# My nano tanks - IQ3 and 8 gallon rimless



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Lately, I've been enjoying planting nano-sized tanks. Here are 2 of my recent set-ups. 

The fist photo is of a Dymax IQ3 nano tank. I got it from BigAlsOnline.ca. It's really tiny -- approximately 6 litres, by my measurement, including the water in the filter. (I think that the tank itself is about 1 to 1.2 gallons) One of my kids looked at it and said, "Oh, how cute! It looks like a miniature aquarium diurama! Even the plants are tiny!"

The IQ3 is planted with plants from Tim Burton (AquaFlora), and Scholz gave me the nano-sized driftwood and rocks. The light is an LED and it comes with the tank. The filter is built into the tank, too. 

The second tank is an 8 gallon rimless that I got from Corwin (Munster Tanks). I have already posted this picture on a page in the sponsor section, but I thought I'd include it here. The plants in this tank are also mostly from Tim at AquaFlora, with a couple from Stuart (CRS_Fan). The light is a 15Watt Macro-Glo from BigAls and the filter is an Eheim Liberty from Island Pets.

Both tanks have Eco-Complete as a substrate. The 8 gallon rimless is home to a few endlers and cherry shrimp but the IQ3 has only flora at this time.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Very nice tanks


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks! The IQ3 is so small that now I never need to be without an aquarium, if I don't want to. I can just tote it to the breakfast table...


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Morainy said:


> Thanks! The IQ3 is so small that now I never need to be without an aquarium, if I don't want to. I can just tote it to the breakfast table...


that IQ3 is pretty cool would like to get one myself, luckily I have a tank on each side of my table already lol


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

The plants in the nano IQ3 tank are:

Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite' 
Marsilea quadrifolia (looks like tiny shamrocks, reportedly an easy-care carpeting plant)
Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis 53B' (1 stem at the back)
Alternanthera reineckii 'Pink' (roseafolia) (1 tiny stem, kind of hidden at the moment)
and a bit of: Ammannia ssp. 'Bonsai'


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## Chappy (Apr 21, 2010)

Beautiful little tanks. Very nicely done


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## Dustman (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice tanks, very nicely planted.


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

OMG awesome job on the IQ3 I love it!

P.S. I love what you did with the drift wood.... Looks great!


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you, everybody! (beaming proudly!)

Scholz, I laughed when I read your comment, that you loved what I did with the driftwood. All I did was stick it into the tank and perch some anubias onto it. I put it exactly where you had suggested. It sat there obediently.

Then, it drifted up and flipped belly-up. 

I spent several minutes pushing it back into the substrate as it floated up, each time having to also tuck all the surrounding plants back into the substrate again. It was a bit like trying to stand a feather on a table in a tornado -- all the plants were going round and round because my hand took up so much of the tank space. In the end, cacaphony. But fun! And I like the way it turned out.


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

It'll water log pretty quick as i had it water logged allready but then it dried out some. Give it a week and it'll do as it's told...

You picked the place and which one to use all i did was stand there.... 

It may grow some white fuzzyness around it for a bit... this will go away with time and is nothing to be worried about...


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

Lovely. I want a nano tank now.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Alan, I think that your Eclipse 3s officially qualify as nano tanks!



Atom said:


> Lovely. I want a nano tank now.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

It was mostly floating up because my hand was disturbing things in the small space. It's sitting quite nicely now, helped along only a little by a few plant weights. 

I really love that little piece of grapevine! Thank you so much!



Scholz said:


> It'll water log pretty quick as i had it water logged allready but then it dried out some. Give it a week and it'll do as it's told...
> 
> You picked the place and which one to use all i did was stand there....
> 
> It may grow some white fuzzyness around it for a bit... this will go away with time and is nothing to be worried about...


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Two great nano setups , good job.Looks like smaller setups are becoming more popular these days with most aquarists.Stores , offices, schools, peoples homes and so on are few places i seen them at.Best of luck with them , keep us updated.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you, Luke! I like the nanos because they're fun to plant and I'm hoping to keep one of them on my desk. However, I wouldn't make anything smaller than 5 gallons a permanent home for any fish. I am hoping that a few baby endlers might enjoy the 1.2 gallon tank while they're very little but I've got a 12 gallon in the wings as a nursery!

Maybe some cherry shrimp could live permanently in a tank that's only 1.2 gallons. What do you think?


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

Morainy said:


> Alan, I think that your Eclipse 3s officially qualify as nano tanks!


I guess they do  but now I want Killifish too!


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

WOW! That's seriously incredible! Jelousy Jelousy!!!


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## tang daddy (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice nano planted!!

The iq3 is a great tank, makes me wanna get one for a Saltwater pico reef.....


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you for looking at my nano tanks, everybody! They are so much fun!


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Wow, these tanks look very nice. Now if I could just get the right plants for my 8 gallon I would be good to go. I am still looking for the special carpeting plant for it.

Good job, Maureen !

Stuart


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