# *Out of Service* Finnex 4 journal



## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

This is my first attempt at a low tech nano tank and it is still a work in progress. I do have a stump of Mopani wood that will be the focal point. I did set it up both dry and partially filled with the stump in place but it was removed as the moss I have coming for it has not arrived yet. I am hoping to have that sorted in the next day or so. 

The look I am going for is medium planted with some carpeting in the front. Fauna will be shrimp and some micro-*insert fish here* that I can hopefully get via the forum as the local LFS deal mostly in saltwater. Currently I have ghost shrimp in there because A. they are only $0.43 and I won't be attached to them when B. they may die while this tanks settles in due to my using soil. 

The tank canister was seeded with media from my oldest tank, I had a bag in there with bio material for a couple of weeks collecting 'stuff' to help speed things along. Day three and everyone was alive, active and seemingly going about their business. I may come home though this evening to find everything dead but I am hoping otherwise. 

Tank: Finnex 4 gallon
Filter: Zoo Med 501
Heater: n/a 
Lights: Finnex Power Compact Fluorescent w 13 W PC Daylight 6500 
Substrate: MG Organic Choice topped with combo of Carib Sea Moonlight Sand and Tahitian Moon 
CO2: n/a
Dosing: n/a

Stocking:

1 - Olive Nerite
4 - Ghost shrimp - i.e. victims
fish TBD

Planted - 
Hemianthus Micranthemoides (Dwarf baby tears)
Cryptocoryne Wendtii 'Red'
Aponogenton Crispus
Bacopa Australis
Echinodorus tennellus (Pigmy Chain Sword)
Dwarf Anubias Nana

All the plants came from Planted Aquariums Central except for the Anubias which was in another of my tanks waiting for a home.

I will keep this thread to initial setup pics and some comments but I will start another thread with my journal entries. Although I am mostly complete I am open to some suggestions not requiring a complete tear down of the tank so feel free to make suggestions. I am always open to them and it is appreciated. 

I hope everyone enjoys, this being my first nano and choosing soil there is a learning curve, I just hope it turns out well and I don't come home one day to find out there was a huge spike sending the shrimp to leap out to their deaths and everything else pretty much done for. 

Link to web player that I will continuously update as pics are added.

http://img716.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=sn852179.jpg



Tank fresh out of the box. The supplied filter will never see the light of day in lieu of the Zoo Med 501




Clips for lid. These were a separate purchase. The tank does not come with a supplied lid so this will be a DIY most likely will purchase glass cut to size. This would fit on these lid clips nicely.











Profile frontal of Mopani stump - the side I will be using











Profile side of Mopani - back side. It has character, I just don't think this is the side that should be shown.











Frontal shot after soil added











Tank with soil added











Close up shot of the rounded tank edges in front. For the most part the finish work is very good. I was impressed with the quality of this tank.











Full frontal with tank light











Another full frontal shot











Stump placed in the location it will eventually reside. For the final I did slope up more to that side, as much as I dared considering I am using soil.











Another shot of the above











Profile of the other side as it appeared, I just wasn't feeling this much although it has character. I don't think the coloration would be as visible. Wet it does not show it at all sadly.











Full frontal with the Mopani in place. The last version I worked on I replaced the white background which was just a sheet of paper with a piece of white rice paper material used for window covering. It really looks interesting and not so plain as simple paper. I am not sure though if that is the right color/look, up for debate still.











This was a layout that I chose after some planting. I eventually filled the tank, looked at everything to make sure I was happy with it then lowered the water level in order to remove the stump. 











This frontal of the tank was what I chose as the final layout for the stump. The Anubias made it in after this. 











This was taken later after adding the plumbing for the Zoo Med 501. See the spoon off to the side? Yeah, that is how I filled the tank. More details in the next thread on this. 










Tank filled with ghost shrimp acclimating prior to release. You can see the canister off to the left of the tank. 










