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Aurie's Low Tech Mini-M

6K views 38 replies 13 participants last post by  amh0001 
#1 · (Edited)
Ok so I figured I'd start my first journal on here.
Apologizing ahead of time for spelling errors and my horrendous wallpaper in my kitchen. 70 year old house...

Ada Mini M (used - old design)
Eheim 2213
16" Finnex Planted+
Eco Complete
Yamaya Stones
driftwood
4 shims (my house is anything but level)
dish drying mat. It's black, and cushy, and absorbs water. Garden Mat substitute

Planned plants:
Fissidens
Monte Carlo
Anubias Nana Petite

Planned fishies -
Still up in the air, thinking small rasboras
Or a house for my betta if all else fails

Current Picture:
05/07/14



Spent the better part of 2 hours trying to get the 3 rocks to sit right.. only to find out that I had them almost all backwards, upside down, and reversed.. Luckily I took a picture of them back in the day without the wood. Fixed, and it seems to be doing ok other than being cloudy.

Here is a FTS:


The zebra stone on the top is just holding down the wood. I've used it before but it dried out. It'll sink eventually

Left side:


Background is painted black. Eventually I'll just spraypaint the inlet and outlet black too, I was just excited to do a leak test and make sure the filter worked. We'll see about doing that soon. There is a scratch on the front glass, but it doesn't bother me. If it ever does I'll just flip it around.

Hope you guys enjoy it. I'll try to update whenever I can.
 
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#2 ·
I got some plants in the mail today. They are some of the best plants I've received. I forget sometimes that I'm dealing with a nano, so the plants are soooo teenie tiny! Not a speck of algae on them anywhere. Thanks sjb1987!

So sorry, no picture of the "planting" .. just picture Me, sitting on a chair, with 2 tubes of super glue, a couple baggies of plants on a counter, and lots of curse words as I had it JUST how I wanted it, then I filled and my driftwood bounded to the surface because I forgot to put the rock in place! UGGHH.. LOL








Planting in Eco Complete is HARD. All I could do was lay the monte carlo on top of the eco and then sprinkle some on it. Most stayed down. any that floated I just shoved in and I gotta hope for the best. I'm soooo used to pool filter sand. I should have done a 25% sand mixture with some petco sand or something. Maybe if I gotta rescape I'll do it.

Busy weekend ahead, no time to paint outflows yet. It'll happen... eventually.
 
#3 ·
Quick update:

The monte carlo seems to have some green hair algae in it. I've been removing it as I see it but I'm thinking of doing the 1 2 punch with it. I've lost half of my monte carlo from this. I need to find a new source for it. My Anubias I got from a local source has black algae on it so I"m treating it in a different tank. The fissidens seems to be doing ok.

I also got my light raisers from Fuze. I'll post a picture soon.
 
#4 ·
I did the 1 2 punch today. After putting in the excel the algae was pearling. After a couple hours most of the bubbles have gone away but I'll keep up the excel treatment in the hopes that it will go away.

I have hair algae .. it looks like human hair, but green, about 1 inch long
and I don't know the other kind, maybe someone who reads this can identify..

 
#6 ·
Thanks! I was wondering if I was talking to myself in here.



Current Update:

I got a couple new friends for the tank. I ended up at my local fish store for a new shipment of Parkinsoni rainbows and they were on sale! w00t right? I picked up a couple little bits for my mini m







If anyone that is reading this knows if those are male/female I'd be in your debt. I am thinking the one with the white spot is female? Is that her saddle? I'm a cherry newb. I've only had amanos and ghost shrimp for a while.
 
#7 ·
Just a quick update:

Added some more monte carlo I got from Takeshi. It arrived in very good condition. I also added some Star Grass and I've had some salvinia minima in the tank for a little bit to help do some shading and give it some over all asthetic appeal.

I have some green algae on the driftwood. It seems to be on the surface, like a dusting. I also have it on the glass. the hair algae seems to be a little better. It's not so long that it's waiving in the current any more. I just see a couple tufts of it here and there. I have been doing 1/2 of a squirt of Nilcog's liquid fertz (first item on his for sale page) alternating NPK and Micros and doing a couple drops of excel when I can remember. It's hard work to do every day for me. I know if I miss a day it's not the end of the world. I can tell the excel is helping also in the algae's backward retreat.

