# ADA Mini S: Mark IV v2 - The Wild Coast



## chase127

very nice  thats some shiny ADA goodness. 

but, theres cracks in the tank??


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## Francis Xavier

They're almost unnoticeable, not not actual cracks - looks like something scrapped the glass. They might be really weird "air" bubbles or deformities in the glass, but I don't know enough about them to say for sure. I just know that they don't leak, and when filled with water they're not really noticeable, they're that small. Just irritates me they're on the front panel, it's like buying a new LCD monitor or TV and discovering you have a blown pixel in the middle of the screen.


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## ch3fb0yrdee

OH goodie! Another MINI M. I cant wait till I get to join the club. The Mini M is like the perfect size nano tank!


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## CL

Look at that nice equipment and nice stone! I can't wait to follow this journal!


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## Francis Xavier

*ch3fb0yrdee*, I never thought I'd get into small tanks, since I've always gone with bigger size tanks (20 gallon +), but the Mini M won me over into the nano world. The clean ADA design definitely had a lot to do with it though.

*clwatkins10*, So far, the equipment has been worth the extra cost. I'm still having that syndrome of "whoa, this is actually my tank." At least for me, it inspires me to keep my room cleaner, since appearances have to be maintained, which horribly collides with my normal laziness routine.

The rocks have actually given me a bit of a headache, though not so much as a headache as the stones for Ukiyo; the major difference here for me is the adjustment between the big and the small, scale is so much different. Small stones are suddenly worth a lot more than bigger ones. I did manage to get some big stones that'll go well in UKiyo, and probably bring that design together, but by and large, I'm having trouble balancing the real-estate to rock layout in the way I want it; since the rocks seem like they can only really fit into the tank one way. An interesting challenge. I think i'll post some sample layouts later.


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## Ugly Genius

And so it begins.

Have fun!


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## Francis Xavier

Some random hardscapes, haven't been happy with one yet:


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## Fishwood

I really like your last hardscape. May I ask how much the Mini M was, light included? And what's the wattage on that fixture?


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## Francis Xavier

The Tank was $60 and the Light was $195.

I tried some weird things with having elevated soil levels to cover most of this rock in these setups:


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## Hail

I really like the texture of the front-left rock. This has the makings of an epic nano!


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## Ugly Genius

I agree with Hail. That rock's great.


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## Camper

Nice tank!!!! holy I never knew the light cost that much. You baller hahaha


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## amphirion

I really REALLY like the first arrangement in your second set. very dramatic and there's a really cool overhang effect going on. Although what I would probably do is shift each (arrangement) further to it's respective side or to the further back corner, so that there's more space in the center.


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## CL

I'd go with the last arrangement in the first set. It was the best IMO. Is the sticker on that tank crooked?


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## Francis Xavier

I really like the front left rock too, it's cool. However, it's a lot bigger than it looks in the pictures, which is part of my placement problems with it. In fact, it's too big to be in a nano normally, but I decided I could put most of it under the gravel and have the cool part sticking out, so I'm still messing around with it to get it to work right.

Yes, clwatkins, the sticker is crooked :\ I think I got the red-headed step child Mini S!

*amphirion* I agree, they need to be farther apart, which is part of my frustration with the size of the rocks! they're too big! And I can't decide on a good theme for the tank yet. I have however decided with my recent upsurge in rocks to make a craggy mountain type theme in Ukiyo.

I'm still messing around with layouts to see if I can't hit that golden setup. Drama is good!


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## hilikus16

I agree with clwatkins...I like the last scape. However, the first one would be nice if the rock in the back left was burried a bit more


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## aquaphish

Forget the setup and arraingment of rocks and substrate, if you have small cracks or defects in the glass you should return it for one without defects. YOu paid good money for your equipment and should not be handed a defected tank.

Imagine if you did get a monitor or TV with a burnt pixel would you keep it? Just think if you bought a DVD player and it continously scratched your DVDs would you keep it? Imagine if you got a high priced tank with small defects in the front would you keep it?


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## Francis Xavier

*aquaphish* I totally agree, I'm tossed on whether or not to go through the trouble of getting a hold of AFA again and telling them about it (and, they're out of stock of Mini-S's apparently now) or trying to repair the glass myself. On the one hand it's a big irritation, I definitely wouldn't want to pay shipping again. On the other, there's something somewhat attaching about fixing the errors and making it work. I'm at a toss up. Maybe UG could bother them for me or something! Some of them don't even seem like scratches, like they're a fine line of silicon or something. Another scratch makes a squiggly line pattern, it's perplexing.

Between the plants and the tank, I'm grateful that the light hasn't imploded on delivery or the CO2 ruptured and lost all it's pressure. I will be calling AFA on sunday at their opening time to figure this one out. If I can get a good shot at the scratches I'll post them here.

On better notes, I really appreciate the feedback on the setups. Still hammering out setups outside the tank.

Update: So it turns out they aren't scratches, they're silicon or something that basically got adhered to the glass. It perplexed me that they felt more like "bumps" than ditches in the glass, although wiping over them didn't remove them. I then decided to inspect my Wabi-Kusa Cube Garden tank and peruse it (I had kept it in it's box because I have to clean some things out first to set it up), and noticed the same flaws in the glass. 

