Nanas 'Petite' tank

[Green Baron]

This is my Nanas 'Petite'/CRS tank. It is 12"x6"x12" low tech tank and temp is ~24C. Currently I am growing the 'Petit' and will be adding Christmas moss lawn in front. Once it is established, I will be put in CRS.



Plants in the tank are :
- Anubias barteri var nana 'Petite' on wood
- Weeping Moss near water surface (top left)
- Sagittaria subulata along the back of the aquarium

The floating coffefolia is not supposed to be there. I left it there for the shrimps to clean up the algae on the leaves. I should have taken it out before taking the photo.

I started tank started with a layer of compost below the 1" of lapis gravel but that turned out to be a big mistake. The compost leaked and the whole tank and petite were covered with brown algae. All my Mini Pellia and some of the petite died

In the end I decided to remove the compost and go with just gravel and the petite has somewhat recovered.

[Happy Camper]

At the moment I'm also on a moss and Anubias fetish, hence I love your tank. Those Anubias are looking healthy, do you use co2 on it at all? I find that slow growers seam to look much healthier without co2 injection.

Regards
Cameron

[Green Baron]

Cameron,
Anubias is one of my favorite plants, in particular Petite and Coffeefolia.

Anubias is very prone to BBA in a CO2/high light setup. This tank has no CO2 nor fertiliser. Just plain gravel and 9W (or less) of light as I turn off the light some of the time. They look the best when grown under very little light.

The next tank I would like to setup is a small Coffeefolia tank with Lilaeopsis, Japanese hairgrass or glosso as foreground.

[Happy Camper]

Hi Gan

Being from Africa myself I am trying to be more patriotic and so I really MUST like Anubias, and African Bolbitis They never used to interest me but for some reason these days my tastes have changed from high light 'blast me with co2' tanks to low light 'lets chill and be happy' tanks. I must say that the plants look chunkier, darker green and most healthy. I am pleased

I've tried Lilaeopsis on several occasions but it does not like me at all. Dies everytime, so I wish you the best of luck with it if you decide to use that in your next setup. We don't get carpet plants here so I'm jealous to hear of all the options that are open to you

When I add more plants to my tank (quite similar to yours) I'll post an update, its full of Anubias and you might enjoy it.

Warm regards
Cameron James

[timebomb]

Gan,

I could be wrong but shouldn't the name be "petite" instead of "petit"?

Loh K L

[Green Baron]

Kwek Leong,
You are correct. I will correct the spelling.

[FrothHelmet]

Hey Gan, that is a lot of Anubias Nana and thanks for sending the pictures. Did you grow it all or buy it? If you bought it and grew it out how long did it take. I know that in the U.S. if you wanted to fill a tank with that much petite nana it would empty your wallet real fast.

P.S. For the record, using petite OR petit are both fine in English because nouns do not have genders unlike French (except for ships and countries hehe). But if there is a 'standard' for nana's then I guess we better go by it.

Gerard D.

[Green Baron]

Hi Gerald,
Yes, petite is expensive. I heard it is S$25 per pot.
I received 2 pots from Oriental Aquarium when we visit them 2 years ago. This is probabaly the 3rd or 4th generation from the original stock.
I have only started actively propagating them about 8 months ago and this is about 1/3 of my petite stock ;-) I find that they grow best in clean and cool water and I cut them regularly and replant the top. The bottom part will grow new shoots, usually 2 to 3 new shoots. I think one can double or triple the amount in 6 months if they do what I described.

[FC]

Hi Gan,

That is a nice nano tank, I like it.

How often you change the water?
How you keep the water at 24 degree celcius?
Is there any filter?
Are there any fishes?

[Green Baron]

Freddy,
Re your questions :

How often you change the water?
- I am currently changing water once every 1 or 2 weeks due to the remnants of the compost leak. For all my low tech tanks I change 1/3 water every 2 to 4 weeks.

How you keep the water at 24 degree celcius?
- Air conditioning ;-) This tank is in my office.

Is there any filter?
- Yes. There is a small internal filter. I believe in using filter in all my tanks - to improve water circulation and maintain the water quality.

Are there any fishes?
- I have 2 small platies now. When the tank is mature, I will keep only shrimps.

BTW, the light is off 1/2 the time and the tank receives indirect light from the ceiling lamp. I find Anubias in general grows better and looks healthier when they get very little light. Those in my high tech tank grown too fast and have algae on their leaves.

[luenny]

Hi Gan,
Very nice tank indeed. Can't wait to see how it looks like after you put in the moss lawn. By the way, I can't help but notice that the weeping moss at the top of the tank is growing upwards instead of downwards. Did you do anything special for it to do so?

[Green Baron]

Wei Luen,
Those are actually excess Singapore Moss which was I put in to absorb excess nitrate.

I should have tidy up the tank before I took the photo !