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Mini M - A small/big challenge

Ludvig_swe

Ludvig_swe

Seedling
Joined
29 Apr 2016
Messages
19
Location
Sweden
Intro

This will be my first thread and journal on this forum. Im fairly new to this hobby however, this isnt my first attempt at an aquascape. My first attempt is a 35L high tech nano-tank that taught me alot about creating and maintaning an aquascape. I've had it for a year and the soil and substrate is more or less exhausted and im thirsty for a new layout.

At first, I was going to clean in out completely and start fresh. Then I got an e-mail from my local store offering me to buy a slightly used ADA Mini-M and Aquasky for about 190€. That included powersand, amazonian soil and several substrate additives. I had been drooling over an ADA-setup for a long time(like the pathetic fanboy i am) and saw an opportunity.


The idea

My last scape turned out okay. It had very nice growth and worked pretty well, but I wasnt entirely happy with the design and I find myself wanting something else this time. The last design turned out like a dutch aquascape with sand and it looked pretty tidy. This time im going for something more wild and untamed. I didnt use any driftwood in the older tank so im going for alot of driftwood this time. I like small tanks with big and bold hardscapes that really sticks out (no pun intended). So my hardscape ideas are dominated by either alot of rock or alot of wood. Im also going for a red/rusty look together with contrasting shades of green.

Im trying the full ADA setup this time, something i didnt do on my other tank so there are alot of firsts for me in this project.


The setup

ADA Mini M
ADA Aquasky 361
Eheim Classic 250 with Do!aqua and ADA glasswares
Sodastream CO2-setup with Do!Aqua-diffusor

ADA Amazonian powder soil
ADA Powersand
ADA Bacter 100
ADA Super Clear

I've tried alot of layouts but this is the one that sticks with me at the moment.

Fil%20000.jpe

The plants I have in mind are;
Rotala rotundifolia
Hermianthus 'cuba'
Microserum 'trident'
Cryptocoryne petchii 'pink'
Cryptocoryne albida 'brown'
Cryptocoryne Parva
Christmas moss

Might throw these into the mix aswell
A. reinickii 'mini'
Hygrophila Pinnatifida

Havent really decided on the plants at the moment and i will definetly wait til tomorrow before I start planting. Until then, have a good one!

Ludvig
 
Ludvig_swe said:
Intro

This will be my first thread and journal on this forum. Im fairly new to this hobby however, this isnt my first attempt at an aquascape. My first attempt is a 35L high tech nano-tank that taught me alot about creating and maintaning an aquascape. I've had it for a year and the soil and substrate is more or less exhausted and im thirsty for a new layout.

At first, I was going to clean in out completely and start fresh. Then I got an e-mail from my local store offering me to buy a slightly used ADA Mini-M and Aquasky for about 190€. That included powersand, amazonian soil and several substrate additives. I had been drooling over an ADA-setup for a long time(like the pathetic fanboy i am) and saw an opportunity.


The idea

My last scape turned out okay. It had very nice growth and worked pretty well, but I wasnt entirely happy with the design and I find myself wanting something else this time. The last design turned out like a dutch aquascape with sand and it looked pretty tidy. This time im going for something more wild and untamed. I didnt use any driftwood in the older tank so im going for alot of driftwood this time. I like small tanks with big and bold hardscapes that really sticks out (no pun intended). So my hardscape ideas are dominated by either alot of rock or alot of wood. Im also going for a red/rusty look together with contrasting shades of green.

Im trying the full ADA setup this time, something i didnt do on my other tank so there are alot of firsts for me in this project.


The setup

ADA Mini M
ADA Aquasky 361
Eheim Classic 250 with Do!aqua and ADA glasswares
Sodastream CO2-setup with Do!Aqua-diffusor

ADA Amazonian powder soil
ADA Powersand
ADA Bacter 100
ADA Super Clear

I've tried alot of layouts but this is the one that sticks with me at the moment.

Fil%20000.jpe

The plants I have in mind are;
Rotala rotundifolia
Hermianthus 'cuba'
Microserum 'trident'
Cryptocoryne petchii 'pink'
Cryptocoryne albida 'brown'
Cryptocoryne Parva
Christmas moss

Might throw these into the mix aswell
A. reinickii 'mini'
Hygrophila Pinnatifida

Havent really decided on the plants at the moment and i will definetly wait til tomorrow before I start planting. Until then, have a good one!

Ludvig
Click to expand...