This is a full frontal of the tank with the house lights dimmed. The tank on the right is the feeder tank where the plants were until I moved them over. This was a test soil based tank that will be decommissioned soon.











Another frontal of the tank











I took a series of pics of the ghost shrimp foraging & exploring about. The camera is a POC p&c that is giving me fits when I try to use the macro on the shrimp. It focuses on them fine and when I snap the picture it refocuses and drops out to what you see below. 

Ghost shrimp foraging





















Dueling shrimp, this was a battle royale!




























































Mine, all mine muahahahaha!!





















Look, food! Run for it..


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

now the fun stuff..

Lessons learned:

Soil.. boy that was fun. I spent a good hour sifting that Miracle Grow Organic potting soil making sure it was debris free. It looks like fine ground coffee and smells great but.. when sifting soil for something like this, go out and buy yourself a vegetable sifter and a tub from Wal-Mart or wherever else you can find a cheap one that you can use again in the future. Why? Well you don't want your wife coming out to the garage asking what happened to her kitchen sifter only to find you sitting on the garage floor with a mess and there is the sifter with a pile of dirt and sticks in it. Oh, her tub she uses for soaking her feet, yeah, finding that with a pile of dirt in it organic or not is not going to make for a fun evening for you. A small bowl so you can dump the debris is a good thing to have, I tossed all of it into the garden so as not to waste it. Also use gardening gloves to help force the good soil through the sifter. 

Laying the soil down in the tank was pretty easy except for me deciding to do this indoors and in a room with carpet. I left it unattended on the floor and when I came back our spaniel decided it was cool to dig around in it. I followed the dirt trail to where she was hiding and subsequently cleaned her muzzle which was covered in dirt. Luckily my wife was working on Saturday and I was able to wash the dog, clean the tile and was able to get most of the dirt out of the carpet. Mercifully this threw down in my office and my wife did not see it.. till this morning. 

Now laying out seems like a breeze and I have watched a few videos on YouTube with planting tips. Let me tell you those people are highly skilled because I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated I was when I tried using that technique to simply pop in that plant and bask in the glory of my aquatic gardening skills. I was ready to pull my hair out when the plants would inevitably pop right out of the soil and float to the top making a mess. 

Filling the tank without making a mess is quite a mission. I initially filled it with the stump in place. Being that it is a small tank there is not much you can get in there but a small cup. I first started gently filling in by pouring water on to the stump letting it make its way down the side and gradually wetting the soil enough to get me to where I could take a better approach. Well that made a mess. The sand cap is white for the most part except for where the stump is placed. For some reason unbeknown to me I got this brilliant idea to use the black sand under the stump, well the black sand ended up bleeding all over the place causing a mess. Little black grains peppered all over my beautiful white sand cap! GAAAH! Luckily more experimenting on my part since the water level was still low I took some white sand on a spoon and gently let it fall on the offending black sand. For the most part the problem was solved.. until of course the plants decided to float up on their own causing another set of problems. I took a different approach to raise the water level once it was high enough. I took a plastic spoon, laid it right at the water level and _carefully_ poured the water right on to it. This technique worked and once I raised the water to a couple of inches I was able to pour the water in more liberally speeding up the process greatly. The saucer on the bottom is a great idea but you still get kick up of the sand and when you lift up the saucer the suction caused makes a huge mess.. huge, epic, like oh crap I have to do this all over again because I don't know how the heck I am going to fix this! 

Everything else pretty much fell into place. The shrimp are still alive which is more than I can say for the red cherry shrimp that I received on Friday who were supposed to inhabit this tank. When I got the package I should have known something was up. Although they were packed great, the box looked like they were playing kickball with it. One side was crushed pretty bad which means they did not have a smooth trip. Although they were active when I got them and I did my best to acclimated them to the temporary QT tank they did not make it through the next 24 hours. I was really bummed, these were juveniles and I really hoped for the best but when the one bit the dust that evening I should have seen it as the dark cloud on the horizon. The next morning they were history.. hence the reason for the expendable ghost shrimp. I feel less bad about five shrimp leaving me two dollars out than I do six shrimp leaving me sixteen bucks in the hole that lasted me less than eight hours. 

