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ADA Mini M (Low Tech) Betta luck this time...

Thats a shame. I'm thinking about a HMPK from Finzntailz as their fish look stunning. Even the females look lovely.
 
Thanks Lee ;)


Thats a shame. I'm thinking about a HMPK from Finzntailz as their fish look stunning. Even the females look lovely.

Yeh properly gutted Lindy :(

I've thought about finzntailz as i'm not quite sure how the aquabid thing works?! Hard to find info on any of them lol!
 
Looks good, the calendar is a tad distracting:p

lol, done on purpose to display the beautiful clarity (not! :D)

I do need to stick a white background on, just never got round to it!
 
A few updated pics of the neglected tank! 50% wc once every fortnight, ferts here and there, steady away growth, no algae! :) Home to a couple of Oto's, some snails, 3 amano shrimp and a few red cherries that are not red!

It's quite dark in there now as the frogbit has multiplied very well, should thin it out really but want to use in my next larger tank so staying put for now...

MM1409ft_zps93810257.jpg

MM1409_zpsd8e3d4e5.jpg

Excuse the screwcumber lol

Kept the Crypt balansae from my hi tech and put it in here, too big for it but wanted to know if it would grow low tech as i want to use a lot of it in my next set up, 3/4 weeks after planting in here and it's showing growth so pleased ;)

CBGrowth_zps2ea690b0.jpg

All plants very healthy and green, which still surprises with such little flow around the tank!

Cheers,
Rob
 
Hi all,
It's quite dark in there now as the frogbit has multiplied very well, should thin it out really but want to use in my next larger tank so staying put for now...
Pleased the Cabomba and Frogbit has done OK. If you want to bulk your Frogbit up? You can grow spare plants in an ice-cream carton on a window-sill.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,
Pleased the Cabomba and Frogbit has done OK. If you want to bulk your Frogbit up? You can grow spare plants in an ice-cream carton on a window-sill.

cheers Darrel

Ah ok, is it very temperature sensitive Darrel? I could do to take some out and allow a bit more light in on the right hand side, but don't want to give any away as i'll want it for my 80cm!

Both done really well anyway mate, have to throw some little bits of cabomba now and then but it's growing happily away with very little care :)
 
Very nice Rob, well done on growing Cabomba the low-energy way. Its never done that well in my tanks, even C. caroliniana falls apart after a while.
 
Looks great from the last pics mate I am thinking might go low tech very soon, just need to order some tubing and other bits a bobs but yours looks excellent mate


Thanks Dean
 
Hi all,
well done on growing Cabomba the low-energy way. Its never done that well in my tanks, even C. caroliniana falls apart after a while
I think it might be a water hardness issue, I've got C. caroliniana in most of the tanks (all rain water), and lot of them are pretty gloomy, but it still does OK (I originally sent the Cabomba in this tank to to Rob).

In the tap water tank (about 16 dKH), where I experimented with Vallisneria, it did the same as yours, continually fell apart and eventually dwindled away. Vallisneria showed the opposite response, in the rain water tanks it goes yellow and declines, but in this tank it spread really quickly.

I've tried a few different Cabomba spp. none of the others have survived long, and Limnophila sessiliflora also "shuffled off its mortal coil" fairly rapidly.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all, I think it might be a water hardness issue, I've got C. caroliniana in most of the tanks (all rain water), and lot of them are pretty gloomy, but it still does OK (I originally sent the Cabomba in this tank to to Rob).

In the tap water tank (about 16 dKH), where I experimented with Vallisneria, it did the same as yours, continually fell apart and eventually dwindled away. Vallisneria showed the opposite response, in the rain water tanks it goes yellow and declines, but in this tank it spread really quickly.

I've tried a few different Cabomba spp. none of the others have survived long, and Limnophila sessiliflora also "shuffled off its mortal coil" fairly rapidly.

cheers Darrel
That's pretty much what I concluded as well, and likewise with L. sessiliflora as well. In fact TBO I've not had that much success with any plants with finely divided whorl like leaves. Must try harder...
 
Been a while since an update on this tank. It has pretty much been left to its own devices with just a large water change every couple of weeks. Inhabitants were two otos, 3 Amanos, a couple of red cherries (that aren't red lol), a few assassin snails plus a single nerite.

Due to the missus relocating her home office at some point, and my decision not to set up the new larger tank, the decision was made to move the Mini M downstairs where the larger tank had been...

IMAG0838_zps5f4dd6c9.jpg

(How cool being able to part drain a tank and just pick it up and carry downstairs?! ;) lol)

The plants have always done very well in this, but ultimately due to neglect and an increase in the surface plant mass, some of the stems eventually succumbed to little or no light reaching them. Troi cursed the Cabomba which, well, simply fell apart!! :D lol and the Didiplis that had done ever so well also broke away at the bottom.

I have a nice rescape plan in mind for the tank, including replacing the subtsrate with a nice white sand i've picked up and also some small pieces of slate, the idea is an island type layout utilising the microsorum covered wood as the main island and planting around it. I removed the wood and cut it down in size and also took out the failed stems. I have yet to allocate the time to do a complete strip down and redo it with the new layout and substrate.

In the meantime, we paid a visit to a local P@H and although i'd vowed i'd never buy fish from them due their usual shocking advice and state of tanks, it was refreshing to see the tanks looked really clean and healthy and I spotted a Betta that I just had to take home! The girl who served me seemed very knowledgable and asked all the right questions (tank size, how long it had been set up, other tank mates etc etc). I was also pleased when the one I liked fell under the the £6 price tag :D :D, so we now have a lovely blue boy Betta who my 4 year old son has aptly named 'Bluey'. Bluey seems to be settling well and spent much of his first couple of days hunting all the micro worms in the substrate, and i'm hoping we can do better with him than our last attempt.

Here he is:

IMAG0840_1_zpsb2574f0b.jpg

And this is home for now, i'll let him settle for a while before I rescape the tank:

IMAG0837_zps9cde5d00.jpg

Funny enough, since I removed a lot of the floaters to let the light penetrate i've seen some BBA which is the first algae i've seen in this tank since it was set up in February. But it doesn't bother me at all. One thing I don't like is seeing Hydra in the tank, but i'm not sure I can eradicate these without killing all the snails which i'd rather avoid - so if anyone can comment on that, that would be good??!

Cheers,
Rob :)
 
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Lovely fish and nice looking tank. I have this tank but haven't ventured setting it up yet, worried about he Solar light...
 
Thanks Mark, i'm hoping it'll look a lot better once scaped again and with the light substrate, should really highlight the colour of Bluey, he's handsome ;)

I have this tank but haven't ventured setting it up yet, worried about he Solar light...

I'd be quite scared of that lol. I've only ever run this on one 8w tube and a lot of floaters. I've always thought if I emptied this tank i'd probably keep it for CO2 experimentation with no livestock, and blast it with CO2, light and flow. As it stands there's the one tube and hardly any flow at all, and the tank has flourished well under these conditions :)
 
I know, i got it from a member on here and it looks, well amazing, but in practice i think i am going to end up nuking whatever i put in it.

I do like the whole floater idea to keep the penetration minimal so maybe that is the way to go. I am thinking finger roots and a small group of Diapteron Georgiae or Aphyosemion Hera
 
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