# 1g National Geographic Easy Clean



## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Reviews online said the 'easy clean' feature merely stirred up the detritus rather than flushing it out so I made an undergravel filter. A lot of people fault UGF for pulling detritus down and it getting stuck there, well this tank drains excess water from the bottom so...

Bump: The hood has what appears to have mounting locations for some kind of light, but for as long as this product has been out, there has been no sign of a light accessory to get for it! So... that had to be modded as well. 

At a 2" distance from 28 LED usb reading light... the intensity is high enough for Java Moss to pearl.


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

That's a neat under gravel filter. How many shrimp are you keeping in there?


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Econde said:


> That's a neat under gravel filter. How many shrimp are you keeping in there?


There are 9 RCS. And apparently a piece of water wisteria that I temporarily homed in this tank had bladder snail... unintentional infestation. I'm now planning a 2nd NatGeo 1g in order to have a clean tank to clean/move stuff one at a time from this tank in order to redo the tank without the snails. The new one will be quite different from this tho. I have some proper planting substrate and learning from a few things from this one I realize I can do high light ground cover and what not. 

Oh yeah, and tho the Eheim Substrat Pro is cycled, I continually do a drip water change. Over a week it's usually 1/2 gallon water change, but lately I've been doing more than that to fix my TDS for the shrimp. Airline and water are in a cabinet above. I used to drop diluted ammonia water when I was cycling the tank.


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## Kyrayne (Jun 24, 2013)

Very interesting.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Nice growth.


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## AnthonyW8822 (Feb 15, 2014)

Remove shrimp, insert dwarf puffer. 3 days and those snails will be GONE.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Just under a month and some have finally matured. Good thing i started another tank a week ago, this ones gonna get crowded.


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## Watercrayfish (Apr 21, 2016)

I have the same tank with shrimps......

I have eco-complete as gravel and some pool filter sand. 

Using the side overflow container as my media and floss holder.

I dont have an pic to demonstrate something like this

http://imgur.com/a/qSVn8

Edit:
Forgot about this. My first youtube video when I did setup it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O5XFR8JQgg


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

I thought of doing something like that but when I tested the flow rate through the substrate with Floramax it had very low and if it gets too low of a flow then it's possible to overflow the main tank with whatever was in the sump, and if the sump is kept with minimal water then it might run dry and a lot of pumps need to be submerged to keep them cooled, I've burnt out a 60 gph pump once by letting it run dry for just a few seconds. Also finding a submersible pump that has less than 10 gph seems impossible. I saw a dosing pump that does 3.5, but found out it's quite loud so running it 24/7 would be noisy.


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## Watercrayfish (Apr 21, 2016)

FishRFriendz said:


> I thought of doing something like that but when I tested the flow rate through the substrate with Floramax it had very low and if it gets too low of a flow then it's possible to overflow the main tank with whatever was in the sump, and if the sump is kept with minimal water then it might run dry and a lot of pumps need to be submerged to keep them cooled, I've burnt out a 60 gph pump once by letting it run dry for just a few seconds. Also finding a submersible pump that has less than 10 gph seems impossible. I saw a dosing pump that does 3.5, but found out it's quite loud so running it 24/7 would be noisy.


True the flow rate is less. Since using air pump so no worries on running dry if that happens.

The ammonia and nitrites are 0ppm, so mission accomplished LOL. There are like 10+ shrimps and babies in that.
Picked this tank for $3 from Petsmart, so had to do something with it.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Watercrayfish said:


> Picked this tank for $3 from Petsmart, so had to do something with it.


Wow how'd you get it for that much? The lowest I've seen it was around $19. For that much I could just go with a 10g or 20g during a $1/gal sale, but for me this was an office desk build so none of the larger aquariums is an option, plus this thing has the gimmicky 'Easy Clean' feature.

Not sure as to the future of this tank. At the moment I have another Nat Geo getting established to take some of these shrimp. I can kinda see maybe a 5 gallon taking it's place or something. Maybe if I can get a nice rimless and a canister that I can put in the cabinet above.