I had Celestial Pearl Danios planned for this tank in addition to shrimp but someone beat my auction at the last minute by swooping in and leaving me empty handed. Unfortunately for me the auction was over in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday which is horrible timing might I add for anyone to end an auction. Weekends, afternoons in particular are spent running errands and doing yardwork so keeping tabs on an auction is not happening. Especially if you are already in the dog house because you ruined your wife's vegetable strainer and foot tub. 

As of this morning all five ghost shrimp were alive, I did not notice any killer gas bubbles forming under the surface of the soil, at least not that I can see around the edges but surely that is always a possibility that I can come home to find everything dead. That is why I have the ghost shrimp in there... If all goes well and it does not happen then great, they will be moved to one of my older tanks and will have to deal with my bettas. Every ghost shrimp that has ever spent time in those tanks has gone missing or we find them outside the tank after leaping to their death for some reason. 

I will keep updating with new pics and what I learn along the way and I would be happy to offer my experiences with anyone who would like to know more. I'm new at this so please be gentle. 

Thanks for looking!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

*Progress pics*

Day 2:










Day 3:

Tank params - 
Ammonia - 0
pH - 7.6
Nitrate - 0
Nitrite - 0

I threw in a floater today as additional help to suck up any excess heebie jeebies in the water.


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## RayT (Aug 27, 2010)

Great looking tank, looks bigger then 4 gallons! I also enjoyed reading your posts about the journey to put this tank together, thanks for sharing. I have a question tho, are those the stock spray bar and tubing that comes with the 501? If it is do you know the size of that tubing? Also, how is the flow for the 4 gallon?

Thanks!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

The stock tubing is what I am currently using but I did buy a replacement set of ADA style tubes made of acrylic from a forum member on another aquarium forum I frequent. He also makes a sweet drop checker as well. The stock tubing is 10 mm. The flow is not bad really, I have it facing the back wall and you cannot really tell. I just did a 50% water change and I adjusted the bar so it shoots up some and you can see it shimmer just on the surface. So far the ZM 501 has been really quiet. The stock tubing has to go though, I am glad I hooked up with this guy who makes the acrylic tubing. I will post pics as soon as it is installed on the tank and write that up as well. PM me if interested and I will get you his contact info. I have pics of what I bought as well.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

*New pipes*

I have been looking around for some replacement inlet / outlet pipes for that ZM 501 as the stocks are not visually appealing. Not wanting to spend a hundred bucks on glass pipes at the moment I found someone who makes acrylic versions that are very nice. Yes, it's not glass, I know but right now I am not convinced the expenditure for the glass is the best idea. Certainly I would consider it in the future as the crowning touches once this project has reached that level but for now I think this is a good acquisition for me. Pic spam below.

Once I get them I will write it up, take pics and post them up in the tank as part of the journal.

Drop checker


Pipes


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Day 4:

I did a partial water change today. Checked the parameters and nothing changed, everything still the big goose egg zero. I took advantage of the lower water level and readjusted the spray bar and moved the intake to the left side wall. I also planted another of the plants that was intended for this tank, the pigmy chain sword, sandwiched right between the anubias and the aponogenton. That right side with the dwarf baby tears though is still bothering me. There was not quite as much as I thought in that bunch I purchased. A lot of it was not plantable, as much as I tried. I have this bare area that I hope fills in. I can always find some more online and buy it to plant it and get it over with too. 



Pigmy Chain Sword in the middle planted today


more Pigmy Chain Sword


the Dwarf Baby Tears.. need more cover


Anubias with one of the ghost shrimp hanging out on it


Bacopa Australis




I really get a kick out of watching the shrimp, too bad they won't last long. I will replace them though with something a little more flashy than won't be so hard to get the camera to manage a good focus on. You cannot imagine how hard this is to capture them in focus.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

*Almost complete*

Day six:

My acrylic drop checker and replacement pipes that I bought from a forum member that makes them came in today. It was a yay moment for me. Also, I was waiting on some moss that I bought from another forum member, that arrived yesterday so today I set to attaching everything and replumbing the Zoo Med and here it is. The right rear needs help, I know. I don't know what to do with it but it needs a taller plant. Suggestions, comments and concerns welcome. 

