Aurie's Low Tech Mini-M

5466 Views 38 Replies 13 Participants Last post by amh0001, Jan 13, 2015

Aurie

Discussion Starter · Apr 8, 2014 (Edited)

3

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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Aurie

Discussion Starter · #2 · Apr 11, 2014

3

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.

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Aurie

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 16, 2014

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.

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 20, 2014

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..

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DSP

· #5 · Apr 20, 2014

Very cool piece of driftwood! Love the scape!

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #6 · Apr 24, 2014

3

DSP said:
Very cool piece of driftwood! Love the scape!

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.

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Aurie

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 26, 2014

2

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!

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AlbertoniO

· #8 · Apr 26, 2014

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).

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 26, 2014

I'm 98 percent sure that the one with the white is a female. She's definitely more energetic and playful than the male. The male does like to sit and stare out the tank though. I plan on getting more soon.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

AlbertoniO

· #10 · Apr 26, 2014

Just got 2 CRS and two blue ones. I was told the bigger ones with the fat tail are females. The skinny little ones are males. I think the females are a bit more bossy. Like real life

H2Ogal

· #11 · Apr 26, 2014

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.

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #12 · Apr 27, 2014

H2Ogal said:
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.

H2Ogal said:
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

H2Ogal said:
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

H2Ogal said:
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.

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #13 · May 8, 2014

3

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

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Blackheart

· #14 · May 10, 2014

great tank

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #15 · May 10, 2014

Blackheart said:
great tank

Thanks!

Side note on the tank:
I have ramshorn and MTS in my tank. At first I was ticked, but now I'm ok with it. I now officially have MTS in all of my tanks! This is my first tank with ramshorns. I hope they don't get too big.

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #16 · May 15, 2014

Quick no picture update.. Got 2 more cherry and 1 amano shrimp and a tracked nerite. The striped one has gone in to his shell and hasn't come put in a couple days. I think he passed away. The new one is much smaller and more active.

Everything is still doing well. The Nana petite has new leaves. Yay!

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #17 · Jun 12, 2014

3

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:

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Roshan8768

· #18 · Jun 12, 2014

I like the hardscape. It should look really nice once the anubias and moss grows in a little bit

Aurie

Discussion Starter · #19 · Jun 12, 2014

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

Roshan8768

· #20 · Jun 12, 2014

Aurie said:
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

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

You should check out my tank... pretty self sufficient these days

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