My 2nd tank

Good day,

Hope every one has been well.

K well i have ventured out and bought my self my 2nd tank (just small one for my tinier fish)

I just wanted to come and ask for some help here. This tank is more of a put together with other parts tank as its not my main one.. I bought the small tank 300mm*220*220 just a cheap lfs one for R80.00.

prob one:
It didnt come with a light and i cant say i plan an spending money on this. Can i not just use a normal house lightbulb, the power saver gass white ones? and then just silicone the fitting?

prob 2:
I am gonna need a filter for this bad boy which i dono have. I just wana find out what filter to get before i ask on the classifieds. I have read that for fry u need a sponge filter? How much will i pick one of these up for in classifieds? (i hope not allot) or a internal canister filter. And what size filter will i need? i cant imagine the tank is more than 10l?

prob3:
I have my substrate now and i also found a old bottom from an old tank when was young, its one of those plastic jobbies that go on the bottom under your gravel and it like has slits in it? I cant say i know what it does. but i haven't seen many tanks here with them. What is it for? and should i use it? am i fine with just my fine gravel?

I am having a creativity block.

I found some really cool black fine gravel in my shed the other day, this got me pretty excited. I have seen a tank with this and it looked really cool. But now i dont know what to do with rocks / wood plants? Its a small tank so i cant do that much to it..

I dono if any one has any ideas for me that they would like to share.
i was thinkign some thing liek this:

but that looks pretty complex.

 

Lighting: Simple anglepoise desk lamp with an 8 to 12W Phillips Tornado CFL bub in it will give you all the light you need (Bulb bout R60 at PnP)

The "Mysterious plastic plate" is actually an undergravel filter - you can use it,but does not make a great type of filter for a planted tank... A single unit sponge filter will set you back R25 to R30 from an LFS.. you can cut the sponge in half for a small tank like yours...

As for scaping it? Look at pics of nano tanks on the net - find one you like and just try doing it...

 

Thanks man, Wow is a sponge filter THAT cheap?? What size filter will i be looking for? Or just the smallest cheapest one? So u say for a planted tank its better for the "dirt" to be in the gravel rather than in the under gravel filter?

With the sponge filter,, is that enough? Doesn't that just remove debris from the water, not actually biologically "filter" the water?

Lucky enough i found some thing in the garage that worked out perfectly..

I will post some pics of it.. Took the insides out from one of those black out door lights. It has two globes and it has a 90degree mounting bracket and a reflector dish that all fits in perfectly... love it when things just work out.

 

Sponge filters do filter biologically, just not much. And don't clean the sponge often. The problem with undergravel filters are, they suck the dirt into the gravel which you siphon out again. Sounds great, but try that in a planted tank without uprooting your plants...
azurekoi mentioned the 8 to 12W Phillips Tornado CFL bulb with reason, you get a great spectrum from them, your light is most probably 4000K, although it should be better than nothing, a 6500K light would give a far better spectrum.

Good luck and keep us updated with pics

 

Yea i tried the normal light and the tank does appear to be more yellow.. i left out the undergravel filter so that isnt aproble any more. I must just get my self a filter.

And the sand i found is not enough, which is abit painfull. Dono where i can find more black gravel.

 

Disagree with Digigram a bit - sponge filters give EXCELLENT biofiltration(does zero mechanical though - gravel siphon does the trick though) - but yeah,dont clean the sponge much - quick squeeeze in old waterchange water does the trick once a month...

Why stick with just black gravel? Go look in the garden - sure you can find some small brown stones/gravel to mix in and "bulk" up your substrate... although all black would be nice,a mix with some dark brown will A: Give you enough substrate at no extra cost... and B: Look super natural - much more so than just plain Black gravel...

 

Agree with Azurekoi. I've used sponge filters many times in the past and am using one again in my Wabi-kusa tank. Excellent, efficient and very cheap!
Where are you situated? If you want more black sand, I have some spare!
If you are struggling to build your tree, look here: Merlin's new home... it might help.
Barry

 

Well, when I say not much I compare it to a canister filled with Matrix, bio-balls or lots of sponge. For a small tank like that it should be adequate.

 

Stay in Hatfield in the week. and in Randburg in the weekend.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Once you have a fairly sufficient tree going to you have to trim it like a bonsai?

 

Not really like a bonsai. However you will obviously want to have a shape to your tree's canopy.
If you want the fluffiest look to moss, trim it down often. (at least once a week.) As it is trimmed, light will reach the lower portions and cause heavy branching. [FONT=&quot]As hard as it is to try to trim moss and clean up all the cuttings, it will grow back thicker and fuller.
If you don’t trim the moss and allow it to become too dense, then the [/FONT]underside of the moss will start to die off. [FONT=&quot]
There really is no strategy, just trim it back with scissors and try desperately to catch all the small pieces. (otherwise you'll have moss sprouting up all over your tank!)[/FONT]

 

what is the best moss to use for this?

 

I'm not sure that there is a "best" moss as such, for a "tree!" I think it largely depends on what you want to achieve with your tree. It also depends on what moss you can get your hands on... I've mainly used a moss that I found growing in a water feature at work, haven't got a clue what type it is and also some I was given. Both are growing fine.

 

i have some java moss, but i don't think that will work well, and its quite dark.

Does any one know where i can find some flame moss? it looks pretty good

 

How to grow java moss fast: aqualandpetsplus.com/Plant,%20Java%20Moss.htm
http://www.aquahobby.com/garden/e_dubyana.php

 

Sorry, the first link doesn't work, here it is again: How to grow Java moss with pictures