Nano Aquarium Update

I figured I'd give a quick update on the nano aquarium I started a few months ago. I've since decided to add some fish, and along with them a nano filter. I went with one from RedSea and it's perfect for a nano sized aquarium. For fish, I went with Boraras maculatus, a type of microrasbora, also known as the dwarf rasbora. I have one male and two females. These fish are tiny and three fit comfortably in this one gallon aquarium. They like soft, acidic water, so I've added some peat to the filter (which has plenty of room for adding your own media) which is why the water is tinged brown. The moss has grown the fastest of any of the plants in there, and I've actually taken out quite a bit to keep it looking somewhat neat. Everything else is growing very slowly in the low light.

A word of warning about these fish though, they are so small (less than a centimeter in length) that I nearly lost one within minutes of putting it into the tank. I nearly had a heart attack as I saw it struggling inside the filter intake tube trying not to get sucked into the impeller. I ripped the filter's plug from the wall as fast as I could and luckily the little guy swam out unharmed. After that, I cut up a filter media bag and wrapped it around the strainer filter intake to prevent further accidents.

A Closer Look: Nano Aquarium

After receiving many questions on my new nano aquarium I've decided to go into a bit more detail:

• Lighting - It's a clamp light from Ikea called DINGE with an 8 watt compact fluorescent flood bulb of normal "soft white" color temperature. It's kept on for about 8 hours a day and is clamped onto the side of my desk bookshelf above the tank.
• Temperature - There is no heater in the tank, but my computer sits right beneath it under the desk, so it gets a constant stream of warm air flowing past it, keeping it slightly warmer than room temperature.
• Water Changes - I change about 40% of the water every week using a small plastic cup.
• Fertilizers - I use no fertilizers, since the light is not very intense, the plants are not very demanding plants, and the small size of the tank would make overdosing fertilizers far too easy

In the future I'm planning on moving some cherry shrimp to the tank. The Malaysian trumpet snails that are currently in the tank are thriving and have already had babies. There are also a lot of little cyclops copepods darting around the tank, so I know the water is very clean and balanced. The gravel is starting to show a slight green tinge from algae, so I may move the cherry shrimp in sooner rather than later, as they help to control algae. I'll keep you guys posted on the progress!

New Nano Aquarium

I've been very busy over the past month, hence the lack of posts, but I did find some spare time to create a new aquascape for my nano aquarium.


The glass vase is about 1/2 a gallon (about 1.8 liters) so it's quite small. The light is a simple 8 watt compact fluorescent flood light I bought at Ikea (it's not really the right color temperature, but it gets the job done). There's no filtration, since doing water changes is so easy and there's no livestock except a few Malaysian trumpet snails.


It looks rather barren now, but it should slowly but surely fill in. The plant in the back is a narrow leaf Java Fern, the front left is a dwarf Sag and the front right is Stargrass. There's also some Christmas moss tied to the rock and a little leaf of hydrocotyle on the far right. I think once it gets established I'm going to move in a few cherry shrimp to add some color. The total cost of this nano aquarium was about $20 for me, but would be about $50 for all materials:

• $15 for the bulb and light
• $20-30 for the vase (I had it on hand)
  
• $5 for the substrate
• $5 for plants (Came from another of my tanks)
• $5 for wood and rock (Already had this on hand)

Practical Fishkeeping: George Farmer's nano tank

This is a great example from Practical Fishkeeping of a high tech nano tank. It's small, but absolutely beautiful! If you'd like to read more about the setup of this aquarium, check out George's Nano Aquarium Journal.