in there as soon as you can.
They will benefit greatly from the ammonia spike and also help with it.

I like the rocks alot but am a little concerned with them being collected on the beach they might leech calcium into the water or copper, they look like they might have copper in them.

did you do any test on them.

Other then that, your rock placement is EXCELLENT, the slope is great also and your rock selection was great, as long as they don't hurt you , they are amazing.


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Thank you very much for your reply!

Also for the testing no I did not test the. Also I idn't get these strait from the beach I accually found them on this walk way. The walking path is about 60-70 feet away from the beach. It was apart of this huge hill and when the cut into the hill to make the path there were a whole bunch of jagged rocks and I thought maybe these would work. I took these rocks that were off the beach and 2 other types that were staight from the beach. Also thanks for the tip about getting some plants in there quick. I will have to figure out a way to wrapped all that Riccia and not make the tank very messy. Hopefully I can find a 5 gallon tank to have a riccia lawn maybe this week.


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## kakkoii (Jan 18, 2008)

looks good so far...


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## Esteroali (Oct 1, 2007)

I second the rock placement...looks perfect!


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

hey i like the set up looks great!

i had an idea for you since your just starting your tank (i just started this process my self with some baby tears in a 4 gallon tank)
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/3361-new-methoid-make-nice-rug-hc-before-you-add-water.html#post18907

for lighting home depot has a desk lamp that works great its only $20 too. made by hampton bay 27watt good color to. i just got one for my nano looks great!

i strongly suggest the dry method for growing your foreground its awesome!!!!!!!! less time less startup cost on buying plants and stronger plants with out co2 or ferts!!!


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Thanks kakkoii and Esteroali for your reply. I might play around with the left side of the tank a little though.

Thank you oregon aqua for this idea. I read about it on here but I just wasn't sure how to do it. I think I will try this wethod. I seen 3-4 people who had great success with it. But before I do this would Riccia work for this. Since riccia is a moss wouldn't it have to be moist very often. Also today I've been busy planning to buy ADA tanks that would go on the same shelf as this one is on. Ok well since I would be needing my CO2 for this experiment I guess I can move right on to Plants. As I beleive I said before I do not want to use any ferts at all for all my tanks. It is just a killer for shrimps, and diminishes there life time by alot. So now my question is Where can I buy HC and Dwarf Hair grass in small amounts? Also I will see if I can find the lighting you suggested but I looking for something like a Compact florecent light. I just don't known which is good for this size tank?

Also I will post in another forum tommorrow with all my tanks that I have now.

Thanks for all the comments and I hope to keep them critisizm coming.:mrgreen:


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## oregon aqua (Jan 30, 2008)

well im not sure about ricca. i am trying it in my emersed setup but i just added it 3 days ago. all i can say for sure is its not dead yet. 

my theory is that ricca will probably grow well if you can keep it very wet. i dont think it will be as good as growing it under water tied down to something. i think it will be very loose not compact enough. 

the desk lamp i mentioned is a compact fluorescent. but if your going to try to light more than one tank this lamp is small.

are you in the states? Charlie is good if you cant find any local beadgc AT nyc DOT rr DOT com 
email him and ask for his list.


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Hey there,

Can you pm me with the email if you can. Also I have some bad news When I made the DIY CO2 and fermentation overflowed after 4 hours and now I have a bad shiny film on top. If my tank poisoned? I will do 2-4 water changes these next couple of days. Also at school I looked up for lighting systems and found a nice one for 42.00? http://www.aquariumguys.com/12satellite.html

Is this good enough. 18 watts in a 2.5 gallon too much? Also 10,000K ok for plants. I will search for more fixtures today so I will see what I can find.


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## slowhand35 (Apr 13, 2007)

Nice rockwork


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

The e-mail is right there, it is just not linked,

Start at the beadgc For AT put *@* for dot put *.* and just make sure to connect them all together and you have an e-mail address.

Kind of funny unless you know how to look at it.


