ADA Mini S: Sanctia X

[Francis Xavier]

Craigthor Lol, I actually started looking for the "scape with the night lights" and then went "wait a minute..."

Wow, thanks a lot for the compliment Dollface. Yeah, this is the scape that has been screaming at me from since I first got the rocks, avoiding all my attempts at one upping it. But! are there any spots in particular you had in mind about filling in with aquasoil?

[Dollface]

the spot just above the worshipping stone, it looks a little concave.

[Francis Xavier]

I filled in some more aquasoil. I'd totally nerd it out and post another picture of it renewed, but you can't really see too much of it in photos. What I've done is very carefully scape the soil into specific contours. This essentially adds more of an effect to the tank in my opinion.

The contours in this tank basically follow this pattern, if one corner is high, it's opposite corner is low, and vice versa. For example the left front side where the primary stone reaches, is low, probably the lowest point of the tank. The right front side slopes upward slightly, which leads into the center area that is mounded up, with subtle dips intermittent. The left back side is also high, higher than the front right side (kind of limited with height on the front panel, since that would be bad). Now, the right back corner is low, it's still higher than the average front panel side height, but it dips down relative to the area, which means that all paths to the center back are sloping upward.

In my opinion this adds to the character of the tank, it's not a consistent slope backwards or the like. Now my concern will be maintaining these subtle contours while planting and filling the tank. That should be interesting, since lets face it, any problems with soil contours that come up after the tank is filled is just a pain in the ass to correct. The plan here will basically to be careful while planting and to fill the soil back in that's displaced with the handy dandy soil moving spatula tool.

Random Tip: Cleaning a glass diffuser is easier than it might seem when it's covered in hard algae. Basically get a container fill with water and bleach, and let it soak in the bleach, this will erode away most of the algae. 10-20 minutes should be fine, but I had mine soaking for a couple hours since it was pretty bad. After the bleach bath run the diffuser under the faucet and give it the once-over with your hand, rubbing with your finger should remove any excess stubborn algae under the tap. Most importantly, next empty your container, fill it back up with normal tap water, add dechlorinator (I overdosed it considerably for the volume (I used a coffee mug), considering bleach is in itself an overdose), and then let it sit in the mug. I had mine sitting in the dechlorinated mug for about 10 hours or so, though this amount of time is probably not necessary, it essentially was let to sit overnight since there was no rush to put it back into service. After this period of time I ran it under the tap again and the diffuser now looks brand new.

Bleach in general is a great cleaning agent for aquariums, since it is very water soluble and residual bleach can be eliminated before being put back into use.

[Outlawboss]

Great post! It's so cool to hear what's going in in people's minds as they aquascape. I had also been wondering lately how to clean a diffuser, and now I know! Thank you!

[Francis Xavier]

So I found out what the hold up on at least one plant package was. Evidently there was some problem with customs in not being able to readily identify the plants...SO, I got most of them in fairly roughed up shape.

But, today turned into one of those gruesome fishkeeping (plantkeeping in this case) days. I had to hastily move over some equipment for the tank, and it's kind of turned into a de facto resuscitation tank. The plants I got from craigthor actually came in the best condition of anything that arrived today, so hopefully the HC (the most important part) gets back on it's feet quickly.

Just about every error in the book was made today. I'll have to adjust the CO2 tubing since it's been either shooting out too much or stops all together, which means this canister will probably be caputs fairly quickly. Fortunately, I can identify the problem right away, the tubing itself is going through too many circles and cutting off the CO2 too frequently, making it erratic. So the CO2 is off for now.

The Cal Aqua lily pipes haven't arrived yet, so The canister filter outputs and inputs are kind of half assed DIY setups being held in place by the planting tool I have. The filter itself will need a thorough cleaning out, which means water changes are going to have to occur frequently to avoid unwanted algal migration from the 30 gallon. AND the plants are in rough shape.

Oh, and i've managed to spill water everywhere, from a tub coming out of the eheim while removing it from the other tank. Additionally I'll have to hunt down the flow adjustment thing-a-ma-bobs for the eheim, since right now the flow is too strong for the Mini S I think, you can visibly see the plants "moving" in the wind so to speak.

In the middle of all this I was reminded of the story of Amano when he first started using Glosso and all the hassle it provided, customs not knowing what it was and holding it forever and a half. It coming mostly dead and Amano then making it work after everyone else gave up. So Hope is not quite forlorn yet. It's hammer through the frustration time!

A picture of the freshly planted mess:

[Francis Xavier]

Update: I just cut open my hand adjusting the co2 thing, since I couldn't find my screwdriver I decided to use a "dull" knife. So in addition I have blood on my keyboard and waded up tissues tied to my fingers with a couple rubber bands.

Outlaw if you imagine someone banging their head against a diamond studded wall, you'd have a pretty good idea of whats going on in my head at this moment.

[lookin_around]

Oh man, I just came to this thread to check things out and it seems pretty chaotic. I know how sometimes you just have "one of those days" where nothing seems to go right. My roommate complains about something going wrong every time he tries to do a water change on his tank and so that is why he never does it haha.

I like the layout, and have to say you have some very nice equipment. If I could afford more ADA gear I would definitely be looking into it.

I just saw your pictures from Japan, and I must say it looks awesome. I wish I could see one of those Tori gates in person (the big red thing in the water that is part of the native religion Shinto). We just started studying Japan in my Asian History class and I am definitely developing an urge to go visit some of the places that we are studying.

