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ADA Mini S Nano Aquarium (3.5 gallons) ----------------------- 20$

Flora:
-Fissidens fontanus
-Eleocharis sp. 'Mini'

Future fauna:
-Shrimp

Tech:
-Custom LED (should be 2000+ lumens, but who knows) -----45$
-ADA substrate + custom under-substrate nutrient base ------15$
-Driftwood -------------------------------------------------------- 6$
-undergravel filter -----------------------------------------------4$

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90$

Overall goal: Low maintenance, high visual appeal


Dry start: 1 week in

 

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Thanks, leave it to me to put a journal type entry in the non journal section! More root action going on, a bunch of extra Mini hairgrass sitting around from another tank, not sure what to do with it.

 

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Bump: Saw a snake for the first time the other day. Very unusual here in Canada.

I read that you should open up dry tank starts for air exchange, which makes sense. So I've started doing that, I can see little plant stems popping up everywhere, so lots of growth.

I found the middle driftwood is drying out all the time. Lots of the fissidens has dried out and died. I transported anything still green across to the little driftwood piece, which seems to be staying moist all the time. The meager amount of moss already on that piece I see has doubled in size.

 

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Really healthy algea on the small driftwood, very cool. I ended up with a bunch of dwarf hairgrass growing under glosso in another tank. So I yanked all of it out, because I don't want it competing. It ended up being a lot of dwarf hairgrass, so I added about 5 small bunches to my little tank. Past that, I feel like I have no use for it. I also have a whole bunch of extra glosso. Blah.

I found That no matter what I do, my phone does not focus correctly, so these are the best of about 20 photos.

 

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no kidding eh

 

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Wednesday June 3rd 2015

Lots of root action. Centre driftwood continously dried out. Side driftwood supporting mild fissidens growth.

Cell phone camera glare problems.

Bump: I'm not wild about the massively bright spot on the driftwood. It is partially exaggerated in the photo, but is still fairly bright. Too bright for my eyes, so I'm not sure what I should do.

 

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Added the smallest piece of Anubias Nana Petite to a hole in the driftwood. Less than 3/8" in length.

 

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Thanks for the compliments. I'd never cared for Low Iron Glass until this project, it seems to sparkle with the LED lights.

I was hoping for the fissidens to take off more than it has, I guess drying out was a setback and most died. The grass in the main area has really become dense while I wasn't watching. But the grass in the other areas hasn't. I'm eager to get some shrimp in the tank, but I currently don't have the tank in a very good location. So I'm at a bit of a loss on whether to move onto the flooding or leave as is for a few more weeks.

 

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LOL

that made my day.

 

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Hope everyone enjoyed their Canada Day yesterday.:thumbsup:
For our neighbors across the border, enjoy the 4th.

Lots of growth in the tank. Will be filling it later this week.

 

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Bump: Filled as of today, I don't know how long it will take the Mini Hairgrass to adapt to underwater growth again - I might drain the tank if it proves to be going poorly.

Bump: Addendum: I'm so used to seeing the tank in a 'dry' environment, I'm not sure what to think of it submerged. On the one hand, it looks exactly the same, on the other the depth is very strange....

Bump:

Also: You can see several new plants, S. Repens, Anubias Nana Petite and Rotalia.

 

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Bump: Air powered in substrate filter is working much better than I expected.

 

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It is so green, the green reflects off of my Seachem alert meter, making for the appearance of a positive.

 

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Looking great!

thanks!


I'm not sure how to take better photos with my Samsung cell... It always focus' wrong. Any suggestions?

 

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First water test I've ever done. These tests confirmed my seachem alert wheels, so I guess in general I only need to test nitrate/nitrites?

PH ~6.5
Ammonia ~0
Nitrite ~0
Nitrate ~ 10ppm

KH ~18ppm
GH ~ ??

Some problems with the GH measurement. Redid the test, came out roughly 200 ppm. I guess that too high for shrimp :-(

 

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Bump: Recently sold some Hairgrass to a fellow aquarium enthusiast, but I found that in doing so I disturbed my substrate a lot. A few days later - puffy green algea, which hasn't gone away for a few weeks. Despite my blackout periods.

Threw in a few snails to try and combat, also threw in a few endler juviniles. The endlers seem to know exactly when I'm taking a picture. They swim right up, then the scatter just as the photos snaps. HMM. I'm not sure how they know, they just do.

I'm tempted to get some shrimp to take care of the algae problem, as my end goal with this tank is shrimp. I'm also tempted to drain the tank and try planting fissidens on the middles driftwood again. Any suggestions?

Also: Upgrading the tank, stay tuned!

 

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This tank makes me want to take a seat on the wood.

Just has that feel- a very inviting and peaceful spot in a grassy clearing somewhere at the edge of the woods.

I never noticed that before! Now that you mention it, I definitely see what you are saying.

Thank you for pointing that out!

Looking forward to seeing more updates! It's a beautiful looking tank. The grass looks fantastic

Thanks I hope to have some worthwhile updates going forwards.

Random Male Endler shot - one of the few I've ever gotten of them sitting still (they were preoccupied, didn't notice I was taking their photo).

 

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Bump:

considering starting three small tanks, each one with a different scape.

I want to do the same, several tanks, same size, different plants.
I want to try glosso in my next tank and have another tank entirely devoted to S. Repens, and then a tall tank for rotalia, etc.

I agree, it looks like a log in the middle of a forest.

That algae looks like it couldn't stand a round of H2O2 treatment. It just seems very... melty. LOL

It's funny, that S. Repens looked like Bacopa at first glance. Anyway, sweet tank!

I originally thought it would look 'cliff' ish from the shrimp perspective - tall vertical drop, valley below, etc. It really didn't turn out that way now that I look at it, but I really like the natural wood look - I'm glad other people do too.

 

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I'm concerned about the stability of an UGF for shrimp, especially since I have dense plant growth. I've decided to try and get my fluval 104, damage impeller, working again - or find a suitable cheap replacement. As such....


So picked up some lily pipes, knockoff versions. What makes this one special, it is 13mm in diameter yet only drop into the tank ~12cm. Thus, in a tank where I have 15cm from the top to the substrate, it just fits. No other pipes were of these dimensions, so it seemed to make sense. I was going to go with the hinterfeld 10mm lily pipes, but I didn't like the water flow restriction, or the fact that hinterfeld intake pipes only have like 5 slits. This one has 10 or so.

Looking at its quality, I'd say its meh at best. I bought knockoff lily pipes before for my larger tank, and they came in nothing but a cardboard box, perfectly intact and with near flawless glass quality/finish; I couldn't believe they weren't broken, they were just flopping around against eachother in there all the way. This intake came in like three layers of foam padding, bubble wrap, etc and yet it has visible imperfections. You can see small glass chips on the inlet tubes, on the cut line, the end is bumpy, blah.