# 36cm nano



## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Had a few problems with my cube, so I had to decom the tank. Made a new tank and started a new project.

Here's the specs:
Tank:36x25x30cm
Lighting:24w PC
Filtration: Aquaclear 20 modded with a surface skimmer
Substrate: peat, laterite, black gravel and Amazon sand
Hardscape: Redmoor Wood and Seiryu Stones
Flora: Java Fern ”narrow leaf”, bolbitis heudeloti, anubias nana, anubias nana petite, fissidens fontanus and Riccardia chamedryfolia.
Fauna: Celestichthys margaritatus, otocinclus sp. and Neocaridina denticulata sinensis var. red.


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## mumushummus (Sep 16, 2009)

nice rebirth!


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## jinsei888 (Apr 20, 2009)

The CPD, RCS, and entire scape look fantastic!


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## RipariumGuy (Aug 6, 2009)

Very good job on the tank!


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## kcirtappatrick (Mar 16, 2009)

looks good!


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Now update. Got some new shrimps


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

just to share this pic...


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi, 
2 weeks are gone since the set-up. So far, no major issues with the tank inhabitants, and my RCS female presented me with at least a dozen shrimplets.
The bad thing, it's about the GH, that keep rising (my water it's about 6º and now it's about 12º), due to the use of seiryu stone, and some plants are having some problems to adapt, like bolbitis and my mosses (mini-pellia and phoenix moss).

Today's pic.


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## crimsonbull57 (Jan 7, 2009)

do you still have the vamp shrimp?


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## ermano (Nov 15, 2009)

So what do you plan on doing about the GH?


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Your tank looks amazing! I love everything about it.

I'll be following this thread closely.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

crimsonbull57 said:


> do you still have the vamp shrimp?


Hi,
The vamp shrimp I took it back to my lfs.


ermano said:


> So what do you plan on doing about the GH?


I'm starting to use RO or distilled water


AzFishKid said:


> Your tank looks amazing! I love everything about it.
> 
> I'll be following this thread closely.


Thanks...glad you like it


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
Got some news to share  
I went to my lfs what a lovely sight. Some really nice fish to have - boraras brigittae. Brought a small group of 6 home. Added as well to the nano a killer snail.

















Swimming free after conditioning.








crystal black shrimp in housekeeping


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

Very nice setup! I just got a group of six B.brigittae also, so far I love em, nice and active pretty little fish.


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## Outlawboss (Dec 30, 2008)

Fantastic. I love those rocks.


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## Cichlid Junkie (May 13, 2005)

Nice tank. I love the layout.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hello,
Got some sad news :crying: .
For an unkown reason all the boraras brigittae died and with that almost took with them all my crystal black shrimp colony. Just got one shrimp left.
Started with big wc to keep ammonia levels to acceptable levels for shrimp and fish.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

So sorry to hear about your fish and shrimp, but the tank looks phenomenal! I imagine if I had to die today and I was a fish or shrimp, I'd want to die in a pretty place like that.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Ugly Genius said:


> So sorry to hear about your fish and shrimp, but the tank looks phenomenal! I imagine if I had to die today and I was a fish or shrimp, I'd want to die in a pretty place like that.


Hi UG,
Thanks for stoping by in my journal and I apreciate your kind words.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
Already ordered a new nano tank for next project...  
But decided to introduce new shrimps to the tank. A small colony of crystal red shrimp...


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## Mokusei (Oct 27, 2009)

Sweet hardscape and stunning photos!


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

A week after adding the crystal red shrimp, life in the nano tank goes on. The CPD's are very fun to watch, got lot's of new red cherry shrimp and the crystal red shrimps are doing great.

Some algae just started to appear on the rocks, but got no major concerns about it. A simple nerite snail will do the job.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
Got some updates....
Today I bought new bulbs to replace the old ones and bought a group of corydoras pygmaeus to keep CPD's distracted.... and it works.


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## Bonefish (Mar 14, 2009)

I'm sorry you lost the B. briggitae and some of the shrimp! Tank looks wonderful though, it looks like it has bounced back well. Great selection of plants and animals. It must be a pleasure to watch them all moving around.

Pygmy cory cats are precious. Love the new addition!


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## usan86 (Dec 3, 2009)

*36cm nano journal*

Around 23ºC


A week after adding the crystal red shrimp, life in the nano tank goes on. The CPD's are very fun to watch, got lot's of new red cherry shrimp and the crystal red shrimps are doing great.

Some algae just started to appear on the rocks, but got no major concerns about it. A simple nerite snail will do the job.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

usan86 said:


> Around 23ºC
> 
> 
> A week after adding the crystal red shrimp, life in the nano tank goes on. The CPD's are very fun to watch, got lot's of new red cherry shrimp and the crystal red shrimps are doing great.
> ...


Hi Usen 86,
Can I help you with something :confused1:???????


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Beautiful natural looking scape. That's some great photography as well! roud:roud:

Thanks for sharing!