These marks usually were around the top corners and near the corners in general. However, I was able to buff them out by taking a clean dry light hand cloth and vigorously buffer the surface. It takes quite a bit of physical effort to get it out, but generally rubbing it with your fingernail behind the towel and going in a vertical motion, then a horizontal motion, slowly but surely removed the marks without damaging the glass or scratching it. 

The ADA glass is actually quite scratch resistant I noticed. It takes a little while to get these marks off but if you run into it on your tank, don't panic about it being scratches right away. They're typically on the inside of the tank (which means something didn't knick it in shipping, they do a good job of protecting the tank), except for a few which were the same consistency of the ones inside. 

Just make sure the cloth you use to get rid of the marks aren't dirty or have dust particles on them, and make sure you give the glass a once over to remove any residual dust from the air or the like that might be on it. This way you don't scratch the glass by dragging particles along with it and make it a real scratch. Also, a dry cloth works better than a wet one, I had no luck getting these off with a wet cloth when I originally tried (which made me think they were scratches to begin with). Also I liked to keep equal pressure on both sides of the glass panes to avoid any possible problems with the applying too much pressure to one side of the glass since most of these were on the corners. Whether or not there is actually any danger of breaking the silicon on accident, it's better to be safe in my opinion.

But my tank is now "scratch" free. Now if only I could easily fix the crooked ADA sticker~

Lesson here? ADA aquarium or not; KEEP YOUR GLASS CLEAN, even if it's sitting on a shelf waiting to be sold.


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## Ugly Genius

I wouldn't trip too much over the crooked sticker. One, no one will notice it. (Except for cl.) Two, if you make a kick-ass 'scape, people will probably try to emulate you and get their stickers crooked, too.


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## CL

Ugly Genius said:


> I wouldn't trip too much over the crooked sticker. One, no one will notice it. (Except for cl.) Two, if you make a kick-ass 'scape, people will probably try to emulate you and get their stickers crooked, too.


I'm changing my sticker as I speak :hihi:


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## Francis Xavier

I have to say guys, it's really the comments that keep you going through the head-banging experience of staring at combinations of rocks for hours on end and seeing what fits and works out. Probably because you think "well! at least someone else is as insane as I am to appreciate it!" Cause normally non-aquarists don't see the potential until after it's 'done.'

I was mostly joking about the sticker too~ I like it, it adds character. Or at least reflects someone being like "oh my god, I hate my job, screw it, I don't care anymore...sticker sticker sticker sticker...Just kill me now...hmm I'm gonna mix this up a little bit...crooked sticker, straight sticker, vertical sticker, crooked sticker...hehehe"

Here's some more tinkerings with the aquascapes; as always input is more than welcome:


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## Francis Xavier

A couple people have asked me, so I'm going to derail for a post, and put up a couple photos of the trips to Japan I've been on. Maybe some inspiration will hit after looking through these again:


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## CL

Beautiful photos!!


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks *clwatkins*, luckily I got better at photo taking by the time I went back a second time, and half of them weren't all blurry.

One final setup attempt (I think this one's promising!) for the night/morning/whatever, if I go with something along these lines I've got the perfect name: The Terrace. I tried to maintain the overhang effect *aquaphish* pointed out, while still utilizing that same stone that just screams to be used somehow.


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## hilikus16

I like that last scape but there's something about the large stone in the back left corner that makes it overpowering. If you have a smaller stone or if you can bury that large one more I think it'd look great. Your definitely on the right track so keep of up. I'll definitely be watching this tank evolve.


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## chase127

it looks good, but try grouping the smallest rock with the largest rock, and having the medium one by its self. things might balance better. you dont really want straight lines when you scape and the rock on the left is parallel with the left wall of the tank.


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## Francis Xavier

Here's the skinny. I really liked the terrace idea, but there are two problems that have arisen. One the tank isn't big enough. Two, the rocks are too big. The rock I was using as a terrace simply takes up too much of the tank (I think this things ground cover takes up nearly half the tank's space, hence the reason the 'terrace' arose to begin with). So basically, regaining the ground lost with the terrace means the next biggest rock can only occur on top of the terrace. 

This left me with a couple options with that setup. Mostly that either the rock had to be alone (leaving the tank kind of bare on the hardscape), or combined with other rocks on top of it and to the side (if a big rock was on the right it crowded everything out) and the scape ends up being one sided either way. So I had an issue of too much or too little.

This has driven me to scrap the terrace idea for this tank for the time being at least, and go back to one of the original scapes I had put together (but not posted). I think it actually works out a lot better than the scapes I had put together to one up it. I guess that gives credence to the "go with the first hunch" theory. Therefore, I now humbly submit that scape to be placed under the scrutinizing eye of my fellow aquarists (which I'm thankful for, something about scaping a lot that makes you blind to your own errors in an attempt to say "to hell with it!! this will work!!!" and end up with something subpar.










This scape is what I'm going to call an "unconscious Iwagumi" since I set it up almost exactly to Iwagumi principles without even thinking about it. There's the main stone, the small worship stone at it's base, and then the third stone "bowing" to the main stone.


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## Craigthor

I like the one with the night lights I think you should do that in this tank.


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## Dollface

WHOA, go with that one, maybe just add a tiny bit more aquasoil around the base of the stones and you'll be set. 

That is seriously one of the best iwagumi nano hardscapes i've ever seen.


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## Francis Xavier

*Craigthor* Lol, I actually started looking for the "scape with the night lights" and then went "wait a minute..."

