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All gear but no idea

AquaeDulcis

New Member
Joined
6 Jun 2013
Messages
5
Hi All, My first post here although I've been an avid reader since 2013. I will soon start working on my very first tank jumping right off a cliff with a high tech nano tank.

Here are a few details on the kit:
- Tank ADA 30-C
- Filter Eheim Classic 250
- Eheim classic media set (brand new)
- Off the shelf glass lily pipes
- Substrate ADA Amazonia and ADA Powersand
- ADA Aquasky Moon LED
- CO2 JBL M602
- Tropica ferts to start, EI as I get more confident.

Someone would rightly think all gear but no idea considering this is my first go :)

Not entirely sure on what plants I'd like to grow but I'm aiming at a foreground montecarlo carpet, moss on red moor wood, some tall fast growing plants on the background. I need to do more research but I'm open to any suggestion...
Concerning rocks I'm leaning towards lava rocks.
I'm prepared in not having any fauna until everything is properly established and cycled.

My first question is about filtration: what are the pitfalls on using a brand new filter and media in a newly planted tank? I intended to plant everything and flood immediately,
Is it a no no with a brand new filter?? Am I going to end up with pea soup? Last but not least, I leave in the south east and tap water is fairly hard.

Thank you,
Giorgio
 
Hi Giorgio and welcome...All the gear no idea, I'm not so sure:shifty: it seems you know more than you're letting on, or at least more than you think you know;)
I think it's a good idea to hook up a filter and cycle the tank with plants, it's always worked well for me.
The ammonia given off by the Amazonia will cycle your filter; the plants won't mind and the bacteria introduced on their roots will help to inoculate the filter and perhaps speed the process up...And then when everything has settled down in a couple of weeks or so you can think about adding critters.
Just watch your light intensity and duration until the tank has settled down...keep to a photoperiod of around 6 hrs or so at first and you should be fine...check out the tutorials for more info:)
 
Thank you Troi and Greenfinger2.
I might know more than I think I do but reading only can't be a match with hands on experience.

I've been gathering the equipment since summer 2013 but never found enough time to kickstart.

Finding a suitable cabinet and spot in the house were the biggest hurdles.
About a month ago a second hand bedside tables turned up and finally settled for a corner in the lounge.

I'll start posting some pictures soon, although it took me over two years to get me to this point, events may accelerate from now on.
 
Hi All,

This might be the slowest and shortest journal ever... I finally managed to unpack all the goodies and put them together. Here is a picture of how it looks. Hopefully this weekend I'll make a trip to the Aquatic Design Centre to get my plants and kick-start this project. That will be the point of no return folks!!

Please let me know what you think!
P.S. Yes, I caved in and got another gizmo: the Aquasky :)
Ada Cube 30-C.jpg
 
Hi, and welcome to UKAPS
I will go for less soil but it is just personal preference. Nice tank by the way. ADC has one 30-C on their display window, they are actually 2 cube tanks, but one is their build not ADA. Good luck with ur new tank and have fun.
 
Where about in south east do You live. Do you mean London??? Get a RO from e bay couple of bucks ready pre build just need to hook it up to your water supply. You need to re-mineralise though cause RO is "dead" water but will avoid any contraminants. Be careful with the light seems to me quite strong, so shorter photo period for beginning. Otherwise good choice on equipment.
 
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Hi, thanks for your comments! Eventually I did not plant anything last weekend because I got too engrossed into my astrophotography setup (my other hobby) and I didn't feel I had the right inspiration to make such a big step.

Thank you for your feedback Clone, looking back at the hardscape I've been thinking if I should remove some soil, especially on the back left corner to give more headroom to future stem plants I want to put there. I'm still thinking...

Yes, I do live in London and I'm aware of the hard water here. Nevertheless I don't feel I want to commit to RO as yet. The Aquasky is indeed very very powerful, it should be adequate for the foreground Montecarlo carpet I have in mind. I'm tempted to use Cuba but I'm still a novice for that. I've set the timer to a 6 hour photopeiod, I will tune it down if necessary but I wonder if I'll be able to spot adverse symptoms before it's too late.
I'll keep you posted!
 
Hi All,

There it laid, in plain sight in my living room for all these years: hybernated. It was a reminder to what I thought I wanted to put my energy on but I always found excuses to postpone.

My nano cube has been sitting dry since February 2016, life got in between in a number of ways. It finally took me a youtube video to reignite this latent and disturbing feeling of unfinished business. Started in 2013 and ingloriusly left to undone for so long, I even contamplated giving everything away for free. Lazyness got in between thankfully, it was just easier to look at this dry martian landscape than dismantle it for charity.

The outflow lily pipe detatching itself from the glass, swinging like a pendulum every year or so, was a reminder that time is always ahead of me. Whether I worringly overreact to events or, as in this case, await in paralysis for a perfect astral conjuction that will never happen outside my head, I'm not in control of anything.

It will be interesting to see how the exposed but undisturbed substrate will finally behave when submerged. The wood is as dry as a bone but strongly anchored to the rock with some fishing line. I hope floating wood should not be an issue.
There wasn't as much dust as I thought; maybe because the glass cover. I was able to blow it away (most of it) with a Giottos rocket blower I use for my astronomy gear. I hope the Classic 250 and water changes will do the rest.

Here is what I want to plant:
  1. Micranthemum Monte Carlo
  2. Cryptocoryne x willisii
  3. Microsorum pteropus Narrow
  4. Rotala rotundifolia
  5. Lobelia cardinalis
  6. Staurogyne repens
  7. Taxiphyllum barbieri
Nothing too exotic, readily available in the current situation, but also easy to grow I hope. I still have some Ferropol that came with the JBL CO2 kit from 2013, Tropica Specialized fertilizer and Easy-Life Profito from 2015. Do they go out of date? I may need to start with EI from day one if that's the case.

Let's see out it goes. Hopefully it won't take another five years for the next update...

G.
 
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