Drop checker, inlet & outlet pipes


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

*Day 6 update*

Day 6: 

No more shrimp loss.. a forum member suggested I check for copper since everything else tests fine so I went and bought an API to test for copper.. it's not copper. I do stand by my thought that the temperature is not doing them well. Our a/c is set to 75 overnight, this morning I saw the temp on the digital read 74. Short of closing the vent in the office each night I don't have any other recourse. I could run the lights overnight in an effort to keep the temps up due to the heat generated by the light but would that be sufficient to keep the temperature stable and not cause the wild swings from 80 to 74? I thought their range was lower than 74 and down to 70 with the ideal being around 75. Maybe the poor mishandling by the LFS since they are treated as nothing more than feeders. I have two in a 6.6 with one of my bettas and they do nicely. The betta kinda chased the rest and they leapt to their deaths. Anyhow, everyone is still alive for now, they still seem inactive to me and if I find them all dead one morning I would not be surprised. 

Tank parameters still all read the same as they have been all week. Nitrate is the only level not reading 0 and at around 5 ppm. 

You can see on the last two pics the dwarf baby tears have visible roots starting to rapidly develop. Good for me, yay! Something is going right!!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Oh, and this arrived today in the mail.. what to do, what to do..


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## Newman (Jul 3, 2010)

I think you should just let everything grow out and see what it looks like a few months from now.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Figured out how to work my drop checker that I had picked up from a forum member who makes them and also added added an end-to-end moss wall that I built this evening.. what a mission that was.


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## Ben. (Mar 29, 2011)

Everything looks great! It's going to be so green when the wall fills in


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## Quentin (Mar 16, 2011)

Looks good. Keep it up.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

*05/09 update*

Almost two weeks since the last update and a few things have changed. I have a school of Celestial Pearl Danios happily swimming around doing their thing. Really neat little fish and I enjoy watching them go about doing their thing. The last two surviving ghost shrimp are doing well. They finally came around and started eating. I am feeding the CPD's a mix of flakes and micro pellets and the ghosts seem to like that more than the betta pellets I was using before. It's funny watching them grab a flake and start munching on it. 

The tank is healthy and most of the plants have acclimated although some more than others. I am still playing around with the light period and the amount of light I am allowing though the blinds to get that right combo. I did make a drastic light change though replacing the light that came with it and going to an desk lamp the last week. I think that stock light crammed right on top of the tank was too much for these plants. Now I went one up on myself and bought a 10W LED that the manufacturer claims to be in the 6000~7000 K range. We will see right? I made a DIY mounting arm for it where I can adjust the height and angle without a hassle. 

The plant situation is going good. I started a dosing regimen using the medium tech Pfertz package. You can see by the pics that the dwarf baby tears have really taken off in this tank. The pigmy chain sword is doing really well too, it sprouted a new plant and took over in front of the anubias. That plant also amazed me for the first time in six months I had it, in the last week the first new leaf came in. 

I had to trim back the aponogenton because it was not doing too hot. I threw in some cambomba from another tank to fill in the back and it seems to be doing well also. Even the moss which was browning badly has come back and is a nice full green now. I may have to trim the dwarf baby tear soon which I was honestly not expecting to take off since I am not using CO2.

Enjoy the pics.. questions, comments or concerns always welcome.

~d


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## jahmic (Jan 30, 2011)

Tank looks great. Can't wait to see it once the moss wall fills in.