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## Watercrayfish (Apr 21, 2016)

FishRFriendz said:


> Wow how'd you get it for that much? The lowest I've seen it was around $19. For that much I could just go with a 10g or 20g during a $1/gal sale, but for me this was an office desk build so none of the larger aquariums is an option, plus this thing has the gimmicky 'Easy Clean' feature.
> 
> Not sure as to the future of this tank. At the moment I have another Nat Geo getting established to take some of these shrimp. I can kinda see maybe a 5 gallon taking it's place or something. Maybe if I can get a nice rimless and a canister that I can put in the cabinet above.


Yeah I got lucky. It was around thanks giving season, may be clearing out their stocks for more room.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

I'm getting an urge to get a glass replacement tank now. This thing is too small to catch shrimp in. I've been lookin at these:
Penn Plax Vertex
Ultum Nature Systems 25C 4.1g Cube 


As for this tank and the new one, I've got some weird ideas on ways to use them together as overhead sumps. Having a pump take water up to the cabinet into one tank that overflows into the other, and the catch reservoir on the 2nd needs to be plumbed with an overflow pipe that returns back to the tank. I guess the first tank would be bio filter, and the 2nd nat geo tank can be a refugium growing algae on a canvas so as to pull out excess nutrients and reduce algae in the glass tank. A funny modular design where you can add and remove sections. Only thing I don't like is that this would be extremely overkil for a 2-4g shrimp tank, but I like being able to have lots of refugiums as I love growing moss.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

I caught one of the females in the act of laying eggs!


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Updated the lighting in the hood. I found there are a couple different lights using the same shell, but different leds. The original light I was using had smaller leds in a black shell. These are brighter and now two of em can fit after removing the plastic shell. 

I know for sure i have 2 males, 3 berried females, and the remaining i think are immature females. I had thought it was even split but more have rounded out and gotten saddled. So I may have 2 males and 6 female. This is gonna get crowded in about 1-2 weeks. Every time I see a molt a few days later another female gets berried...


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

looks nice


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

5 were berried on Friday, and today all 6 females are berried. This is start of week 3 for the first female that berried, so should be seeing fry soon. The walls are all covered in algae, I've been blasting lights at it from the sides as well as the lights I installed in the hood, so I haven't been taking photos cuz I can't get any clear shots till I clean it. Gonna wait till after half of the females have hatched their eggs and transfer to a new tank before I clean the algae off. 

Eventually I want to get all the shrimp outta this 1g and into my aquarium at home and into my neighbor's aquarium, besides the new 1g. Then I'm gonna tear this down and nuke the snails and stuff that came in on that wisteria. Then I'm eye balling 10 Blue dream or blue velvet. Rinse and repeat lol. Everything going according to plan I'll have a good stock for the 20g when I set that up in May. If my tank at home and my neighbor's goes well with the RCS, then I'll just move all of the RCS home (relying on neighbor as a backup in case one or the other tank crashes), and replace them with some 24k yellow neos, so I'll run some blue and yellow at work(two 1g tanks).

Weather is gettin warmer, the moss will pretty soon be moved to a container pond which I'll be doing some outdoor fish breeding with (if I can get a starter group).


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

V2 under way.

I've actually played with the new NG with Floramax for a month, but opted to go back to my original undergravel design. The ability to just suck out detritus without grave vac was pretty ridiculously awsome. And ultimately I don't need a plantable substrate as I'm growing out moss and shrimp for other tanks here.









Substrat Pro buried in the middle. The original was all Substrat Pro, which was excessive. It's a canister filter media. Gravel to better keep the shrimp from going under... tho actually v1 they were getting under via the openings in the uplift tube that I opened up so they could come and go as they pleased. If they get under in v2 then I'll open up the UGF flow director like I did v1.








Lower UGF plate, the original had a lot of unnecessary space.








Double vision! @[email protected]








I have an order coming in from BucePlant. A lot of flame moss, also some more mini xmas moss. The mini xmas I got off amazon from LUFFY was like 90% dead now that I see what parts are growing. I thought it looked nice when I got it but ultimately very little of it was viable and now that the living parts have grown it's possible to see how much of it was bad. 

