# First Planted Tank Journal 3G



## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

This is my first attempt at a planted tank...

Spec:
3 Gallon rimless
Flourite Black substrate
Elite Mini internal filter (planning to switch to a aquaclear mini/20 tho)
DIY Co2 with homemade wood diffuser
Plant: HC & hairgrass
Cherry/Crystal red shrimp + 3 wild guppy fry (1mm each...)


Pic 1: Bare Tank with Flourite Black substrate

Pic 2 & 3: rocks I tried using in the tank. The rocks looks very beautiful, they are black with white grain, lots of textures, and a very beautiful shiny speckles (can't see in the pic), but most of them are too large for my tank, and I couldn't break them with a hammer.

Pic 4: Close up of rock and substrate

Pic 5: amateur planting of HC....put a patch down and throw some substrate on to weight it down.  Feb 03, 07

Pic 6: Feb 11

Pic 7: Feb 17...I can see the HC spreading very nicely already, not much change on the hairgrass tho

Pic 8: Added a few cherry & CRS

Pic 9: HC runner growing upward instead of horizontal, I think I should have plant them horizontally

Pic 10: Progress as of Feb 17...the hairgrass is starting to spread too.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

clocks that is really looking nice! Ty for the great progression shots..

Could i see your Co2 set up when you get a chance? Whats your usual mix for this size of a tank?


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

What an awesome start! Is this your first planted tank? What kind of lighting are you using?


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Thanx guys..
This site gave me a lot of helpful information!! very nice members here too.

And yea, this is my first planted tank. I got into this hobby only about 2-3 months ago.

Co2 setup is just an 850ml aluminum bottle with a homemade wood diffuser.
I used about 1/4 teaspoon yeast, 2 cup sugar for the mixture..

I think the mixtures gave a little bit too much co2 for the first few days (1 bubble per second), but now (7 days later), the rate is about 1 bubble every 3 seconds. The shrimp and guppy fry have been there for about 3 days and are doing great.

I used those clip on light fixture I have sitting around at home + 26 watt daylight (5000K) spiral fluorscent (I added another 26 watt 6500K spiral fluorscent bulb a few days ago for a few hours a day)
So...lighting is about 26 watts for 6 hrs + 52 watts for 6 hrs


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## Fishfinder (Feb 17, 2008)

Looks cool. What do you think your going to put in it fish wise?


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Fishfinder said:


> Looks cool. What do you think your going to put in it fish wise?


mostly likely...nothing
I already have 10 shrimp in there, don't think I can put much other stuffs in there, especially I am planning to keep the tank low maintenance.

Only fish I like at the moment is ember tetra, but I can't seem to find it anywhere...anyone know where I can get them in GTA?


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## Brian (Mar 14, 2006)

Have you tried Menagerie?

If you can't find them might I suggest the Celestial Pearl Danios? I just grabbed 6 of them and they are one of my favourite fish ever! and I've kept a very wide variety of fish :S


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

clock906 said:


> Thanx guys..
> This site gave me a lot of helpful information!! very nice members here too.
> 
> And yea, this is my first planted tank. I got into this hobby only about 2-3 months ago.
> ...


Hi Clock,

Just thought I would mention that your 5000K bulb might grow algae better than plants. If you start to run into some troubles, try switching it up!

I'm also curious, are you running a 12 hour photoperiod?


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Chris Stewart said:


> Hi Clock,
> 
> Just thought I would mention that your 5000K bulb might grow algae better than plants. If you start to run into some troubles, try switching it up!
> 
> I'm also curious, are you running a 12 hour photoperiod?


5000K grow more algae than 6500K? I have no idea on that...but I probably gonna switch it to just the 6500K bulb anyway since the color looks better.

To be accurate, I am running about 14 hours+ of light for the last 1-2 weeks... and algae are showing up on the HC (fine brushy & hair algae stuck to the leafs), I have to manually remove some of them everyday (with my amazing chopsticks  dont' have a tweezer...)
The algae isn't too bad now, but if they starting to spread fast, I will reduce the lighting to maybe 8 hrs per day.


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## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

That is a very cool little set up you have, for the March MFC meeting we will be discussing micro aquascaping using a 2 1/2 gallon tank. I will be using you set up for inspiration.

