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my little eden

52K views 213 replies 36 participants last post by  bluestems 
#1 · (Edited)
Updated 03.11.13









specs
7g Aqua Pro aquarium (50cm x 20cm x 22cm) - a nice little inexpensive find from a lfs
ADA Aquasky LED 45cm (1st gen on a pre-order pricing deal)
Eheim 2210 filter w/ Do!Aqua lily minis, with purigen & bio media
CO2 paintball canister w/[STRIKE] Aquatek mini regulator & solenoid[/STRIKE] upgraded to more reliable GLA Atomic Paintball regulator v2 w/ solenoid
Do!Aqua diffuser & bubble counter
Okho stone & mazanita wood w/ ADA aquasoil new amazonia

flora
eleocharis acicularis
hemianthus callitricoides
nymphoides sp. Tawain (added 2/13)
phyllanthus fluitans
dwarf red lily


fauna
boraras maculata x9 (10 of orig. 11 died during co2 mishap; 8 reintroduced 1/25/13)
danio erythromicron x2 (male & female pair)
[STRIKE]corydoras pygmaeus x5[/STRIKE] moved to new home
caridina multidentata x3
[STRIKE]caridina cantonensis sp. Bee x2[/STRIKE] (RIP, lost during co2 mishap)
pangio kuhlii x2


__________________________________________
Hi all, I've been surfing the boards for some time looking for inspiration on a nano Iwagumi style tank. I've found a lot to consider, and thank you all for that!

I've had many tanks in the past, from nanos to 75 gals, but this will be my first time using ADA method. After searching and patiently waiting for the soil, the setup is coming along...



With the exception of the bulky light, I love it! :biggrin: I wanted a setup like this since seeing Amano's tanks many years ago.

This is the inspiration I'm looking to base my tank on:



It's the flatirons overlooking Boulder, CO. My family and I moved to the Seattle area nearly six years ago, but I still miss the Rockies and the flatirons that I used to hike. This little tank will be sitting on the corner of my desk and it already gives me warm & fuzzy feelings as I sit here typing this. :icon_cool

My husband doesn't get it...

Here's a mock up a possible rock and soil layout. It's a little silly looking, but I think it's gives the general idea of what's in my head:



I'm still working out the plantings, but am thinking it will be mostly carpeting groundcovers with possibly a slightly taller planting coming through the valley. HC, Glossostigma elantinoides, & Riccia fluitans. I'm not sure yet on anything else. For fish, I'm considering a large skoal of ember tetras or a grouping of three types: dwarf spotted rasboras, crossbanded dwarf rasboras, and celestial pearl danios; possibly otocinclus.

But, first... I need to find the stone. The fish stores here don't really stock much in the way of nano tank sized stone, and the one ADA store in Seattle had a total of 4 pieces of seiryu stone that weren't very textured or shaped well for my idea. I've contacted the ADA shop in TX, and trying to find some bonsai shops with a good selection. If anyone has an idea of where I might pick up some seiryu or ryuo stone in the Seattle area, I would greatly appreciate knowing!

Thanks for letting me share my little project!

ps- I have approx. 2 liters of the normal Amazonian style soil left over... anyone have any power type that they'd like to trade or sell?
 
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#164 · (Edited)
I've discovered the co2 regulator was not maintaining a constant bps at the increased setting. Unfortunately, I discovered this after coming home to my indicator being light yellow and having lost a couple of my danios and my bee shrimp. One Amano, the largest, was outside the tank, still barely alive. I placed her back in the tank and she's since made a recovery. Amazing.

I've since lowered the co2 back to 1bps and all has been well for a week now. It also seems possible that the swing from high co2 to being aerated over night could have caused stress that led to the fish deaths too. So, I've decided to keep the co2 on 24/7 at the lower 1bps.

My lfs had in some Rasbora maculatas (not usually seen in lfs here!) so I decided to go ahead and reintroduce seven maculatas into my tank. I'll be monitoring the co2 more closely and may just turn it off, and switch to Excel dosing if it's still not regulating consistently. I also added six cherry shrimp.

The good news is that the lone surviving rasbora was immediately interested in the new rassys, he even began schooling with them while they were still acclimating in their bag. Everyone is in the tank now, and the cherries are already about the tank during their business. It's so nice to see playful rasboras in my tank again. :smile:
 
#167 · (Edited)
Made some edits... brightened the video a bit and added some text at the gap:

fish playing in the bubbles & surf





They've been surfing all day. :smile: I'll make a point to keep the grass much shorter seeing how much they love playing in the current. The pair of danios in the video are the two I'm keeping.
 
#168 ·
Just finished doing a major trim of the dhg, and replaced the hair-algae infested clover with nymphoides sp. "Taiwan". The nymphoides should grow in taller and offer more cover.

The hc is finally filling in densely towards the back. I'm looking at doing the first major trim (not sure how low to go though), and possibly taking it out in the front of the large stone. Here's a fts as it is now:




and here's if the hc is trimmed back from the front of the large stone, and replaced with ADA Mekong Sand, or similar:




Part of the reason for removing the hc in front of the rock is that the stone comes within a 1/2" of the front of the tank, and the hc doesn't really have enough room to fill in nicely at that spot. The shrimp and khuli loaches frequently enter/exit the cave under the stone at this spot, so I thought the sand might keep it more accessible for them.

Here's a couple other shots of the inhabitants. :icon_mrgr


male danio in his favorite spot



an amano shrimp with one of the new cherry juvies


And trying out a side shot... look at all that bba! :(
 
#169 ·
Nice! You have grown a nice HC lawn! Just careful you trim it frequently or it will start floating up. For the BBA on the rock, have you tried excel spot dosing and bacter 100 sprinkled on it?