Can I ask where you found that LED fixture? I've been looking for something similar for my tank.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

eBay, I will PM you the link and the stand is a DIY made from IKEA parts. 



jahmic said:


> Tank looks great. Can't wait to see it once the moss wall fills in.
> 
> Can I ask where you found that LED fixture? I've been looking for something similar for my tank.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

*05/12 update*

Some random pics I took this morning with the new LED in place. I was noticing the difference over the last couple of weeks. I started dosing with Pfertz medium tech a little over a week ago. 

The pigmy chain is shooting new growth all over the place. The plant in the middle which I still cannot ID is really shooting up since the Pfertz dosing. You can see the new growth on that in the lighter color. 

The CPD's are still active an happy as you can see. I also alleviated the surface scum issue by moving the outlet pipe near the water surface allowing more agitation. Moss wall is peeking out in a few places, not super fast growth but better than none or worse having it die on me.


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## jimko (Aug 17, 2007)

Everything is looking healthy and green! If you want a nice carpet plant give HC a try in the foreground. It grows shorter and denser than HM. Keep the HM where it is, it's a good mid ground plant and it's filling nicely.

Moving the middle stem plant to the back left or right might balance out your scape a little. I have some java trident you can tie to the wood. 

I haven't tried miracle grow so I'll be keeping a close eye on your progress!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

That middle stem I added a week prior to that pic and it absolutely took off more than I anticipated. This morning I had to trim back the pigmy chain sword because it had sprouted five plantlets that were along the front and beginning to move into the area where the dwarf baby tears are. That will need a trim soon too because that is turning into a forest. LOL 

I have some small branches of Manzanita that I just got, I may tie off some excess moss I have and add that to break up that right corner maybe? I can always try it and remove it if it does not work.


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## Lisa816 (Nov 4, 2010)

Great job!!! This looks really nice. I love seeing the pictures of your progress and reading your journal notes. I'd like to find out about the led light too. Do you have a lid on the tank yet, or are you still planning to diy one?


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I completely forgot to post these pics. I took them yesterday and uploaded them last night.

There is a new piece of Manzanita I loaded with moss on the right rear about 2 inches from the right corner. I threw in a couple of stems of Pennywort as well, had them laying around so in they went. The forestation continues. I am going to let the dwarf baby tears grow in a little more then I am going to trim the tops. The same goes with the plant in the middle, I can use those clippings somewhere else. 

The LED is doing well I think. I run it on the same schedule the other fixture was on. Unfortunately I cannot use the timer I have because I used a three prong grounded plug. I have to find a timer that will allow me to use this plug, till then it is manual for nine hours. The brown diatom outbreak from last week seems to be contained for now. 

CPD's are still doing great, the two ghost shrimp are still alive. The stupid ramshorn snails that hitched a ride on one of the plants decided to reproduce, I found egg sacs on the moss wall. They were eradicated once I had clarification from someone as to what those things were. Now I have to catch the remaining two horny snails and make sure this nonsense stops now. 

I think this next week I will be moving on adding some real shrimp into the tank.


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## Ben. (Mar 29, 2011)

Why don't you plug the three pronged into an extension cord or a strip then into a timer?


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

I bought a 3-prong ready mechanical timer for about $10 at either home depot or lowes I think roud: 

Also, I love this little tank! I love your choice of plants with small leaves to compliment the small size of the tank, if I didn't know it was tiny, I would think it was much bigger! :biggrin: (well in the close-ups anyway, I suppose the blinds would ruin the illusion in the farther away shots :hihi


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I found a 3-prong timer at Lowe's today so the light will finally be on a timer.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

demonr6 said:


> I found a 3-prong timer at Lowe's today so the light will finally be on a timer.


Excellent! roud: Timers make life so much easier :hihi:


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Agreed, finding the right one was my issue. LOL I did not plan on a 3-prong. I don't think a single timer in my house is a 3-prong. This is for that DIY LED and it required (or at least the instructions I followed) a 3-prong. By the way that LED is amazing. The plants are going nuts and I am going to have to trim soon. I will get a pic tonight and update.


