Journal The Chronicles of Nano

[techman81]

So I've had this UNS 30C going for just over a month now and I understand why they say bigger tanks are easier. This has been a bit of a struggle. It was just my 2nd aquarium and was intended to be something simple and easy to care for. Thought I'd finally create a journal for it and chronical it's journey from the little nano that tried to hopefully, a shrimp paradise.


Tank: UNS 30C with a DIY stand.
Light: ONF Flat Nano
Original Filter: Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo
Current Filter: Oase Biocompact 25
CO2: Fzone regulator on a Paintball CO2 tank. In-tank diffuser.
Substrate: UNS Controsoil (Fine) and ADA La Plata sand
Hardscape: Lava rock and unknown driftwood (probably spiderwood)
Testing out a cheap stainless steel skimmer I purchased off AliExpress

Plants
Multiple types of Anubias and Bucephalandra
Mini Bolbitis
AR mini (just added)
Staurogyne Repens (just added)
Pogostemon Helferi "Downoi" (just added)

Fauna
Sunkist Orange Shrimp
Planned on Chili Rasbora but that didn't go so well, so this will be a dedicated shrimp tank.



The first mistake I made with this was to plant immediately, rather than do a dark start as I did with my first scape. As you can still see in the current photo, I had a lot of Buce melt as a result of the high initial ammonia. I was hoping I would see more of a rebound by now but it's been a struggle. I also had different stem plants in the background and they struggled as well, even though they were already submersed grown plants. The current background plants were just placed in the last week and I've loaded the substrate up with more root tabs. They should be more durable but I may want to add something that gets a little taller. I also plan to fill in the melted Buce and some other bare areas with some additional Buce and Anubias. I'm dealing with some algae on the wood and the Anubias Nana Pinto, but nothing too serious.

I hoped that this would be home to Sunkist Orange shrimp and Chili Rasboras. Even though it's only 7 gallons, from previous experience with the Rasboras, I thought of school of 8 to 10 would be fine. I started with 8, but within 2 days, 5 decided to leave the tank (even with a lid covering 3/4 of the top). General water parameters were good, but I admit, CO2 may have been a little high. I moved the remaining Chilis to my larger tank were they are now happy and content. Hopefully the shrimp will begin breeding soon and I'll have plenty of tiny creatures to watch.



I generally don't like seeing equipment in the tank, so I started with a canister filter. Even adjusting valves to reduce flow, it was still too much and may even have been a contributing factor in the Chilis jumping out. Just this past weekend when replanting the background, I switched over to this tiny Oase Biocompact filter. It's only got a little course sponge wrapping a carbon sponge so the jury is still out on if it will provide enough filtration, but I imagine it will be fine with only plants and shrimp. I also added the in-tank heater (house can be a little cool in the winter) and switched from the inline CO2 diffuser to an in-tank diffuser. The skimmer is an experiment. I bought it on AliExpress to see how well it worked. My impression so far: Positive = I like the look and size, it seems to do a good job skimming, at least on this small tank. Negative = High pitched whine while running. I wouldn't run it all the time due to the sound, but if controlled to only run occasionally, it may work out well as long as it holds up.

I'll post updates as I add more plants and things mature.

 

[Art]

Hi - what is the metal cylinder in the middle of the back? Skimmer?

I've always found small tanks very difficult to stabilize initially. Just give it time to settle in and things will be fine later. It will be rocky in the beginning.

 

[techman81]

Hi - what is the metal cylinder in the middle of the back? Skimmer?

Yes, that's the skimmer from AliExpress.

 

[Count Krunk]

Yes, that's the skimmer from AliExpress.

I'm a little confused how it works. It has its own pump inside it? As aren't skimmers usually on the intake of a canister filter?

And dont they usually "skim" the surface of the water? I can't tell if it goes up to the surface or not.

Bummer on your rasboras. The 10g i run for my wife (she picked out the inhabitants) has a good number of strawberry rasboras in it. No co2 though.

