Penny

Thank you so much @Jessica. And everyone for taking the time to reply. I'll be sure to get the ammonia test asap. So.. I have no fish, I'm not planning on adding anything for quite a while. (I'm thinking months. Eventually a Betta and some shrimps) I've not added any ammonia, but I did add a pinch of fish food to each tank on day one. I haven't added any fertiliser since day one (we're day 6 now) I also have a good bit of water evaporate every day. I tested before topping up. I add tapsafe and age my water for days.

That's the one I have in my basket ready 😃

@akconklin The app was advertised on the box for the tetra strips.. downloaded from the app store, its for android and apple. I will get the ammonia strips really soon, I kinda maxed out my spending this month, but I will have them real soon. I took a reading of my tap water NO2 25-50 (Somewhere inbetween) NO3 0 GH 8 KH 8 pH 7.2 Cl2 0.8

Hi, I set up three nano tanks last Wednesday and everything seems to be going really well. My plants are all growing nicely.. lots of new leaves and dangly root sprouts. My two hitchhiker snails are about 300x bigger than when I found them. I have the tetra 6in1 dip tests for now. I decided to test my water every 3 days to see what's going on with it. I keep reading about the cycle.. I'm just not sure what's going on at the moment! I'm collecting my data and making a spreadsheet. Things got even more confusing when I downloaded the app and it gave me different readings. So now I have two spreadsheets.. one by eye, and one by the app. Which one should I trust? I know already I don't trust the KH on the app.. the colour my camera captured was nothing like I saw on the strip! Which also kept changing before my eyes. If anyone could look at my numbers and explain to me what's going on I'd be super grateful ☺️ also, if there's anything I could do to improve my setup. Also.. any idea how the app gave me a co2 reading? Thank you so much

That was just magical!

The Daniel inspiration is in the fact I aim for it to be natural and self sustaining, as much as possible.. and if i struggle i'll break out the science!

I wanted to share with you my first steps into the wonderful world of aquariums. I'm not sure if this will be useful to anyone in the future, or if I'm just preserving and sharing the experience for posterity. I must say, I enjoyed the entire experience immensely, and I'm looking around at where I can fit more tanks. I started with three little tanks. 2x 10lt (2.65 us gallon) and 1x 15lt (4 us gallons) and a love of Marimo moss balls 😃 I knew I wanted it to be heavily planted but knew nothing about aquatic plants... so I read, joined the forum and watched youtube. I was imagining the tanks as being just plants, but i soon realised that to have my little worlds work properly I needed to balance it. That's when I fell in love with shrimp. I had no idea there were so many different types and colours, I'd have a few snails to keep things clean and it seemed a Betta would complete my setup. Again, I had no idea they could be so fancy and beautiful. I also decided that I wanted the plants to be my filters.. so I'm going without for now, if I need to I will add them later. I want to keep my bioload low. I'm going to wait until I see some good plant growth before I even think about adding my fish and then shrimp. I really don't want to kill anything, especially by rushing things. I made my shopping list and started gathering all the bits and bobs I would need. 3x 25w heaters Driftwood, to get biofilm on and tannins for my shrimp 3.5lt Tropica Plant growth substrate (1cm 1/2" all over) 10kg (22lb) Black limpopo course sand Stones Fertiliser Root tabs When it came to the light I did struggle a little, I didn't want to spend tooooo much. I wondered if I could uses a plant grow light, that wasn't specifically for aquariums. I found a lamp that would be perfect, with 144 full spectrum LED's on 3 goose necks. this had a timer for 3, 6 and 12 hrs. 10x dimmable and was only 29.99 gbp. @Jessica. showed me that she used that kind of bulb in a super cool antique lamp she'd made so I decided to try it. When it arrived the build quality was actually much better than expected. I tested it on some herb pots that were struggling in the kitchen with the lack of sunlight. within a couple of hours my limp horizontal parsley had stood up and was leaning towards the light, I turned it.. it leaned back. I was so happy! I ordered my plants, waited (somewhat) patiently, and then set to putting it all together. Just to namecheck.. I have been really inspired by @Streetwise nano tanks and just about everything @Daniel does! The plants I chose were Salviania Naturns (Water spangles. floater) Elodia Densa (anacharis) Bacopa Caroroliniana Water Wisteria Myacca Fluvitalis Java fern Hair grass Liliopensis Brasiliensis (micro sword) Amazon Swords Jungle Vallis Echinodrorus Harbii (Oval leaf amazon sword type plant) oh.. and 10 Marimo Mossballs

I have no idea, but he's beautiful 😍

That's amazing, thanks so much for your reply @Jessica.. I Love how you used the bulb in the piano lamp.. That would look great in my house!😁

Hi, I'm hoping for a little advice on lighting for my trio of planted nano tanks. I was wondering if something like these plant grow lights would work for me? I like the idea of having one plug with three lights on the goose neck. I think they'd look pretty neat and give me room to grow up and out of the tanks. Am I missing something important? My tanks are only 8" deep to the very top of the glass. Many thanks in advance ☺️

This is not a traditional macro photo but I kinda love it. I got my first plants for my nano tanks yesterday and when I was sorting out my floaters had a tiny black speck like a grain of sand stuck to my finger. My camera wouldn't show me what it was so I used a jewelers lens and got this pic. I must admit, I love the adorable little guy! His name is Watson 🐌

Happy anniversary and 1000 rep points!

Your Betta is really beautiful 😍

Thank you. Your tanks are beautiful, and just what made me want nano tanks in the first place. I'm more than happy to stay with just the plants for a long time, maybe permanently. I'm thinking nano filters might be best. I'm in England, so no co-op filters for me unfortunately. Thanks for your reply

At the moment they're empty. I have two at 2.65 us gallon/10lt and one 4 us gallon/15lt. I'm not sure how I'm going to set them up but have been looking at them like this and think it could be pretty cool and unusual

Hi everyone. I'm brand new to the hobby and i'm looking for some advice. I'm setting up three nano aquariums, I'm not sure if they will just be heavily planted but I love shrimp and snails and I would love a Betta in each What is the recommended filtration? I've been looking at external filters.. is it possible to split the input and output three ways and do them all from one filter? Does anyone have any experience with a nano tank with no filtration at all? I'd love to see any pictures of your setups 😁 Thank you so much in advance

I love all your animals! Your pigs are adorable 🥰 I had chickens too, until fairly recently.. this is Pecker, Johnson & Bluebell.

I wanted to introduce my guinea pigs, Mason & Dixon. They're a pair of dorks, but I love them!

Hey Everyone. I'm Penny and I've been lurking around for a little while, trying to absorb some of your knowledge bit felt it was time to say hello 😁 I'm super new to the hobby and I am trying to find out as much as I can to give myself the best chance for success. I'm going to be setting up 3 nano tanks, I want them to be heavily planted and possibly keep a few shrimp and maybe a Betta in each. I plan on getting the tanks planted and settled for as long as possible before even thinking about putting anything alive in there. I'm interested in any plants you think are must haves in nano tanks I have 3x 2.7 us gallon/10lt and one 4 gallon 15lt.. I'm thinking lidless to let the plants get big as possible. Thanks for all the super interesting posts... I know these won't be my only tanks.. the hobby just doesn't work that way! 😂

Your tank is beautiful. I love your plants