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## Couesfanatic (Sep 28, 2009)

Who made your drop checker?, looks nice.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

The plants like the LEDs huh? That's good to know. I've been looking for a desk light to use on my 5g to get a better spread of light than I have now, but I was only looking at fixtures I can put a CFL into, there are some nice LED desk lamps too though, maybe I'll try one of those instead.


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## orchidman (Dec 15, 2010)

who did you get the lily pipes from?


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

The drop checker and lily pipes were made by a forum member from another forum but I can surely give you his contact information. PM me if you are interested in his contact information.

The growth with since the LED has been significant. When I get the pic tonight I will see about a time lapse type post.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

That's awesome, I would love to see a time-laps photo because there are some really nice LED options for desk lamps now and it would certainly increase my options if LED works roud:


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

New pics taken this evening. I really need to buy some tools so I can trim this mess before I end up with a tank full of plants. 

I added a Manzanita twig with moss on the 21st and threw in this other twig that the shrimp seem to enjoy sitting on and blowing in the breeze. Go figure. I am making an attempt at a time lapse to show some of the progress. 

Enjoy!

04/16








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/demonr6 

04/21








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/demonr6 

04/28
 

05/02








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/demonr6

05/09








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/demonr6

05/15








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/demonr6

05/21
 


05/26


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Wow, the tank is looking fantastic! I can't believe the growth just between the 21st and 25th! Amazing! I guess the plants really do like the LEDs!  Very cool!


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## ADA (Dec 31, 2010)

I sooooo love this tank. You have some talent my friend.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Thank you! I am excited about this 20g long I have bought and waiting. Still working out everything but it is a big step up. 

I like this tank but my fav though is the tank at work.. my little Max and his no- brainer tank that I have had at work now for almost a year. It is not as complex as the Finnex in this thread but you can see by the pics that it does not have to be uber high tech to get a nice environment for the fish. Just a TOM mini submersible filter that has never been changed, a heater since the betta needs a stable environment and the tank light.


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## orchidman (Dec 15, 2010)

Karackle said:


> That's awesome, I would love to see a time-laps photo because there are some really nice LED options for desk lamps now and it would certainly increase my options if LED works roud:


Led desk lamp?? Whats the scoop?


You can call me Bob


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

The LED on that Finnex is not a desk lamp. You can see it in a previous post. It is a DIY jobbie.


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## swoof (Jun 30, 2010)

Demon, love the progression on this tank. Great job  I like how you set the LED up.

Orchid that LED is designed as a replacement for Flood Lights, but makes a great LED for fish tanks too, lol.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I think it made s huge difference. Since I made that change the plants have really grown in loads. I think it was $28 shipped and another $5 for the cord I bought at Lowe's. It comes bare wire requiring a plug but there are instructions and it was simple really. The stand was made from some IKEA hardware and cost nothing. It is actually a track for their curtain system with one of the brackets for the same. The claim by the seller is that it is a 7000k 10W LED.. the plants like it.


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## orchidman (Dec 15, 2010)

i was referring to karakle's post


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

orchidman said:


> i was referring to karakle's post


Understood.


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## orchidman (Dec 15, 2010)

to bad there isnt an led desk lamp! that would be nice!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

There are, just really obscenely expensive.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

I actually saw a 13w LED desk lamp at target for like $15 the other day!  But I'm not sure if it's the high-output LEDs or the little ones.....so hard to know without plugging it in first how bright it would be.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Yes, I was looking at all of them in fact. None of them are above 5w and without any information on what the color temperature is that would be an absolute crap shoot. At best though you can buy one and replace the LED's suitable which is what I had in mind.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

New pics added!

So here we are a couple of weeks later with another update. I took my nephews new Coolpix camera to give it a whirl since it is hella better than mine but it is still beyond my grasp how to get the really nice macro shots so you all can enjoy the Celestial Pearls better. 

I had to trim back the Cambomba because it was really clogging up that center area and with it being just one stem I did not want to remove the other plant just to make room for it especially when it really was not that full compared the the others. 

