# Ryan's office desktop nano tanks



## ichy (Apr 6, 2015)

I'm glad to see someone's shop looks like mine...I'm to the point where if I clean up I can't find anything.
I may have to try one of these tanks myself!


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Funny you say that, we recently had to replace some flooring in the shop and deep cleaned everything. Now I can't find any of the tools I need since they're all in their rightful place! 

But making these small tanks is relatively easy as long as you have a glass cutter and some time. Clean glass edges are the most important aspect so you have to scrape quite a bit of old silicone off.

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## Chrisinator (Jun 5, 2008)

The tanks look superb!


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## ichy (Apr 6, 2015)

Are you reusing glass from old tanks?


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

ichy said:


> Are you reusing glass from old tanks?


Yes we used the glass from 10 gallon tanks. I believe they're 1/8" thick. If I were to make another one I'd probably source the glass from somewhere else rather than reusing old stuff. The glass from the 10g's scratches easily and isn't all that strong. 

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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Quick update; I took a week long trip to new york city and didn't have a chance to do a normal water change so I wasn't surprised to come back to a very algae filled tank... mostly cyanobacteria and dust algae. But I spent a half hour cleaning things and doing a water change earlier and it's looking much better now. The ludwigia grew all the way to the surface and started going emersed so I trimmed quite a bit of it as well. 










I think it's really starting to look grown in. The hairgrass in the front is slowly but surely filling in too. I'm not too sure if I want to keep the ludwigia in there as a main stem plant, I'd like something more red to contrast with the green of the Java fern. Maybe a nice bushy alternanthera. Any suggestions on what I should do next? 

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## RWaters (Nov 12, 2003)

Rotala macrandra might look good there. Did you get a chance to check out any of the shops in NYC?


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Nope unfortunately we were too busy sightseeing and doing touristy stuff and didn't end up going to any pet shops. I think my girlfriend would've been a little disappointed of I spent all my new york money on fish stuff too lol.

How difficult is macranda to grow? I love the look of it but I don't have pressurized co2 set up here and no ferts aside from gluteraldehyde for carbon

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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Interesting tid bit of info; since I work for a company that specializes in automated hvac controls to reduce energy usage, my overly energy conscious coworkers and myself decided to hook up a kilowatt hour meter to my tank to see exactly how much power it draws. On an average 24hr day we only used 0.58kwh. Yearly it consumes $12.70 worth of energy. Not bad at all.....

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## randym (Sep 20, 2015)

Is that algae on the driftwood? I really like it.

So often driftwood in a tank ends up completely overgrown with moss, etc., and you can't see it at all. But bare nekkid driftwood doesn't look right, either. Yours is great.


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

randym said:


> Is that algae on the driftwood? I really like it.
> 
> So often driftwood in a tank ends up completely overgrown with moss, etc., and you can't see it at all. But bare nekkid driftwood doesn't look right, either. Yours is great.


Yea I'm not sure what type of algae but it's very green and dusty and flakes off the leaves of the plants. The wood was covered with green slime algae last week but I tooth-brushed it off. I was trying to grow a sprig of moss on the top part but it never really took off..

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## Rushdoggie (Jan 14, 2015)

I have to say I love those gold white clouds they are so pretty!


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Adding a group of cherry shrimp to both these tanks sometime this week. I'll probably take the ghost shrimp out and throw them in my 40 at home. Updates will soon follow

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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Nice tank


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## Tbone_609 (Jan 10, 2016)

Looks great!


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Quick pic from today. I'm really liking how the ludwigia is filling in. I added a small a. reinekii stem also, we'll see if it does well and I may replace all the ludwigia with it. RCS should be shipped here sometime this week too









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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Haven't updated in a while, but not much has changed. We added a good colony of some high grade cherries to both the tanks and have been trying to get a good population going. I took out my rasboras and put them in my tank at home so they wouldn't eat any shrimp fry. I also added a few otocinclus to help with algae too.

