# Finnex 4 - Algae, help!



## Down_Shift (Sep 20, 2008)

wow nice finnex tank.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Great start. For a first tank, you're doing things right, in my opinion: being patient, good light, CO2, no ferts initially, and a careful selection of plants.
The rock is really nice. If you can find more of the same type, I would add a couple more. It looks a little bit like Seiryu stone.
What kind of shrimp are you thinking of putting in there?
Keep it up, pb!

Keep it up!


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## rekles75 (Feb 25, 2008)

Welcome to the Finnex club, There are quite a few of us on here with them. They are very nice tanks. 

I think you are off to a great start, But if you are going to grow glosso you may have to use the light that came with the finnex along with the "Robocop Lamp", LOL also for it to spread along the substrate. 

Lots of pearling, you even got the flourite pearling. Are you going to add a backround? 

Tank looks great, Keep us updated


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

*Ugly* 
I'm not sure on which shrimp, but something hardy and not too expensive.

*rekles* 
I doubt I'll add a background anytime soon, the cinder blocks, though not great, are ok for now. But I've always liked the back lit paper idea.

*Down Shift*
Thanks!


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

Small Update:

Bad news first I guess..

Got some glosso from helgymatt (thanks again!) but I forgot to give him my school address so it was sent home. It sat at home 3 days w/ no light on top of the 2 days it took to ship. It wasn't in in the best shape; I've planted it, but I fear it might not make it. We'll see though, it's only been in the tank a day.

Now the good news...packages! Got some flourish, excel and tweezers from the Dr.'s and I got my driftwood/anubias from badcop (can't wait for the wood to sink!).

Took some of the hairgrass out and planted glosso in the front, anubias will find a permanent spot when the wood is in. Pics later..


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

Pics!

Driftwood










Anubias










and a fts...should've gotten some close ups of the glosso so you all can tell me how it looks.










One piece of the wood has sunk already which is great...and the anubias won't be staying there long.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Your Glosso, from what I can see of it, looks fine. I'd bet it'll be just fine. Just give it light, CO2 and flow and it'll be okay.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I can't wait to see it fill out  It looks like you're on the right track


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

Good news! The glosso is making a come back, there is new growth emerging from the substrate next to almost every plantlet. Now we'll see if it carpets or grows upwards..

Also, check out my plans for a new fixture using the hampton bay lamps electronics.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/diy/76827-nano-pendant-plans-google-sketch-up.html


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## lilsuper2335 (Nov 13, 2008)

in one of the first closeups i notice the small white dots on the substrate...is that the seeds of the grass?


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

lilsuper2335 said:


> in one of the first closeups i notice the small white dots on the substrate...is that the seeds of the grass?


Those are oxygen bubbles, my substrate had a thin coat of algae on it which was photosynthesizing and releasing the oxygen in to bubbles. It's called pearling, pretty cool I think.


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

The driftwood finally all sunk and while hastily putting it all in there I kind of stirred everything up....so I decided to drain it and replant. I think this will stay as it is for a while. Anyways, here's what I ended up with.










Here's a close up of what I thought was a really cool spot for some anubias. The rest of it was planted behind the big piece of wood on the right but it floated up and I haven't put it back yet.


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## connordude27 (Jun 14, 2008)

cool tank i like the driftwood


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## Dollface (Sep 30, 2008)

Should get some moss on that driftwood, and then let it all grow in.
I really love your vertical placement of the driftwood, you dont see that to often.


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

connordude27 said:


> cool tank i like the driftwood


thanks!



Dollface said:


> Should get some moss on that driftwood, and then let it all grow in.
> I really love your vertical placement of the driftwood, you dont see that to often.


I'm hoping to track down some mini pellia soonish, I'm home on break for the week so sometime next week possibly. I also want to add some downoi around the bottom of the wood, that plant is so cool.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

pbfreakon said:


> I'm hoping to track down some mini pellia soonish, I'm home on break for the week so sometime next week possibly. I also want to add some downoi around the bottom of the wood, that plant is so cool.


That's a hard one to find. Manini has some in his fish store in Hawaii. It took me 6 months to find. I've heard there is some a aquaforest but they are hard to get ahold of . Good luck. 

Glad your glosso made it!


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

Well, it's been awhile and I've got small update for you all. I moved the tank home for the holidays and in the process leveled the substrate, covering a lot of glosso. So I decided to rescape, again. Also, I had a good visit from santa and he left me some new stuff!



















501 and pfertz!