The Pennywort was three inches above the surface and growing down the side of the tank, it was trimmed back along with its roots that were nearly at the top of the Dwarf Baby Tears. 

The Dwarf Baby Tears have gone from carpet to stems due to them going for the light and not carpeting anymore. The lower level is dying off as the top seeks better light so I think I will have to lower the LED down a few inches to combat this better? Advice appreciated on this. 

The Dwarf Sag has thrown new plantlets all over the place and one has overtaken the poor Anubias and claimed the front left corner. I would like to remove it but I cannot uproot it because it will cause a hot mess I am sure and that leaves me with cutting it down and be done with it. A shame because it is growing in so nicely. Also I found DS all the way clear in the back right so that shows how much of a weed this is. 

I am really happy with the way the moss has been growing on the stump and on the new piece of beaver stick I added a couple of weeks ago although the wall is not as full as I would like it to be and is growing really slow. The backside though gets more light from the blinds and that side is growing well. Go figure. At least it is not brown and dead so I will live with it until it decides to fill in. I am not sure what would make it grow or fill in faster but again any advice is welcome. 

I added some of the Carib Sea Black Tahitian Moonlight sand to the front because the white was just not cutting it and was brown and nasty. I know some won't agree with the visible triple layer of soil, brown-white sand then black sand but I don't mind it. I don't focus on it and the layering is not annoying me so it is good for me. 

I replaced the stock tubing because it got nasty with algae and here we are two weeks later and it is getting nasty again. I am going to have to remove the pipes as well to clean them because I just can't look at them with brown and green algae although I have seen other tanks where you cannot see anything but them being nasty. I guess it is just me, it is not hurting anything so maybe I need to get over it. 

The CPD's are doing well, they seem happy and they are active. They chase each other around in and out of the plants. I had an oh $hit moment this afternoon after I took the pics and was just doing my once over I found one of the little guys had managed to lodge himself between the intake filter and the glass and could not get out. I moved it and he freed himself and hauled out of there. I have moved it so that won't happen again. I would have been really upset to lose one of these guys over a stupid mistake on my part. 

I have some Amano's on order that should arrive next week. I am adding a few to help the clean up crew and deal with some of the algae that pops up since the ghost shrimp refuse to do any of it. The Olive Nerite is doing his part at least. Also the Pennywort brought in some hitchhikers and I am battling MTS snails that keep popping up. I find them and crush them, the ghosts take care of that at least. 

Fert schedule: 1x wkly with Pfertz Nitrogen and Micros; 1ml of API CO2 Booster

So here it is, hope you enjoy the update. Comments, questions, concerns always welcome.


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## TwoStrokeKing (Mar 24, 2011)

Coolest nano ever.


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Took the canister out of service to clean the pipes and this is swimming in the canister when I pour it out into a bucket. Seems like my CPD's got busy and the spawn ended up in the ZooMed. This was the last remaining trooper.


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## Mike00726 (May 23, 2011)

The tank looks great. Loved how you let it grow out. Whoever makes those acrylic lily pipes does some good work. Can you PM me their info?


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## richy (Dec 1, 2005)

Nice shot of that fry... how big is it? 4mm?


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Round abouts yes. This morning I caught them again hanging out in a pack around the moss on the stump. I sense gang activity and I may have to break it up soon if I start seeing vandalism.


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## richy (Dec 1, 2005)

I think they're making plans to bust out... lol


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Tank is looking great! I love it! Great shots of the CPDs and especially the fry too! I'm jealous of your camera skills, I have some Zebra danio fry and I can't get a good picture of them, at least, not one that is that clear! I should tell anyone interested in pics of my fry to just come check out your pictures because that's exactly what mine look like too :hihi: 

Do you think you'll try to breed / raise these guys? or only if find more in the filter that need rescuing?


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I am glad someone thinks my camera skills are okay because I think I am awful. I cannot seem to get the CPD's in a still enough shot that does not cause some motion blur. I have a run of the mill point and click. If I had one of the better high end cameras I may cause some damage but the wife would choke me if I came home with a $500 camera for my aquaculture hobby. 

