# ADA Mini-s: The Tree *More Pics pg 2*



## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

I went on vacation to Hong Kong for 2 weeks, and my tank was a complete mess! Furthermore, I overdosed on co2 and killed all my fish and shrimp..  

Any stock ideas? I'm planning on some amano shrimp and otocinclus. I've tried pygmy rasboras in the past, but they tend to all jump out.

Here are pics of day 2 (today!)


















I don't know if Blyxa is a really good choice.. but I had a lot of it. It might look better if it was hairgrass only? Hmmm

Plants:
Blyxa Japonica
Dwarf Hairgrass
HC
Red root floater
Salvinia Natans

27 watts of light, w/ co2 @ ~1 bps

**UPDATES*
*-Picture spam on page 2


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

That's NICE! Don't change a thing.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Looks great! I love the 'scape. It's perfect.
I think HG would look nice right at the roots as an accent and UG filling in the space between like this.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

I like your dw. What are the plants? So sorry about your fish....


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

I really love the root like structure of the driftwood. That sucks about the fish and shirmp.


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

The plants are: Salvinia Natans, Red Root floater (not really part of the scape), Blyxa Japonica (on the left), and a bit of hc and dwarf hairgrass. I'm not sure what dw stands for 

@Ugly Genius: Wow, that UG looks really nice! I'll have to research it, and try to special order at the fish store. 

Thanks for the comments everyone! I'll probably remove some of the blyxa once it gets overgrown. Hopefully the substrate wont fall apart with it!


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

DW...drift wood


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

Stupid question, but that does UG stand for? I've seen it around a lot, but I don't know the full name..


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## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

utricularia gramnifolia


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

Your hardscape is AWESOME!! I always wanted that root trunk look.. 
Is that DW one piece or several?

EDIT: I was taken by your tank so much I forgot about the loss. Very sorry to read that.
How about Dwarf puffers for the new stock? I have been wanting some for a long time now.


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

mott said:


> Your hardscape is AWESOME!! I always wanted that root trunk look..
> Is that DW one piece or several?
> 
> EDIT: I was taken by your tank so much I forgot about the loss. Very sorry to read that.
> How about Dwarf puffers for the new stock? I have been wanting some for a long time now.


Thanks! The driftwood is made up of 6 difference pieces. There is the main "trunk" piece, and 5 "root" pieces.

I was thinking of adding 1 or 2 dwarf puffers, but aren't they finicky eaters? I would be scared to feed them blood worms in case they would burrow in the substrate. (I hate worms!)


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## MrJG (Feb 21, 2007)

Nice lookin scape! Have you considered some of the boraras species? Micro-rasboras or whatever the heck they are. They are so >tiny< but you could fit quite a few more in there than other types.


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## PinoyBoy (Mar 14, 2008)

nice wood. nice scape.
what lighting is that? looks nice.


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

It's a 27 watt light I purchased from Aqua Forest Aquarium from San Francisco. It's a taiwanese brand, called T&J


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## dmcentire (Nov 30, 2008)

*Dwarf / Pea Puffers are great!*

I highly recommend the dwarf puffers for all your tanks. I have at least one in every tank (except my crystal red shrimp breeding tank) and they keep the snails in check. In fact, they seem so self-sufficient that I rarely supplement their food source. When I do feed them it's generally LIVE brine shrimp as they are definitely finicky eaters and will only eat live food (from my experiences). They really chase those live brine shrimp, and it's fun to watch. Also, they WILL go after larger snails, so if you find one take a close look at it if it's crawling on the glass because you will probably see "chunks" eaten out of it's body. It's kind of morbid in a way, since they can't eat the whole thing at once (sometimes the snails they go after are bigger than their entire body) they take a bite out when they can. Eventually you will find just the snail shell somewhere in the tank as they finally got to it.

Anyway, they are great, but keep in mind that they will sometimes bother other fish so you need to pay close attention to that in a smaller tank (like a nano). The people at Aqua Forest in San Francisco are pretty good about recommending fish compatibility with these guys, and they sell them for $5 each. They are also VERY cute and fun to watch, and they seem to want to watch what you are doing if you are in the same room with them.

I also have them in tanks with Amano and cherry red shrimp and they don't seem to bother them.

Dennis


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## fastfreddie (Sep 10, 2008)

Great tank! That's a crazy diffuser! What kind is it?


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

It's a no-name diffuser from Hong Kong. It's kind of fun to watch the bubbles spiral up. I've had it for a couple months now, and there have been no problems.

You can find it on ebay too. They're called "Spio" diffusers.


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

More pictures!
Added: 3 otocinclus, 2 amano shrimp

I removed some of the blyxa cause it was looking kind of messy.