Wow, thanks a lot for the compliment *Dollface*. Yeah, this is the scape that has been screaming at me from since I first got the rocks, avoiding all my attempts at one upping it. But! are there any spots in particular you had in mind about filling in with aquasoil?


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## Dollface

the spot just above the worshipping stone, it looks a little concave.


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## Francis Xavier

I filled in some more aquasoil. I'd totally nerd it out and post another picture of it renewed, but you can't really see too much of it in photos. What I've done is very carefully scape the soil into specific contours. This essentially adds more of an effect to the tank in my opinion. 

The contours in this tank basically follow this pattern, if one corner is high, it's opposite corner is low, and vice versa. For example the left front side where the primary stone reaches, is low, probably the lowest point of the tank. The right front side slopes upward slightly, which leads into the center area that is mounded up, with subtle dips intermittent. The left back side is also high, higher than the front right side (kind of limited with height on the front panel, since that would be bad). Now, the right back corner is low, it's still higher than the average front panel side height, but it dips down relative to the area, which means that all paths to the center back are sloping upward.

In my opinion this adds to the character of the tank, it's not a consistent slope backwards or the like. Now my concern will be maintaining these subtle contours while planting and filling the tank. That should be interesting, since lets face it, any problems with soil contours that come up after the tank is filled is just a pain in the ass to correct. The plan here will basically to be careful while planting and to fill the soil back in that's displaced with the handy dandy soil moving spatula tool.

Random Tip: Cleaning a glass diffuser is easier than it might seem when it's covered in hard algae. Basically get a container fill with water and bleach, and let it soak in the bleach, this will erode away most of the algae. 10-20 minutes should be fine, but I had mine soaking for a couple hours since it was pretty bad. After the bleach bath run the diffuser under the faucet and give it the once-over with your hand, rubbing with your finger should remove any excess stubborn algae under the tap. Most importantly, next empty your container, fill it back up with normal tap water, add dechlorinator (I overdosed it considerably for the volume (I used a coffee mug), considering bleach is in itself an overdose), and then let it sit in the mug. I had mine sitting in the dechlorinated mug for about 10 hours or so, though this amount of time is probably not necessary, it essentially was let to sit overnight since there was no rush to put it back into service. After this period of time I ran it under the tap again and the diffuser now looks brand new. 

Bleach in general is a great cleaning agent for aquariums, since it is very water soluble and residual bleach can be eliminated before being put back into use.


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## Outlawboss

Great post! It's so cool to hear what's going in in people's minds as they aquascape. I had also been wondering lately how to clean a diffuser, and now I know! Thank you!


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## Francis Xavier

So I found out what the hold up on at least one plant package was. Evidently there was some problem with customs in not being able to readily identify the plants...SO, I got most of them in fairly roughed up shape. 

But, today turned into one of those gruesome fishkeeping (plantkeeping in this case) days. I had to hastily move over some equipment for the tank, and it's kind of turned into a de facto resuscitation tank. The plants I got from craigthor actually came in the best condition of anything that arrived today, so hopefully the HC (the most important part) gets back on it's feet quickly. 

Just about every error in the book was made today. I'll have to adjust the CO2 tubing since it's been either shooting out too much or stops all together, which means this canister will probably be caputs fairly quickly. Fortunately, I can identify the problem right away, the tubing itself is going through too many circles and cutting off the CO2 too frequently, making it erratic. So the CO2 is off for now.

The Cal Aqua lily pipes haven't arrived yet, so The canister filter outputs and inputs are kind of half assed DIY setups being held in place by the planting tool I have. The filter itself will need a thorough cleaning out, which means water changes are going to have to occur frequently to avoid unwanted algal migration from the 30 gallon. AND the plants are in rough shape.

Oh, and i've managed to spill water everywhere, from a tub coming out of the eheim while removing it from the other tank. Additionally I'll have to hunt down the flow adjustment thing-a-ma-bobs for the eheim, since right now the flow is too strong for the Mini S I think, you can visibly see the plants "moving" in the wind so to speak.

In the middle of all this I was reminded of the story of Amano when he first started using Glosso and all the hassle it provided, customs not knowing what it was and holding it forever and a half. It coming mostly dead and Amano then making it work after everyone else gave up. So Hope is not quite forlorn yet. It's hammer through the frustration time!

A picture of the freshly planted mess:


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## Francis Xavier

Update: I just cut open my hand adjusting the co2 thing, since I couldn't find my screwdriver I decided to use a "dull" knife. So in addition I have blood on my keyboard and waded up tissues tied to my fingers with a couple rubber bands. 

*Outlaw *if you imagine someone banging their head against a diamond studded wall, you'd have a pretty good idea of whats going on in my head at this moment.


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## lookin_around

Oh man, I just came to this thread to check things out and it seems pretty chaotic. I know how sometimes you just have "one of those days" where nothing seems to go right. My roommate complains about something going wrong every time he tries to do a water change on his tank and so that is why he never does it haha.

I like the layout, and have to say you have some very nice equipment. If I could afford more ADA gear I would definitely be looking into it.

I just saw your pictures from Japan, and I must say it looks awesome. I wish I could see one of those Tori gates in person (the big red thing in the water that is part of the native religion Shinto). We just started studying Japan in my Asian History class and I am definitely developing an urge to go visit some of the places that we are studying.


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## Francis Xavier

*lookin_around*, that tori gate is one of the most famous in Japan, on Miyajima island. As far as reading japanese history, if you ever wonder why it took them til 1600 to unify most of the present day country, that question is quickly answered the second you get there.

