***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
Thank you! I love the black lava rock, It's so nice. Light(one piece was actually floating!), easy to work with and has really nice character. It blends in so well with dark substrate too. It was well worth the $10.
I put all the fish and shrimp back in the tank along with some floating plants, frogbit,duckweed,salvinia and a bit of hornhirt to suck up an ammonia leaching from the soil. Still contemplating adding more crypts. My one crypt is already melting as I suspect it would have. shrimps have settled in nicely as you can see from the attached pic. let me know what you think. Any ideas on how I can extend this light to make it more centered ?
Went on vacation and this tank sort of took a dive. Came home to a shutdown filter, low water level, diatoms everywhere,fungus on driftwood and dead and dying plants. Fish are ok. Probably lost a couple of shrimps but some seem to have grown bigger and redder. Still need to get in there and clean it up tho. Will post pics soon. Def not doing the ADA justice. Haha... Feels good to be back.
HEre is the latest on this tank. I did a bit of cleanup today. Change about 3/4 of the water and cleaned up as much gunk as I could. There is still some brown on the glass. Going to pick up an oto or two and a small Amano if I could find any. I also added a rock behind the wood. What do you guys think? Here is a before the rock and after rock below: My plan is to trim down the rotala and have it regrow bushy behind the rocks and wood. A lot of the sag melted off but there is new growth. There still is some dying plant matter and fungus. I will clean it out little by little. Shrimp seem to love chowing down on it tho. I will also eventually replace hob filter with my zoomed and lily pipes. And I'm hoping to hide the heater with more plant growth. Please let me know what you think.
Yea me to! Its has the perfect dimensions and footprint. Its truly amazing how clear the glass is. I was a bit of a sceptic but not anymore. I do however would like to get a proper stand for it in the future. I currently have it on top of a desk drawer. not the best place.
1/30 update. Tank is cleaning up slowly. Added three oto's and two died already . Got them from Chinatown and I knew something was up. A lot of them didn't look so great but I took a chance. I also grabbed an Amano shrimp. He is doing a great job cleaning up algae and fungus from the driftwood. Planning on adding some more crypts and needle leaf java fern. If anyone has any, please pm me. Can't find it anywhere. Tank still has a brown tinge but I'm confident I can take care of that with time. I ran some carbon for a few days and that def helped clean the water along with water changes. This is almost ready for a trim. Waiting on some stems to reach the surface. Here is the latest pic. Thanks for looking.
Thanks to inka4041 I now have some needle leaf! Looks awesome. Can't wait until it settles in. But its looking good already. He also hooked me up with some mini pellia(riccardia). As evidenced by the plastic mesh on the lava rock. I completely botched trying to stick in in the crevices of the lava rock. A lot of it floated off and spread throughout the tank. I know it grows slow so I am going to have to deal with looking at plastic on the rock for awhile until it covers it. Sorry for the crappy pic. We just got a new canon G12 so I will hopefully be posting better quality pics soon. Once I figure it out.
Here is a better shot with our new camera! :smile: this is my current set up with my Mini-M. In a perfect world i would have a suspended lighting system, canister filter with lily pipes, and an inline heater. but ...I'm broke. haha so budget it is!
This thing is definitely coming together. You should take some of that loose riccardia and drape it on the manzy right at the water line. It'll grow right up that branch as far as the wood wicks up water.
picked up some Ludwigia sp. 'red' from darkoon. this guy has got killer plants! beautiful red color with broad leaves. I've read that it does well in low tech so I am hoping it stays somewhat red. Let me know what you think about the addition of color? I put it next to the bacopa for contrast. slowly but surely this layout is coming together. I still want to add some crypts but funds are low so I have to do this slowly. Also, testing out some manual functions in my g12, this is somewhat of a dark shot but I think I am getting the hang of it.
New shot with some more growth on the mini-m,almost time for a trim.... this pic seems to have more light.can also see fish and shrimps. super bummed right now though, I cracked the corner of this tank..see my thread in the general forum. very sad day today... I pretty much almost cried.
I put a little silicone on it today and waiting for it to dry. Right now I just hope it doesn't leak. It is what it is. Even if I ever get a new one I still want to see this scape through. It's really coming along the way I envisioned it.
amazing growth on my stems... its pretty awesome. added a little carbon to try and clear up some tannins. i don't really do water changes on this tank.also noticed two more berried shrimp and some very very tiny shrimplets in the moss.
Completed a major trimming today. I cut back all my stems plants in order to promote more bushy growth. I added some potassium and trace to help give the plants a little boost. I am hoping the plants bounce back well and start producing offshoots in about a week or two. Since this is still low-tech it will probably tank that long. Posted before and after. check it>>>
Pre-trim 3/1/2012 by frroK, on Flickr
HAck! 3/2/2012 by frroK, on Flickr
New growth! But soo sloooww!!
Thinking of adding paintball co2. What do you guys think of having shrimp with co2? They are Sakura grade.
This shot was taken on 3/12
Not the best shot but as you can see the crypt 'red' had started to take off. It is growing a little too high for my tastes. Do crypts grow more compact under high light and co2? Anyway, stems plants are slowly recovering from my massive trim. Can't wait to start with co2 on this thing but unfortunately I won't be able to get everything I need for a couple of months.
Probably less than that. Sometimes I just top off. I think my next water change may be a bit bigger. I also have a dirt substrate and 1 or 2 too many fish. I have to find a home for the brood of endlers that just showed up in my 10 gallon. The tank is fairly new as well.
4/1
Haven't had much time to do maintenance. Working a lot. Things are ok. Do see some hair algae. It's probably cuz my filter keeps clogging cuz of the sponge prefilter. The flow is reduced quickly and I have to clean it out every 3 days or so. Can't wait to get a canister. Quick iPhone shot.
I'm slacking big time. My plants are growing but I seriously need to wipe the glass and do a water change. I have noticed a dead shrimp here and there. A bit worried that I have too many fish in this tank. Currently have 5 endlers and an Otto. Plus the shrimpies. My GF and are moving into a bigger place soon so hopefully when I get settled there I will set up my paintball C02 and get this tank going proper. To do list
-paintball Co2 canister
-diffuser
-drop checker
-co2 tubing
-GLA paintball regulator with solenoid. $$ I know but I need to put the co2 on a timer.
-plants: crypt petchii, stauro repens and mini micro sword.
-new stand (cheapo target special)
Should be a half day of work for me tomorrow so I'm looking forward to getting some maintenance done and getting a good shot. ...unless there are waves then I'll be going surfing. But I live in nY and its usually notoriously flat. Not that any of you really care. Hahaha. Well maybe fat guy.
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