Wee larger tank but it has an oase 100 as well. With the spray bar the flow was able to spread out enough IME.

 

[techman81]

I'm a little confused how it works. It has its own pump inside it? As aren't skimmers usually on the intake of a canister filter?

There are non-powered skimmers on inflow or outflow pipes, but there are also powered skimmers that are essentially mini internal filters. Like this one, they mount to the tank wall near the surface and have a freely moving turret-like top where water at the surface is sucked in, pulled through a small sponge, then blown back out the bottom.

 

[Koan]

Here's a discussion on the powered skimmer

Post in thread : Journal - SkaleyAquatics Re-attempted Dutch

 

[techman81]

That Nano That Tried is still struggling along. Still having difficulty with stem plants in the back, although the AR mini is doing so-so. Not sure what the issue is because there should be plenty of nutrients and light should be OK. CO2 levels are not super high but should be adequate. I might tweak it up a bit because algae is also still an issue as you can see on the anubias. I did pull out some of the Buce that clearly wasn't going to come back and plan to replace it with some more Buce and Anubias from my other tanks.

On the bright side, yesterday, I saw a new baby Sunkist Orange shrimp for the first time. Today, I counted at least 4 babies, so water is good enough for shrimp breeding. Photo taken late in the day after a water change. Water is still a little cloudy from mineral addition.

 

[techman81]

Weekend update: Decided to go back to the Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo with some new stainless steel lily pipes and the inline diffuser. Also replaced some of the struggling stems in the back with Dwarf Sagittaria. If that can't grow, nothing can.

 

[gnatster]

Which Lily Pipes are those?

 

[techman81]

Which Lily Pipes are those?

Listed as Mioyoow on Amazon but actually the Aquapro brand also available on AliExpress. I also have the 16mm set with built in skimmer on my farm tank. I like them so far but I have read a review of them rusting so we will see.

Amazon.com

The inflow slots are a little big for baby neocaridina so I'm using the below SS mesh cage on it. I've purchased these several times with different branding on Amazon and all of them incorrectly state the inside diameter. The diameter without the gasket is correct and it will fit the 12mm or 16mm pipes but won't stay on without the gasket. My solution is to take out the gasket, cut it in half and then with half the gasket in, carefully put it on the pipe. It works but I wish they would just make the hole and gasket slightly larger, especially when so many reviews say that it doesn't fit. I could also just use the black foam filter guard but I prefer the look of this.

Amazon.com

 

[techman81]

It took awhile but this little tank is starting to shine. It's overdue for a sand vac and water change which I'll get to tomorrow, but I'm seeing less algae issues, the plants are perking up and showing growth, and best of all, the Sunkist Orange shrimp are thriving. New babies are showing up on an almost daily basis. Also added a few nerite snails to help clean the glass. Tomorrow I'm bringing home an established tank that I'm taking over from a work associate. It's filled with Anubias and I'll transfer a few cuttings from there to this tank.

 

[Koan]

How are you liking the little skimmer? I see they have it on Amazon now too

 

[techman81]

How are you liking the little skimmer? I see they have it on Amazon now too

I saw that it was now on Amazon and bought a 2nd one last week. I'll probably use it in the 16 gallon tank that's on the to-do list. I'll say that it's not going to compete with an Oase or Eheim skimmer, but for a nano tank where you want something small that also looks good, it seems to do the job nicely. I have it set to only run for 20 minute intervals 4 times in 24 hours and that's generally enough unless I'm behind on a water change like today. Have had no issues with the baby shrimp making their way into it yet.

 

[Sb1415]

Missed this journal somehow. Great looking island scape similar to something I want to do in our basement at some point in time.

I had the same experience with Espei rasbora jumping out of my 25 gallon. I think it was to do with the strong flow from the metal pipes. They were happy when they were in the tank with glass lily pipes which was also larger. I saw them swimming against the current instinctually whereas the others would go away from the current. Guess they think there would be a bigger pond on the other side.