Tip for CO2: Keep tubing as short as possible, this reduces the possibility of the tubing getting cinched, and reducing your flow / wasting co2 trying to figure out whats up with your co2 flow, and also makes it easier to hand adjust the flow rate. Also when you're getting a diffuser and not opting for inline diffusion, go for a diffuser that has the intake tube pointing upwards as opposed to pointing downwards. This saves space in your aquarium and also keeps the CO2 flow intact by again, reducing the 'cinched' cord area.

As an aside, this is what i've learned. Your first planted tank sets up fundamentals, you mostly bumble around and haphazardly get things to work, you're basically happy that you've managed to turn the light on, figure out how to put together the CO2 system and not have an explosion of gas into your room, and that something is growing. Your second teaches you volumes and volumes more about keeping a planted tank. There's more focus on precision and well, fine tuning this mess, especially if things don't go smoothly.

Sanctum has taught me so much more about this hobby than either my first planted tank or my previous cichlid tank. And it's only been a week.


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## Outlawboss

Francis Xavier said:


> *Outlaw *if you imagine someone banging their head against a diamond studded wall, you'd have a pretty good idea of whats going on in my head at this moment.


I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has these days! Hang in there, it always comes out better on the flip side.


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## Ugly Genius

X, I'd tell you that it sucks and it's terrible and all that stuff, but it seems like you've got the perfect attitude for a sucky, terrible thing like this: it's not what happens, but what you learn from it and what you do with what you've learned.


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## Francis Xavier

Well, it's now day 3, and I've worked out the kinks with the CO2, and no absolute catastrophe's so far. The HC doesn't seem to have lost any coloration, which is good, I've been kind of overdosing the photo/co2 period, although I think very soon I'll have to start worrying about algae. Tomorrow morning or later tonight will be the first water change, I figure probably 50% of the water is going to go. 

Oddly enough the first plant to recover was the 4 color lotus, the leaf that was a little intact on arrival has colored up and grown in size quite a bit, and 3 new sprouts have already formed leaves. The leaves on this plant are -so- cool, the spots of green are vibrant and the reds have colored up a lot. There was a brownish color to them before, that looked cool, but has mostly given way to deeper reds. So far this plant is working as my indicator.

And I have -no- idea how to do anything with this pelia (it's not mini, just normal) it looks completely different from photos of the mini i've seen in UG's tanks. The bulk of it is now held down by a rock over a screen type thing in the 30 gallon, but there are pieces of it floating around in this tank. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these anubias nana petites. I can't find a good spot to fit one in really, and probably at least two are going to be switched over to immersed growth for the wabi-kusa I have planned.

Pictures!




























The Wabi-kusa tank, ADA Cube Garden 45-F:









Still bouncing around ideas for pulling that one off.


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## Ugly Genius

45-F! I've always wanted to do one. Start a journal for this.


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## Francis Xavier

Yeah *UG*, I'll start a journal for it soon, I Just have no idea what I"m going to do with it anymore, I had a couple ideas floating around that would be cool, and then philosophical quandary's between the difference of a Wabi Kusa and a Vivarium started up in my head. The argument is at a stand still, who knows whats going to happen now.

Anyway, back to Sanctum, this morning I noticed the lotus got even bigger, and a 5th stalk is sprouting up. If this thing continues to grow at this rate, then it will have to be removed from being tooooo big. Though it does seem smaller than other Nymphaea i've kept so far, so I've got my fingers crossed. I did my water change, and filled the tank up a little bit more as well. But before hand I noticed something odd at the top of the tank, a giant bubble-conglomeration of "how in gods name did that form" since it only propped up after the CO2 had been off during the night.

Maybe it's the Green Bacter. Maybe there's a film on the top of the tank, I don't know. It's certainly curious though.


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## Francis Xavier

Day 4. After watching this tank closely the last 4 days i'm convinced that plants do the bulk of their growing after lights out. It seems like every morning is when I see new growth. I guess the logical theory here would be that they use all their stored nutrients to grow after they've spent the day absorbing energy to do so.

Nymphaea Micrantha (4 color lotus) grows -fast-, in fact it's been growing so fast (seems like another new leaf every day, and new stalks coming up, and existing leaves growing substantially), that I'm pretty sure that soon I'm going to have to do something about it, and either replant it elsewhere or at least grow it out enough that it propagates, leave the propagation in Sanctia and then use the mother plant in my wabi-kusa plans. 

I also still have no idea what I'm going to do with the anubias nana petites, I think I might attach one to the front side of the main rock, and use the others in the wabi-kusa. If anyone has any ideas of a good spot to put these guys, I'm not going to argue with the input. I've still also got no idea what to do with the pelia. It has some straggler strands in the tank that will probably end up being removed. My hopes are that the cal aqua pipes show up soon so I can get rid of my make shift solution for the filter. 

Pictures!

FTS









The Exploding Lotus and surrounding HC









The HM that's actually seeing more visible improvement than the HC:









Oh, and I modified the name, Subconscious Sanctum was far too much of a mouthful. And I added in a little play on the word Sanctum by using the roman method of making a name female and replacing the um with an ia. The Romans typically named their sons/daughters after the father, and to make it feminine they'd change the declination part of the name to an a. So like Copernicus would be Copernica, Julius would be Julia, etc!