Good Job


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

clock906 said:


> 5000K grow more algae than 6500K? I have no idea on that...but I probably gonna switch it to just the 6500K bulb anyway since the color looks better.
> 
> To be accurate, I am running about 14 hours+ of light for the last 1-2 weeks... and algae are showing up on the HC (fine brushy & hair algae stuck to the leafs), I have to manually remove some of them everyday (with my amazing chopsticks  dont' have a tweezer...)
> The algae isn't too bad now, but if they starting to spread fast, I will reduce the lighting to maybe 8 hrs per day.


I'd suggest you put it down to 10hrs now if you can...avoiding algae is better than having to deal with an outbreak


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Thanks guys for the comments...

I am really trying to cut down the light now since algae are really starting to show up on the HC....but I turn the light on when I go to work at 9:30, after I come home from work at 8:00pm, I spend hours looking and playing with the tank  I guess I need a timer

Just brought 500ml Excel from MOPS since I heard it is good at controlling algae.
Excellent price + service. (Ordered Wednesday afternoon, received package on Friday! 500ml Prime & Excel price is about 50% off from Bigals.)


Btw...the shrimps are very cute and friendly!! They will literally eat food out of my hand, well not really my hand since I don't want to pollute the water by putting my hand in the tank, but I used a chopstick to hold some flake food and they were following my chopstick and were chasing the food around the tank.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

A timer is the unsung hero of the aquarium hobby


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## ozi (Aug 23, 2007)

Your nano is absolutely AWESOME!!!! You've done such a good job at it, especially since it's your 1st planted tank.
I only wanna make sure you know the dangers of DIY CO2 in such a small tank. I would recommend you get (or build your own) CO2 indicator, as things can rapidly change in a nano tank, and a drop in pH could prove fatal for you shrimpies, which are pretty sensitive to pH variations. 
Keep us updated on your nano


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

I've been looking for a drop checker too...but the Red Sea Co2 Indicator BIg als sell look kinda ugly...and I can't seem to find the ADA (rip-off version) drop checker locally...

Any idea where I can find one or something similar?


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

clock906 said:


> I've been looking for a drop checker too...but the Red Sea Co2 Indicator BIg als sell look kinda ugly...and I can't seem to find the ADA (rip-off version) drop checker locally...
> 
> Any idea where I can find one or something similar?


Menagerie sells a Sera co2 test kit, the ADA knock-off one. Works great, I use one.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

clock906 said:


> I've been looking for a drop checker too...but the Red Sea Co2 Indicator BIg als sell look kinda ugly...and I can't seem to find the ADA (rip-off version) drop checker locally...
> 
> Any idea where I can find one or something similar?


If you are looking for function over aesthetics, then you can look at the February POTM. I posted a quick way to make a DIY drop checker, and it's not too ugly (hey, it works, and for < $1, what can I complain about? )


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Chris Stewart said:


> Menagerie sells a Sera co2 test kit, the ADA knock-off one. Works great, I use one.


Menagerie again.? haha...Menagerie is the answer to 9 out of 10 questions I post here

Do you know how much it costs? I am really trying to limit my spending on aquarium stuffs....it is like a deep bottomless hole and you keep on spending more and more on it....

I thought about doing a DIY drop checker too (I tried to do it with some medicine bottle...but scrap the idea since it looks ugly..
Your bottle actually looks pretty good...but I don't have any similar small glass bottle standing around


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

It actually was kinda expensive, around 25 bucks or something.


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## Tabatha (Dec 29, 2007)

clock906 said:


> I thought about doing a DIY drop checker too (I tried to do it with some medicine bottle...but scrap the idea since it looks ugly..
> Your bottle actually looks pretty good...but I don't have any similar small glass bottle standing around


If you live or work downtown Toronto, Active Surplus on Queen Street has all kinds of lab equipment for very cheap! 

349 Queen Street West
http://www.activesurplus.com/ (not much on their website)


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Cheap and lazy men DIY drop checker...
I will probably use this until I can find a nice drop checker for cheap...  

Btw...the color of the solution looks really light. Is it ok to add a few more PH indicator drop in the solution to make the color more saturate/darker? Will the result be off or incorrect if I add 5 drops instead of 3 drops per 5ml as per the instruction?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

clock906 said:


> ....it is like a deep bottomless hole and you keep on spending more and more on it....


