[JonandJo]

As some of you may know I have a 60ltr tank to set up after the Xmas tree comes down, my wife's got no consideration.

I have decided on a nano tank with one centerpiece fish. Today while reading a magazine I came across this tank and thought something along these lines would be a great layout.

I have a few questions with regards to this design. Okay when I say a few I rest mean loads of questions.

1) filter:
With a tank like this what sort of filter would be best? Under gravel, HOB or internal? Would over filtering using a second filter be advised?
2) lighting:
Will I need specialised lighting to sustain the plant life? If so what type and how long does it need to be on?
3) fertiliser:
I'm guessing fertiliser will be needed to sustain greenery is this easy to do? What sort of fertiliser? How does it affect the water?
4) cleaning:
With all the plant life, rocks and wood will this be easy to maintain ammonia levels and facilitate cleaning of debris.
5) what plants:
What is the plant they have growing? It looks like grass
6) substrate:
I was gona ask about this but from the pic gravel looks ok.

 

[JonandJo]

Oh and
7) can you get little fishy lawn mowers to keep it trimmed.

 

[beaslbob]

As some of you may know I have a 60ltr tank to set up after the Xmas tree comes down, my wife's got no consideration.

I have decided on a nano tank with one centerpiece fish. Today while reading a magazine I came across this tank and thought something along these lines would be a great layout.

I have a few questions with regards to this design. Okay when I say a few I rest mean loads of questions.

1) filter:
With a tank like this what sort of filter would be best? Under gravel, HOB or internal? Would over filtering using a second filter be advised?

no mechanical filter needed

2) lighting:
Will I need specialised lighting to sustain the plant life? If so what type and how long does it need to be on?

2 watts per gallon of 6500k flouescant light.

3) fertiliser:
I'm guessing fertiliser will be needed to sustain greenery is this easy to do? What sort of fertiliser? How does it affect the water?

none needed

4) cleaning:
With all the plant life, rocks and wood will this be easy to maintain ammonia levels and facilitate cleaning of debris.

ammonia levels should be unmeasureable. Others will be stabilized (not constant ) with the plant life. cleaning debris is 'touchie' but easliy done every month or so. don't stir up the substrate.

5) what plants:
What is the plant they have growing? It looks like grass

can't say for sure. But micro swords look nice.

6) substrate:
I was gona ask about this but from the pic gravel looks ok.

I use 1" peat moss, 1" play sand and 1" pro choice select (baked red clay) fo rmy substrates.


my .02

 

[jentralala]

I'll have to respectfully disagree with B-bob on this one. This tank, from what I can see, is on the side of higher tech.

What size tank are you going for? That can really impact filter choices. I wouldn't go with undergravel at all, simply because I don't like the premise of them, and HOB, internal, and canister filters are much easier to clean.

With a clean, stream lined tank like that you're probably going to want to use a canister filter, with lily pipes on it to help keep the illusion.

Yes, you're going to need lighting around 6,000k to 7000k. You can use t8 lighting, LED lighting...anything with the proper kelvin rating. Usually, for a streamlined look (coupled with a rimless tank) high tech set ups utilize LED lights as they're thin and sleek. Finnex is a brand a lot of people use. They're not cheap, though.

Fertlizer...generally, with high tech tanks, a lot of people use pressurized Co2 alongside fertilizer. That's not something I'm familiar messing with, though. I'd recommend just sticking to something like Seachem Flourish comprehensive. It doesn't really DO anything to your water, besides add the nutrients plants need. One bottle will last a very long time. People with high tech tanks will often use dry fertilizer, or a mixture of substrate additives which I'm not well educated in.

Plants help ammonia, yes. You still have to cycle though.

I'm not sure that specific plant, but Dwarf Saggitarius and Pygmy Chain Sword are great easy groundcover. The trick is getting it to grow very close together to create the illusion of "grass".

You don't need a mini lawnmower, those plants will always stay relatively small Plus if you cut it like grass, often the whole leaf will die, instead of growing back like terrestrial grass. At least in my experience.

If you use D. Sag or Pygmy Chain sword you can get away with cheaper lighting (6,500k Spiral CFLs) but it's not as streamlined/pretty.

For substrate...that's tricky. I wouldn't use large (pea) gravel for that, as you can't really get the same effect. I'd go with sand, personally. I really, really love Flourish Black Sand, but it is expensive and dusty.

That pic is most definitely from a high tech set-up, one that requires a lot of care, dedication, time, and money. It's a lot of work and a lot of research, and can take a while to master balancing high levels of nutrients with high lighting. I'm not saying that it's at all impossible, but to achieve something like in that photograph will take a lot of research on your part, and there will definitely be a learning curve.

This tank is a bit similar, and you can see all the work that goes into making it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COsbWPtDEI0

I don't mean to throw you form this, but just to caution you that there's a lot of work that goes behind this kind of tank.

You can build something similar for cheaper, always, but getting the same look will take much longer as you won't be using near the amount of lighting, fertilizer, pressurized co2, etc.

Good luck!

 

[ao]

5) The plant is Blyxa Japonica. It can also grow well in low tech with a good amount of light


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[pennyls9332]

i have to agree with jentralala on this definitely something with alot of time dedication and money put into it,no something just thrown together as an easy project. with high lights and co2 or fertilizer (or both) you could also try dwarf hair grass which looks like a yard just use curved scissors to cut with, it gets very plush looking in my opinion and adorably attractive just a slow grower. and canisters are amazing for any tank, they even make mini canisters for 10 and 20 gallon tanks. if you plan on doing fish always use a filter, if you do shrimp or african dwarf frogs you can get away without one
but thats pretty much everything i can think of bc idk anything about lights and such

 

[badxgillen]

I have run my fair share of LEDs,flourescents,halides,power compacts,and incandescent lightsl. the same rules of spectrum,kelvin,and such apply but the watts per gallon rule is no longer valid. In my opinion it never was.I just want to throw out that the wavepoint LEDs that are HO are pretty sleek looking and not too much money.