[Francis Xavier]

lookin_around, that tori gate is one of the most famous in Japan, on Miyajima island. As far as reading japanese history, if you ever wonder why it took them til 1600 to unify most of the present day country, that question is quickly answered the second you get there.

Tip for CO2: Keep tubing as short as possible, this reduces the possibility of the tubing getting cinched, and reducing your flow / wasting co2 trying to figure out whats up with your co2 flow, and also makes it easier to hand adjust the flow rate. Also when you're getting a diffuser and not opting for inline diffusion, go for a diffuser that has the intake tube pointing upwards as opposed to pointing downwards. This saves space in your aquarium and also keeps the CO2 flow intact by again, reducing the 'cinched' cord area.

As an aside, this is what i've learned. Your first planted tank sets up fundamentals, you mostly bumble around and haphazardly get things to work, you're basically happy that you've managed to turn the light on, figure out how to put together the CO2 system and not have an explosion of gas into your room, and that something is growing. Your second teaches you volumes and volumes more about keeping a planted tank. There's more focus on precision and well, fine tuning this mess, especially if things don't go smoothly.

Sanctum has taught me so much more about this hobby than either my first planted tank or my previous cichlid tank. And it's only been a week.

[Outlawboss]

Originally Posted by Francis Xavier

Outlaw if you imagine someone banging their head against a diamond studded wall, you'd have a pretty good idea of whats going on in my head at this moment.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has these days! Hang in there, it always comes out better on the flip side.

[Ugly Genius]

X, I'd tell you that it sucks and it's terrible and all that stuff, but it seems like you've got the perfect attitude for a sucky, terrible thing like this: it's not what happens, but what you learn from it and what you do with what you've learned.

[Francis Xavier]

Well, it's now day 3, and I've worked out the kinks with the CO2, and no absolute catastrophe's so far. The HC doesn't seem to have lost any coloration, which is good, I've been kind of overdosing the photo/co2 period, although I think very soon I'll have to start worrying about algae. Tomorrow morning or later tonight will be the first water change, I figure probably 50% of the water is going to go.

Oddly enough the first plant to recover was the 4 color lotus, the leaf that was a little intact on arrival has colored up and grown in size quite a bit, and 3 new sprouts have already formed leaves. The leaves on this plant are -so- cool, the spots of green are vibrant and the reds have colored up a lot. There was a brownish color to them before, that looked cool, but has mostly given way to deeper reds. So far this plant is working as my indicator.

And I have -no- idea how to do anything with this pelia (it's not mini, just normal) it looks completely different from photos of the mini i've seen in UG's tanks. The bulk of it is now held down by a rock over a screen type thing in the 30 gallon, but there are pieces of it floating around in this tank. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these anubias nana petites. I can't find a good spot to fit one in really, and probably at least two are going to be switched over to immersed growth for the wabi-kusa I have planned.

Pictures!







The Wabi-kusa tank, ADA Cube Garden 45-F:


Still bouncing around ideas for pulling that one off.

[Ugly Genius]

45-F! I've always wanted to do one. Start a journal for this.

[Francis Xavier]

Yeah UG, I'll start a journal for it soon, I Just have no idea what I"m going to do with it anymore, I had a couple ideas floating around that would be cool, and then philosophical quandary's between the difference of a Wabi Kusa and a Vivarium started up in my head. The argument is at a stand still, who knows whats going to happen now.

Anyway, back to Sanctum, this morning I noticed the lotus got even bigger, and a 5th stalk is sprouting up. If this thing continues to grow at this rate, then it will have to be removed from being tooooo big. Though it does seem smaller than other Nymphaea i've kept so far, so I've got my fingers crossed. I did my water change, and filled the tank up a little bit more as well. But before hand I noticed something odd at the top of the tank, a giant bubble-conglomeration of "how in gods name did that form" since it only propped up after the CO2 had been off during the night.

Maybe it's the Green Bacter. Maybe there's a film on the top of the tank, I don't know. It's certainly curious though.

[Francis Xavier]

Day 4. After watching this tank closely the last 4 days i'm convinced that plants do the bulk of their growing after lights out. It seems like every morning is when I see new growth. I guess the logical theory here would be that they use all their stored nutrients to grow after they've spent the day absorbing energy to do so.

Nymphaea Micrantha (4 color lotus) grows -fast-, in fact it's been growing so fast (seems like another new leaf every day, and new stalks coming up, and existing leaves growing substantially), that I'm pretty sure that soon I'm going to have to do something about it, and either replant it elsewhere or at least grow it out enough that it propagates, leave the propagation in Sanctia and then use the mother plant in my wabi-kusa plans.

I also still have no idea what I'm going to do with the anubias nana petites, I think I might attach one to the front side of the main rock, and use the others in the wabi-kusa. If anyone has any ideas of a good spot to put these guys, I'm not going to argue with the input. I've still also got no idea what to do with the pelia. It has some straggler strands in the tank that will probably end up being removed. My hopes are that the cal aqua pipes show up soon so I can get rid of my make shift solution for the filter.

Pictures!

FTS


The Exploding Lotus and surrounding HC


The HM that's actually seeing more visible improvement than the HC:


Oh, and I modified the name, Subconscious Sanctum was far too much of a mouthful. And I added in a little play on the word Sanctum by using the roman method of making a name female and replacing the um with an ia. The Romans typically named their sons/daughters after the father, and to make it feminine they'd change the declination part of the name to an a. So like Copernicus would be Copernica, Julius would be Julia, etc!

[lookin_around]

I can definitely see some growth. Have you tried using macro mode or something on your camera? All of your close up shots are pretty blurry. I think the addition of those lilly pipes will definitely look better.