On a side note AFA has the 45p stocked now on the website although they are sold out.
 
#170 ·
How short should I trim the hc?

I have tried pouring excel on the bba on the top of the rock and using the floaters to block out the light directly above it. So far, it's turned slightly pink, however, I did loose one of my cherry juvies. Now that the hc is grown in, I may be able to lift the rock out without disturbing too much of the soil under neath it. Does bba survive bleach and boiling? :angryfire :icon_wink

I'm hoping the 45p is a new standard stocking item as I'm not yet ready to buy. Probably looking at this summer, after we move. :icon_bigg
 
#173 ·
Hi, trim as low as you can toward the bottom leafs/undergrowth. With all foreground plants pretty much, this will keep them nice and low and prevent the bottom from dying from no light.

Yeah I think the 45p will be stocked all the time since they don't sell the Mini-L anymore.
Think you will put the stone back in?
 
#175 ·
Hi, trim as low as you can toward the bottom leafs/undergrowth. With all foreground plants pretty much, this will keep them nice and low and prevent the bottom from dying from no light.

Yeah I think the 45p will be stocked all the time since they don't sell the Mini-L anymore.
Think you will put the stone back in?
Thanks for the tip. I've been trimming it, but I don't think short enough. It seems to need a trim every 3 days. :icon_neut

I'm not sure I will put the stone back in. It looks better in person than in the photos though. It looks a bit undynamic in the pics, doesn't it? Without the hardscape interest, I feel there needs to be more texture and diversity in the plantings.

I think I'm going to let the grass creep in to the left of the small stones and bring in some staurogyne sp. 'porto velho" in around the wood to fill in the gap. The sand is there currently to hold the space until a friend can grow out some staurogyne for me. The nymphoides 'taiwan' is beginning to stretch out and grow upwards which is giving some needed vertical interest. Lastly, I'll probably look at adding some mini-fissidens to the wood.

It's doubtful I'll add the stone back in though as it really was just too big for the narrow depth of this tank. I may keep it though for that 45p. ;)
 
#171 ·
I've trimmed the hc... hopefully short enough. Also took out the large stone to do some bba removal and am kind of liking the potential of the tank without it:




The tank is so much larger feeling with the bulk of the big stone in it. The water flow is much better and maybe will help with the algae issues. Also, I like seeing my shrimp out during the day.

But, what to do with the big hole?

I can try to break up the large stone or at least chip a small piece off the bottom to place in the middle of the hole towards the back (for a balance of three rocks, and break up the dhg a bit).

But then I'm trying to decide...should I fill the hole with sand and keep it a lake like feature... maybe add a cholla branch across the sand for the shrimp? Or should I fill it with a new intermediate plant, like Staurogyne repens?
 
#172 ·
crater lake

Filled in the big hole with some fine sand from the Wet Spot in Portland, a few small stone pebbles and a lucky find: a small piece of manzanita wood for $0.99 :proud:

I believe the wood was a broken piece off a larger branch, and the lfs owner didn't seem to think it very useful. It seems to suit the space nicely, and both the shrimps and fish really enjoy the new space.



















I may add some S. repens 'porto velho' once I can find some. Hoping to add a bunch of cherry shrimps or crs shrimps soon too.
 
#181 ·
thanks :) I'm liking the tank more as time goes by. It really suits the space on the corner of my desk nicely, is not too deep but is wide with a good height. The tank was sitting, filled with dust at a lfs. I don't think they are made anymore unfortunately.


The solenoid on the Aquatek regulator stopped working, and prior to that it was fluctuating the co2 levels. Unfortunately I didn't discover this until I came home to a light yellow indicator and some lost fauna. It may also explain the bba and string algae outbreaks.

Amazon is being gracious and accepting the return of the Aquatek for a refund.

Now that I've seen them side by side, there is a noticeable difference in the quality of materials between the two. And after installing it tonight, I noticed the pressure guage on the GLA shows a jump between off and on (both still within the green), which the Aquatek never did. I'm hopeful it will function much more reliably over the long term.

Really, really happy now that I went ahead with the purchase instead of trying another less expensive model.
 
#186 · (Edited)
I ended up just going low maintenance and tech for the foreseeable future. :)
I was >>>this<<< close to doing the same, but now that my hc has grown in, I really like it and didn't want to loose it. :smile:

This is the last attempt though. If I can't bring the tank into balance over the next few months - 6 mos. then I think I'll start a low-tech tank for my shrimp, danios and rassys, and keep the high tech setup for just plants and maybe some pygmy cories.

At least with the new regulator, I'm hopeful there won't be any more drastic fluctuations.
 
#193 ·
If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get the etched backing? I found frosted window privacy sheets that you stick onto glass but it isn't translucent.

Sent from my spaceship using Tapatalk 2.
From a local hardware store. It's semi-translucent, so it does allow some filtered light and objects behind are somewhat visible the closer they are to the tank. I really like the effect!
 
#201 ·
thanks :smile: I like that it allows some filtered light in from the window behind, but it states it gives UV protection, so it will maybe help with reducing algae? I'm not sure as it's not of lot of sunlight to begin with, but we'll see.

That's Nice! Have you tried using different colored lights for the background yet?
Not yet... but I want to try out some strip lights with it. I thought I'd try this one from Ikea. I'm wondering if it would create a bright white horizon, fading to light-greyish at the top.

Colors like dark blue would probably look nice too, but that was the typical look I was hoping to avoid. Maybe a pink or orange hue for sunset?
 
#205 ·
Thanks :smile: I admit that I thought he was joking when I first received an email asking to feature my tank. There are so many better tanks out there!

It made me realize that it has been a very educational process along the way and I do like the way it has come together in the last month or so, even if I did stumble into it.
 
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