# Starting a Nano tank after not touching aquariums for 5 years



## Rnasty (Jun 30, 2017)

I'd remove a lot of that substrate, you're sacrificing a lot of water volume.

as for depth, I think if you planted small plants at the base of those big rocks it would help add some depth. Something like pogostemon helferi or s repens perhaps?


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## madcrafted (Dec 23, 2017)

It's not a bad arrangement, but yeah, it lacks some depth. The best way to create an illusion of depth in narrow tanks is to start low in the front and slope towards the back with your substrate. You will be able to pack in more plants this way. I would stick with smaller form plants and mosses, personally.


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

Just some update pics, had a little bit of hair algae for a couple weeks but the tank is stabilized pretty nicely now. Algae has all but disappeared, plants are starting to grow like crazy, starting to get a lot of good red coming out on the Limnapholia Aromatica. Overall a fun little nano so far


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## Koenig44 (Aug 19, 2016)

Tell us more!!!!!!

Equipment? Future fish? How do you do water changes in a room like that? I personally would be scared of getting water on anything in such a glamorous room like that....lol. 

I'm not a big fan of non-painted tanks....but yours is PERFECT for that room. Love it!


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

Koenig44 said:


> Tell us more!!!!!!
> 
> Equipment? Future fish? How do you do water changes in a room like that? I personally would be scared of getting water on anything in such a glamorous room like that....lol.
> 
> I'm not a big fan of non-painted tanks....but yours is PERFECT for that room. Love it!


Equipment is $30 Amazon light, I have a twinstar 600e that fits this tank, but I wanted to see what kind of results I could get with the cheap light, so far I've been happy with it. Filtration is a 265gph Sunsun canister with polyfill and lavarock, has to lift the water a bit from the floor so with the head added in probably only about 100ish gph. CO2 is a paintball setup with the small neodiffuser.

For water changes I just put some towels out, its pretty easy not to make a mess since I'm only changing 2-3gallons.


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## oscarlloydjohn (Dec 3, 2017)

Looks great. Can't wait to see it once it has grown in.


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

oscarlloydjohn said:


> Looks great. Can't wait to see it once it has grown in.


Thanks! It was originally going to be more of an iwigumi layout, but with the stone I had on hand I couldn't get the depth of field I wanted with such a narrow tank, so I decided to just load it up with some stem plants and crypts.


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## personman1021 (Aug 22, 2018)

Just wanted to say ur tank looks awesome hope all is going well with it


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

Made the mistake of putting the Twinstar 600e on the tank to see what it would look like...looked to0 good, had to switch over from the Pawfly led lol. The growth with the other light was great, just an aesthetic choice really


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## swarley (Apr 12, 2018)

I totally know what you mean about the twinstars. I have a 600S for my new 60U UNS tank and it really has a great color to the leds. I put it in my 20 gall tall regular tank just to see, and everything just looked sooo good. And I had Chihiros RGB on it so I didn't expect the difference to be so stark. 

Both the inside of the tank and outside of the tank looks so much better with the 600E on it. A+ choice.


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## oscarlloydjohn (Dec 3, 2017)

Are you dimming the twinstar at all?


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

oscarlloydjohn said:


> Are you dimming the twinstar at all?


Yeah, it's on about 50%


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

Noticed today while cleaning the tank that my Cherry Shrimp are starting to breed and some of the babies are actually surviving!


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## dacrax15 (Sep 11, 2018)

Hope you're ready 100s of cherry shrimp!


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

dacrax15 said:


> Hope you're ready 100s of cherry shrimp!



I have a small school of Ruby Tetras in the tank so they will get rid of most of the newly hatched shrimp. That's why I was surprised that I had some actually making it to Non-Edible size, lol.


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## chinzerz (Aug 27, 2017)

The tank looks great! What are you using to dim the Twinstar?


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

chinzerz said:


> The tank looks great! What are you using to dim the Twinstar?


I'm using this one, but just about any inline pwm dimmer would work.

https://www.nicrew.com/products/nicrew-single-led-lighting-timer/

The description is really bad, it makes it sound like just and on/off timer with a 15min ramp, but it's a pretty cool timer, you get 5 day parts that you can set a different % for. So you can do 8-9 15%, 9-12 40%, etc. and make a really natural light cycle with it.


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## Tone2337 (Jul 27, 2018)

Welcome to the jungle! No maintenance for 3.5weeks due to the holidays and vacations. 
Quick update photo.


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## mertgezer (Jan 8, 2020)

Tone2337 said:


> Welcome to the jungle! No maintenance for 3.5weeks due to the holidays and vacations.
> Quick update photo.



I love this look of the tank... i hate trimming plants


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