# Jimbo's ADA 30 cm cube tank



## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

So i finally decided to put down some money and get an ada tank. 

specs:

ADA 30 cm cube tank
Redsea filter
Home Depot 27 watt desk lamp
Tahitian moon sand
regular flourite

current inhabitants:

2 Endlers fri
3 snails (I'm not sure what kind? found them here in Wisconsin)

So here goes my attempt at a nice planted tank. my goals are simple - to grow a carpet of hc and make everything as green as possible

I will be experimenting with ferts and maybe some diy co2. the ferts I'm experimenting would be flourish, API's leaf zone, and tetra's Florapride. 

will be posting photos in the next few days
-Jimbo


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## Fishy_Fun (Feb 9, 2008)

Sounds nice, will be waiting for some pics


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## Jack Gilvey (Jun 16, 2008)

Cool. I have the same tank and picked up that light, also...looking forward to your progress for inspiration!


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

Hey, another wisconsinite!
Looking forward to seeing the progress on it.


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

so i have found that the red sea filter i have did not circulate the water as much as i would have liked it to. i also had to keep the water level a lot lower so that there was a decent amount of flow from the filter to begin with. so, i decided to switch the zoo med canister filter i had for my 20 gallon long for this nano tank instead. no, i am not using a red sea nano filter on a 20l tank (haha)- instead i just went back to the tetra filter i used when i first got into this hobby. i figure since there is no plants in the 20l tank it wouldn't be a big deal to switch these out. i will have pictures posted as soon as i can - i cant seem to find my camera after coming back from a brewers game ahhh


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

angled view









front view









so here it is 

you can see how i set up the new filter yes it is kind of pointless that i have it angled down - I'm sure a lot more water will circulate around the top but isn't that still better then minimum movement with the red sea filter?

anyways i put some new fish in here 

2 male endlers
3 female endlers
1 leopard corydora


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## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

great start!!!! i jsut have to tell you, corydoras like schools of 5 +


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## aquaphish (Dec 20, 2002)

Nice start. I like the arraingment of the stones and the way you have the plant growing between them. 

IMO- I would just add one more plant and that would be in the right back corner, maybe some tall vals or some other tall growing plant.


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

i would love to add another plant their but im worried that the flow from the zoo med will just dominate the plant itself? any other ideas?


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

i have my zoo med going across the top of a mini m with stems right in front of it. The zoo med doesn't put out enough flow to move the stems around. you should be fine with adding another plant.


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

thanks med red. so what should i do? aquaphish does vals = Vallisneria? I'm a noob at planting aquariums and still have to do a lot of research but these terms still complicate me ha ha. anyways any other ideas of what i should put in front of spray bar? let me know what you guys think. i also need to know where i can get these plants. around here i have a petsmart, petco and a tiny pet shop that has a tiny plant selection. thanks for your input guys


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## stargate_geek (Mar 31, 2008)

nanojimbo said:


> does vals = Vallisneria?


Yes  There's a lot of abbreviations used in the "planted tank language", don't feel "stupid/silly" asking what they are; no one will make fun of you, we all learned some way, no one is born knowing them all!



nanojimbo said:


> i also need to know where i can get these plants. around here i have a petsmart, petco and a tiny pet shop that has a tiny plant selection. thanks for your input guys


There's a Swap N Shop sections, sorta like classifieds! Great prices! Don't get nervous about the whole shipping thing, it's way easy to deal with; all you have to do is pick up the box off the door step  And once you factor how much gas costs, it works out to be cheaper 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/swap-n-shop/


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

thanks so much stargate, i will deff check out the swap n shop section it sounds like the best place i could get a variety of stuff for my tanks - will be looking for some vals!