Here's a full shot of the tank now. It's kind of depressing that every picture of my tank looks like it's just been set up :icon_frow


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

The driftwood is very nice and it looks very clean!


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

Phoenix-cry said:


> The driftwood is very nice and it looks very clean!


Thanks!

I meant to ask for some help deciding what to add. I want something to put around the base of the wood, I was thinking downoi would look good. I also kind of want something taller, maybe a rotala? Would a stem work in my tank?


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

Rotala is normally seen as high light, but my friend has med to low light and very happy Rot and it looks great. 

Perhaps a rock or petrified bit of wood?


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

Phoenix-cry said:


> Rotala is normally seen as high light, but my friend has med to low light and very happy Rot and it looks great.
> 
> Perhaps a rock or petrified bit of wood?


I'd thought about adding a rock, but I think I'll wait til the glosso grows in to decide. 

As for rotala being high light, I'm running the stock 13w and the 27w hampton bay at the moment. This might be a terrible idea...lol, but it has been fine for over two weeks now. I figure since the two are crammed over the tank I'm probably losing some of the light, so it isn't way overkill.


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## rekles75 (Feb 25, 2008)

Oh yea, I like the new DW placement. Good choice.


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## hilikus16 (Nov 6, 2008)

Thats a good looking tank i cant wait to see it grow in.

Just curious, when you said your substrate leveled out after you moved your tank, was this on purpose or because of the move home? I'm moving my tank back to college in about a week and i was afraid that would happen. My plan is to take all but and inch or two of the water out so it's not sloshing around everywhere...i hope this works.


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## Kayen (Oct 14, 2007)

Well you keep rescaping, it was looking good before, but nice restart ;D .


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

hilikus16 said:


> Thats a good looking tank i cant wait to see it grow in.
> 
> Just curious, when you said your substrate leveled out after you moved your tank, was this on purpose or because of the move home? I'm moving my tank back to college in about a week and i was afraid that would happen. My plan is to take all but and inch or two of the water out so it's not sloshing around everywhere...i hope this works.


If you have the tank in a car when you start and stop the water is going to slosh even with only an inch of water and the force is going to flatten your sub. I don't know anyway to stop that from happening. Maybe if you could get a big heap of java moss you can fill the waterspace with moss to keep the sloshing down.


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## btmarquis (Feb 15, 2007)

Cool tank! I have the same one, but its not set up yet. I like that filter. Are the hoses 13mm?


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## Cocobid (Feb 25, 2007)

I have had this tank for about a year after a few months the light that came with it stopped and ordered a coralife 18W. Bought a 1/3 piece of glass and placed it over tank. How do you like the 501 ZooMed? I just ordered 2 for the nano's. I really wanted a small canister for this and I love Eheims but I just could not justify for a 4G. But will keep looking for some used ones that are small. In the mean time will try the 501's. Have you run C02 through yours?
Your tank is looking good!!! I am finding Tiny tanks are challenging to scape. I have rescaped mine several times.


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

rekles75 said:


> Oh yea, I like the new DW placement. Good choice.


Thanks! I like it a lot better than the first placement.



hilikus16 said:


> Thats a good looking tank i cant wait to see it grow in.
> 
> Just curious, when you said your substrate leveled out after you moved your tank, was this on purpose or because of the move home? I'm moving my tank back to college in about a week and i was afraid that would happen. My plan is to take all but and inch or two of the water out so it's not sloshing around everywhere...i hope this works.


Phoenix pretty much answered it, but I'm not sure you can really avoid it. I think no matter how much water is in there things will still level out with all the bumps and vibrations. Kinda sucks.



Viettxboii said:


> Well you keep rescaping, it was looking good before, but nice restart ;D .


When I move back to school I think I'll do what I can to keep it the same. If the substrate levels out again, which I'm sure it will, I'll try to carefully restore the slope and uncover everything. I like it a lot more now.



btmarquis said:


> Cool tank! I have the same one, but its not set up yet. I like that filter. Are the hoses 13mm?


I believe they are 10mm hoses, but I'm not positive.



Cocobid said:


> I have had this tank for about a year after a few months the light that came with it stopped and ordered a coralife 18W. Bought a 1/3 piece of glass and placed it over tank. How do you like the 501 ZooMed? I just ordered 2 for the nano's. I really wanted a small canister for this and I love Eheims but I just could not justify for a 4G. But will keep looking for some used ones that are small. In the mean time will try the 501's. Have you run C02 through yours?
> Your tank is looking good!!! I am finding Tiny tanks are challenging to scape. I have rescaped mine several times.