The tank on the left is my little 5.5 that is my betta tank. Sorry for the gargantuan light fixture. Instead of having his tank perpendicular to this one, I decided to rotate it so their side by side. That's a left over light fixture and it does very well for that tank, it's just huge!




 
#8 ·
Nice tanks you've got there. I've got a fluvial chi and I'm using Monte Carlo and the anubias petite as well. No melt yet so fingers crossed. Nice planting and a great scape!

Getting CRS as well today. I will ask them about the difference between male and female (in my best Spanish).
 
#11 ·
Nice tanks ... even with the overly long light on the 5.5g, lol. I bet your betta doesn't care. The mini-M is looking good. Am curious why you went with eco-complete when you'd used sand elsewhere? Mixing it with sand, btw, would only have worked short-term. Over time, all the finer grains would migrate downward to form a layer under the eco-complete. In even event, you got it planted, and the wood/rocks formation is excellent.

I am, however, rather disappointed at not getting a clearer view of your awful kitchen wallpaper. ;)
 
#12 ·
Nice tanks ... even with the overly long light on the 5.5g, lol. I bet your betta doesn't care.
Thanks! No he doesn't care.

The mini-M is looking good. Am curious why you went with eco-complete when you'd used sand elsewhere? Mixing it with sand, btw, would only have worked short-term. Over time, all the finer grains would migrate downward to form a layer under the eco-complete
I have a 55 I am setting up with eco. I figured 5 bags in a 55 is enough. I used black petco sand (and a handful of tahitian moon sand) in my 5.5 and although sand was considered, I could have gone with it but when I got my plants in the mail I felt the need to set up the tank immediately and I used half a bag of Eco

In even event, you got it planted, and the wood/rocks formation is excellent.
Thanks again! It just kinda fell into place. I put together the rocks and set the wood on it and it clicked into place and the driftwood didn't move. It was remembering the orientation that was the tricky part

I am, however, rather disappointed at not getting a clearer view of your awful kitchen wallpaper. ;)
Oh oh oh.. trust me, it's NICE compared to the junk in my living room and dining room. It's just fruit in the kitchen. It's not too horrible. It's getting removed in the next couple months.
 
#13 ·
Quick Update

Ammonia .25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10

I stopped dosing ferts to check where my cycle was. I put some filter media from my old tank in this one to help speed it up.

Looks like I have 2 female shrimpies. One has the traditional saddle and the other it's harder to see but it has a white line down the back of it.

The fissidens is filling in. It's not spreading, but it's filling out. The monte carlo is also filling in. All the pieces are bigger than when I put it in there.



The one on the left has the white line



Full tank shot
 
#17 ·
Wow.. a month since my last update.. holy schnikies! Sorry guys..

Picked up a couple more cherry shrimp last friday. Nothing else has really happened. I have spot algae on the glass. I had some hair algae on the fissidens and it was very strong. When I first had algae it was green and many hairs and it waved in the current but this stuff is individual hairs and when I went to pull it out it was very strong (very much like human hair) and I ended up ripping out a chunk of fissidens with it! I dumped the fissidens in h2o2 and put it back in the tank and it seems happy enough. It was only a nickle sized piece. I dose excel only after water changes but it definately seems to be helping.

Here's a couple quick pics:





 
#19 ·
Thanks!

That's not moss, it's fissidens. It seems really happy.

The anubias keep poping out from their place so in that picture (aside from the glare) a couple of them are popped out. It happened after the last water change so I gotta wait till the next one to fix them. Doesn't bug me really, but does look horrible for trying to show it off ;)
 
#20 ·
Whoops!! My bad... been out of the planted tank game for too long, too busy with my reef these days. It looks good in any case :D You should check out my tank... pretty self sufficient these days
 
#24 ·
I just sent him a pm when I needed a set. I couldn't find a post either, and we worked it all out via PM. He even offered to make me a custom set but I went with the 3" ones he had already in stock.

After the transaction he made a sale post. I found it for ya:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=639538&highlight=

You'll still want to pm him though ;)

Welcome to TPT .. btw - hope you don't post and run .. We are nice here, and we have cookies lol
 
#30 ·
Oh.... Yeah fiss definitely is moss. Moss is my favorite plant. It has a broad spectrum of family members.

From mini pellia to fiss to mini Xmas to Hawaiian waterfall moss, or even the recently discovered java spring moss, we know that our knowledge of the species will keep growing.
 
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