The cherries have been in there for a month now. I initially lost 3 in the first week, and two more periodically after that, but I found my first babies two weeks ago and had at least one more batch hatch in the past week. There's a couple more berried girls in there so I think they're doing well. 

I also ripped out the two big crypts in the front so they wouldn't outgrow the tank and replaced the spot with s. repens. It's only been in there a week but it hasn't melted at all and is showing some new growth. I'm starting to see some deficiencies in my alternanthera and the lower leaves on the anubias so I'm going to start doing half doses of ei ferts and see if that helps.

Here's some pictures for your enjoyment 


















Can you spot the baby?






















































I'll post some pics of my coworker's tank tomorrow when I get a chance. Thanks for looking!



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## Rosieonfire (Feb 27, 2016)

What substrate are you using? I wish I could have a desktop tank where I work!

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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Quick update: not too much has changed, I lost a few of my adult cherries for some reason but the population has rebounded quite well. Tons of babies everywhere now and the first generation of shrimp born in the tank are now mature and saddled/berried. All the plants seem to be doing great too. I swapped out the 13w cfl's for 18 watts so things are growing quick and the alternanthera has pretty much taken over the back left. I'll be adding a paintball co2 system sometime next week to speed things along. My coworker and I will be moving these tanks a few hundred feet to a new part of our office here in about a month so I'm sure I'll post another update once that happens. Thanks for looking









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## malANDmatt (Apr 6, 2016)

Wow! It looks great!


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

malANDmatt said:


> Wow! It looks great!


Thanks! I think these tanks have matured quite nicely since we set them up. All our coworkers seem to enjoy them as well.

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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

Here's Trevor's tank today. He's battling a bit of BBA but otherwise his tank is going great also









I may start culling some shrimp soon to stabilize the lineage but I've been seeing lots of colorful juveniles which is promising









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## second (Jan 31, 2005)

Nice looking tank


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## Ryan10517 (Jun 7, 2010)

So it's been almost 6 months since I've done an update, almost a whole year since we've set these tanks up. Both tanks have changed quite a bit in that time frame too. 

Shortly after my last update I tried pressurized co2 on my tank with not so great results. The needle valve on the paintball regulator was inconsistent and caused ph swings throughout the day. That resulted in about half my cherries dying.... when I hooked up the co2 I also upped the lighting. The increased light and inconsistent co2 caused a terrible hair algae outbreak.

Here's what it looked like at its worst









It was way overcrowded with plants too so I ended up pretty much ripping everything out and starting the tank over. 









Here's what it looked like right after pulling everything and replanting









After I tore everything out and restarted the tank I cut my light level in half, reduced EI dosing to under 50% normal EI levels, and spot treated with glut daily. 

It's been pretty low maintenance after that. 95% of the hair algae has died and the only other algae I'm seeing is some brown diatoms which I'm attributing to high silicates since I'm using black Diamond blasting sand.

Plants seem to be growing fine and the shrimp are a lot more active and readily breeding. I added some r. rotundifolia in the back right corner. I think it adds a nice touch and softens things up a bit. Most of the needle leaf java got tossed with the rebuild but I left I little in there. Buces, lobelia cardinalis mini, and s. repens have all been growing great with only 14w of light and minimal ferts.

Here's some recent pictures of the progress after the rebuild.



















































Trevor's tank has been doing OK also, the Java fern had gotten way too big so he tore all of it out and is letting everything else grow in its place. Other than a golden white cloud suicide and getting rid of the ferns, not a whole lot has changed. He did move a few pieces of anubias around because they were growing up against the glass panes. Here's a few recent pics of his tank 


















These tanks have been a lot of fun to have at work with us. I think they've kind of become the office pets in a way. Everyone always comes and checks up on the shrimp and plants whenever they come back to the engineering corner of our office. Admittedly I've heard the "when are you gonna have enough shrimp to fry up and eat" line too many times by now.... but that's alright, I think these tanks have been as much of a success as I could ask for. Thanks for looking!


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