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Geniusdudekiran's ADA Mini S Iwagumi "Treeless Mountain" Updated 12.02.12

259K views 1K replies 115 participants last post by  kman 
#1 · (Edited)
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." -- Steve Jobs


"Treeless Mountain"​

So, I finally have bought an ADA tank, specifically the ADA Mini S, as it fits the dimensions of my desk very well. This tank is to be a very simple, minimalistic, but modern setup. All of the equipment and materials have been carefully and thoughtfully chosen to fit the requirements of this goal.

Some of you may recognize this scape, or even the name. Saying that this tank is inspired by user Bsk's original Mini M setup would be a gross understatement -- perhaps a more appropriate name for this setup would be "Treeless Mountain V2" or something of the likes. A huge thanks to Bsk for graciously selling me the rocks for this scape.

Equipment:
-ADA Mini S (High clarity)
-ADA Aquasoil (New type) 3L
-ADA Seiryu stone (Thanks Bsk!)
-Archaea 30cm LED (All white LED version, thanks Forrestp38829)
-Custom 10mm acrylic lily pipes (ADA mini style, thanks Fishkykid1!)
-Zoomed 501 canister filter
-Paintball CO2 (Jaggedfury style)
-Knockoff ADA bubble counter, check valve, and diffuser

Flora:
Planning on HC, although I may cave and use the UG I have. Opinions? Also have some Erios that I might try to fit into the scape, although I don't know if they'd really "flow" with it, you know?

Fauna:
Placed an order with Msjnkzd for 5 CPDs, in addition to my 2 algae-devouring, giant Amanos. Maybe will add some CRS at some point. Or PFRs. Again, opionions?

Fertilization:
RootMedic OneStep and possibly Excel.

Photography
Lots of people have asked what I shoot with.
- Nikon D7000
- 55-300mm Nikkor lens
- 18-105mm Nikkor lens
- Macro extension ring (for shrimp macros)

And without further ado, I present to you my tank:


Delivered!


Empty on my desk. This tank is going to fit my desk's minimalistic theme very well. In fact my entire room I try to keep in such a fashion. It's just nice... I guess I'm just kind of obsessed with the concept of simplistic design. And it certainly turns heads when people come over and marvel at the fact that this is a room inhabited by... a teenager! And it's... neat, and clean!


This light is just awesome. It really looks like the Apple TV remote. Which, admittedly, is part of the reason I decided on it. lol


Scaping. Sorry the light isn't properly screwed on in this picture!


Scaped. Any suggestions?





Here's a couple of pics from Bsk's original scape:



So guys (and girls!) let me know what you think!
 
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#399 ·
I listened to the show. Great job guys. Really informative. If I wasnt working at the time I would have called in.

I run a heater in my mini-m as well. I live in ny it does get cold in winter. And the room where i have the tank set up fluctuates in temperature. @genius good choice on the didplis. will you be trimming it to keep it bushy?
 
#407 ·
lol. A clean room is so much easier to live with. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Simplify, and nothing can go wrong. Keep up with what there is and it'll look great. Likewise with planted tanks :hihi:

Also, no toddlers in my room!!! I am installing myself a little Arduino electronic door lock this summer when I have time for it, just for fun. And to look cool :cool:

Got the Didiplis diandra today from Outlawboss, looks great! Great deal, great price, great seller, great plants. I'll give them a day or two to straighten out up towards the light and then I'll post pics! :)
 
#409 ·
Haha yeah. Once you get the hang of it, it's much easier to keep a clean room though. I couldn't stand to have spent $300 on this tank alone and not have a clean and simple room to go along with it :proud:

There're only two shrimp in there at the moment (both PFR) but I plan to add more soon. The CPDs have shown no interest in them so far despite their small size. But that was the point of the test shrimp. So I should be good to go, as soon as I stop dosing H2O2.
 
#410 ·
I never updated after gettin the D. Diandra? I'll have to fix that tomorrow. Looks infinitely better now! So much green... Sooooo much... Greenest tank I've ever had. Like, this bright, deep green. I think that part of it is the Archaea lights' spectrum.
 
#413 ·
One might think that being sick as **** on a Saturday may lead me to photograph my tank as soon as I said I would. But no. More like, sit around, sneeze and cough, then remember and get around to it. So, enjoy! :)



I think that the Aventador is getting a bit old there... time to switch it out soon :biggrin:



Lens that I prolly should have shot these with :hihi:



Shout-out to Jnaz for taking the time to ship me an awesome SCAPE sticker for this tank! :proud:



Biggest of the 2 CRS that I put in there. The CBS and the other CRS are really tiny, but even as they swam out of the net, right in front of the CPD's, they expressed no predatory interest. Good. lol

Also, sorry for the terrible pictures. It seems that the quality of my pictures is directly proportional to my well being (i.e. I shot on automatic for the first time ever with this camera, lol. Not even program this time! :))
 
#414 ·
tanks looking good. i like the d. diandra, itll look great once its fully "grown in".
if i were taking care of it, i would let it grow tall, then uproot and plant the tops, and then start shaping it into a nice round bush. but thats just me, and stem plants are easy to get into nice bushes (as long as they are growing healthy, of course).

que es un aventador?
or if you have trouble with spanish; croatian: sta je aventador?

btw, feel better soon. :)
 
#415 ·
Thanks man. I have a ton more, but I just don't want to plant too much. I got 25 stems, but they were so tall it's probably more than 45-50 now.

An Aventador is a Lamborgini model, the newest one, to replace the LP640/Murcielago. It's the one just to the left of the tank :proud:

Thanks!
 
#416 ·
Got around to taking a better picture. Also, this one is edited to match the colors better to real life, the coloration on these pictures doesn't really do the tank justice. It's pretty easy and takes all of 1-2 minutes, so I'll do it from now on. :)



Taken with 55-300mm telephoto, as opposed to 18-55mm earlier. I'm pretty much just using the latter for macros these days :/

EDIT -- actually this one came out a little too dark green after viewing on a different monitor :/
 
#417 ·
EDIT -- actually this one came out a little too dark green after viewing on a different monitor :/
Looking good.

You might want to invest in a calibration device for your monitor (maybe a high quality monitor too). You'll find people will see many different things on their monitors. Editing looks fine, but the green is a bit too vibrant, you can see a glowing halo around it.

 
#425 ·
So, after my precal exam/hell tomorrow, this tank will get a complimentary haircut and an updated journal.

This tank, by far, has easily proven to be my favorite aquascape of all time. Hopefully, the guys at IAPLC will think likewise (hey, great minds think alike! :proud:)
 
#429 ·
Hahaha, maybe this Summer I'll get some cheap hybrids and breed 'em out and share with my fellow teen enthusiasts :hihi:

For about six or seven weeks I was feeding every day, alternating foods, etc. Now I'm back to my forgetful shrimpkeeper self (i.e. school is ending and exam week/hell is occuring (Thanks Philip!)) and feeding like 2X a week. I was getting better results before. So I really need to go back to it. lol
 
#433 ·
Lol, we had to get 2 smaller rooms instead of 1 larger (fine by me... :hihi:) because cruise people are capitalist pigs (welcome to America! :p). So yes, fly to Fort Lauderdale, lol j/k.

Good idea, I would have forgotten. I'll put my camera on a tripod and get some exact pics for you guys :proud:
 
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