Really needed the mini xmas to come later when I reset the current 1g, but shipping... over $99 was free. Also 20lbs of Ohko for the 20g. 

BucePlant is weird, they have different payment options if you're on mobile... Paypal or their checkout on both desktop and mobile. But if you're on mobile you also have Amazon checkout available. Weird, if I'd know Amazon was an option then I'd have ordered the rock sooner when they were selling it cheaper.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Good stuff, now where do i keep it... In retrospect, the portions are sufficiently large that 2 flame moss would have been plenty... I got 4.

Starting to eye those Dream Blue Velvet and Golden yellow shrimp. Must... resist... tank has to cycle and mature! ARGH!


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Well look at what arrived too late! Xinyou XY 2891 sponge filter supposedly for up to 10 gallon aquariums.

I DIY'd a sponge filter to play with Floramax in the Nat Geo for almost a month, then decide not to go with sponge/substrate, and of course then this arrives.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Well one of the females is no longer carrying eggs. I hope they hatched. I don't see any little shrimp but hopefully they made it and are hiding. 

Can't tell if the female is saddled up again, now that she's mature it's hard to see through her.

Found a useful accessory, rubber stoppers for the test tubes. My tubes are about 20yrs old and the plastic caps are leaky. Also the caps that come with api tests drip out if you open them which makes gh/kh testing messy, and possibly inaccurate.









And this i ordered 2 months ago. Xinyou XY-2835 crazy small

















XY is so compatibility modular! 2 corner and the tiny one I just got. 










UPDATE: I found one! I was sittin here using my camera cuz it's easier to see than actually looking and i found one! 









Oh and another...

And another... 

And...


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Baby pics! 









My daily population count just got complicated...


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## Beer (Feb 1, 2012)

How much was that corner filter?
I may be setting up breeding programs shortly for a wild type betta and for a killie strain. While I can probably get away without filtration with the strains I want to work with, keeping surface film from building up and keeping the water better oxygenated will be benificial. I think those corner filters would be a perfect option. Do you know if they make slightly smaller versions?


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Beer said:


> How much was that corner filter?
> I may be setting up breeding programs shortly for a wild type betta and for a killie strain. While I can probably get away without filtration with the strains I want to work with, keeping surface film from building up and keeping the water better oxygenated will be benificial. I think those corner filters would be a perfect option. Do you know if they make slightly smaller versions?


I got it off amazon. Currently listing at $3.37 And free shipping. 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DT1XXJW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jXlWybFQM77VT

It takes about a month and a half to get it tho. I didn't see a smaller corner version, just the tiny round one. It's very modular tho, and easily modded. I'll post a few pics of the parts later. It would very easily be modded to the same height as the round one, it uses all the same parts, the only difference is the foam which can be cut with scissors. 

UPDATE: 
So here's a pic of the parts in the corner sponge. 









Side note: The smaller round model i got only had one intake grill piece. 

And if you need a smaller one I'd say remove one of the intake grills and cut the sponge accordingly. Like take off the top two layers or bottom two layers. 









I open all of them up to make room and insert an air stone. 
























Testing


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## Beer (Feb 1, 2012)

Awesome, thanks for all that info and pics.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Easily counted 15 fry this morning. Looks like another brood hatched since they're so easy to find. Can't wait to see how crowded the images will be when all the females have hatched their broods.

Pretty sure this is the 2nd female, the 1st female to hatch was a dark opaque red. 
There's one female that looks just like males, need to find someplace to house some culls.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Last week I started feeding Bacter AE cuz of the fry, and starting last week the mature shrimp have been showing less of a response for Hikari Crab Cuisine. The mature shrimp used to come running for the crab cuisine. I also have Azoo Max Breed which never had much of a response. I actually had to remove left over crab cuisine last week and I was only feeding 1 granule. 

Really amazing stuff this Bacter AE is. I use the back end of the handle rather than a whole scoop and put it in a syringe and shake it up then drip it over the moss once a day during the week. Pretty expensive stuff tho, but it should last quite a long while. 