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

EdTheEdge said:


> Beautiful natural looking scape. That's some great photography as well! roud:roud:
> 
> Thanks for sharing!


Thanks mate... I'm glad you like it.

Some pics to share.
My berried female red shrimp.








and my mosses.


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## ermano (Nov 15, 2009)

lookin' niiice


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
During last week I replaced my bulbs. Since then I've noticed some really nice growth from bolbitis and mosses.
Noticed as well some clado algae growing in the driftwood and for precaution I reduced the light quantity, just living one bulb on.
Will keep daily water changes of 10% and, if the algae don't go will have to try CO2. Will see what happens now.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Clado still there, but overdosing excel and spot treatment with H2O2 it's working and, trimmed most of the affected leaves.

Algae pics to share with you  

















Some got a moss background, I got an algae background... :crazy: side view









Shrimps at feeding time.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Some pics to share  .


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## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

Beautiful tank! Love the hardscape. You take great photos, too.


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## Aqua'd (Dec 20, 2009)

Awesome tank, Your photos are great!
Hope the algae fixes itself

I really love the moss, it looks perfect with all those shrimp keeping it clean!
Keep up the good work!


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## Aquamadman (Aug 10, 2007)

Its exactly the same algea that I have in my 60 ltr tank. When I added pine wood the water PH must have dropped causing the algea to deter, although there is still some left on the older leaves it mainly stays within the bouderies now. 

I also have a lot of fast growers which probably also help stabilise the nutrition competition among the plants so maybe you could try adding some stems or fast growers, maybe surface plants to suck away the excessive nutrients?


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## Aquamadman (Aug 10, 2007)

BTW I love the scape. I hope I will be able to make something similar in the future


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Strick said:


> Beautiful tank! Love the hardscape. You take great photos, too.





Aqua'd said:


> Awesome tank, Your photos are great!
> Hope the algae fixes itself
> 
> I really love the moss, it looks perfect with all those shrimp keeping it clean!
> Keep up the good work!





Aquamadman said:


> BTW I love the scape. I hope I will be able to make something similar in the future


Thanks guys... 

Got some updates  .
Even the battle against algae it's not finished, I added another group of shrimps. Crystal Black's are an old time favourite, so I decided to get a few more. 
















Happy Crystal Red shrimp grazing on my lovely mosses  
















What you think about my pregnant CPD?


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
Since last week I'm adding CO2 to the tank. I've noticed the bolbitis it's full of new leaves on it's rhizome and mosses looks greener. Clado still there but it's starting to retrieve.

2 months later this tank still got plenty to offer . Female CPD looks every day more round and fatty. The CPD's group look happy. CRS and CBS are growing nicely, but no babies shrimps had been seen yet. Red Cherrie's looks like factories in double shifts producing babies. I got lot's of them berried.


























Once, someone ask me what I give to my fish and shrimps.


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## Badcopnofishtank (Jan 20, 2004)

This is a refreshing little scape. Nice job.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Badcopnofishtank said:


> This is a refreshing little scape. Nice job.


Thanks....
Goods news now... yesterday I spotted a female CRS carrying eggs. On it's due time will try to share a pic of her.


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## MARIMOBALL (Mar 18, 2007)

wonderful tank i like the natural gravel foreground the stones and the livestock selection. Your algae problem can be resolved by changing to less light 24 watts may be too high and you have low light plants. a 13 watt light would work better plus you would enjoy the tank more because you can keep it on for up to 10 hours a day.


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

jose faria said:


>


what is this moss in the picture and how did u get it grow like that on the rock. how did u attach?


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## JennaH (Sep 28, 2009)

your tank is gorgeous. what a great rockscape and use of space. love the anubias. and all your shrimp have great color.

and.. congrats on the preggo CPD!!


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## zeldar (Jun 24, 2009)

wow this is an amazing tank. Love the rocks especially. I actually like the green algae on the rocks. Makes the tank look older which I feel is a plus. I also really like the substrate. Is that your own personal mix or did you buy it like that? Its a real nice contrast to the hardscape/plants.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

MARIMOBALL said:


> wonderful tank i like the natural gravel foreground the stones and the livestock selection. Your algae problem can be resolved by changing to less light 24 watts may be too high and you have low light plants. a 13 watt light would work better plus you would enjoy the tank more because you can keep it on for up to 10 hours a day.


Hi,
The luminaire it's about 4 inches of the water surface... I do believe the lights are not problem...
btw the algae problem it's almost gone.



problemman said:


> what is this moss in the picture and how did u get it grow like that on the rock. how did u attach?


mini-pellia or _riccardia_ sp. It's attached with zip-tie.



JennaH said:


> your tank is gorgeous. what a great rockscape and use of space. love the anubias. and all your shrimp have great color.
> 
> and.. congrats on the preggo CPD!!


Thanks...



zeldar said:


> wow this is an amazing tank. Love the rocks especially. I actually like the green algae on the rocks. Makes the tank look older which I feel is a plus. I also really like the substrate. Is that your own personal mix or did you buy it like that? Its a real nice contrast to the hardscape/plants.