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

removed the cory and added two otos. as for otos death rates - I'm surprised because Ive had success with them in my other tanks! also swapped out the random unidentified snails for a few ramshorns. will be adding shrimp once i get some good growth from the hc!

and one last question - would an apple snail destroy a planted tank? a friend of mine has had one of these for quite a while but does not keep a planted tank - more of a cheesy neon gravel kinda guy (ha ha) 

would appreciate your input guys!


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

did diy co2 last night and found about a billion Malaysian Trumpet Snails - 2 - larger ones and about 10-15 smaller ones - does anyone know if these snails take over tanks? ( seems like it since this is the first time ive seen them) but i guess they burrow in the substrate during the day and come out at night. every things starting to look very green - will be getting a drop checker and a glass defuser soon then prob lily pipes to follow. will take pics in a week to compare the amount of growth ( wont be too dramatic)


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

*pics 7-20*

some new updates on the cube!  

inhabitants:

2 blue tiger shrimp

2 Endler fry

a billion Malaysian trumpet snails

pictures!

full set up view









Blue tiger shrimp on a rock









hc growth!









having some problems with green water algae - starting to shorten photo period


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## nate_mcnasty (Mar 11, 2008)

i think it's way to soon to put bt srimp in there i would give it 2 months before i put any type of shrimp in there


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

nate_mcnasty said:


> i think it's way to soon to put bt srimp in there i would give it 2 months before i put any type of shrimp in there


I agree. Is this the $10-$20 type of Blue Tiger? 8 for $90 here: http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?fwinverts&1216682094
Make sure the tank is cycled before you end up wasting your money on dead Blue Tiger shrimp.

But the tank looks good:thumbsup:


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

the tank has been cycled for quite a while, i just transferred the flourite, black sand, hc, rocks, and all water from my old 5.5 gallon tank so all i had to do was add about 1.5 gallons of ro water and everything has been fine. the 5.5 tank i had was set up and running for about 3 months before i switched everything into the ada tank. after doing water tests i lucked out because i don't have very hard water up here - tiger shrimp prefer softer and slightly acidic water. the only problem with the tank right now is green water so i am limiting lighting hours plus doing about a 15% water change daily. the only thing i dose is flourish and i keep that consistent so i don't think i will have any problems with the tigers soon. plus i got a great deal on them!


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

huge update, threw out old substrate. did first layer laterite and sand cover. i changed rocks around and got rid of the large plant - don't know the name of it. so far i like it a lot considering it looks huge in comparison to what my set up used to be! yes i know this tank is too small for a school of 8 neons ( you can see one peaking out behind the rock on the right) buttttt, i am in the process of taking down tanks and finding fish homes because i will be heading to college on the 29th and the only tank coming with me will be this set up. 

as for current fish:

three ottos
eight neons
3 or 4 endlers/guppies

i did take out the shrimp because of the new set up.

as for ferts i will only be using flourish ( very light dosing) and diy co2, i learned from the first time of way to many ferts = green water

so here's a picture update - as you can see i tried to photoshop the outflow reflection on the right pane of glass - need to brush up on my photoshop skills!

i have had the new set up running for about 2 weeks so far


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

i really like your stones. where did you get them?


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

i found them in my mothers garden, took a hammer to them and split them all up ha ha. they are really cool tho, i like how the white lines cut through the red.
unfortunately i use the last bit of them in my girlfriends new 5.5 tank - otherwise they would have been shipped your way at no charge Chris!


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Your Tank will look pretty cool when it grows in. That looks like hm to me, not hc.  Those are really cool rocks


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

thanks a lot about the rocks! hc is dwarf baby tears so whats hm? regular dwarf tears or something else? ive noticed that it could be just simply dwarf tears because ive got a lot of vertical growth... let me know what you guys think


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## MedRed (May 20, 2008)

it's probably HM... which is baby tears...and will get fairly tall for your size of tank


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## nanojimbo (Jul 2, 2008)

will be searching swap n shop for a good bunch of hc - maybe Nate Mcnasty will have a large sale again. i read people joking that hes the hc guy now haha


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