Banasophia's Fresh Start: The IM Nuvo 12 g Atoll

[Lebowski_]

So I will say this - and I may be overthinking it - you may want to choose a different substrate if you are going Corys or other bottom dwelling cats. They love softer substrates. You will probably be fine either way, but I did notice mine spent most of their time on the smooth river pebbles rather than the flourite sections (it's hardened clay essentially, and can be pointy).  I actually had some breed in a sandy tank about 10 years ago 🙂

 

Fluval Stratum or the ADA Aqua Soil are "softer", or you could put a layer of something over the flourite.

 

Just my opinion since it's returnable and also since you have the opportunity now before you start the tank.

 

Cory's are the best!

[banasophia]

Hmmm… worth considering, for sure. I chose it because chatGPT suggested it, I trust the brand and I like the look of it, and it appeared it would be pretty straightforward to use and not need to be replenished over time. I ordered the black, which is apparently its natural color. 
 

I also see a lot of tanks using something that looks like tiny black beads or dirt balls to me 😬😆… not sure what substrate that is?

[banasophia]

Ohhh look at these guys, for sale locally:

 

 

 

[Lebowski_]

25 minutes ago, banasophia said:

I also see a lot of tanks using something that looks like tiny black beads or dirt balls to me 😬😆… not sure what substrate that is?

 

Sounds like Fluval Stratum or ADA Aqua Soil

 

Stratum:

 

Aqua Soil:

[banasophia]

 

 

3 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

 

Sounds like Fluval Stratum or ADA Aqua Soil

 

Stratum:

 

Aqua Soil:

Oh yeah, that stuff! Are those your tanks? Really pretty!! 

[banasophia]

Guess what just arrived:

 

Here’s how my Kessil a80 Tuna Blue fits with the scape.

 

Now to assemble and check out the Asta. 

[banasophia]

Okay, check it out guys. Just the look I was going for. 

 

[banasophia]

I had bought some black contact paper to wrap the base, but I think I’m liking it as is, with the white breaking things up from the dark wood of the shelf, the future substrate, and the background.

 

 

 

[Lebowski_]

It looks awesome!

 

Those weren't my tanks, I just found some examples off reddit to give you a visual.

 

 

[banasophia]

32 minutes ago, Lebowski_ said:

It looks awesome!

 

Those weren't my tanks, I just found some examples off reddit to give you a visual.

 

 

Thank you! 🤗😊

 

 

Ah yes, exactly what I was talking about. 

 

[growsomething]

Beautiful  setup.  Could go with just long java fern in the center growing "out of" the base of the wood, with small floating plants, and some anubias nano petite.  You could then have inert substrate and less to worry about by way of dosing ferts and the resulting algae issues.  

It's gonna be nice with that setup no matter what you put in there.

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, growsomething said:

Beautiful  setup.  Could go with just long java fern in the center growing "out of" the base of the wood, with small floating plants, and some anubias nano petite.  You could then have inert substrate and less to worry about by way of dosing ferts and the resulting algae issues.  

It's gonna be nice with that setup no matter what you put in there.

Thanks so much! I love the plant suggestions. Here are some pics below for anyone else like me that’s reading along and a newbie to freshwater planted. For a floating plant I really like duckweed, but I am worried it will get sucked into the rear chamber so maybe I need to choose one with bigger leaves? Also, I saw mention of floating leaf plans not being as good in tanks with lids, so I’m not sure if my partial lid will be an issue?

 

And while on the subject of my partial lid, @A.m.P, you had mentioned a few beautiful fish options that are surface swimmers and possible jumpers… I think one was a killifish and one was a hatchetfish… they look so awesome but do you guys think the partial lid would be likely to contain them? I only had a partial lid on my Evo 5 and never had any problems with jumping, but the light was right above the opening for that tank and may have further discouraged would-be jumpers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

Anubias and java fern are fantastic plants, bucephilandra is a nice and easier to keep red plant, subwassertang is also fantastic and easy.
You could always weight down some netting or a screen over the opening slot.

 

Dwarf saggittaria is a fun one too, as is sublata, littorella uniflora is super cool for controllable ground cover as well.

[NatureGuy]

Frog bit could be good for a floating plant. Its leaves are large, so it doesn’t get everywhere. I’ve never had problems with using a lid. It has long roots which is a plus in my book (they get knocked off if there’s a lot of glow though)

[banasophia]

Thanks guys! I’ll check out those additional plants and I’ll have to figure out whether I can do something with netting across the opening. Is it an issue that the floating plants block too much light to the plants below, as with corals shading lower corals? 

[NatureGuy]

9 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Thanks guys! I’ll check out those additional plants and I’ll have to figure out whether I can do something with netting across the opening. Is it an issue that the floating plants block too much light to the plants below, as with corals shading lower corals? 

They definitely do block out a lot of light, not all of it, but it’s good to keep in mind 

[banasophia]

Do you guys think I’ll need a media rack?

