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My never-ending debacle of a Mini M tank...rescaped 8/01/2008!

11K views 79 replies 20 participants last post by  jaidexl 
#1 · (Edited)


ADA Mini M 5.4 gallon tanki
Solar Mini M 27 watt
Red Sea Nano Filter
ADA Amazonia Aquasoil
manten rock from Aqua Forest Aquarium
HC, riccia(came nice and green from a generous ToYoTa), rotala wallichi, dwarf hairgrass(which brought snails), narrow leaf java fern
Flourish Excel

So, as you guys can see, I have multiple problems with my tank and would like some advice. I originally only had yellow water from the Aquasoil but it is now what I've seen referred to as "pea soup" because of my keeping the light on for 12 hrs a day. I did this to try to save the riccia which was browning. I did have mixed results as the riccia was pearling because of the 12 hrs of light, but there is still riccia browning underneath the top layer. Do i need to get this internal UV sterilizer from Petsmart to fix this? I just added the rotala wallichi and java fern today, hoping that it would take some nutrients away from the pea soup.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/prod...58&itemNo=7&Ntt=uv&In=All&previousText=uv&N=2

Also, I have some green algae(which also pearls :mad:)growing all over my HC and even the Aquasoil. I've been able to pick it off using tweezers but I don't want to keep doing this. I also have what may be brown algae on the rocks and some of the riccia? Is it okay for me to add some cherry shrimp to eat the algae?

Which brings me to my next problem. I got the smallest filter bag I could find and put Purigen in it and put it in the filter. Well the bag's holes were not small enough and Purigen blew all over the tank. I've sucked up some of it using a siphon but there are still pieces of Purigen in the substrate. Will fish or shrimp eat Purigen? I don't want them to eat that stuff and die.

You can see some of the algae on the glass, and the Purigen in the picture below.



I dose .5 ml of Excel a day and now have lights on for about 5 hrs a day. Should I trim the stem of the rotala wallichi at the bottom to make it shorter in length? I'm not sure I like the look of it now as it seems to be a bit big for my tank and growing all wild. I also got the whole line of Flourish ferts now and I don't want to add it considering the condition my tank is in. I also would like to save my riccia but not sure why the top layer is green and growing, but the rest is browning. I have it netted over rocks.

All comments are welcome and I appreciate any assistance I can get!
 
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#3 ·
Yowza!!!!

It would probably be worth while to do some water changes for a few days (15% daily) until you can clear some of that out. A UV sterilizer would help with the problem but shouldn't be necessary if you do some prudent water changes.

It's probably time to cut down your photo period. Most seem to recommend less than 10 hours. You can even break that up into 2 sections if you are like me and like to watch the tank at night when you come home. With that kind of light the ricca shouldn't be having 'lack of light' issues. I would guess that the problem of browning lies somewhere else in the 'food chain'. You can always take a clipping of ricca and put in a glass next to a window if you are concerned that the ricca in your tank is going to die, that way you would have some for when your tank is functioning properly. Other than that, I will leave it to the ridiculously knowledgeable experts on this board.

Good luck!!
 
#4 ·
The reason I did 12 hrs was because that is what ToYoTa does. I just got an automatic timer power strip from Drs Foster and Smith so I should be able to better regulate how much light the tank gets. I don't plan on adding any CO2, other than Excel.

Let me start trying the daily water changes.
 
#5 ·
The water changes would obviously be a temporary fix. We really need to find out what the underlying problem is to turn that into something beautiful. I believe that with that kind of lighting, co2 and ferts would be necessary. Since you are already adding excel then co2 may be the problem...

I think of this blurb.

"Thus Light and Carbon are the gas pedal

If you have an aquarium with 5.5 watts per gallon, your plants are going to demand a LOT of CO2 … and if they have enough CO2, they will also need a lot of Macro and Micro Nutrients.

If you have an aquarium with 1.0 watts per gallon, your plants are going to demand less CO2 and somewhat less Macro and Micro Nutrients.

Just like driving a turbo charged Ferrari on a gravel road … if you run out of anything you are likely to crash and burn … thus the Estimative Index is focused on making sure that we do not run out of our Macro and Micro Nutrients …"

It seems to me that we have already crashed and are burning. Without any sort of supplementation it's not surprising that the evil plants are taking over :icon_evil

I do realize that excel is supposed to be a source of carbon but I’m too new at this art to make a very knowledgeable contribution as far as that goes.
 
#7 ·
I say 12 hours is too long of a photoperiod. Plants need their rest too. ;)
I try to go no longer than 10 hours. And if you have really high light, you would have want to go even lower, maybe 5-6 hours. Stick to the 5 hours right now, until the algae goes away. Once you got it under control, you can probably go back to closer to 10 hours.

The rotala and riccia are fairly fast growing plants, but I'm guessing there's not enough of those to "eat up" the excess nutrient. I would recommend stuffing your tank with some more faster growing stems, and cut back on the light hours. You could try cutting the rotala, and replanting it to make a denser bush.
If those don't work, you may want to check your fertilizing regime, and maybe switch from excel to CO2 (I think I read somewhere that the carbon in CO2 is easier or quicker for the plants to extract?).

Oh, and by all means, do your water changes first and foremost.



P.S. I personally don't think it's necessary to have a UV filter, though a blackout would help control the green water. (No guarantee on the health of the other plants though.) I got rid of green water on one of my 10 gallons by simply doing a huge water change, a blackout for a few days, then lowering the light period to 5.5 hours a day for a while after.
 
#9 ·
This sort of thing frequently happens to my smaller containers when I start them up.

There is another option to clear out the green water. I pull the fish and add some daphnia to the tank. They usually multiply until it's totally cleaned up. A bonus is some extra fish food for other tanks.
 