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## OhNo123 (Jan 8, 2008)

Nice tank, i like it.

just wondering, what regulator are you using on your pressurized co2?

Is that a paintball co2 tank?


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

I just can't tell you how much I love that hardscape.... Just perfect!

How do you like the 501?


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

I'm using a milwaukee regulator + paintball on/off valve + paintball co2 tank. The co2 tank has lasted me at least 3 months so far, and there's still a lot in it. 

The 501 works well, and I've never had any troubles with it before. I also have a small bag of purigen in there for super-clear water.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

For some reason your blyxa just doesn't look like blyxa to me. It has a spin to it. Maybe it's just your water current. Maybe it's just new to the tank and hasn't begun growing yet... .....hmmmm.....


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

There's actually some gross algae on the dying blyxa leaves. Maybe that's why? (It looks pretty nasty up close)


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## monkeyruler90 (Apr 13, 2008)

wow, i love this tank
i definitely second the idea of adding some dwarf puffers. they're amazing little creatures.
and i love your lily pipes, they look great.

btw, random question, what happened to your leg? in the first pic you can see the walking stick on the right? lol


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

Oh, the crutch is my roommate's. Her knee hurt for a day, so she borrowed it from someone.. LOL

Dwarf puffers are really cute. Do you guys think I could squeeze in 2 of em, or just one? HMMMmm..


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

what kind of lily pipes are those? Your tank looks nice


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

They're actually knockoff pipes from Hong Kong. I got them as a set, however the inflow was way too long. They sold a lot of curved glass pipes there, so I bought one and taped up an intake pipe thing to it. The inflow is slightly smaller than the outflow.. so I actually had to burn the tube a bit and shove the pipe in.


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## OhNo123 (Jan 8, 2008)

hey, can you show me or link me what a paintball on/off valve is? I want to use something like your co2 setup. 

Thanks.


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## Po0gs (Dec 19, 2008)

I am unfamiliar with how many gallons this tank is, so if I knew that I may be able to steer you in a direction with dwarf puffers. The problem is when you get 2 males that reach sexual maturity they are VERY aggressive.


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## ZooTycoonMaster (Jan 2, 2008)

sadistic-otaku said:


> I'm using a milwaukee regulator + paintball on/off valve + paintball co2 tank. The co2 tank has lasted me at least 3 months so far, and there's still a lot in it.


How much did all of it cost and where'd you buy it?


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

I bought the valve off of Amazon.com here

I got the regulator on ebay for ~$50 (includes needle valve, solenoid, etc), and co2 tank at Walmart which was $20.

That's about $90 total.. Yup..


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## OhNo123 (Jan 8, 2008)

I see, thanks for the information! 

Just to clarify...

You put the valve onto the top of the Paintball co2 tank as an adapter so you can put on the regulator, right?


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

Yup, that's it! It's also recommended to get an o-ring for the valve to prevent leaks and such. I just took mine to Osh and tried out a bunch of rings to see which one fit.


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## pga7602 (Dec 5, 2008)

sadistic-otaku said:


> I'm using a milwaukee regulator + paintball on/off valve + paintball co2 tank. The co2 tank has lasted me at least 3 months so far, and there's still a lot in it.
> 
> The 501 works well, and I've never had any troubles with it before. I also have a small bag of purigen in there for super-clear water.


I'm not that fam with paintballing, but am i correct to assume that the gas they inject into the tank is the same stuff we use in planted tanks?

Please don't laugh at my noob question


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## pga7602 (Dec 5, 2008)

sadistic-otaku said:


> I bought the valve off of Amazon.com here
> 
> I got the regulator on ebay for ~$50 (includes needle valve, solenoid, etc), and co2 tank at Walmart which was $20.
> 
> That's about $90 total.. Yup..


I wasn't able to find anything lower than 90 dollars for your regulator. Was yours used?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Milwaukee-MA957...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

Thanks for your help


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## sadistic-otaku (Feb 2, 2008)

I bought mine new. I was actually scoping out ebay for a couple of months before I found a good deal. Some people say that paintball tanks have oil in them? I've never had any issues though.


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## Tex Gal (Mar 28, 2008)

Green leaf aquatics just came out with a paint ball regulator. It has a bubble counter and everything. It's great. I just got one for my 10g. 

Paintball tanks can be either compressed air or CO2. I've never heard of oil in it. The place where I get mine filled just fills with CO2.


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## sgtiger (Jan 19, 2009)

Hey, that T&J light, does it have any part numbers on it?

I'm wondering if it's on ebay somewhere. I e-mailed AFA, but no response.

Thanks!


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

How many bps are you running?


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