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Thanks you 2. Oregon email me with the address. lol

Just some news. After about 2 weeks in having the riccia that I got from a friend it is finally starting to grow!!! right now I have Marimo balls in it, Riccia, 1-2 pieces of java moss, and some sort of fern I bought a year ago that's been recovering. It has grown alot since I've put it in the tank about week ago. I will update with plans and when I order my plants.

Basically this week I've been planning what to sell to some people on other forums and I was able to rack up 300 yesterday, but I plan to save alot more. I think I will be ordering a light system for this tank. Also yesterday I made a order from Mike at aqua magic. I very luckey, he had 10 Nano glass diffusors that are originally priced at 6.00 but he had 10 for a 1.00 each so I bought 6 and other supplies for my DIY CO2. Incase you didn't know I had a whole bunch of gunk be spilled into the tank. Now it is cleared up becasue I did a 80% water change. I do not plan on putting inhabitants anytime soon because I want to really learn from experience with the CO2 system and lighting before I do anything else.

Thats it for now!


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Welp here is the tank 11 months later!




























My favotire part of the tank is my moss tree. Ive grow so attached to it.









Thanks for looking.


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## gravy9 (Aug 28, 2008)

Wow, beautiful tank, Bill. Love your moss tree.


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## matt1045 (Oct 11, 2008)

nano tanks are neat. I think I might have to venture into that area soon


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Hi guys,

Well this tank has grown a lot and needs a trim. Here are some decent photos to show how the moss tree is half the size of the tank almost. lol


















Ohh and big news I have spotted around 5-6 baby cherries. Now this just average boring news for most people but a huge upper for me. They all seem to be happy. I plan on doing a trim on everything. I am not all that happy with the scape. It's kind of boring after almost a year of having it. This is my first planted tank and I have never teared down a tank. But is it best to tear down something when it has already reached it's climax? Anyways I have some very exotic driftwood great for nano's that I went collecting in the woods. I will be adding some of it after I trim.

Ohh and I bought a CO2 regulator about a month ago from Orlando. I hope to buy a CO2 tank for it soon. Anyways let me know what you guys think. Should I tear it down? Maybe add some different plants? Or just keep going and see what happens as, although this is my first planted tank it is my experimental tank!


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## Akaizhar (Jul 5, 2008)

I like itttttttt


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I like it also, but also understand the urge to tear down and do something different.
So, about two months after your last post in this thread, what did you decide?
Do you have new updated pictures, or did you start a new scape.


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## thief (Feb 20, 2008)

Wow this thread is still here! Thanks for dusting it off! It is still the same! It is next to my bed and window! Literally one foot away from my face! This tanks has been a great journey. I didn't record a lot about this tank though. It is still alive overgrown and will be torn down! I am still refitting my tanks into planted tanks. I have dismantled 2 of my 10g and they are now cycling! I plan to ripped this tank down and design and much better scape hopefully to inspire those that you can keep a Beautiful nice small tank. This tanks has been with my over a YEAR! Just goes to show the patience I have for plants and aquascaping! I plan to grow and breed shrimp in the 2- 10g's. I have a Whole another Fish tank rack to work with though!!! This is still being slowly planned out but it will hold all my aquascaping tanks ( ADA tanks ) plans are a 90-P, I have 2 Mini M's and a WabiKusi tank. And I now have a Public ADA 60-P tank downstairs!

It just Soo much to do so much money to spend. Anyways this tank has been the bridge to me, and bringing me into the Aquascaping world. This tank will have a slow funeral though. I hope to show you guys my Mini M. But getting good photos is hard and time is always bad.

Comment if you would like and maybe even give me ideas of what to do with all these tanks!

I will create a new thread soon though.


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## NowMed (Feb 10, 2009)

Looks AWESOME!! FUN!! cant wait for more pic's


You could make that tank rimless very easy and I think you would like it alot more !!! ( I know i want a rimless tank SO bad!)


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