# My Three Nanos "low maintenance" nanos Jan-2021



## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Just sharing my three nano tanks. An ADA 30c, an aquamaxx 22 Long, and an ADA 45p. All are relatively low maintenance tanks despite being relatively high tech. The SPS nano reef will be interesting to do as a "low maintenance" system. I have a dosing pump ready to do my auto top offs (but only for ~ half the evaporated water to prevent overfill risk) and a very small amount of Alk/Ca dosing. The rest I will accomplish with water changes to limit my headache of balancing dosing in ~6g of water. It has been set up for about 1 week with some cheap test corals now. The black cage is the prison I put my hermit crabs in....they get fed when they seem hungry. 
















The ADA 45p is my wife's desktop aquarium and is filled with algae to sustain the two otocinclus and amano shrimp. Although they seem quite happy munching on the nymphoides. I will have to replant the carpet soon. But it always grows back quickly with CO2 despite being heavily shaded. I do water changes every other week despite dosing full EI with Thrive +. Nitrates are almost always 0. The nymphoides is a huge sponge for nutrients and the monte carlo is probably living off of osmocote buried underneath it every other month or so. 











The 22 long is where I grow my favorite plants. I realized after doing several "aquascapes" I was always happiest when I just let the plants do their thing and not worry about shapes or placement. Trimmings are straightforward mow downs of everything to make my life easier (trimmed last week). Dosing this tank is a little complex though as there is a mix of difficult and easy plants that need to be kept happy but is essentially full EI with less macros and a custom GH/KH blend for the tap water. I put worm castings and osmocote under the aquasoil every once in awhile when my nitrates start bottoming out despite dosing 12-20ppm each week and feeding heavily. Again, nymphaea and other lily-type plants will completely deplete the water of nutrients when they get big enough. 







Plant list (some designations are dubious):
Nymphaea gardeneria 'santeram' 
Nymphaea micrantha 'tricolor' 
Glosso
Hydrocotyle tripartita 'japan mini' 
Anubias nana
Java fern sp. 'india' 
Hygrophila pinnatifida 
Eleocharis parvula
Helanthium tenellum 
Rotala macrandra 'yellow narrow' 
Rotala macrandra 'mini red' <-stays annoyingly green
Rotala h'ra <-always orange
Rotala 'pink' <- stays yellow-green despite being bought in an ADA TC cup
Limnophila aromatica 'mini'
Ludwigia palustris 'mini red' <-not very mini and looks like normal palustris in high light anyways
Blyxa alternifolia
Vallisneria nana <-grows very slowly in my tank, water is probably too soft.


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## Jamo33 (Feb 18, 2014)

Love them all mate, the 22 long is a tank I've wanted for a while and I love your style. Let the plants do what they want, simply mow every now and then! 
Great work!


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Jamo33 said:


> Love them all mate, the 22 long is a tank I've wanted for a while and I love your style. Let the plants do what they want, simply mow every now and then!
> Great work!


Thanks! The long is great for those of us with volume limits on aquariums (landlord rules) but also want more planting space. One thing I experience though is that there isn't enough height for some plants to color up very well.some finicky rotala need to be a certain height to start coloring up and as a result they end up having to start crawling across the top quite a bit.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Update regarding the 22 long....Betta tank is a little unkept as I let the lilies grow too much. Reef is looking blue as ever and it hasn't been long enough to see much more than 1 cm of growth on the corals. I did add a new purple stylophora, acropora, and chalice though. I will do a photo update after the coral expo next week.

These are just some impromptu iphone pictures. I need to trim and clean the glass.... 

Blue wash







No wash







RHS







Middle







LHS


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

I think it's time for an update on these tanks soon! The 22 long actually got rescaped and is still growing back in. Also added 8 Centromochlus perugiae to the tank to scratch that catfish itch.


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## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

Looking forward on the update:can you also let us know the equipment on the 22l? (Lighting in particular) 
. Thanks

Bump: Looking forward on the update:can you also let us know the equipment on the 22l? (Lighting in particular) 
. Thanks


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

fishydaze said:


> Looking forward on the update:can you also let us know the equipment on the 22l? (Lighting in particular)
> . Thanks
> 
> Bump: Looking forward on the update:can you also let us know the equipment on the 22l? (Lighting in particular)
> . Thanks


Sorry this has been waiting for so long. Here is a quick top down picture. I need to clean glass for FTS. Lighting is UNS Titan 1. But I have 900ES Twinstar I need to repair so I can get some red saturated pictures.

Since last picture the tank has been remodeled but all the same plants. Some fresh aquasoil was thrown on top of the old and the ember tetras have spawn 2-3 times! I now have ~5-6 babies of various sizes.

