11L nano for my desk at work

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Tue Mar 24, 2015, 01:52 AM
ILLUSN

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11L nano for my desk at work

Hi all, been a while since I started a thread so I thought I'd put up a diary of my planted nano at work.

Tank specs
Tank: 11L curved glass tank with built in filter
substrate: Fluval® Shrimp Stratum 2L
Décor: 2 rocks from the LFS
Lighting: custom PAR38 plant light 38cm above substrate
photoperiod: 8 hours
CO2: pressurised with nano diffuser (in transit) 1L upaqua cylinder.
Fertilizer: EI method with home made recipe
water changes: 50% weekly

Plants (to be added)
Blyxa Japonica
Echinodorus vesuvius
Echinodorus tenellus

Livestock (to be added)
10-12 Cherry shrimp

The tank has been running for 2 weeks with the substrate and light as soon as the diffusor arrives I'll plant up.
Here's the pics so far and the PAR readings from around the tank, note plot 5 almost no light is escaping the tank which is what is driving the PAR reading up so high at location 3.

just for giggles a photo of my new baby is included at the bottom, this thing puts out a lot of light, I may have to increase the height to 750mm to get the levels to something more sensible.
Tue Mar 24, 2015, 01:57 AM
ILLUSN

1 Attachment(s)

Edited: 15:25 02/04/2015 by Illusn

fully planted, I deliberately crammed as many plants in as possible to stop algae from getting a foot hold.

22x Echinodorus tenellus
2x Echinodorus Angustifolia var. "vesuvius"
8x Blyxa japonica

CO2 set at 20bpm
just dosed 1ml of Glutaraldehyde 5%
10mL of macro fertilizer mix (N,P,K)
Tue Mar 24, 2015, 01:58 AM
ILLUSN

Reserved for updates shrimp stocking pics to come in a few weeks
Thu Mar 26, 2015, 12:44 AM
Nathan

looking forward to seeing updates, where did you get the light, is it DIY?
Thu Mar 26, 2015, 05:38 AM
ILLUSN

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathan

looking forward to seeing updates, where did you get the light, is it DIY?

Hi Nathan,
It's a china special made to custom specs (scaled down version of my massive custom built LED lights), had to order a few of them for them to make me a batch but I'm loving the colour and output!
Wed Apr 01, 2015, 12:40 AM
ILLUSN

2 Attachment(s)

New toys arrived from Hong Kong,
nano diffuser arrived and installed
bubble counter arrived and installed
CO2 regulator arrived and installed
inline solenoid arrived an installed.

Just waiting on my drop checker and we are all set for planting.

sorry cant get the diffuser pic to load right way up
Wed Apr 01, 2015, 11:44 AM
shakti

Another good tank. The blyxa is a fairly agressive plant though.With those lights, CO2 and EI dosing, I see it taking over the whole tank, unless you are ready with a chain saw.....
Wed Apr 01, 2015, 12:57 PM
ILLUSN

Quote:

Originally Posted by shakti

Another good tank. The blyxa is a fairly agressive plant though.With those lights, CO2 and EI dosing, I see it taking over the whole tank, unless you are ready with a chain saw.....

Tell me about it in my test tank I'm generating close to 100 plants a month just split another 20 tonight. Will post pics tomorrow the plants I've selected have been growing under 200par and have a lovely rusty red colour on the new growth. The other plants in this tank are pygmy chain and versuvius swords both of which grow like weeds.
Thu Apr 02, 2015, 04:38 AM
ILLUSN

1 Attachment(s)

Just finished planting up 2 hours ago. (see post 2)

dialled in the CO2 at 20-30bpm drop counter has already turned a healthy shade of green I'm aiming for yellow by the end of the day (again to keep algae down).

planting the E.tenellus was a pain, I eventually settled for small tufts of 4-5 plants. hopefully they will fill in in the next few weeks.

the Blyxa from my test tank at home are monsters, and bronze red leaf veins are really eye catching in person. I can see me needing to thin and replant them in a fortnight.
Thu Apr 02, 2015, 10:17 AM
shakti

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILLUSN

Tell me about it in my test tank I'm generating close to 100 plants a month just split another 20 tonight. Will post pics tomorrow the plants I've selected have been growing under 200par and have a lovely rusty red colour on the new growth. The other plants in this tank are pygmy chain and versuvius swords both of which grow like weeds.

Impressive. I dont have a PAR meter, but I pretty sure if I ran my LED's that high I will get an algae farm. Do you need a lot of CO2 at these light levels?
Thu Apr 02, 2015, 12:12 PM
ILLUSN

Quote:

Originally Posted by shakti

Impressive. I dont have a PAR meter, but I pretty sure if I ran my LED's that high I will get an algae farm. Do you need a lot of CO2 at these light levels?

Yeah mate, the trick to extreme light is balance, my test tank at home only grows green spot algae in trace amounts, but the CO2 is saturated and the fertilizer amounts are reasonably high.

I still use Glut even with saturated CO2 it makes a difference.

I cant keep RCS in this tank, so far the only fish that has managed to survive is a Betta and I assume its because it has a labyrinth organ.

It will be interesting too see if this little nano on my desk can work with double the light of my test tank.

just to throw stupidity into the equation I'll be on leave for 2 weeks. I've dosed it up with ferts and asked a co worker to keep up the Glut. I'll update you all as to how it goes.