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## lookin_around

I can definitely see some growth. Have you tried using macro mode or something on your camera? All of your close up shots are pretty blurry. I think the addition of those lilly pipes will definitely look better.


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## @[email protected]

i like the tank so far. it has a lot of potential. 
and i love that lotus. whats your ph? i have a dwarf african lotus but in low ph conditions it always grows a lot (like spreads everywhere), and then dies back and melts into mush after a month. then it grows back from the bulb. if you have low ph and yours doesnt do the monthly dieing back thing, id like to buy a plantlet from you (when it makes a plantlet).

HC grows slowly. and its picky. for some people it grows no sweat. i can grow it emmersed and i never do anything except occasionally water it. every time a harvest some to stick in my tank, it dies. 
if HC doesnt work for you can try elatine minima. i never kept it, but i hear its hardy, and the leaves only a bit bigger then HC. or you could go with riccia, glosso, moss, etc. or belem hairgrass if you are willing to trim it down often enough (it grows a bit tall, but its a grass so you just snip it to the height you want). and all the eleocharis (hairgrass) sp. plants are indestructable IMO. worst case, the go dormant, but never die.


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## Francis Xavier

*lookin_around*, The blurriness has been one of my irritations with this camera, It's got weird modes like "sunset," etc (not that I know a whole lot about messing with camera settings) and I've been trying to find the right settings, just a lot of trial and error. It seems that usually the zoom function works better, but that's finnacky too sometimes it's just pixelated mess.

*Marko*, thanks, I just hope I can make sure the tank reaches it's potential. As for the PH i'm not sure what it is exactly right now. I know my water out of tap used to be pretty high, like 8.2. If I can dig up a ph tester i'll test it and let you know where it's sitting at. Good to know about the die back thing. My assumption right now is the ph is probably all over the place. Given that new Seiryu stone (which my stones may or may not be used) raise the ph, and my ph is probably still 8.2 out of tap, and that CO2 lowers the PH, I wouldn't be surprised to see a good amount of fluctuation right now.

Thanks for the plant suggestions, I'm sure I'll refer to them in the future. I would like to get some riccia for this tank for sure, though not entirely sure where i'd put it. I've never grown HC before so I'm excited about seeing how it does. From reading craigthor's thread (who gave me the HC and the HM that's in this tank right now), I've learned that it growing up the way it is now is normal. My big dilemma is having no idea what else to use here, sticking to iwagumi principles, less is more in variety, but there's still that question of creating the balance of plant placement and type. I guess now it's the time where the softscape has to meet the hardscape on the field of battle and rise to the precedence it set!


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## Craigthor

got you a nice rooted piece of HC boxe3d to send out tomorrow.

Craig


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## @[email protected]

my riccia grows fast as hell, so if you need some let me know. its free (just pay shipping).


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## ZooTycoonMaster

Hey Xavier remember me?

The tank looks great! But is there a reason you don't have a return outlet (just the hose)?


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## Francis Xavier

*ZTM* How could I forget you, you're everywhere! It's just a return outlet because the standard eheim 2213 outlet won't fit easily in the Mini S, and my Cal Aqua lily pipes haven't arrived yet. I'm sure i'll pick your brain sooner or later on some suggestions for plants as well.

*marko*, I'll totally hit you up on that, you've got a PM. For the Riccia I'm contemplating whether or not it'd work to try and mix the riccia (tied to a stone of course) with the HC as a carpet or just try and attach it to the right hand stone's back.

*Craigthor*, you the man.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

Francis Xavier said:


> *ZTM* How could I forget you, you're everywhere! It's just a return outlet because the standard eheim 2213 outlet won't fit easily in the Mini S, and my Cal Aqua lily pipes haven't arrived yet. I'm sure i'll pick your brain sooner or later on some suggestions for plants as well.


Haha you could just saw the spray bar to make it fit

You should post this journal on FC, I'm sure they'll really like it!


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## @[email protected]

dont mix the riccia with the HC. if you mean have them both intertwine together. ive seen it will seed itself throught the tank (little peices get caught on plants after you trim) and then it looks bad. plus it grows too much faster then HC, it will choke it if you let them mix.


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## Francis Xavier

*Marko, *that's the information I was looking for on whether or not it'd be a good idea, thanks. I think it'd be possible to pull it off and make it look good, but you'd probably need a faster and more aggressive grower like glosso, and have more glosso planted at start to make it work. Plus, thinking about it, it probably looks better with glosso than HC anyway.

*ZTM, *I'll probably post it over there when i'm not feeling totally lazy. Or after this grows out a little bit more, one or the other! And with the spray bar, i'd probably totally cut open my hand, -again- and then my tank would have even more liquid iron additive from me.


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## Francis Xavier

Marko, the test I did on my water right now showed as follows:

pH: 6.4 (or under, that's the lowest on this test kit)
alkalinity: 80ppm
hardness: 120ppm


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## Francis Xavier

Well, I'm pretty sure the fight with algae is about to start. I might be paranoid, but I can notice some really small algae starting to emerge on the glass. I also figured out why my plant package that originally had what I needed for the carpets didn't arrive. It was shipped to a 4 year old address, that's not even listed as my primary shipping address! Also figured out why my Cal Aqua pipes hadn't arrived, evidently the order was never processed to begin with. 

At least now I can avoid going into the main office at the apartment complex everyday looking like an idiot asking if a mythical package has come yet. They probably think I don't have a package due for delivery and just go down there to talk to the girls that work at the front desk. I already told one of them I blame them for it not arriving yet. Clearly their bad karma is affecting me.

