The Planted Tank Forum banner

frrok's ADA MINI-M - A Slice of Nature --What has a Begininning must Have an End.

64K views 352 replies 40 participants last post by  frrok 
#1 · (Edited)
***Latest Update 11/13/2012*** ---(photo taken in late October)



I've broken down my 3.5 and set up this mini-m that I got for xmas. took me all day and was a lot of work. I didn't realize how many plants i had and with such thick roots! took out my fish and shrimp and placed them in a bucket with a heater and airstone. removed plants and substrate. I kept some of it for later. i was planning on re-using the tank but it broke while i was clean it out outside. its a cheapo acrylic tank from petco so that wasn't surprising. anyway, here are some pics of the set up stages in my tank. For substrate I layered, eco - complete on the very bottom, some of the old dirt and gravel mix from the old tank, then MGOCPM(dirt), filled it black beauty blasting sand then a light coating of fine black gravel or sand from substratesource.com. I really like this gravel as it has a nice dark color and is soft. easy to plant in. the black beauty has some brown mixed in. anyway, layed out my hardscape with Manzanita wood and black lava rock. then planted and filled. i am currently running a red sea nano filter but planning on swapping it out with a zoomed 501 with acyrilc lily pipes that are currently running on my 10g. i will get a powerhead for that tank soon. right now i have the tank filled and planted, i am going to test water today and if everything is cool i will add the fish and shrimp back to the tank. here are some pics of the process. thanks for looking and let me know what you think. any advice would be appreciated. Although, this is far from the final result i am happy with it how it looks. def planning on adding more crypts possibly. This tank will be lo-tech for now.

here is the list so far. ---updated 7/15
fauna
2 male black bar endlers
13 sakura grade red cherry shrimp
2 Amano shrimp

flora
Rotala rotundofolia
Ludwigia sp. 'red'
Bacopa caroliniana
Sagittaria subulata
Taxiphyllum barbieri (Java Moss)
mini xmas moss
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'red'
Cryptocoryne petchii
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'mi oya'
javern fern "needle leaf"
Mini-pellia
suberwassertang

Hardscape
Manzanita Wood
Black Lava Rock

Equipment
Zoomed 501
Tom's 13w perch light fixture with 6500k cfl bulb( may upgrade later)
archaea mini heater


break down

this is before i added the black sand on top. just bb, looks good.

substrate


hardscape

notice more subdued black sand coating

closeup hardscape


planting

all filled

full shot - next day

I also shot some video documenting the progress, check it out here, http://www.youtube.com/user/frrok1/feed
 
See less See more
7
#136 ·
Quick text update. I set up the new stand for this in my new place. I like it, it's similar to dollface's stand on her mini -s. it's one of those industrial home depot/lowes storage rack thingies. I still
Haven't had enough time to clean up the tank though. I have a huge piece of java fern still floating in the tank. I'm hoping to get to it this weekend. So much to do, move wise. Bummer!
 
#138 ·
Awesome! So close! I can't wait, you know after your thread I was actually thinking about doing a nano myself now! LMFAO! Seriously, I think I'm going to get an ADA Mini-L for a shrimp only tank to put on my desk. Of course I'll probably never get any damn work done then. hahahah. Now look what you've done! I just can't seem to find a decent filter now. It has to be shrimp friendly too. Well just an idea while I wait for my tank to arrive (It should be here Wed. finally!!! Wooo Hooo!!). Pics to come!!
 
#139 ·
I just read your thread and love how the tank has progressed!

Your tank is what I hope to have going at some point when I can devote the cash to the hobby in a serious way!

Where did you get your driftwood? Did you get it here on the East Coast?

Hope your move went well!
 
#141 ·
Thank you for the nice comments. It's really come along way. Although slowly. Haha. It def takes cash to get things going but you can def make it economical. And not break the bank. I actually got my piece from a person on here. He doesn't post much anymore.Badcopfishtank. Hes from the west coast I believe. If I were you , I would check out plantbrains manzy wood. He always has awesome pieces.