Feel free to use the pics of the little fry, I think they all may look like that. LOL

I had no plans to breed/raise them honestly. I am not set up for it and that involves more work than I can spare at the moment. It is an every fish for himself environment in there. Now if they make it past a certain point and I suddenly have a school of juvenile CPD's in my tank then I will certainly take care of them.. most likely post them up for sale to a good home though. They have since vanished so I am going to guess they have gone under cover and will surface again when they are more mature or nature ran its course.


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## Da Plant Man (Apr 7, 2010)

Wow! This tank looks amazing! Doesn't look very "nano'y" (i.e looks big). Great job! And grat's on the fry! You got some happy fish.




demonr6 said:


> the wife would choke me if I came home with a $500 camera for my aquaculture hobby.


Thats cheap.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Do you mind if I ask what brand point and shoot? and what the resolution is? Because i know how tiny those fry are and those pics are pretty amazing! 

if you find yourself with too many CPDs, I'll gladly take some off your hands roud:


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Sorry it took so long to reply, I never got the notice. Almost all the pics including the fry were taken with a Samsung S85 set to auto, macro enabled, no flash, 6 mp - superfine. The camera was on a tripod and I set the timer and prayed more or less. LOL Not the greatest compared to what I can buy now for a couple of hundred bucks. The last couple of pics were taken with my nephews new Nikon Coolpix S8100 which is going to be the replacement to that Samsung.. once I convince the wife I need a $300 camera. :icon_evil


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

oh what the heck, I have a nikon coolpix and get get pics that good!!! LOL maybe i need to try the tripod and timer thing.....:hihi: 

Thanks for the info and no worries on the delay, it was only a few days :hihi:


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Post #47 was using the Coolpix on auto with macro enabled and the flash disabled. During daylight/afternoon hours I have ample light in the room so no need for the flash. I always use the tripod for stability. Even if you don't have one you can find a chair/stool or make some kind of stable platform and it will help immensely. On macro I stay about two feet from the tank to get the best pics and I never use the zoom. The fry pic I was about six inches from the little bowl when I took the pic. Having it at max pixels and superfine makes a huge pic but I can crop it down to a really nice image. The Coolpix has a lot of reading up to get the nice pics. With time I think I can get some really good pics. Now if I could get that $700 Nikon I could really have fun.. and sleep on the couch for a month.


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

Hahahaha maybe I should do some reading up on my own camera :hihi: See what i can figure out. Also, opening all the blinds in the room during daylight to get ample ambient light is a really good idea too. I bet I'm also not set on maximum pixels to save on image size either. Thanks for the hints! :biggrin: I'll keep plucking away at it. I DID manage to get a couple decent fry closeups and i think I was using the mini tripod i have, maybe i'll try moving a bit farther away to see if I can get the camera to actually focus on the fish roud: 

anyway....sorry to hijack your thread!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Nah, no worries. Threadjacking is not a bad thing all the time. Try max pixels, no zoom, macro and experiment at six inches from the bowl. Like the betta pics they tell you to make sure they are in a small container in clear water and I make a light box from blank copy paper. Works like a charm..


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## Karackle (Dec 11, 2007)

cool! all great tips, thanks!!! :biggrin: roud:


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

Tank out of service. I took it down to start a larger 20L and in the process managed to kill all the plants that I relocated to a large tub. I had even more plants than what was in the last updated pic. :frown:


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## Aben314 (Feb 14, 2012)

What's in store for the future of this tank?

Do you still have it or have you sold it?

It looked really cool before you took it down.


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

Aben314 said:


> What's in store for the future of this tank?
> 
> Do you still have it or have you sold it?
> 
> It looked really cool before you took it down.


Yeah, what's going on with this? It's a nice lil tank, hope it's getting used.


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

I will continue to bug you about this tank..... either set it up, or sell it to me.


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