Thanks mate...
The substrate I bought it at my lfs and it was written in the package Amazon sand.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

got new guys to help with the cleanings.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
Some pics to share of the tank and pregnant CRS


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Just to share some pics of my mosses and shrimps...


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi,
Some pics to update after a month....


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Great looking nano! Is that mini pellia that you have growing nice and tight on the back stone?


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

MrJG said:


> Great looking nano! Is that mini pellia that you have growing nice and tight on the back stone?


Hi,
Thanks...
It is, if you are speaking about that one near the heater.


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## zerojoe0917 (Apr 29, 2009)

Absolutely beautiful! and the best part is that you tank gives a very natural look to it! makes me feel very relaxed! 

And on top of that, you plants are doing so well! it amazing how much Mini pellia you've grown over time! Very Impressive !

thanks for sharing!


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## Morainy (Feb 8, 2010)

Gorgeous tank! And, great pics! I have not yet figured out how to take photos of my tanks that do them justice.

Congratulations on your new boraras brigittae! I have some of these and they are adorable. They are also not too bright, it seems, and so I can easily catch them with a baggie if I want to transfer them. They basically swim into the baggie and wait for me to catch their buddies.


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## Fat Guy (Nov 19, 2003)

nice tank. and really nice clear pictures. looks like a lot of fun.


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Hello guys,
It's been a while since my last update, but real life comes first  
This nano it's on cruise control now. No problems, just WC and add a little bit of ferts one time per week... it couldn't be better.


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## AlexXx (Dec 1, 2009)

WOW so amazing. that is a giant fern of fissenden? or what is that! damn!


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## jman (Sep 7, 2009)

Nice flower on that anubias.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Beautiful, beautiful tank. The Fissidens and MP in the lower right hand corner...stunning.
I love your diffuser, too. I've never seen one like that before.
Keep it up!


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

AlexXx said:


> WOW so amazing. that is a giant fern of fissenden? or what is that! damn!


 Nope...it's only a sense of scale; it's a 3mm RCS shrimplet in top of that _fissidens_


jman said:


> Nice flower on that anubias.


Thanks, 
it's about the 4th flower in less of 2 months


Ugly Genius said:


> Beautiful, beautiful tank. The Fissidens and MP in the lower right hand corner...stunning.
> I love your diffuser, too. I've never seen one like that before.
> Keep it up!


Hello UG,
MP and fissidens are beautiful, so far, my favourite mosses (ok, one of them it's a liverwort).
About the difusor, it's an ELOS Ato10 difusor... You should try one someday and take your conclusions, since you always look for perfection.


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow, this is a great looking nano tank!

How did you attach the mini pellia to the rock?


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

ZooTycoonMaster said:


> Wow, this is a great looking nano tank!
> 
> How did you attach the mini pellia to the rock?


Hi,
It's not attached to the rock... Just tied the mini pellia to a small branch and then with a zip tie, attached the branch to a flat piece of slate. All set it's just behind that rock you can see in the pic.


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## adjangs (Mar 13, 2010)

Do you have any tips on how to take such great closeup pics of fauna?


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Last monday I gave/sold all my RCS colony to friends, so at the moment just got CRS, CBS and Amano Shrimps in the nano tank, for invertebrates species...
Having less 100+ shrimp in the tank, water quality improve and yesterday I spotted some tiny fry darting in the tank.
First I thought that could be the couple of ottos I got in the tank.








After looking for some info in the net, I'm start to think that could my CPD's fry....
Some pics of the babies  , but with about 2mm size, it's quite complicate to take a decent pic with camera


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

More then 2 months later, only got 6 CPD fry remaining, with about 12 to 15mm size. 
Done a Wc today and removed manually some algae, except back glass.....
Tank is a complete mess since I decided to protect the little fry, but now it's time to recover the plants and mosses to it's full glory back.


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## AkCrimson (Dec 17, 2009)

Oh I am envious of your CPD fry! I just put mine is a species tank so I am hoping to have fry soon....

GORGEOUS photography you do. Might I ask what lens you use?


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

AkCrimson said:


> GORGEOUS photography you do. Might I ask what lens you use?


Thanks....just got a Sony DSC H-7, nothing special......:tongue:


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## jose faria (Jun 5, 2009)

Battle against algae still goes on... honestly don't have any rush on it, but it's starting to be a bit annoying and gettin' my lovely mosses.... but got all kind BBA, GSA and Clado.
So in the last 4 weeks increase the volume of WC (roughly 50 - 75%) every 3 days. CO2 diy and Elos ferts, and just bought EasyCarbo because Excel is out of stock for months at my lfs.
























and this is how my galaxy fry look now


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## SearunSimpson (Jun 5, 2007)

That tank is looking pretty good for how bad the algae used to be. Have you thought of removing the fish and shrimp to a different tank
and doing a full overhaul?


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