#11 ·
Thanks to everyone who responded to the thread. This was almost a year ago but I did a major water change and did a blackout period of 3 days. It got rid of my pea soup and algae problems. However, I neglected the tank and then most of the plants died off, while my shrimp went from 10 to like 100.

I've recently rescaped the tank and this is what it looks like. I added some manzanita wood I bought from badcopnofishtank. You might not be able to see it but I planted vals nana all along the back. Most of it arrived dead/melted so I had to trim away a lot of it before planting. I've read in a couple of places that vals will melt if using excel. I only dose .5ml a day so I'm hoping that won't harm it.

I also planted some dwarf lobelia cardinalis in the middle. It arrived mostly melted but I see new little leaves coming out so maybe it will rebound. Obviously in the front, I have some HC. I have a pathetic little java fern plantlet that survived from my original tank tied to one of the branches. I'm hoping to get some needle leaf java fern that I can put in front of the branches on the left side, to cover the rock I'm using to help support the branch.

For livestock, I have a few cherry shrimp, and 11 microrasboras (6 merah, 4 urophthalmoides, 1 maculatus). I'm waiting for my nerite snail to arrive from planetinverts and it will supposedly be shipped out on Monday.

I dose .5ml excel everyday and the seachem ferts according to their sample dosing schedule.

What other plants should I add and where? All comments/suggestions are welcome! I know the picture isn't the clearest. I suck at taking aquarium pictures.

 
#17 ·
I use the Eheim Ecco 2232. On the box it says it can be used in tanks up to 35 gallons in size but I'm not sure about that =P I have the input and output valves adjusted a little bit so it won't be too strong and blow my fish all over the tank. It works great and I especially like 2 baskets inside the filter that you can store media, Purigen, filter floss, etc.

For intake/outtake, I use the nano Fluxus pipes from Cal Aqua. They are a great value and I highly recommend them! Quality is the same as the small pipes from ADA, and they cost like 40% as much as the ADA ones. They also come with a suction cup connector whereas the ADA ones do not. The intake pipe is also open at the bottom which I prefer compared to the ADA intake pipe which is closed on the bottom.
 
#19 ·
Thanks mott.

I've actually had the tank set back up for 1-2 months but I just added the manzanita yesterday. I haven't had a problem with green water and I'm pretty sure it won't be coming back. I do however get algae on the glass daily that I have to scrape off and algae on the plants that the shrimp don't seem to have an interest in. :angryfire

I have the lights on a timer from 7am-11am and again at 7pm-11pm. Is that too much? Should I go back to having 1 photoperiod? I am interested in getting CO2 but just don't want to spend hundreds on it right now. I also don't want to do DIY because it's not consistent and can't be hooked up to my timer to be shut off nightly.

The cheapest one I've seen is the red sea one from Doctors F&S. Any other suggestions for a cheap, yet reliable CO2 solution for this sized tank?
 
#21 ·
What is the cheapest I can get a good 2.5lb cylinder and regulator? I assume I would also need a solenoid and then some sort of diffuser and maybe even a drop checker? I can't afford to spend 2-300 on all that equipment right now.

I was looking at the Red Sea Turbo CO2 and I like how inexpensive it is (~$25) and the fact that you can set it on a timer to turn it off. However, It looks like I would have to place the huge diffuser piece inside the aquarium and that would just ruin the aesthetic of my tank, not to mention I have no room for it. As for DIY CO2, Aquaticmagic has some decent looking diffusers, but I don't see any way to automatically turn off the CO2 at night?
 
#23 ·
Yes, I should have been more clear. I don't want the fish to suffocate at night =) I never thought about the airstone. That might be a good solution, although it means I'd have to run another tube into the tank, and also find a place for the airstone. Thanks clwatkins10!
 
#24 ·
Hey there,

You are doing a great job. I wanted to add about the co2. For the last 3 months I've had my 2.5 gallon and it has DIY Co2. But to help at night all what I do is pull the Diffusor close to the water surface. It been working good for me. The fish and snails seem happy.:)
 
#25 ·
Hi thief,

I really like your ADA Mini M tank and have been waiting (along with many others I'm sure) to see you fill it out with plants and fish. :)

Have you ever forgotten at night to pull the diffuser up? I'm afraid I would forget one night and wake up to a lot of dead fish and shrimp. :icon_roll
 
#27 ·
Well I have forgot about it maybe 5-6 times. No damage was done. But some otos have died but I think that is because I bought them from petco and the fishes aren't all that healthy.

Also thanks for the compliment. I think the main reason for taking things slow s because rushing causes problems and maybe I will send this to the ADA contest next year if it comes out good.
 
#28 ·
So I'm finally jumping on the CO2 bandwagon. Originally I was going to go with a paintball CO2 setup since my tank is only 5 galons. However, it was actually cheaper for me to go with the full size setup, and this will also have me covered for if/when I go to a bigger tank.

Here are the things I have purchased. Thanks to roybot73 for giving me lots of advice and information about CO2, including places to buy some of this stuff.

JBJ CO2 regulator/solenoid with bubble counter and check valve $82.99 ($90.99 shipped)


diffuser $6 free shipping


drop checker $2 ($8 shipped)


Micromatic 5lb CO2 cylinder $56.95 ($64.45 shipped)

I tried calling a bunch of welding supply places in Austin first to see if it would be cheaper to buy a CO2 cylinder here like roybot73 suggested, but it wasn't, so I had to go online.

10 ft CO2 proof tubing $1 ($6.99 shipped)

I'm now just waiting for everything to arrive so I can go get the canister filled and then put it all together.

I've also added plants from other members here and some of them look like they could use some pressurized CO2 badly.
 
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