George's Nano Journal

[Themuleous]

To be honest, that pic showing its location, shows it off better than just seeing the tank, it really looks like a piece of nature in your house, kitchen in this instance! Really a lovely tank, George, would be proud to have it in my house

A quick question; do you think the water changes every other day were the key to the removal of the algae? How do you use hairgrass to hold riccia down?

Also, how did you get the ADA catalogue?

Once again, a super little tank

Sam

 

[MoreCoffee]

Excellent looking nano George.
A great sense of depth in such a small tank. I think that light background helps with the sense of size, I doubt it would looks as big with a black one.

The tank looks really clean the the hair grass looks very healthy.

 

[nukeonekitty]

Great looking nano... looks wonderful!

 

[three-fingers]

Love the tank . The new rocks look really good and much bigger than 3gals!

And if i may also ask about the ADA catalogue....where would i be able to acquire one of these and at what price?

 

[George Farmer]

do you think the water changes every other day were the key to the removal of the algae? How do you use hairgrass to hold riccia down?

Thanks Sam.

With such a small volume of water, high lighting, nutrients, growth etc. we are treading a knife edge balance. One little slip and algae is lurking. IME algae's worst enemy, except plant growth is stability. It's impossible to achieve this with nano volumes and high-tech without large water changing regimes. Algae is more adaptable than higher plants to "unfavourable" conditions i.e. constantly changing water chemistry. My huge water changes and regular dosing ensure that the water remains very stable.

Obviously in larger tanks we can get away with fewer, indeed some low-techies don't change water for months.

Personally in a CO2 nano I'd never go less than 50% 2x week. I'm sticking to 80% 3 or 4x week. It takes literally a minute. If I'm away I'll just shorten the photoperiod down to 4 hours.

With the Riccia I think one just plants the HG through the Riccia clump with tweezers. The HG sends out runners and this holds it down.

Great looking nano... looks wonderful!

Thanks.

Love the tank . The new rocks look really good and much bigger than 3gals!

And if i may also ask about the ADA catalogue....where would i be able to acquire one of these and at what price?

Thanks.

To get the ADA 2006 catalogue you need to e-mail ADA Japan direct. They'll need credit card/bank card details to pay for postage (around £4). It's free apart from that, and worth every penny let me assure you. It blows the 2005 edition out of the water!

 

[atmmachine816]

Looks fantastic, just wondering doese piling gravel high like that in the corner have any effect in any way at all and what is the ADA catalogue?

 

[wei0204]

Nice nano tank and interesting thread with lively discussion. Can really learn something from here.

 

[jkrekord]

Any plans of what fish/critters you intend to stock it with eventualy?
Love the nano lookin spectacular.

p.s keep up the good work on PFK

 

[Themuleous]

Thanks George, think I should increase water changes to every other day, see how that goes for a couple of weeks, but will be tricky being that its in my room, maybe I should put mine next to the kitchen sink!

IS the ADA catalogue in English?

Thanks again,

Sam

 

[Sibelius]

The tank really looks amazing. Take my most high compliments also. What are the actual dimensions of the tank?

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Hi George.
Glad that you have learned about the importance of water changes on nanos.
As you have mentioned the rocks that you currently have in position arnt really the best choice for your IWAGUMI design but I'm sure you will find something that will do it Justis. I think i would like to see the rocks on contrasting levels to each other. For example, the mother rock ( Buddha ) to be raised the highest the one stage down one of the lesser rocks and lower still the third rock.

Once the Riccia would fill out I would suspect it would be something like this?? I think I would choose HC myself all though Riccia could be add as well and it can be trimmed just like you would the HC. The advantage of Riccia is it grows megga fast and is really vibrant green.



R,
Graeme.

 

[George Farmer]

Looks fantastic, just wondering doese piling gravel high like that in the corner have any effect in any way at all and what is the ADA catalogue?

Thanks. The gravel isn't deep at all at the back, only 3" or so. The ADA (Aqua Design Amano) catalogue is basically a book containing some of Takashi Amano's stunning aquascapes as well as his whole product range. The latest edition is mind blowing with step-by-step set ups and flawless presentation.

Nice nano tank and interesting thread with lively discussion. Can really learn something from here.

Thanks. One of my main motives behind this journal was to help others learn along with me.

Any plans of what fish/critters you intend to stock it with eventualy?
Love the nano lookin spectacular.

p.s keep up the good work on PFK

Thanks. Glad you like my PFK work too.

IS the ADA catalogue in English?

Yes mate.

The tank really looks amazing. Take my most high compliments also. What are the actual dimensions of the tank?

Thanks. The tank is 12x8x8" / 30x20x20cm. 3 gal. / 12 l. Likely volume 2.5 gal. There's a full spec at the start of this journal.

Hi George.
Glad that you have learned about the importance of water changes on nanos.
As you have mentioned the rocks that you currently have in position arnt really the best choice for your IWAGUMI design but I'm sure you will find something that will do it Justis. I think i would like to see the rocks on contrasting levels to each other. For example, the mother rock ( Buddha ) to be raised the highest the one stage down one of the lesser rocks and lower still the third rock.

Once the Riccia would fill out I would suspect it would be something like this?? I think I would choose HC myself all though Riccia could be add as well and it can be trimmed just like you would the HC. The advantage of Riccia is it grows megga fast and is really vibrant green.



R,
Graeme.

Wow, thanks Graeme, for the critique and for the image. I appreciate the effort.

 

[George Farmer]

I have some more interesting rocks. These are the best I've seen in any LFS. They were from Maidenhead Aquatics in Crowland. And if Steve, the manager is reading this then thanks mate. They still have some and they're £1.50 per Kg. I also took some photos of the galaxy rasboras but they're so active all I get is blur on my compact camera.

Tropica in Denmark are sending me some Riccia sp. "Dwarf" and netting direct and I've just placed an order with Aqua Essentials for some ADA Riccia stones. I'm also tempted to try out some Lilaeopsis brasiliensis in there amongst the stones and Riccia, inspired from the 2006 ADA catalogue (they use tenellus but brasiliensis stays shorter).

Anyway here we go so far. I've used a hair dryer too for effect, I quite like it.

 

[lljdma06]

Looking good, George. I like the subtle ripple effect created by the hairdryer. Do you have it on low or high? I also like the new rocks, much better that the temporary replacement stones. Riccia sounds like a fun idea. Can't wait to see the updated pictures with the new plants. Are you then going for galaxy rasboras?

llj

 

[nry]

Hope you're not planning a coup in respect of entering this tank in the forthcoming PFK contest