Not sure why the stems would not grow, but the red AR highlight in the back looks great contrasting with the buce and anubias. The green fine leaves on the left I guess are Helferi, look forward to seeing them grow and contrast based on leaf shape.

I have been wanting to get some Nerite snails as well. I heard G.Aqua mention that they are different than the Clithon snail but everywhere else I read they are the same (maybe the horned ones are Clithon and presumably better algae eaters). My last one died so have been hesitant to try.

 

[techman81]

. The green fine leaves on the left I guess are Helferi, look forward to seeing them grow and contrast based on leaf shape

The back left and right are just Dwarf Sagittaria. The Helferi was one of the plants that was struggling. At some point I may swap out the Dwarg Sag for something else. Now that the tank is doing better, I imagine other stem plants will grow fine.

 

[techman81]

I have been wanting to get some Nerite snails as well. I heard G.Aqua mention that they are different than the Clithon snail but everywhere else I read they are the same (maybe the horned ones are Clithon and presumably better algae eaters). My last one died so have been hesitant to try.

It's hard to keep nerites alive for a long time but I keep replacing them in my larger tank when I get down to a couple, because they're such good algae eaters. They can clean the surface of a rock or driftwood in nothin flat.

 

[techman81]

Update time. Just completed the weekly water change. The cheap skimmer from Aliexpress has been hit & miss. It sometimes comes on at the programmed time but just makes noise and doesn't actually pull any water, fiddling with it usually gets it working again. Also, I have this setup on a google home power strip as opposed to all my other Kasa power strips and I'm not a fan of this strip or its app. The skimmer is plugged into the USB port and if it turns on while I'm doing maintenance and I then turn it off via the app, the device stays powered even though the app shows it off. I appears to be a delay in actually sending the commands. I want to swap it out with another Kasa strip but the reason I went with it is because it has a longer power cord, which I need for where I have this stand.

Otherwise, the tank is doing great. It's why I've decided to set up a couple more UNS nano shrimp tanks. The one thing I'm still considering is changing out the dwarf sagittaria in the back for something nicer, but I hate to mess with it now because everything is so healthy. Even some excruciatingly slow growing mini bolbitis on the back side of the driftwood is showing some nice growth .

 

[techman81]

Minor equipment reset. I swapped the Google Home power strip for a Kasa power strip. The GH strip was finicky and the app was annoying with ads. The only reason I purchased it was because the cord was a little longer. I decided to just get an extension, and now, all power strips and single smart plugs in the house are Kasa and on the same app. I also swapped out the lily pipes (again) to mini glass pipes and the outflow is a spin style with skimmer. I really like these and will just deal with the inevitable cleaning. The tank is doing great. There are probably 80 or more shrimp now. While doing a water change with a mini siphon, it's impossible to not suck up some of the super tiny babies. When pouring out the waste water, I carefully run it through a net to catch baby shrimp but no other debris and put them back in the tank. I'll have to start posting on the local swap board to rehome some in the next few months if not sooner. I've been mentioning that I may replace the Sagittaria Subulata at some point but it's now so well established that I'll just leave it and trim as needed. It actually looks nice as long as I don't let it get too out of control.

UNS 30C Dec 26_2025.webp

• techman81
• Dec 26, 2025

 

[techman81]

Quick update. Trimmed the AR mini and the Dwarf Sag is, of course, growing like crazy. I try to keep it in check by occasionally plucking a few blades here and there. A little algae on the Anubias so I'm turning lights down a bit (turned them up for the photo). It has been pretty much the same for several months so as long as it doesn't get worse, I'm not too concerned. Otherwise, everything's good. So good in fact, I think the next tanks on the roster are the 2 UNS 5Ns for the office. I just picked up a 36" tall bookshelf that's wide enough to fit both side-by-side and plenty strong enough to support them. Just have to decide on layouts and what shrimp to put in them. For this tank, I'm also considering trying fish again, maybe 6-8 Chili Rasboras. Perhaps now that the tank is fully mature, the fish will acclimate better.

UNS 30C 2_1_26.webp

• techman81
• Feb 1, 2026