[Morainy]

This is Day One of my planted 5 gallon ADA cube setup. If it grows in nicely, I hope to add some shrimp.

I'm very excited about this, as it's the first tank I've had since I gave away 18 aquaria in 2012, my annus horribilus. I'm back in the hobby, starting small. I kept up my BCAquaria membership this whole time, hoping for this day.

This is going to be an easy-care tank, no CO2. The substrate is Eco Complete, the light is an LED Aquasky, and the filter is a Repti Clear terrarium filter - totally silent.

The plants are: pogostemon erectus, echinodorus tenellus "green", and two kinds of marsilea (crenata and hirsuta).

 

[TomC]

Nice to see you back. What sort of shrimp will you get?

 

[CRS Fan]

Maureen.... Welcome back! It is awesome to see you back at it. I've taken a hiatus as my son is keeping me on my toes ATM.

 

[Morainy]

Hi, TomC & CRS Fan. Great to see some familiar "faces". Stuart, that is the best possible reason for a hiatus. But, how long before your little one gets a betta bowl, I wonder?

Tom, I hope to have cherry shrimp. Going to stumble through the cycling process. I realize that it's been years since I really had to cycle a new nano tank, as I always had a filter that I could pull off an established tank. This is so .... weird. I feel like such a newbie (despite more than three decades of fish keeping.) I will buy a new test kit.

 

[Reckon]

Good to have you back morainy. Good looking tank you have there! Nice way to get back into it.

 

[Morainy]

Thanks, Reckon. I've never tried these little Tropica plantlings before. In the past whenever I started a new planted tank, CRS Fan would show up with an array of easy-to-grow plants and water lettuce and some helpful advice. I feel like I'm back in planted tank kindergarden.

 

[Reckon]

Does the aquasky led sit flush with the tank? Probably just the angle it looks short in width.

 

[Morainy]

Reckon, the Aquasky is perfect for this tank. Fits exactly. I'm just a poor photographer.

 

[Atom]

Looks great Morainy!


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[Morainy]

I think that my tank has finished cycling. Just added six red cherry shrimp from Aquariums West. Also, some lovely compact bacopa.

 

[Morainy]

Of course that is not the bacopa in the photo. That is something else, displaying a coating of new-tank diatoms. I hope the cherries feast on that.

 

[Unknown]

Looks good!

 

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Looks great. Glad you're finally back in the aquaria hobby again. BTW still have many of the fish and stuff we got from you in 2012 and some of them are now swimming around in Felicia's class tank for her whole class of grades 2/3 to enjoy. They love them. So thanks again.

Anthony

 

[April]

Welcome back! Looks great .


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[Morainy]

Here is my nano shrimp tank, about five or six months into the journey. All the shrimp still seem to be happy. I added some taller plants.
It's amazing how much joy I get from such a tiny tank. If only I could figure out how to take it with me on the bus and for coffee...

 

[wslam]

Looking good! Nano tanks are awesome

 

[Morainy]

Thanks, wslam!

 

[TomC]

How do you handle water conditions in this tank? How often and how much is the water changed? Do you add powders, fertilizer, etc.?

 

[rwong2k10]

looks great! thanks for sharing the photos!

 

[Morainy]

Hi TomC. At this point, I use Fluval micronutrients. I may start to add Excel. The substrate is Eco-Complete. The light is quite bright, brighter than any I've had before, an LED by ADA. I've got an Exo something 150 reptile tank filter in it, and I'm happy with it because it's silent and easy to clean. I like to leave algae growing on the filter and heater for the shrimp, but the rock (that is fairly hidden now) is all mossy with algae, too.

I change the water about once a week, and it usually turns out to be about 30 to 50% of the tank's water because it is such a small tank that once I've vacuumed up debris or any gunk I've scrubbed off the glass, the tank is half empty. But it is just one bucketful from my perspective, so very easy to do. The inhabitants seem to be okay with that. If I don't change the water once a week, stringy algae starts to show up. I yank out any algae while I'm changing the water.