ADA Mini M: Iwagumi (56K)

[Xalyx]

God man, is it really this simple as this thread makes it seem? You have to have some trade secrets. Your tank is amazing. I want to do an ADA mini probably at the beginning of 2014 but I'm afraid to embarrass myself.

[ad3hybrid]

Originally Posted by Xalyx

God man, is it really this simple as this thread makes it seem? You have to have some trade secrets. Your tank is amazing. I want to do an ADA mini probably at the beginning of 2014 but I'm afraid to embarrass myself.

LOL~ I received a couple of messages asking about my secret. But honestly, i really don't have any secret to hide. If you read Frank's of ADG thread, you will probably get all the information you need to keep a small tank. Well, my dosing is not as rigid as others because I always forgot to put in ferts in my tank. Maybe ADA aquasoil has all the nutrients plants need. But what I do for my tank that probably most people take for granted is the water change. I changed the water in this tank about 20% twice a week. Then for every 2-3weeks I will change about 70% of the water that is usually when I do the trimming.Thats all the secret that I have.

Well there is no universal guideline that will work for everybody in this hobby. All you need to do is to identify the problem and act quickly to solve it.

But if you have further question regarding technical details about this tank, I'm more than happy to answer, but based on my experiences though. You still need to experiment to get the best results. That's the beauty of this hobby. My first planted tank also was not as successful as this one .

So don't feel embarrassed if you still new in this hobby. there's always first time. Good Luck!

[Xalyx]

I stumbled across that thread last night and it was the most informative thread I've ever read on here. Kept me up to 1 AM even though I had to wake up at 5 AM. I'm also glad you're doing this in college you're just firing me up and making me realize my goals are very possible. When I get into a dorm in Sept 2013 or Jan 2014 the first thing I want to do is a Mini tank. I have big goals for my second tank and I definitely learned from my 55G it's not going to take me tank after tank I want to get it right the second time around.

What's most impressive is the variety of plants and how each individual species has a resounding impact. Sure I could probably do a one species HC, glosso, hairgrass but the combination of plants that you have takes much more skill and the result is simply amazing. I am amazed by how good it looks. I have a little under a year before I'll be in a position to setup something like this anyway, trying to do as much as I can with my 55G while I still can to build up my skills for a Mini M.

Btw, is this the type of diffusser you use?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2X-Pollen-Gl...item5d394144c1

[ad3hybrid]

[QUOTE=Xalyx;2532562]I stumbled across that thread last night and it was the most informative thread I've ever read on here. Kept me up to 1 AM even though I had to wake up at 5 AM. I'm also glad you're doing this in college you're just firing me up and making me realize my goals are very possible. When I get into a dorm in Sept 2013 or Jan 2014 the first thing I want to do is a Mini tank. I have big goals for my second tank and I definitely learned from my 55G it's not going to take me tank after tank I want to get it right the second time around.

What's most impressive is the variety of plants and how each individual species has a resounding impact. Sure I could probably do a one species HC, glosso, hairgrass but the combination of plants that you have takes much more skill and the result is simply amazing. I am amazed by how good it looks. I have a little under a year before I'll be in a position to setup something like this anyway, trying to do as much as I can with my 55G while I still can to build up my skills for a Mini M.

Btw, is this the type of diffusser you use?
[Ebay Link Removed]

Maintaining a planted tank in a dorm might be quite challenging. its just my opinion because I'm staying in an apartment outside campus so I don't know how difficult its gonna be. just make sure you plan ahead thoroughly.

I used that diffuser before but now I switch to a diffuser that don't have the suction cup fixed at an angle. That will limit its placement in your tank. its just for aesthetic purpose.

[ad3hybrid]

I trimmed the HC and H. glomeratus on Thursday and here is how the tank looks like now.



The saturation seems a lilttle bit off here..hmmm

BTW, Didiplis diandra has grown a lot. Maybe I will trimm it next week after I have done will my final exams.



Oh, do you have any suggestions on which camera I should get? I don't want DSLRs, too bulky for me. I'm not a serious photographer anyway just want to take nice photos.

Thank you!

Regards

[Green_Flash]

That looks fantastic, well done!