By the way, it's totally cool how Lotus's will bend over backwards if they detect light coming from anywhere at any angle in any amount. When lights are out they will bend towards the hue from my monitor. I'm thinking about investing in a Mini M or one of the larger tanks now...but I think first I should hammer out my issues with deciding on a course of action for the 45-F and see where this one goes.


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## Ugly Genius

The benefit to having a Mini-S with pressurized is that right off the bat, you're at the sweet spot. If algae persists in any way shape or form, simply up the CO2.

Sucks about the delivery, though. Did you end up (re)ordering the Cal Aqua pipes?


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## Francis Xavier

I reordered the pipes. I received craig's shipment of HC yesterday and added that, as well as another, unexpected shipment. This package was the one with riccia in it. Tons of it. This one got stuck in customs and i totally forgot about it. Now I have way more than I know what to do with it, so my plans turned to accelerating the 45-F's design. Currently I have some riccia floating in my 30gal in a bag to try to not get it infested with algae (I've been blowing into the bag in the mornings), and some of it is tied down haphazardly with a rubber band on a rock in Sanctia, and there's more just floating around in clumps in Sanctia. 

I upped the CO2 today, since there are more plants and it seems I have the classic algae that I'm always going to have to deal with here it seems. First, thread algae was forming on rocks yesterday and in big enough doses that I straight out sucked it off the rocks. There's still some there recovering easily today. And on the glass there's tiny green spots forming quite rapidly. Except with these green spots there's small strands of hair-like algae growing out from them. So, I'm not entirely sure what to do with that. Scrap it off or leave it.

THe lotus is still growing like crazy, and sending up it's leaves to the surface, but I'm not pruning this right now since I'd like as much plant mass as possible in the tank for the time being (the reason why I have more riccia than I should in the tank right now, and the 3 anubias still in there even though they just don't fit the layout. 

It's still too early for me to add livestock. I have no proof to back this up yet. But, AS leaches a lot of ammonia into the water, and I'm toying with higher and higher doses of CO2. Although, the filter is established from my last tank, so theoretically it should be fine. I'm still not sure if I should just scrub this algae off my glass (since it seems the hair or thread algae is growing on the glass now), or leave it be. I've also noticed oto's don't make too much of a visible impact on the type of algae I have going on here.

But the immediate presence of thread algae in all the planted tanks i've had so far suggests to me that my water is innately high in iron content from the tap. 

So UG, you suggest that if I just up the CO2 more the algae will eventually go away of it's own accord? Seems like just yesterday (well it was just yesterday) the thread algae was just a nuisance, now it's even in the HC.


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## Francis Xavier

Murphy at work: the riccia floating in a bag is pearling.

The riccia in the tank with pressurized CO2 and more light power is being emo and not.


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## Francis Xavier

So, It's been a bad week. I had to go up to Seattle for the weekend, and evidently enough water evaporated out of my 55 gallon (non-planted) that a roommate decided to fill it up with water...except he didn't dechlorinate it and my entire stock of cichlids was singlehandedly killed over night. Sanctia has hair algae everywhere so I decided to drain the tank and I'm going to just grow it emersed now for a little while I think.

I have to go for about 3 weeks in may elsewhere, and I'm thinking this will probably be the best plan for growing it out, plus I'm having trouble planting the rooted portion of HC I received from Craig, so theoretically I can grow it out that way and have it root in that portion sitting on top of the soil. 

I suppose at this point then I'll probably drain my 30 gallon (Planted) and completely tear it down and rescape it and put the fish from there into the 55 gallon for now, after I mess with that one a bit to get it back in check, I'll probably mostly drain it and refill it. Systematic failure across all 3 tanks at once is a hard blow, but It'll work out in the end I think.


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## Hail

That sounds like a horrible week. Sorry to hear about your fish, it's always a bummer when things die, particularly when you have no control over what happens. 
Way to stay positive though!


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## Francis Xavier

Well, I think it's been about two weeks of emersed growth and things seem to be doing well. There was some left over riccia attached to the main rock, that I wonder how I could tie it down to keep it in that spot when I fill it back up with water.

I'm tempted to fill her back up, I'd just have to clean out the eheim and the tubing associated with it. The lily pipes are finally here. But I still have some algae to remove from when things were submersed on the panes of the glass. The other question is whether or not the patch of HC that I basically laid down has rooted. The greens are all quite nice, and ironically the rock with the riccia remnants on it has remained moist thanks to the humidity levels, so even the riccia is doing well.

I removed the lotus and the big chunks of riccia and added them to the 45-F. The lotus got HUGE in the emersed growth period (there was enough water at that time for it to still be "under" water, and is far too large to keep in the Mini S. I'm still working on the 45-F's design, it's just a matter of how i want to grow it's carpet out. It has no filter, no co2, just half filled water and two ott-lites. And oddly enough, under these conditions the riccia in that tank pearls everyday along it's entire surface and the floating chunks will pearl on the underside of the plant. 

My question now is: short of riccia line from ADA, what's a good substitute for holding down riccia? Fishing line seems like it'd be too insightly, and I'm not sure about a degradable thread, if it actually "attaches" itself to say rocks after a while like mosses.

I'd post pictures and start a journal for the 45-F, but unfortunately I think my camera got stolen when my ps2 did about 2 weeks ago. I guess the great thing about fish tank equipment is your common thief doesn't know their value, or at least if they hauled off with them how much they'd save.


