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frroK's ADA Mini-M REDUX ! --journey complete

31K views 165 replies 31 participants last post by  Dantrasy 
#1 · (Edited)
Ok, so I figure I should probably do this proper and start a journal for my ADA-Mini-M re-scape. Entitled, REDUX This tank was set up with driftwood and lava rock prior, in this thread. this time around I've opted to try an iwagumi layout. I've always been fascinated with them. And of course I take my inspiration from Amano AND lots of folks from this message board. Anyway, i've settled on the rock placement and got some great feedback in the Aquascaping section, you can read that here. As you may or may not know, I suffered some seriouos damage to my home from Super storm Sandy and I am just now finally able to start up some tanks again. Now that most of the work is done, I am able to dedicate some time to keeping tanks and pursuing my goals in aquascaping.

So here is the latest from today. I was done with work early and finallly got around to planting. I am dry-starting for about 1 month or so, so that the HC can root.

Flora:
Hemianthus callitrichoides
Staurogyne repens
Eleocharis acicularis
Echinodorus tenellus
Moss(hitchhiker)
Algae ;)

Lighting:
Aquaray Mini 400 65K.

Filtration:
Eheim 2211

Fauna:
Either, boraras urophthalmoides, microdevario kubotai or boraras brigittae
Amanos and ottos

DAY 1


This is it. 12/29/13
 
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#10 ·
frroK's ADA Mini-M REDUX !

Finally planted!!! +1 love staurogyne repens!
So you don't have to use any thing to cover on top when doing the dry start method. Im new to this.
Hey-- Thanks! I really like staurogyne as well. I didn't get a chance to use it in my old scape. But now I can. I took the photo before I covered the tank because otherwise it would get too foggy and the pic wouldn't have come out too well.

I just used Saran Wrap and covered the top tightly. I open it every day for gas exchange. And it needs to be as humid as possible but not complexity wet. Otherwise you'll get Cyanobacteria! Learned that the hard way
 
#14 ·
frroK's ADA Mini-M REDUX !

So here is a 5 day update: I am seeing considerable growth already in the HC. the staurogyne is pretty much the same. I do have more of both plants and I'm thinking of adding more to the plant mass. Hopefully it we speed things up. Plus, I somehow accumulated alot of plants. And I kind of need to get rid of some. I will most likely RAOK them soon, locally.
 
#16 ·
frroK's ADA Mini-M REDUX !

Here is a quick update a closer up shot. The HC is spreading. But I did experience some melting. A quick google search and I got some info. Some people had luck with airflow during photosynthesis. So I open the saran wrap a bit when the lights are on. I replaced most of the melted HC with some that I have growing in a separate container emmersed.

 
#23 ·
frroK's ADA Mini-M REDUX !



I know and it looks great in your tank! But I'm not sure yet if I'm going to want to let that happen. Hairgrass is very invasive and grows faster than HC. I don't want to have to keep trimming runners. Cuz I would like to have most of the foreground be HC. I Have taller hairgrass for the background that I think I might mix with chains word. If I can find any. I'm hoping under high light it will stay somewhat short.

But all this is still things that I'm thinking about... It could change before I add water. I'm going to be patient on this...
 
#26 ·
frroK's ADA Mini-M REDUX !

No pic update. Getting bored. Not seeing much more growth and some HC melted a bit. Most of it is healthy though. I'm going to flood this and blast the co2 very soon. Just haven't had the time since I've been working long hours. As soon as I get some downtime I'm hooking everything up. I'll take pics and maybe some video as soon as I can...
 
#29 ·
Finally flooded! Today I took some time and got to work on setting up this thing proper. I did add some two more species of plants for the background.
Eleocharis acicularis
Echinodorus tenellus
I was thinking of adding some hair grass Belem for in between the hc and s. repens but decided against it. I think I want to just practice on one foreground plant for this scape. Maybe next scape ill try a mix. Sorry for the crappy shot. It's late and I'm pretty tired from two surfing sessions and setting this up in between.
The Hc looks kind of haggard right now and there's some green algae , which I think is Cyanobacteria on my aqua soil. Tmrw ill dose done H2O2. Should clear it up. Now that I got some time ill get and do more updates. I'll be dosing EI with a photoperiod of 8 hours to start. 3-4 bps. Let me know what you think!

 
#34 ·
Here's a quick video I shot with my iPhone 5. Just as I thought ammonia readings were high so did a 50% water change. Going to try and do one everyday this week. Luckily my 2211 is packed with bio media. I'm hoping I can cycle this in a week. By the way, the 2211 has the perfect flow for the mini-M.!

http://youtu.be/45LBLO2jPRc
 
#36 ·
Hmm, don't think I will be going with shrimps this time around. Most likely boraras sp. maybe boraras urophthalmoides. Some pics online show them with some yellow. I would like some yellow and green. Anyone who's ever had this species would like to chime in on coloration that would help. Hard to tell from all the different pics online.
 
#38 ·
Here is a no -photo update. I'm a little embarrassed to show the tank in its current state. I'm dealing with a major outbreak of what I believe is most likely BGA. it's all over my plants, substrate and stones. It's basically covered my whole tank. I tried to does with h2O2 to kill it but the bubbles for the h2o2 were pulling my HC out of the aqua soil. So I've since stopped. I added carbon to the filter and water changes everyday. I've done some research on how to kill it and I think I'm going to try and hit it with erythromycin. I don't want to do a blackout because i dont want to slow down my plant growth. Only thing I'm worried about with the EM is killing my beneficial bacteria. Anyway, if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated. As soon as I'm cycled I'm adding a whole bunch of algae eaters to to keep it in check after I dose the EM.
 
#40 ·
Don't have any bacter 100. My flow is great.my 2211 is working fine. Im dosing EI so I think im good there.

The BGA outbreak happened before I even flooded the tank. It had developed on the Aquasoil due to the fact that I had too much water in the tank. kind of weird cuz there was no obvious pooling of water. My lights are really strong. So maybe it was just a little too wet. once I flooded the tank it spread everywhere! I tried dosing with h202, and some of it did die off but it came back with a vengeance. After this experience, I doubt I'll ever dry start again. If the EM doesn't work I may restart the tank. :(
 
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