Awesome tank and scape, look forward to updates! perhaps some smaller gravel surround the wood and rock, if it were me 🙂
 
Ok, so everything is set up. Im not sure when im supposed to start with the ADA fertilizer. Shame that they dont have an application like Tropica. Im going to wait atleast 2 weeks before i start dosing due to the high amount of fertilizers in the soil. The tank was flooded after planting and I must say that planting went much smoother than I anticipated. The only nuisance was the canister filter that wouldnt start up properly but it turned out to be a human error, so it was eventually fixed. The plants you can view in the picture are:

Hermianthus 'cuba'
A. reineckii 'mini'
Cryptocoryne parva
Rotala rotundifolia
Microsorum 'trident' attached to the driftwood at the back corner.
Christmas moss has been attached to several parts of the driftwood with CA-glue. Forgot to attach it to the rock, so i will do that the next water change.

They did not have the following plants at the local store so these have been ordered:'
Cryptocoryne albida 'brown'
Cryptocoryne petchii 'pink'
Hygrophila pinnatifida

D634091C-280A-4783-9ED2-9AB980AC0673.jpg

I have ordered the ADA lily pipe so the spin pipe is temporary. Some hermianthus got buried in the front when the stone accidentally fell down, going to fix that tomorrow.

So I will now do a 90% water change every day for a week, then I will do 50% water changes every day for a week, then 50% water changes every other day for a week and see if the biotope has been established. Im curios about the rotala, when should you start trimming them? Should I wait a while until the roots have established? I have never used this plant before so I would appreciate any hints. Until next time, cheers.

Ludvig
 
Aqua360 said:
Awesome tank and scape, look forward to updates! perhaps some smaller gravel surround the wood and rock, if it were me 🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input! I might try to smash some of the stones that werent used to get som smaller detail-stones.

Right now im trying to find a way to keep the driftwood in place. I see now that its something i shouldve done before i flooded the tank, but i guess its easy to say now 🙂
 
Day 4

So, I decided to trim the rotala quite heavily so Im eager to see how that pans out. Still using small stones to secure the big piece of driftwood, would probably sit on the bottom anyway, but its nice now while i'm doing a lot of water changes. I decided to do 50% WC every day instead of 90%. Still waiting for my crypt. petchii and hygrophila to arrive.

I must say that im a little bit disappointed by this diffuser. The bubbles that come out are quite big and it lets out a "fizzling" sound while active. Since the diffuser is so high up, a big amount of bubbles escaped right out the tank. I have now placed the diffuser below the spinpipe, resulting that the bubbles go all over the place, atleast not straight up! Interesting to see how it will work with my lily pipe, or else i will have to get a new diffuser that can be placed closer to the bottom. Here are some pics:

73158695-5E7C-48DD-9D25-91F36DC704C0.jpg
The water is much clearer now.

Heres a picture of my whole setup and yes, my eheim filter and sodastream+co2 plus all the electrics is in the furniture 🙂

F2159D3A-4F62-43DE-B5A7-1641893F5D8C.jpg

Also started dosing the ADA Step1 and ADA Brighty K.
 
Love it! :thumbup:

You should wait 3 to 4 weeks before adding step1.

Brighty K should be dosed daily since the start.

If you want to avoid algae bloom, my advice is to dose daily easylife easycarbo too.

Good luck😎
 
CooKieS said:
Love it! :thumbup:

You should wait 3 to 4 weeks before adding step1.

Brighty K should be dosed daily since the start.

If you want to avoid algae bloom, my advice is to dose daily easylife easycarbo too.

Good luck😎
Click to expand...

Thanks, and thanks for the advice! Can't really find any clear instructions in the ADA-database regarding the start up process. Could you be more specific about the easycarbo, i mean why do the plants need supplemental carbon in a high tech tank? Cheers
 
The setup is now 10 days old.

I got the plants in the mail from aquasabi and they were in great condition despite the 6 day transit. After planting i used the remaining plants into the old low tech aquarium were they will be for 2 weeks. Will be interesting how they grow there and after 2 weeks i can compare the plants in the two tanks. I also wanted to experiment with A renickii attached on driftwood. I had some leftovers so i attached the stems to small pebbles and put them into the cracks. I know that it probably wont work but what the hell, they are easy to take out if it doesnt work.

Have been trimming the cuba and replanted the shoots and also slightly trimmed the rotala and renickii.

The picture is a bit over exposed so the coloration is a bit different.

IMG_1065.jpg

IMG_1066.jpg

1. Cryptocoryne Albida 'brown'
2. Cryptocoryne Petchii 'pink'
3. Hygrophila Pinnatifida
4. A. renickii 'mini'
 
Hi there! Nice tank! I disagree regarding the Amano ripping out HC ; I tested it in 2 tanks with HC and there never was any issues in this aspect; what these shrimps might do however, is to eat mosses

Envoyé de mon SM-G935F en utilisant Tapatalk
 
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