A nano tank layout featuring Pillow, 20L, by Piero Ballarini. The hardscape focus sits on Tropica soil, ent wood, seryu stone.
Hardscape (Tropica soil, ent wood, seryu stone) forms the skeleton — negative space between wood and stone guides the eye from foreground to depth. The plant list (Eleocharis acicularis mini, Micrenthenum Montecarlo, Fissidens fontanus, Cryptocoryne parva) favors mosses and epiphytes; packing the foreground too dense can make the tank feel heavy. white fog substrate helps stabilize root-zone nutrition in the early weeks.
Twinstar 300s lighting sits at a moderate-to-high technical level for this nano tank. Oase filtosmart 100 filtration needs enough turnovers without blasting the hardscape; browse matching filters. On nano tanks, ramp light intensity over the first 2–3 weeks to limit hair algae.
With Red cherry, Planorbarius, watch bioload: a nano tank drifts quickly if stocking is heavy.
Lighting, filtration, substrate, and plant details sit in the specs table below, or browse more layouts in Collection.
