Nano New Year Build!

Happy new year all!

Starting off the new year with a new tank. It's double the size of my last system, a whole 40 liters . Was gifted the tank as a Christmas present and decided to shut down my previous nano to put more time and resources into this one.

Very excited to see what I can do with the extra 20 liters of volume.

 

Without further wait, here's the new canvas

 

You're going to ruin it with your fingerprints

What inmates are you planning?

 

Cleared off the grubby fingerprints just for the photo!

Moved the light across from my 20l and man the new tank is looking good!

I'll be transferring my colony of blue dream shrimp across to this tank. Then for fish, thinking of a "big" school of some small fish. I'd like to stick to one species and really get them to pop in numbers. Open to suggestions from anyone?!

 

Are you going to add a background/paint/vinyl?

 

Definitely going to be adding a Black vinyl background this week. Not brave enough to pull out the paint on the new tank

 

Or latex paint. It peels off glass if you want it to and it's cheap.

 

Once the tank bug bites, it bites hard lol.

Been playing around all day with hardscape and I think I've finally settled on a design. With a bit of assistance from the chisel and hammer, Ive built up the Seiryu stone to form a central, heavily planted island with lots of open space in the front and along the sides.

Should give the fish ample swimming room but also enough cover to make them brave enough to venture out.

Doesn't look like much but I spent most of my morning on it

 

I'm the one who's jealous now

 

The wood took substantially longer to get my approval than the rocks did. A lot harder to get 5 small pieces of spider wood to work together than you'd think.

Happy with the outcome, was definitely worth the effort. Once it's planted, I reckon it'll look like "one" piece has fallen in and been covered in aquatic life

 

Looks good!

 

Looking good. I wouldn't consider some pieces longer pieces of wood extending higher into the top portions of the aquarium for more depth. This also allows you to add plants to the wood such as buce,ferns or anbius.

Personally, I would stock with nano fish. CPD or chilli/strawberry rosbora. Maybe 12-15 or so. Some pygmy corries for the bottom with some shrimp.

Sent from my SM-S928B using Tapatalk

 

Thanks Scotty!

Yeah already got a few pygmy Cory's coming across from the other tank. Brilliant nano fish those

 

Got my substrate system sorted out today.

Plugged all the holes in my hardscape with some filter sponge and then added a base later of chunkier gravel to the island. Why a base layer of inert gravel? Absolutely no idea, just thought it sounded right.

Added a black vinyl background onto the tank too, it cost 50 bucks and went on really easily. Maybe the next tank I'll brave some paint instead.

 

Got some Itsa aquasoil too. Heard some good reviews about it and it was well priced so I took the plunge.

Decided to cap it after watching all the fun and games @LilMissMurder had over the last few days

The cap looks crap but the plants should cover it all in a few months

 

Are you going to bare-bottom the rest of it?

Just don't use random pond mixes and you'll be fine lol

P.S Where did you get the vinyl from? My ada came with added frosted vinyl and I'm not sure yet if I'm going to keep it

 

No not barebottom. Ive got a fine sprinkling of decorative sand I'd like to cover the bottom with. Im wanting quite a clean look after the jungle that wa the last tank. Also bought some scatter gravel if needed.

Got the vinyl from a store down the road from me, Wazeers. Just a standard aquarium background but instead of a coral reef, I got plain black lol.

If I could find that frosted vinyl, I'd have gone for it. I really like the look of it

 

Thank you !

I've found the black to be the easiest with creating a clean look on the tank. Without it being a high-tech setup, the background helps make the plants and inhabitants pop.