Well, in the week that I've owned it there have been no problems. It was easy to set up, it's quiet, and filters much better than the HOB that came with the tank. I haven't run Co2 through the outflow, and probably won't because the pipes are so small and I don't want to lose any flow if I don't have to. I guess only time will tell, but it seems like a solid product and plenty of filter for 4 gallons.


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## hilikus16 (Nov 6, 2008)

Phoenix-cry said:


> If you have the tank in a car when you start and stop the water is going to slosh even with only an inch of water and the force is going to flatten your sub. I don't know anyway to stop that from happening. Maybe if you could get a big heap of java moss you can fill the waterspace with moss to keep the sloshing down.


Thanks for the info. I guess i could just tilt my aquarium back in my seat a little bit so that when it flattens out it will still actually be at an angle?


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

That could work, how many gallons? Does it have seams? Don't put too much pressure on the seams, tanks aren't built to be on a tilt. 

When I moved my 90 gallon I kept 6 inches of water so I could keep the fish in it...BAD IDEA!! Giggle. two months later one of the seams burst in the middle of the night from the stress of the move. Amazingly all the fish lived! I had enough other tanks to house the fish until I could fix the tank.


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## hilikus16 (Nov 6, 2008)

Phoenix-cry said:


> That could work, how many gallons? Does it have seams? Don't put too much pressure on the seams, tanks aren't built to be on a tilt.
> 
> When I moved my 90 gallon I kept 6 inches of water so I could keep the fish in it...BAD IDEA!! Giggle. two months later one of the seams burst in the middle of the night from the stress of the move. Amazingly all the fish lived! I had enough other tanks to house the fish until I could fix the tank.


It's just your standard 5.5g AGA so i think it will be fine. It'll only have about a gallon in it during the move...just enough to keep the plants content.


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## merk1_99 (Nov 11, 2008)

Can you get a better pic of how you have your lighting? I have the same tank and was thinking of doing the same thing, but didn't know how it would work. Currently have the stock light and a NO florescent I had laying around over the tank.

I like the zoomed filter I am thinking of getting one as well so I will be following your thread to see how it performs. 

Finnex 4's rock. I have my second one on the way.....


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## jargonchipmunk (Dec 8, 2008)

I moved my 20H planted with the hairgrass carpet still planted. (I pulled the taller stems) Nothing moved. I sucked out all the water I could (there was still a bit above the substrate though) I think what helped me is I have a piece of driftwood that runs 75% of the length of the tank horizontally and the bottom portion of the wood is half-buried in the substrate. This most likely held the upper portion in the back in place and didn't allow it to move forward covering the hairgrass. So I guess if you didn't have anything planted in the middle you could put some sort of temporary rockwall in the tank in the middle to stop the substrate from moving too much.


also, I do like your new DW setup. I think some flame moss on the wood would look great!


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## btmarquis (Feb 15, 2007)

Merk1 99- I have this tank and have a Current 18W x 2 that fits perfectly on it.


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

Very nice!


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## merk1_99 (Nov 11, 2008)

It looks sharp!


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

The tank is falling prey to it's first algae bloom, here's what I'm dealing with:










It looks to me like bga, but it's kind of brownish too. Any advice on this stuff? I'm thinking a blackout would be beneficial.


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## brt_p (Nov 16, 2008)

diatom maybe?..
put about 10-15 RCS, WC, then blackout for 3 days..


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## Cocobid (Feb 25, 2007)

Tank is looking good. 
I bought the Zoo Med 501 and is working great. The only wish list for the filter is would like to adjust the flow for a little less and the fittings are not real snug. Any suggestions! It seems like the perfect little canister for small to 15G tanks. Where did you mount your spray bar. Oh since where ours is located it does not have room at the back to hold the filter so I just ordered the holder for it. Have a beautiful orange bungee cord holding it on in the meantime. Glad I ran into your thread to see you running this little guy.
Keep the pics coming


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## 17882 (Aug 25, 2008)

I cut both the spray bar and intake a few I inches short, then mounted them vertically next to one another the way you would arrange lillies. Flow is even throughout, all the glosso leaves sway gently no matter where. I'm thinking it's a perfect fit for the 4 gallon, though maybe too little if it were more densely planted.


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## Cocobid (Feb 25, 2007)

Looking at your Pics that was my guess on mounting. So much nicer than a HOB, just real clean. Maybe this is the beginning of the 501 revolution LOL


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