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## Francis Xavier

Oh an additional note, I'm thinking of picking up a Mini M or a Mini L. I could move the ott lites over to that one, and use a different light for the 45-F. At this point for me the only thing I'd need to do to start another mini, would be to get another filter (probably a Rena xp1), other than the tank of course.

And, some how a couple snails survived the draining of my tank, and I saw them crawling around in one of the few puddles of water areas.

I'll be going home for easter this year, and I'm going to work on the pond they have (two small ponds conjoined, one lower than the other), this should be a fun excersize in wabi-kusa style aquascaping on a larger scale, and I may just rob some of the indigenous plants there.

My motivation for getting another mini is exactly this thought process:
I have no room to put it, Not a spot that isn't already taken up by something, and while my room already looks like a fish store, just better looking...Well, I just have these 4 Shuoh stones that just SCREAM to be used in an aquascape...and Iwagumi style is BORING to watch grow...but then again, I'd probably get trapped in another Iwagumi style...but maybe this time..it's totally different! DIFFERENT rocks! and a -different- carpet. Although...most people will just see green and rock and be like...cool. As well as a piece of driftwood that screams "I'm as useless to you as the flat stone you have."


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## Craigthor

Francis Xavier said:


> Well, I think it's been about two weeks of emersed growth and things seem to be doing well. There was some left over riccia attached to the main rock, that I wonder how I could tie it down to keep it in that spot when I fill it back up with water.
> 
> I'm tempted to fill her back up, I'd just have to clean out the eheim and the tubing associated with it. The lily pipes are finally here. But I still have some algae to remove from when things were submersed on the panes of the glass. The other question is whether or not the patch of HC that I basically laid down has rooted. The greens are all quite nice, and ironically the rock with the riccia remnants on it has remained moist thanks to the humidity levels, so even the riccia is doing well.
> 
> I removed the lotus and the big chunks of riccia and added them to the 45-F. The lotus got HUGE in the emersed growth period (there was enough water at that time for it to still be "under" water, and is far too large to keep in the Mini S. I'm still working on the 45-F's design, it's just a matter of how i want to grow it's carpet out. It has no filter, no co2, just half filled water and two ott-lites. And oddly enough, under these conditions the riccia in that tank pearls everyday along it's entire surface and the floating chunks will pearl on the underside of the plant.
> 
> My question now is: short of riccia line from ADA, what's a good substitute for holding down riccia? Fishing line seems like it'd be too insightly, and I'm not sure about a degradable thread, if it actually "attaches" itself to say rocks after a while like mosses.
> 
> I'd post pictures and start a journal for the 45-F, but unfortunately I think my camera got stolen when my ps2 did about 2 weeks ago. I guess the great thing about fish tank equipment is your common thief doesn't know their value, or at least if they hauled off with them how much they'd save.


For attaching riccia to rocks this is my favorite method. I use $1 bath sponges from Dollar store and zip ties. This also worked for my Mini Pellia as well.

http://www.projectaquarium.com/plantedAquariumArticles_SecureDwarfRiccia.aspx

Craig


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## Ugly Genius

Do it!


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks for the link Craig, I bought some of those meshes to try it out.

UG! I totally bought a Mini L.

I filled the tank back up with water - and to my delight the HC and HM immediately started to pearl. However, the eheim 2213's flow rate is hugely insane (it's cleaned out now), and I've had to cinch the intake cord to slow it down some, it was entertaining watching a piece of riccia play merry-go-round in the tank though.

This is my experimental procedure so far. I had two weeks of almost untouched emersed growth, starting with more water than normal for emersed (everything was technically submersed at that point), and then after a week of that switched to almost completely submersed, and now after that week, I'm in a fully submersed phase, and my curiosity is in how the plant growth will be effected. Melting should be expected, however, with overdosing CO2, that should be by and large avoided. Hopefully most algae is eliminated, the tank has to recycle as I systematically commited Bacteriacide on the filter media, but I have all confidence in my Aquasoil's ammonia leaching abilities.

By the end of the three week cycle period I anticipate hair algae to return and BBA. Hopefully at this time I'll be able to migrate an otto and be able to find some Amano's.

I feel so useless without a camera right now.

PS: If you're bored and want to read a little bit of the philosophical story behind this tank, I was in a babbling mood when I posted this on another forum:
http://fishlesscycling.com/forum/index.php?topic=2388.0

Probably the lack of sleep.


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## Francis Xavier

So, I have a thought. I'm going to be redoing the scape on this tank before I go off to california for 3 weeks, since during that time I can just put some plastic wrap over the top and grow things emmersed and not have to worry about co2 running out, etc. So that'll be a good time to rescape and let things re-root and grow in nicely. 

Like I've mentioned before, I've got some Shou stones. I think I may replace the seiryu here with the shou stones. The reason being is that I envision Shou stones looking really good with HC, and not as good with glosso (since it's a bit larger), and in the Mini L I don't want to use HC. Overall I think glosso is too big for a Mini S, but for a Mini L I think it'll do nicely. I've still gotta borrow someones digital camera to get update photos and the like. But I figured i'd bounce the idea off the masses. I really like the main stone for it's impression and size, but I feel it's probably a little too big for the Mini S, and frankly, the Mini L will have more room to work with without losing it's primary impression. 