And thank you. Our move went well. I probably lost a few shrimp but they'll bounce back.
 
#145 · (Edited)
Hallelujah! Hahaha



Oh yes, for a tank your size and even at a high rate (say 3-4 bps bubbles per second) that size canister should last at least 2 months probably 3. OMG they're out of stock! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Well I'm so glad that you're finally going to get that started. You are seriously going to S**t yourself once you have the CO2 going. In two weeks, you'll be like "what happened?!" because plants will be growing so fast, lol. I'm glad that you're back to work and can really kick things up a notch in the hobby. Believe me once you go high tech, you've mastered the hobby and with that knowledge can do quite well. Just remember to start out slow with the CO2 introduction, particularly since you have shrimp. CO2 reduces water Ph, so start out with 1BPS and slowly increase while keeping track of your water Ph. And just remember you'll have to set your outlet pressure at around 30 PSI for any diffuser to work properly. As long as you have good water flow on the surface then you won't have any problems. CO2 gasses off with surface turbulence. Can't wait to see things once you've got them set up and running - great news!! :flick:
 
#148 · (Edited)
If you don't get your a** in gear and start working on that tank I'm going to lose my mind! When is the GLA regulator supposed to arrive, that's the real question! Until then I don't want to see a pic until everything is installed, lol! BTW, what temp do you keep your tank at? I read that moss do well with cooler water and that red cherry shrimp can do just fine at 60F. If that's true, then I might not even bother hooking up my inline heater...
 
#154 ·
So yesterday I had the day off for a Doc's appointment... I'm thinking great! I'll have time to do some tank work. WRONG! New house means , work must get done first or else significant others are not happy. And we must keep them happy or forget about your hobbies. After spending half the morning on the phone with cable /Internet company. I could of had time then. Nope! Before I knew it it was time for the appointment. Afterwards? NOPE. The rest of the day was spent putting up shelving. Then I had quite a scare when I thought I lost my $1000 Siberian kitty. Found her, she likes to hide really really well in our new place. That wasn't fun. By the end of the day I was pooped. We are pretty much settled in and I'm looking forward to going back to a routine. I'm ordering my light probably next week after I get paid this week. That will make me happy. LOL.
 
#160 ·
photo!

ok ok ... so I have to post a pic because its been wayyyyy to long and tomorrow is my birthday. the tank looks like crap. Plants are growing and to be honest look pretty good. Please excuse the nl java fern that I have floating in the right side of the tank. I got that whole bunch for about $5. It was grown in low light and has some old really long leaves. I am thinking of just pulling the java fern i have in my ten gallon and adding this and grow it out for a future project. I am not 100% sure that I am going to be adding any of it to this tank. I kind of like the way the moss looks covering the lava rocks at about 2/3 to the left. Besides the Philippine java fern I have in my half moon tank succombed to some sort of disease. Kind of sad because it was llooking really nice. I may just pull all of it. :-( anyway, here is the mini-m. I know I said this before but this week I am going to try and find some time to do some work on it. And still have a few things left to buy for our home so the new light may have to wait a bit longer.... in other news..... I am probably going to be setting up a 20L emersed set up in my basement that I am pretty stoked about. I got a really good deal on a t5no light. and the tank was free. al i need now is dirt and some plastic tubs! Tomorrow is my bday so I'm in good spirits!! CHEERRS!

 
#163 ·
finally had some time to do a little clean up in this tank! removed all that floating java fern, cut a little piece and added it to the middle next to that big crypt. Ill see how it does. I removed all the old leaves of the previous fern I had in there. I trimmed alot of that java moss(PITA) and cleaned up alot of debris, cleaned the glass, the pipes and added a fresh batch of Purigen. Now I have to re-charge the old stuff. anyways, I am not loving the look of this tank right now. THe crypts are completely dominating the impression. the stems are pretty lackluster. i do like the left portion of the tank rather than the right. when i add co2 I may re-scape a bit with a forground plant...we'll see. I almost pulled the trigger and ordered my new light but remembered we have a huge cc bill to pay off. haha. I may do it anyway...we'll see where I'm at after that. I also started to treat the ugly bba thats been growing. day 1 spot treated with 5mls of H2O2 and a water change. Going to do the same tomorrow. until its gone!! here are some really bad pics... enjoy!

fts

bba war!
 
