Nano No Tech Iwagumi spoof tank :)

**zoothefreak** · 9th Jul 2009, 18:24

Well either this will go quite well or horribly wrong... either ways my itchy fingers have decided to try out this lil experiment...

Specs:

Nano tank (ex betta show tank to be exact) 20.5 X 10 X 20.5cm = 4.2 ltr ~ 1.1 gal
Filter - Nil
Lighting - Nil (Ambient Light from office ceiling)
Substrate - Gex soil
Deco - 2 pieces of ADA Kurokinryu stones (wanted to follow the 3 pillars rule but no more space

)

Flora:

HC, Dwarf hairgrass & Amazonian Frogbits

Fauna:

Nil at the moment...

Wish me luck...

**Cloud-Strife** · 9th Jul 2009, 22:21

Huh ?! No filter, no light ???
Like this HC cannot survive leh

**zoothefreak** · 10th Jul 2009, 00:26

The thing is I been keeping the HC in a tou huay container submersed for 2 and a half weeks already with nothing except my office lighting when I was converting it from emersed form to submersed... none of the HC melted in fact they looked even fresher than ever... perhaps the depth of the water was shallow enough for the ambient lighting to penetrate... gonna keep my fingers crossed on this one and hope that this added depth of water does not remove too much light from them... replanting them in the new substrate is also gonna affect them til they get rooted since I had to pry and tear clumps off the already grown lawn stuck on filter wool...

Of course the moment they show signs of dying I'll probably get lighting to kick start the growing process and even perhaps dose with liquid fert... hopefully they stabilize, then I will remove the light and fert and see how...

**zoothefreak** · 10th Jul 2009, 13:56

Oh yeah just an update on lighting...

The office ceiling lights directly above my cubicle are:

4 X FL tubes of 18W / 840 Coolwhite

Distance of Nano tank from lights is about 1.3m
Depth of water surface from substrate where plants are growing is about 15cm

Dunno how to calculate how much wattage of lighting actually make it to the plants can anyone help? Hopefully its enuff

otherwise

* Oh yeah my cubicle is also beside the windows which are tinted dark but on some sunny days I do see rays of sunlight shining thru to the top cabinet where the tank is currently situated... near FL ambient light source and air con...

**Shaihulud** · 10th Jul 2009, 15:57

My amazonian frogbit which I keep in ambient light doesn't survive.... but its alright, they are meant to be eaten by snails.

**zoothefreak** · 11th Jul 2009, 15:51

Originally Posted by Shaihulud

My amazonian frogbit which I keep in ambient light doesn't survive.... but its alright, they are meant to be eaten by snails.

Really? I dont think my Nerites are eating my frogbits... only problem is they keep getting sucked in my filters... when I collect the ones from the filter every few days they still survive and have grown really long roots...

Ah update: here are two pics of the tank...

And er... I've got really bad timing for this experiment coz I go for reservist starting Monday to Friday... which means no one to monitor my Nano Iwagumi for me... So if I come back next Monday to something which looks like a horror movie set... I'm gonna have to try again... My colleagues will probably be freaked out first and hopefully the cleaning auntie doesnt throw everything out...

**zoothefreak** · 4th Aug 2009, 15:45

Update:

As expected after my reservist there was a major fungal infestation in the tank... whitish web like growth on soil, plants and tank sides... did several water changes over the next few days... and now the HG are rooting and growing... the HC is having problems recovering but some patches are taking root but not creeping just growing upwards due to the lack of light...

I have removed more water from the tank to increase the intake of light absorbed... seems to be working the fungal infestation has severely decreased... Hopefully it remains this way we'll see... otherwise it'll live up to its name of a failed Iwagumi spoof tank

**zoothefreak** · 4th Aug 2009, 15:48

Oh yeah I added one worm to the tank... found the worm in my tou huay container which I am still using as HC nursery... the HC in my tou huay container are really really healthy... found a few worms in there actually but left them alone... there are a lot of cute lil organisms in the tank at the moment with the plants... some floating around some crawling about and some swimming though u gotta really squint to see em...

**zoothefreak** · 11th Aug 2009, 23:00

Here's a pic finally....

HG growing upwards and as expected HC not doing too good well at least the web-like fungus is gone... hopefully all goes well considering how the HG has fought hard to survive...