# Tank 3: ADA Mini-M



## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Another great start! Very nice rocks and flawless placement.

In order to give my compliment a certain credibility and weight -- so as to not just look like I'm trying to be nice for the sake of being nice -- I was going to give you one bit of criticism until I reread your intro and saw that that which I was going to criticize is in the mail.

So you're going to have to take me at my word that I think this is a great start and I'm not saying that to be nice. (Well, I _am_ trying to be nice, but I'm not in the way that some people will say, for example, that someone looks nice but when that person walks away they whisper to their friend, "She put on _weight_."


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

Ugly Genius said:


> Another great start! Very nice rocks and flawless placement.
> 
> In order to give my compliment a certain credibility and weight -- so as to not just look like I'm trying to be nice for the sake of being nice -- I was going to give you one bit of criticism until I reread your intro and saw that that which I was going to criticize is in the mail.
> 
> So you're going to have to take me at my word that I think this is a great start and I'm not saying that to be nice. (Well, I _am_ trying to be nice, but I'm not in the way that some people will say, for example, that someone looks nice but when that person walks away they whisper to their friend, "She put on _weight_."


Haha, thanks... I really hate those green Eheim inlet/outlet pipes! They are a scourge on this earth and must be eliminated.

This is my first time working with seiryu stone, I really like the way they look contrasted with the light sand. Now all I need is some lush green plants!


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

Picked up some Blyxa japonica this morning. The plants I received were quite large and I had to split them up into smaller plantlets so I could get them to stay down in the aqua soil.

I'm running this tank without heater at present as it's summer here in Australia and there's no livestock yet. Water temperature sits around 23 degrees celsius right now.

Still no sign of the glass inlet/outlet pipes I ordered. Hopefully they arrive next week.



















Here are some pics of the CO2 set up. It's a second hand ADA CO2 Advanced kit, but with a Do! Aqua Music Glass Mini diffuser instead of the original Pollen Glass one that comes with the kit.


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

A quick Christmas eve update on this one. Blyxa has started to get established, lots of very bronze new growth. Older leaves have melted or succumbed to algae. Not sure if it was brought on from the stress of moving to the new tank, but the Blyxa has started to throw out flower buds. I counted ten in total!

There's a fair bit of hair algae in the tank, so I threw in a couple of Caridina NTnilotica aka Darwin Algae Shrimp and bumped the photoperiod down to 7 hours (formerly 8 hours).


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

Looking great! Flowers from the blyxa is great news. I love the red tinge of the blyxa. I've always wanted to get that out of mine. This is like a cool like autumn look.


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## chinaboy1021 (May 30, 2003)

Incredible setup. The stones are beautiful by themselves. I would love to look at those stones in detail for hours, examining every groove. You've arranged them brilliantly also.


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## Hersheyb (Aug 31, 2015)

question... Did you had to turn down the flow of the return?


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

Hersheyb said:


> question... Did you had to turn down the flow of the return?


Yeah it is turned down a bit at the moment. I have another Mini-M with an Eheim 2213, that tank also has a Hydor inline heater and I don't have the flow turned down at all on that one. There's quite a bit more filter hose for the water to be pushed through too.

Bump:


chinaboy1021 said:


> Incredible setup. The stones are beautiful by themselves. I would love to look at those stones in detail for hours, examining every groove. You've arranged them brilliantly also.


Thanks! I wanted it to be a quite simple aquascape. Finding good hardscape materials is sometimes the hardest part, I got lucky the day I went to my LFS and picked up these rocks.


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

Hersheyb said:


> question... Did you had to turn down the flow of the return?


Here's a peek underneath my other Mini-M. The outlet tubing snakes around the canister to the Hydor ETH 200, then up to the tank to a 'jet' style glass outlet. With this setup I have the 2213 running at full speed.


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

The older leaves on the Blyxa had become infested with all kinds of algae, so I pulled it all up and trimmed off all the old growth before replanting just the healthy new growth. The new growth is a nice bronze colour.

I decided at the same time to remove the stones from the back that I had intended to grow mosses on.

Also noticed a touch of BGA had appeared, so have dosed with some trusty Ultralife Blue Green Stain Remover.










Darwin Algae Shrimp, reporting for duty!


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## chillwill007 (Dec 28, 2015)

Cool little tank


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

That Blyxa color is really neat. I can't get over it. This layout is so simple yet so awesome.


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

Sadly, this scape didn't do well. The blyxa continually melted and would just not establish itself, leading to a proliferation of all sorts of algae.

I tore the scape down and set up a new one using some manten stone primarily as a means for growing out some Micranthemum 'monte carlo' I scored. I've added some Hydrocotyle 'mini Japan' to the rear right hand side but you can'd really see it yet. I'm hoping it will cascade over the rocks and down the 'hill'. There's a little melting in some of the MC from spot treating algae on the rocks with Excel.

Here's how it's looking today (original set up 1/2/16 [D/M/YY format]):


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## Joachimbates (Dec 10, 2015)

Love this one! And superb photos [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ArchimedesTheDog (Apr 9, 2012)

I agree, the photos are excellent. So is the tank!


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## Mewski (Mar 6, 2016)

Good luck on the new start, your fishies look comfy in their pretty field.


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

Thanks guys, this has become my favourite tank to sit and watch. Boraras maculatus are just such great little fish.


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

I made a short video of this tank today 

https://vimeo.com/159327068


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## bereninga (Mar 18, 2006)

This tank is so awesome. I love this super minimalistic style. How do you feel about it's difficulty to maintain? How many hours per week do you think you dedicate to maintenance? I respect your resistance to put in all types of plants in this tank.

Also, this video is rad. I have a Sigma lens as well and I have to say, they've really upped the bar when it comes to standards.

Are you using the Ikea Alex cabinet for the stand? It looks like it as I too am using it. It's the perfect stand for nano tanks.



locus said:


> I made a short video of this tank today
> 
> https://vimeo.com/159327068


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## locus (May 13, 2003)

bereninga said:


> This tank is so awesome. I love this super minimalistic style. How do you feel about it's difficulty to maintain? How many hours per week do you think you dedicate to maintenance? I respect your resistance to put in all types of plants in this tank.
> 
> Also, this video is rad. I have a Sigma lens as well and I have to say, they've really upped the bar when it comes to standards.
> 
> Are you using the Ikea Alex cabinet for the stand? It looks like it as I too am using it. It's the perfect stand for nano tanks.


Maintenance isn't so bad. Water changes are pretty quick as it's such a small tank. I do water changes on my three tanks on Saturday mornings and it doesn't take long at all.

Glassware needs to be cleaned fairly regularly to keep it looking nice, but that's just a matter of disconnecting the lily pipes and CO2 diffuser and putting them in a diluted bleach bath.

I don't check water params regularly. Fert dosing is ADA Brighty K (2 pumps), Green Brighty Step 1 (1 pump) and Brighty Special Lights (1 pump) each morning. I've been using Excel to spot treat algae on the rocks and it seems to be working well.

I looooove the Sigma 35mm Art lens. It's on my camera 90% of the time.

The stand is a bookshelf like this:


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