#164 ·
Attack!!! hahaha...well I think that should clear things up quite nicely. I would wait for the CO2 before you get a new light. It definitely will be the most important thing to have when having high light, or else you will have an algae explosion. Believe me; right now your tank is effectively balanced, despite the presence of BBA so increasing what you already have in terms of light would turn that tank into a cloudy mess! I think a foreground would be awesome, especially on a small dimension tank like yours. Much easier to grow because of the lowered PAR threshold. I've never bothered with crypts b/c they're too much of a PITA for me. BTW, have I ever mentioned how min love I am with those RCS that you have in there? They're gorgeous, gives us a close up of those beauties!! ;)
 
#165 ·
100% agree. I wouldnt hook up the light until I have the co2 ready. Which it looks like the pb reg that I want is still not in stock. I actually really love crypts but the leaf structure is totally different under high light and co2. I have that look in my mind for this layout. Unfortunately I'm
Not sure how long it will take for the new more compact growth to take, once I have everything set up. Well see. I'll Try to get a pic of some of the redder mammas tonight after work. I have some older pics but I could do better. Really need to start using the better camera and not my iPhone 4! Lol
 
#166 ·
So here is a better pic. I realized that I had the ceiling light on when I took the last photo. This is much better. Also the new batch of purigen cleared up my water. Awesome. Forgot to mention that I attached a small piece of stainless steel mesh to the intake of my filter. After the move, I found a shrimp stuck in the inflow. So I ordered this 3 x 3 patch of stainless steep mesh from eBay. It's working perfectly. I just had to shape it to fit the 9mm size of the pipe.[censored]
Some thoughts I have on this layout. I'm not too happy with the elongated growth I have going on right now. It's due mainly in part by not having co2 and relatively medium light from the compact fluorescent fixture. It's only 13w. I mean I like it but I have a different vision with more compact growth. I'm over the low tech approach for now. I really want to upgrade things a bit. . Foreground plant for the right side of the tank will be Liliaopsis Mauritania. Im currently frowing it emersed and will add it once i have co2 and new light. I think it will work well with "jungle" feel.[censored]Let me know what you guys think.
 
#171 ·
I agree with your plan. However if you want to avoid pulling the plant you can simply cut it off at the base just under the substrate. That way you'll keep the water clean, of course it may grow back but not for quite some time. It's a risk but what would you rather have, completely cloudy water and pissed shrimp or the alternative? Just my $0.02 worth...
 
#172 ·
Thought of that too! Haha. Well see. GOOD NEWS.
Aquaray Mini 400 LED tile has been ordered. Effing Stoked! I want to plan my mounting system so I wanted to order it to see what I'm dealing with. And btw. I was on APE , and found some PAR readings that Orlando from GLA took with this light. PAR was 55umols @14 inches!! At substrate!! That's at minimum medium light.
 
#179 ·
I am an extremely happy person right now. First is I got my new light. Very impressed with the construction. Very light bit solid and durable. Looks like a UFO! :)

So bright yet very different from flourecent.

And without further adiu... A thing of beauty ...



All I need now
Is a bubble counter and check valve and I'm ready go! Thinking about the Ada ... Any suggestions?
 
#184 ·
That bubble counter is a lot...$$$ not sure if I could splurge on it right now. I need to put another order with GLA for the hanging kit for my light. So i think im going to use that one for now its only $20. I can't come up with any ideas in how to hang the led tile. The tmc hanging kit is built for the light. So rather than drive myself insane I'm just going to use that. I'll put my headaches towards building the emt pipe to suspend it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top