[banasophia]

Beautiful freshwater tanks at my LFS:

 

 

 

They have a huge selection of plants, including the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Some inspiration and information:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DevilDuck]

I did the opposite, I started with freshwater in 2012 and went saltwater a few years ago. You'll find that livestock is at least 5 times less expensive and maintenance much easier when you don't have to worry about salinity.

 

A couple of starting tips:

 

1. The substrate doesn't really matter. I've used super expensive ADA Substrate to cat litter. They all have their pro's and con's but all will grow plants.

2. At the start plant heavy! This will help the tank cycle very quickly. 

• Stay away from "tank busters" like swords, vals, and madagacar lace. I have a small one now which i purposely stunt but at one point this plant took over the tank.
• Most plants are sold are grown immersed. Leaves may melt initially when planted underwater. Give them some time and they will grow back.

3. 6 hours of light at a conservative level until your out of the ugly stage. Dial back if you get too much algae

4. Treat algae aggressively, especially at the beginning so they do not take a foot hold. Especially true for black brush algae which can quicky take over a tank.

Cheapest way is to turn off flow for 10 mins and spray hydrogen peroxide on them.  Repeat until they turn red. 

5. If you plan on having shrimp put them in first to give them time to acclimate. Start with neocardian shrimp of one color.

6. Twice a month 50% water changes. Work well for me. Fertilizer is dosed after the wc.  

 

Here's my current badly neglected 4 year old planted tank:

 

[A.m.P]

That's fantastic advice, all of it

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, DevilDuck said:

You'll find that livestock is at least 5 times less expensive and maintenance much easier when you don't have to worry about salinity.

Thank you so much for the info and tips! Your tank is beautiful. 
 

Yeah, I was shocked when I reached out to the local guy with the super fancy bettas and they were only $20!!! 
 

And I have to go pick up a bucket of RSCP salt for the other 2 tanks today and was thinking how nice it will be not to worry about mixing salt for this new tank. 
 

1 hour ago, DevilDuck said:

Stay away from "tank busters" like swords, vals, and madagacar lace. I have a small one now which i purposely stunt but at one point this plant took over the tank.

Assuming from the context you mean plants that are fast growing and will take over? 

Basically my goal with this tank is for it to be pretty, but simple and low maintenance.
 

I’m excited about the tank because I think the white lights will make it easier to photograph, so I’m hoping to choose fish and plants that will also photograph well. 

[DevilDuck]

14 hours ago, banasophia said:

Thank you so much for the info and tips! Your tank is beautiful. 

 

Yeah, I was shocked when I reached out to the local guy with the super fancy bettas and they were only $20!!! 
 

And I have to go pick up a bucket of RSCP salt for the other 2 tanks today and was thinking how nice it will be not to worry about mixing salt for this new tank. 
 

Assuming from the context you mean plants that are fast growing and will take over? 

Basically my goal with this tank is for it to be pretty, but simple and low maintenance.
 

I’m excited about the tank because I think the white lights will make it easier to photograph, so I’m hoping to choose fish and plants that will also photograph well. 

Thank you! 

 

Yes, "tank busters" are large fast growing plants that do no work well in a nano tank. They will grow large quickly and their broad leaves will cover and shade the smaller plants. They work better in larger 50+ gallon systems.

 

One of my favorite youtube resources is Foo The Flower horn:

 

(15) Foo the Flowerhorn - YouTube

 

He does simple, nice looking nano tanks from build to 2-3 years down the line. It's a shame he has quite doing videos.

  

 

[banasophia]

Okay so this is what I’m envisioning. I have a painting next to the tank which is by a local artist in my mom’s painting group with red tulips, so I’ve decided to go with an all red betta and some broad leafed plants to compliment the colors and shapes in the painting. (I found the free stock photo of a beautiful red betta on Pexels, btw… the artist is Chevanon Photography.)

 

I’m thinking 6-8 neon green tetras and maybe 6 corydoras of one of the miniature varieties, plus a few small snails like the rams horns or nerites. Let me know if this will be overstocked, but from what I’m reading both types of fish would really like a group of at least 6.

 

For plants, please let me know your thoughts on what will be easiest and give me the look I’m going for. Based on all of your great suggestions and a bit of research, I’m thinking it will be java fern, anubias nanas, frogbit for a floating plant… and then maybe I want some kind of small leafed ground cover (ideally a tiny round leafed plant that looks like the cuba they have at my LFS in the pic I posted above), but I want to be sure to choose one that won’t go nuts and cover the entire substrate as I’d like to keep more of the substrate/wood negative space on the right hand side if possible, so I’m not sure what ground cover will be best. Maybe since I don’t want the full substrate coverage it would be better to avoid a ground covering plant? 

 

[growsomething]

Cool beans.  Does the top come off for cleaning?

I don't know if it would fit in, but Japanese Pennywort (hydrocotyle tripartita) has been my favorite plant.  I've used it as ground cover in low tech tanks by manually pressing the stems into the sand, but the leaf texture may be too loose for what you want.