That sounds like an addiction to me... 



clock906 said:


> I thought about doing a DIY drop checker too (I tried to do it with some medicine bottle...but scrap the idea since it looks ugly..
> Your bottle actually looks pretty good...but I don't have any similar small glass bottle standing around


As Tabatha said, you can find a lot at Active Surplus. I picked up the glass bottle with the cap for either 25 or 50 cents (I don't remember the price). Assuming you have a drill, and an empty tube/bottle of glue, you pretty much have all the parts you need.

I made another one recently, and this time, didn't even use an O-ring; though it's slightly uglier (i.e. the tip sticks outside of the bottle)


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

clock906 said:


> Cheap and lazy men DIY drop checker...
> I will probably use this until I can find a nice drop checker for cheap...
> 
> Btw...the color of the solution looks really light. Is it ok to add a few more PH indicator drop in the solution to make the color more saturate/darker? Will the result be off or incorrect if I add 5 drops instead of 3 drops per 5ml as per the instruction?


Wow, that truly is the lazy man's DIY CO2 drop checker! 

If you're using a standard bromothymol blue indicator solution (i.e. I know the one sold by API (the "standard" pH, not the high range pH test) consists of bromothymol blue), then yes, you can add as many drops as you want to give the solution more colour.

For my drop checkers, I take ~5 mL of a 4 dkH reference solution (this is important), and then put in anywhere from 6-8 drops of indicator so that there is a nice blue colouration. This way, the differences between blue, green and yellow are very obvious.


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

it's been a while...thought I'd update with some new photos..

Not much new other than i've added a few more cherries, brought an ADA style pollen co2 diffuser and drop checker...and I built a nice oak platform for the tank...

The plants grew quite a bit, but the HC suffered some serious deficiency a while ago with most of the HC leaf turning brown. After 1-2 weeks of overdosing flourish comprehensive, it stopped developing new brown leaf, but there are still a lot of unsightly brown leaf in the tank  

And I just found one cherries carrying eggs today!!  

Btw...the nitrates in the tank is disappearing and i don't know why...my "tap water" has nitrate reading of 0-5, while the tank nitrate = 0  
(Ammonia / nitrite = 0 too)


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

its really looking fantasic!  I am sorry i cant be of much help


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

clock906 said:


> Btw...the nitrates in the tank is disappearing and i don't know why...my "tap water" has nitrate reading of 0-5, while the tank nitrate = 0
> (Ammonia / nitrite = 0 too)


Could it be the HC and hairgrass thriving?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

I agree with Chris, your hairgrass and HC is thriving from your pictures, so it's probably sucking up those nitrates as fast as you can put them in. Perhaps it's time to step it up by increasing your ferts dosage a little


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Darkblade48 said:


> I agree with Chris, your hairgrass and HC is thriving from your pictures, so it's probably sucking up those nitrates as fast as you can put them in. Perhaps it's time to step it up by increasing your ferts dosage a little


The only thing I am dosing now is flourish comprehensive and excel...
I've been dosing approx. 2x flourish comprehensive already...and I am scared of dosing more because it seems like every time I dose regular flourish in the tank, some of the shrimp will start acting weird and swim erratically... (No shrimp ever died from it...but I don't want to take the risk)

I wanted to get some flourish Iron, nitrogen, potassium..etc...but then I dont' want to spend another $30-40 on them...and it is such a waste for me to get a bottle (250-500ml) of each too since 10ml is already enough to last me 1-3 months... too bad they don't come in small trial size pack...


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

btw...another problem i am having now is the hairgrass and HC are overlapping each other...
It is ok for the HC to grow in the hairgrass since the hairgrass is much taller...but it looks bad when a few stem of hairgrass pop up in the foreground in the middle of the HC....

guess this is my lack of experience and planning...I should have divided the 2 sections with a plastic or something in the beginning...

What can be done now other than regularly cutting /pulling the overgrown hairgrass at the front?


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Do what you thought you should have done, add dividers. It isn't hard to do.

As for the current overlap, only thing you can do is pull out the hair grass and replant it where you want it.


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## holocron (Mar 12, 2006)

nice work!!

I've got a little 5g on the go right now and trying to get HC going. I am dosing with excel as well as flourish. How often do you have to change that Co2? and how do you keep it from not bringing down the ph, considering there isn't a valve on it.