[BS87]

Hey nice tank! I'm up in Rochester too! Where do you do fish shopping? There's only 1 or two good stores here

[ad3hybrid]

Originally Posted by Green_Flash

That looks fantastic, well done!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by BS87

Hey nice tank! I'm up in Rochester too! Where do you do fish shopping? There's only 1 or two good stores here

thanks! I rarely do fish shopping here in Rochester. There are only PetCo and PetSmart available but as for me, the fish are quite expensive and at low quality too. There are some aquarium plants available, but not much to choose and again, poor quality. Everything I used to set this tank were bought from online stores. I paid a lot for shipping.haha

[FlyingHellFish]

Man, your HC Cuba looks great! I can get mine looking like yours only on the top layer and they just die off. Once again, confused as to how to trim them.

It seems I'm in this cycle of trim and wait, never good growth overall. Only got the growth looking good on top.

HOW ????

[Jarek Strzechowski]

Your tank is absolutely gorgeous!! Where did you get your amano iwagumi rocks?

[BS87]

Originally Posted by ad3hybrid

Thank you!



thanks! I rarely do fish shopping here in Rochester. There are only PetCo and PetSmart available but as for me, the fish are quite expensive and at low quality too. There are some aquarium plants available, but not much to choose and again, poor quality. Everything I used to set this tank were bought from online stores. I paid a lot for shipping.haha

There are 2 stores I have found that are better than the chains.

PetWorld/Aqua Shop are really helpful people, have good prices and have two locations (Greece, near the mall and Fairport next to the Wegmans).

ABC Pet city has some really nice stuff some times, It's all family owned. They are super helpful (sometimes hard to understand due to the russian accent), maybe a bit pricey.

http://www.petworldrochester.com/
http://www.abcpetcity.com/

[ad3hybrid]

Originally Posted by FlyingHellFish

Man, your HC Cuba looks great! I can get mine looking like yours only on the top layer and they just die off. Once again, confused as to how to trim them.

It seems I'm in this cycle of trim and wait, never good growth overall. Only got the growth looking good on top.

HOW ????

I took a look on your thread, and tried to figure out what's wrong. Well, I'm guessing that your tank need more lighting so that it can penetrate to the lower parts of the carpet. And maybe you should check your iron dosing. Some people say that HC needs more iron or the leaves will turn yellow.

If it still doesn't work, (I know this is harsh) it would be better if you try over again. This time, I'm suggesting that you use finer gravel. I'm using ADA powder type and it helps a lot for HC to anchor on into the gravel because HC has very thin roots.

I trimmed my HC just like everyone did. You can watch it on YouTube.

Originally Posted by Jarek Strzechowski

Your tank is absolutely gorgeous!! Where did you get your amano iwagumi rocks?

Thank you the rocks are from ADG Shop. its called Sado-Akadama.

Originally Posted by BS87

There are 2 stores I have found that are better than the chains.

PetWorld/Aqua Shop are really helpful people, have good prices and have two locations (Greece, near the mall and Fairport next to the Wegmans).

ABC Pet city has some really nice stuff some times, It's all family owned. They are super helpful (sometimes hard to understand due to the russian accent), maybe a bit pricey.

http://www.petworldrochester.com/
http://www.abcpetcity.com/

Thank you for the information. I didn't know that. Maybe I didn't explore Rochester enough.

[FlyingHellFish]

Could it be that the substrate is too compact? I thought that Flourite didn't compact as much as other substrate.

Lighting wise, I think I got a lot of light. It's 42 LED (low power) plus I use a desktop lamp at 23 watts. I get constantly small leaf size on all plants, every single type of plant I introduce. I'm confused on what I'm missing. Co2 pumps at a 2bps rate in a 6 gallon, I can't be low in that can I?

Now everything is going down hill, I even replanted but it doesn't spread, it stays low with small leafs. The yellowing is a bit of the iPhone 4's camera. It saturates all the colours.

*thumbs up for your tank, everything looks so healthy.

[sayurasem]

So nice!

[ad3hybrid]

It's been a while since last update. Not many has changed, only the color of Didiplis diandra has become redder.