curvilinear II

[rick92008]

Here's my pico FW project that was just setup this week.
It's a glass cylinder, about two gallons, with white sand, white stones and of course "the stump".
The plants are Anubias Nana Petite, Java fern & a little Xmas moss.
The lighting is one Seoul 5 Watt 6300K LED lamp.

Let me know what you think ... or if you have any ideas on improvements.

-Rick

[Jur4ik]

no filter? what does your maintenance regime look like? ferts? any thoughts on fauna?

[rick92008]

Originally Posted by Jur4ik

no filter? what does your maintenance regime look like? ferts? any thoughts on fauna?

No filter & not really planing on adding one.

For now I'm doing 50% water changes every couple of days until the tank stabilizes. I'm using 50% RO water & 50% tap water and I'm adding Seachem Flourish at one drop per gallon with the water used for water changes.

I did a base of peat & a handful of the pre-soaked oak leaves to kick start the biological process, then covered it with the white sand. The oak leaves had been soaking in a bucket of water for months and have their own little bio-eco system going and are also culturing springtails for my dart frog viv.

Fauna will be pretty limited. I'm thinking two or three male Endlers (so the tank does not end up over stocked) & possibly CRS. The shrimp tend to breed out of control, so they might be a problem in a small non-filtered tank. Maybe a slower breeding species of shrimp might be a better choice if someone has suggestions.
I had also considered a couple of Killifish because I have a supply of fruit flies to feed them on. If anyone has ideas on a good species of Killiefish or other fish that can feed on fruitflies & not very likey to jump out of an open tank, it would be great.

Thanks,
-Rick

[Jur4ik]

ok. frequent water changes might replace the filter in a small tank.
keep us update how this little one is going on.

amano shrimps or some sort of cardinal shrimps (they are a way more difficult to breed than crs)

[saintly]

whether it be high tech or low tech i'd put ottos in and also amano shrimp if you don't want breeding shrimp.

For me, the piece of wood is fabulous. i would however add a few more plants around the base more in the central region.

i'd suggest the microsorum/java fern, may need to be moved to the left slightly off centre behind the wood.

[rick92008]

Originally Posted by saintly

whether it be high tech or low tech i'd put ottos in and also amano shrimp if you don't want breeding shrimp.

For me, the piece of wood is fabulous. i would however add a few more plants around the base more in the central region.

i'd suggest the microsorum/java fern, may need to be moved to the left slightly off centre behind the wood.

Thanks saintly,

I made some changes based on your suggestions, moved the java fern & added more anubias. Someone on another forum suggested I add more twigs. Not to sure about the twigs in front, though.

-Rick

[saintly]

now were looking better.

maybe more twigs, but not essential IMO.

maybe try getting a few pebbles different to white?.....your current pebbles match the white sand are not very visible.

this may help add to the illusion of depth.

[Jur4ik]

some grey or dark grey pebbles should look fine

[rick92008]

I switched out the white rocks for grey marble stones. It does add more contrast.
I've got to stop re-scaping for now and let the anubias settle in. They are not happy with being moved around.

[rick92008]

Added frogsbit for a floating plant.
Frogsbit is also also supposed to help suppress algae growth ...

-Rick

[rick92008]

I was starting to see the need for a filter on my 2 gallon pico planted tank, because I want to add more shrimp &/or maybe a couple of fish to make the tank more interesting. I was hoping to keep this tank without equipment showing, but I find tanks more interesting with livestock, so I will have to accept the need for a filter.

I had thought about a nano H.O.B. filter or an air powered sponge filter, but neither really appealed to me. Then I remembered I had an Aqua Lift pump which I thought I could adapt to use with a sponge filter. When I was digging around looking for the Aqua Lift pump in my spare parts box I found an auto water changer I used previously on my African Cichlid tank and it looked like it might work well with the Aqua Lift pump. I drilled out the auto water changer a bit to increase water flow & hooked it up to the Aqua Lift pump with a small sponge filter on the uptake of the auto water changer. It turned out to work perfect for a nice low flow nano sized filter. The pump is very quiet and the water flow helped clear most of the surface scum that was starting to build up. It also adds a surface ripple which causes the LED light to do a bit of a shimmer effect.

-Rick

[rick92008]

[exosket]

It looks really beautiful and i love the 360 seamless view. It reminds me of a cool little ecosphere.

[rick92008]

Originally Posted by exosket

It looks really beautiful and i love the 360 seamless view. It reminds me of a cool little ecosphere.

Thanks exosket

Here are updated pictures
New plants are Patamogeton gayi & thin leaf Java Fern,
as well as three Dageti Killifish.

[rotwhiler]

That tank looks awesome. I am thinking of doing something similar. I noticed that your filter changed from your post 8/31 to your post 9/15. What is your setup now?

[echofish]

wow looks great. I have a little round tank similar to yours going right now. what about a heater? mine has no heater and it feels kinda cold. What temps can killies live in? Also endlers? Can they handle cooler temps?
really came out nice. I'll post mine soon.

[John N.]

Very cool, definitely enjoying the 360 view. I really like how you tied in all the plants from the ones growing in the substrate, to the ones on the wood, and to the frogbit floating on top. This has to be one of the most memorable nano aquascapes I've seen in recent memory.

-John N.

[rick92008]

Originally Posted by rotwhiler

That tank looks awesome. I am thinking of doing something similar. I noticed that your filter changed from your post 8/31 to your post 9/15. What is your setup now?

Thanks rotwhiler,
I still have the filter, but I felt the auto-water changer uptake & return were out of scale with the tank (and ugly too). I made new supply & return tubes out of clear rigid 5/16" tubing. I slide some silicon airline tubing inside the clear rigid 5/16" tubing to keep the tubing from collapsing, then I heated it up over my propane grill & bent it into the shapes I wanted. Then I connected the sponge filter & my Aqua Lift pump. It's working fine & much less noticeable than the old way. See the attached picture below.

Originally Posted by echofish

wow looks great. I have a little round tank similar to yours going right now. what about a heater? mine has no heater and it feels kinda cold. What temps can killies live in? Also endlers? Can they handle cooler temps?
really came out nice. I'll post mine soon.

Hi echofish,
I'm not using a heater and the temperature is running about 65 F. That's below the recommended temp range for the killies, but so far they are still feeding well. I think endlers can handle temps in the 60s OK. Some people around here keep endlers in their outdoor ponds year round to control mosquitos.

Originally Posted by John N.

Very cool, definitely enjoying the 360 view. I really like how you tied in all the plants from the ones growing in the substrate, to the ones on the wood, and to the frogbit floating on top. This has to be one of the most memorable nano aquascapes I've seen in recent memory.
-John N.

THANKS John