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

holocron said:


> nice work!!
> 
> I've got a little 5g on the go right now and trying to get HC going. I am dosing with excel as well as flourish. How often do you have to change that Co2? and how do you keep it from not bringing down the ph, considering there isn't a valve on it.


I used 1/4 - 1/8 spoon of yeast + 2cup sugar for the co2...and I replace the solution or add more yeast approx. every 2-3 weeks....
The Co2 actually slow down quite abit after about 1-2 week, and when that happens, I gives it a few shake and it will keep strong for another day...(then i shake it again..  )

I never cared much about the PH since I heard PH swing due to Co2 won't affect the fish or the shrimp...water PH of the tank is usually between 7.0-7.4 (tap water ph = 7.4-7.6)

The drop checker never go green tho..(even at 1bps), most of the time it is a blue or teal color...I think the HOB AQ filter is making too much surface water movement...but well, at least I know my shrimp won't suffocate to death and the plant is probably getting enough co2 + excel

Btw...the ADA style pollen filter takes almost 10 hour to build up enough pressure to start going! I thought it was defective at first when I waited 5 hrs and it still wasn't moving.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

GREAT SETUP!

*WELCOME TO GTAA*


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Are you smoking crack Pablo?


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

^^ Not directed at you Clock, your setup is awesome.


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## Pablo (Mar 27, 2006)

Chris Stewart said:


> Are you smoking crack Pablo?


_you_ sold it to me... 

Anyways-- ya I was welcoming the guy because I dont remember having welcmomed him yet. Belated slightly but I think within 2 weeks it still counts.

.... If not then I apologize.


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

it's been a longgg time, so i thought I should give this some update

the HC was filled nicely ever since March/April, the hairgrass at the back is a lot slower, but still filled most of the area at the back even tho it wasn't very dense

due to work and some family problem, the tank was *totally *neglected for about 1 month since end of April (= no water change for 1 month, no dosing of excel / flourish or anything, no cleaning, no feeding, fortunately light was on a timer so it still got it 10 hrs light per day)

When I started paying attention to the tank again a few days ago.....everything kinda seems well!!  ...
Actually...no
I had some sort of algae bloom...but it wasn't the typical green water, BGA, hair algae. I think it is staghorn algae (it looks just like riccia, except lighter color), it grew all over the hairgrass at the back, but none on the HC at all.

So today, I took a scissor and gave the hairgrass a big trim to get rid of most of the algae.

I think I also lost about 10-15 shrimps during this time as well. the 3-4 CRS disappeared completely, there were dozen of baby cherry shrimp tho.


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

the last photo was taken today...
the HC was totally overgrown, and it has been growing upward quite abit (there was about 1 inch of empty section (root) between the substrate

Less of this problem on the left side where the plant receive less light tho.


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

It's been a year since this tank was planted!!
The HC covered the whole tank (12" x 8"), hairgrass didn't grow much
There is also a java moss wall coming out from the AC HOB filter...the shrimps are now climbing UP and DOWN out of the filter...










Thinking of ripping this whole tank apart and redo it...it looks like a mess now

Anyone wants to buy a 12"x8" thick pad of HC?


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Wow did it ever grow.


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## kwokers (Feb 26, 2009)

Lol...I don't know if the moss out of the HOB filter was intentional...but I definitely wanna try it out.
HC carpet looks amazing, wouldn't mind picking it up if you ever decide to get rid of it .


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

WOW! I just adore that little tank...

What light do you have on it again? The same one or something different?


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

Ciddian said:


> WOW! I just adore that little tank...
> 
> What light do you have on it again? The same one or something different?


No..i switched it a while ago..I brought a the coralife 12" 2x18watts fixture intending to use it for a small reef tank....but unfortunately never got around to get that started..... so I ended up using it for this 3g tank. 
Brought the adjustable coralife leg mount and purchased a 6700K 18watt bulb to replace the 50/50 bulbs that came with the fixture. (The fixture came with 2x18watt bulb, but now I am only using 1 bulb for the tiny 3 g tank)

The light and fixture looks great on the tank...i definitely would use it on all of my nano tanks if I have the money 

You can sorta see how it looks here


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## FishyCracker (Feb 5, 2009)

WOW WoW wow.. Sweet setup you got there. I really like the little one too, it is a beefy little tank. =)


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