Bacter AE 35g ~$20
Hikari Crab Cuisine 50g ~$7
Azoo Max Breed 20g~$10 

After trying the Max Breed I was ready to write off the expensive specialty food as snake oil, but after trying Bacter AE... I'm sold on this stuff. What's really amazing is the tank gets a 2 day fast for the weekends, I expect them to come hungry Monday feeding time. Not anymore... 










There are so many everywhere now, dont even have to try hard to find em. Starting to color up. 









Should i start sucking them out with a turkey baster and moving them to the other 1g?


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Started pulling out week old fry and moving them to the new tank. Need them to get to work on what's growing in there. 

Some are up to 7mm now. Omg I thought they were dying till i realized i was watching tiny molts fall out of the java moss. Every time I bump the moss debris and little white exoskeletons rains down in the original tank.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

It's been a while since the adults haven't been able to get on top of the moss. The moss itself has been vertically bound and getting a bit of emerse growth. 

So I decided to dam up the overflow a bit. 









That got just under an inch of extra water height and the shrimp are real eager to get up there and clean the tops. 









This should also make catching fry with the turkey baster easier. And easier for escapees.
Also the bubbles are popping higher now and getting water on the lights...

Update: Few hours later the scotch tape sprung a leak. A bit of plastic and superglue and we have a permanent fix. Tho the surface tension is much higher with the plastic piece and even tho i made it lower than the tape it seems the water level is now even higher. 









Crazy surface tension.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

It's gettin harder to catch the fry past a week old. They're so fast now and can swim against the suction of my turkey baster :'( . 

Moss is filling in the new space up top pretty fast, adults getting block off from the meadow again.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Omg! :crying::crying::crying:
One of my best dark red females must have jumped into the catch reservoir of the new 1g. I just poured her down the drain :crying::crying::crying:

That tank has a 1" gap, much higher than the old 1g that I modded to get more water height, and none have snuck into the reservoir on the old one. I'd been dumping the old one into a clear container to inspect for babies before dumping down the drain. :crying::crying::crying:


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

I feel bad for you TBH because I had a shrimp go down my drain once and I felt like I just committed the worst crime known to man, felt like I murdered someone... horrible, horrible... 
Any who rest in piece, Reddy...


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

BettaBettas said:


> I feel bad for you TBH because I had a shrimp go down my drain once and I felt like I just committed the worst crime known to man, felt like I murdered someone... horrible, horrible...
> Any who rest in piece, Reddy...


Thanks. Man this was a pretty ok day at work till just now. :crying::crying:

She gave a few flaps as she hit the sink and slid into the drain. My heart stopped for a bit when I realized what had happened. If the clear container hadn't already been full I'd have poured into that first. Or if only I had poured into the toilet or If only I had ...


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## BettaBettas (Aug 21, 2016)

if if's and but's where candy and nuts' lol my step dad used to tell me. Hm... Maybe he will live as a SEWER FISH!  hell like become an epic mutated super hero or something! and he could save everyone in New York City! like TMNT! 


totally could happen... legit..


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

It's been a good few months and the Nat Geo 1g has been fun. But I've had an itch for a proper size tank at work, and finally have ordered a replacement for both Nat Geos. So once my fry are grown out and make their way into their new homes with my neighbor and in my home tank, I'll be wiping the slate clean. Well, maybe they'll get utilized as shrimp quarantine or something.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Small tank, small feeding dish. 
LOL the adults gotta fight for a seat at the dining table.
















Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

It's like clockwork, 40 days since the previous clutch.










Update 6/08/2017:
Blue Dreams on the way

























Update 7/6/2017.
Finally! Blue Dream fry!









Update 7/10/2017. 
Cull candidate. 

















Update 7/21/2017.
Count is up to 20 fry.

7/27/17
Not as impressive as when RCS were in this tank. Need more females.


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## FishRFriendz (Dec 21, 2016)

Still going strong









2 year old undergravel filter 








No mulm, no problems!


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## Elvis (Jun 11, 2019)

Very impressive!


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