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Deku Tree! Ada 60-P

Dan OB

Member
Joined
9 Jun 2017
Messages
31
Location
Slimbridge
My 1st Planted Tank

The first step in my journey was to convince my wife that having a fish tank in the house would be a good idea, this was actually easier than I thought! She did however put in a caveat that the fish tank must look modern/contemporary.

I started out by looking at fish tanks online and in my LFS, Aqua Jardin, Maidenhead Aquatics and world of water. I actually found (my personal opinion) that a lot of the fish tanks were not modern looking and to me haven't changed that much since I was a kid. I narrowed in on the Oase Highline 200, Aqua one ranges and the evolution Aqua 600. I then started looking online and came across the ADA range and saw the 60-P on offer from the green machine and went for it.

One of the sales team at World of water put me onto this forum and there I found useful information about sourcing an Ikea Besta unit for the cabinet.

I then set about sourcing the rest of the equipment; I wanted to support my LFS and bought equipment and fish from all 3 stores (within reason price wise), seemed only fair as I was picking their brains quite a lot. I also brought equipment online due to the availability of what I wanted and time scales.

The equipment list is as follows, The Plants were all sourced from Tropica123 grow at my LFS along with the hardscape they are as follows, Carpet: Eleocharis Acicularis Mini. Mid-Ground: Sagittaria Subulata, Hygrophila Araguaia. Background: Pogostemon Erectus, Bacopa Caroliniana. The Tank is an Ada 60-P with an Ikea Besta stand. The Light is a Twinstar LED 600E from Aquarium Gardens, The light is on for 8 hours a day. The filter is an Oase BioMaster Thermo 250. Glassware and Regulator were all sourced from Co2 supermarket; I am using a 2kg fire extinguisher and diffusing co2 with a JBL inline diffuser. Co2 is on 1 hour before lights turn on and off 1 hour before they go off. I am currently dosing Evolution aqua 5ml daily. The substrate is Tropica topped with Tropica soil. I currently have 4x Otto's, 6x Armano Shrimps and 6x Cherry Shrimps in the Tank, 3x Blue velvet shrimp and 20x Cardinal Tetras. I was doing 50% water changes twice a week, I have now changed this to once a week.


Here is the tank on day 1 after planting:
Day 1 Set Up.jpg
The wood did leach a lot of matter, which I was easily able to clean with a toothbrush when doing water changes, i watched a couple of you tube videos produced by George Farmer about tank maintenance, which has helped with getting the right tools and how to go about tank maintenance/cleaning.

I used filter media from a Small fish tank I have set up at my wife’s business along with evolution aqua balls, which enabled me to cycle the tank quickly.Here is tank at Day 30 with Cardinal tetras added:
30 day in.jpg

I would say one of the things i have found is to ensure the weekly tank maintenance/Water change is done, it can take time especially if you are cutting the carpet and trying to collect the cuttings! :) I actually don't mind tank maintenance and have got myself in a good routine!

Here is some pictures of my tank tonight! in need of a trim!:
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