Current dosing has changed weekly: 
~1.5ppm Fe from NilocG micros
~20ppm K from K2so4
~10ppm PO4 from Kh2PO4
~0-4ppm NO3 from KNO3
~4ppm Ca from CaCl2
~10ppm Mg from MgSO4

Still dosing micro heavy. soil is fortified with home made worm casting tablets or single osmocote balls. I use plus and regular. I don't see a major difference.

New plants include L. arcuata, N. minuta, Crypt flamingo, Eriocaulon sp., limnophila wavy, rotala rotundifolia 'red', and lagenendra 'keralensis'. I have probably one of the biggest stands of Java Fern 'India' out there. Really great java fern variety that stays small and doesn't make plantlets on the leaves.

New fish include 8x Centromochlus perugiae great catfish active at night and sleep in the plants during the day.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

A quick FTS as for how the tank currently looks. Rotala needs a trim and I think we're going to have to vacuum the substrate later this week but all and all, looking OK for a ~7 month old tank. When I have time, maybe tomorrow I'll actually do a good FTS with rear lighting to remove the reflections haha.









Also the reef still exists...


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## Streetwise (May 24, 2019)

Both those tanks look great!

I lost my last saltwater tank when it got flooded in 2011 by Irene. It is now my 16 gallon bowfront tank. I would be tempted to setup a super minimal pico reef (2.5 to 7.5 gallons). Is there a marine equivalent to a Walstad tank these days?

Cheers


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Streetwise said:


> Both those tanks look great!
> 
> I lost my last saltwater tank when it got flooded in 2011 by Irene. It is now my 16 gallon bowfront tank. I would be tempted to setup a super minimal pico reef (2.5 to 7.5 gallons). Is there a marine equivalent to a Walstad tank these days?
> 
> Cheers


Sorry to hear about that. I lost a planted tank back when Harvey hit us in Houston. I think you should really give a nano reef a try. There are so many great AIO systems and if you just stick to easy SPS (monti, seriatopora, stylos etc.), softies and LPS they are actually less maintenance than a high-tech planted tank. The only work would be slowly adding CUC as the tank matures and maybe weekly to monthly water changes. 

My strategy for maintaining the acropora in my tank is dosing 2 part and doing top offs with a 3ch autodoser. I also use reef crystals because it has elevated elements. Because you have less water volume, water changes with a rich salt are more beneficial and it provides a little more buffer room if one of my autodosers failed.


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## Streetwise (May 24, 2019)

If you don't mind, I would like to reply in your thread before I jump into another forum where I don't know anyone.

I did live rock, fish, snails, shrimp, crabs, scallops, but I never intentionally added coral. I was good at salinity mixing, not killing things, and accidentally breeding brine shrimp in my canister filters, but I never took it to the next level.

How much can you achieve without a separate sump, or a canister filter? I like the idea of an AiO, where the sump is in the tank, because I have done that in freshwater to a certain degree with my gemini tanks. I would be willing to go up in size a little bit to try that. As a renter in an old building, I have to keep all my aquatic dreams small and potentially mobile.

Perhaps I can do something with my Tunze 3161 units, since they are currently in a bucket.

Edit: I need to lookup the terms from your previous post. Thanks, and sorry about your flooding too. 

Cheers


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Streetwise said:


> If you don't mind, I would like to reply in your thread before I jump into another forum where I don't know anyone.
> 
> I did live rock, fish, snails, shrimp, crabs, scallops, but I never intentionally added coral. I was good at salinity mixing, not killing things, and accidentally breeding brine shrimp in my canister filters, but I never took it to the next level.
> 
> ...


Well the tank you see has an eheim 250 on it if that’s any indication to you. I also live on the third floor of an apartment. I use a rodi system that screws into my kitchen sink for my water needs (A must have). As long as you control nutrients (few fish) and alk you can grow most things. No way to gas your fish with co2 either lol.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

Quick FTS. Tank has been quite stable. Things are growing well. N. micrantha sends out flowers on a weekly basis now. 







Some fish shots















I sometimes wish I got a 30g rimless instead of the 22g. That extra 2" of height would have come in handy to showcase how red the stems are getting behind the giant java bush.


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## Jeffww (Aug 6, 2010)

It has been a long time since an update. Almost a year! Tank has been rescaped to keep my life a little easier since I have been too busy. It was really difficult to choose my favorite plants to keep but here is what my fish corner looks like right now. I'll take some more pics soon. Also a peek at my SPS nanoreef.

Plant list:
C. wentii 'flamingo'
C. spiralis 'red'
Eriocaulon sp. (I think this is perhaps breviscapum)
Marsilea hirsuta
Java fern 'india' 
Lagenandera keralensis
Nymphaea minuta
Nymphaea gardeneria
"Buce" moss
Anubias petite

Ended up moving all the stem plants/hairgrass/glosso into flower pots and grow them emersed. I probably have about 5 square feet of E. parvula now but it's going dormant for the winter.


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