Glosso I feel will potentially over power Shou stones in a nano setup...although hair grass might work really well with shou stones. Since HC is so small and so low growing I'm currently envisioning it working well with shou, since it allows for the stones to still look bigger and defined, while the size of the glosso on the smaller shou stones would seem to overrun it or dwarf the size of the rocks, not to mention the shape of glosso leaves seems in stark contrast to the jagged / slate look of Shou. Although applied appropriately, contrasts are beautiful. But for Iwagumi purposes of "flow" I think this would not work well. 

The hair grass as I invision it on the other hand would create an entirely different effect than glosso or HC when combined with shou stones - it would almost come to create a tall grassy field surrounding stones forgotten by history (i'm thinking like, Africa-esque lion grazing fields kind of thing). Or another way of interpretation would be oak tree's on a mountain chain. The difference here between the hair grass and the glosso, is that while the hair grass isn't as small as the HC, the hair grass is finer and more linear (well...grass...), which would create a good harmony with the slate-esque jagged edges of shou, since the texture of the stone and the formation of the hair grass are similar enough to compensate for the taller growing carpet.

My goal with the Shou stones in theory will still to be applying sanzon iwagumi principles to it (it seems the more I learn about this subtle art style the more I realize I didn't know as much as I thought I did before, there are a few design flaws in Sanctia's setup right now that conflict with sanzon iwagumi, so either way there's going to be a rescape before I leave, I'm just taking the time to appreciate it for what it is right now), and I'm going to make my best attempt to more accurately resemble the art style (and not just the popularized 'visual' effect it embodies in most circumstances). 

The irony here is that the Mini L will probably -also- be an Iwagumi, it seems that I keep pushing myself into philosophical loops with that style. I -suppose- this line of thinking is good for that particular art form, what with the whole harmonizing thing and all.


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## Ugly Genius

I'm all for rescapes. I think they're great. 
That said, I don't think your main rock is too big for the Mini-S. Rocks shrink with time. (Must be something about the water.) [To the literal-minded: I'm kidding; I know the rocks don't shrink, the water makes the glass expand.]
In my experience, I'd say that your main rock here would probably only be a supporting rock in a Mini-L. Especially with a carpet plant as they eat the bottom inch away once they grow in. Or more to my point, I think it's _exactly_ the right size for your tank. I'm not trying to change your mind, mind you. I just saying that you have a very strong hardscape and it could be that if you're sensing something "off", it might be that you need one more rock on the right behind the slanting rock. (Not that I think this hardscape is "off" in any way; I'm merely making a suggestion based on you stating that you think the rock's too big.) You'd have to loose the child stone to maintain the sanzon status, but the story could still be just as good: two standing together against (or for) the big.

But:
Shou stones and HC/HG _do_ look good together.

And:
Rescapes make us better 'scapers as we apply the lessons learned from the mistakes we made so we can make new ones.

But: 
Remember that one of the central aims of Zen is to bring an individual to a place of peace and acceptance with himself, the world around him, and the choices he's made. More to the point, trust the choices you've made. They were good ones.


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks the vote of confidence in my design UG. This tank is a real pleasure to look at now, and it hasn't finished growing in yet, but some rock moving around I think would still do it some good.

I, did, however figure out an interesting optical illusion with rimless tanks, that may have lead to the theory that the stone was too big. Rimless tanks offer no perspective - this is one of their best strengths, the eye has no point of reference to tell where the limits of the tank are, especially when all the hardware on the inside is glass as this really does tend to create an illusion as to the size of the tank - even in purpose. Now, rimmed tanks have a very definite border - the rims, which removes the "limitless" illusion by giving the eye something very physical to define the borders of the environment and thus give perspective as to the true size of the tank.

To support this part of the argument I brought in 5 people, 3 of which knew about general aquarium sizes and 2 that did not know anything other than they hold fish and water and look pretty. I put my Mini L tank side by side with a 10 gallon tank and asked everyone (without telling them the sizes of the tanks) which one they thought was bigger, and all 5 of them pointed to the Mini L saying that one was bigger (the Mini L is 14.7 inches long and 11.8 inches high, while standard 10 gallon tanks are 20-24 inches long, and 13 inches high). The same occurred when comparing my Mini S to a standard 5 gallon rimmed tank.

However, there -is- one line that gives perspective as to the size and depth of the tank, and it's not the top rim of the tank. It's the water line. Now, given a strong vertical stone like the one in Sanctia, the water level makes a -huge- difference in the impression of the stone. The last picture I have of this tank has a couple things in it that deceive people - the filter hose and the water line, which at first glance form a definite border, and are more readily apparent than the actual top rim of the tank. The position of the hose in relation to the lower water level made the stone look much much bigger - because the tip of the stone nearly reaches the water line. However, after nearly fully filling the tank with water, I noticed that the stone seemed to shrink (we're talking only about maybe an extra half inch or so of water level), and seemed much more "in line" with the tank's size, i.e. it fits the tank much better. 

I casually noticed this while filling up some evaporated water, and then had an epiphany that made me double check the most recent photo I had, and after examining it - the effect was indeed as I had hypothesized. This is probably one of the single most important aquascaping light bulb moments I've had, since experimenting with this simple effect has allowed me to realize a plethora of other visual effects and illusions (while I may have been aware of these before, this was the tie-everything-together-piece-of-information). For example - one thing in this tank that lends to making the stone look even bigger is the fact that there's only HC in it the smallest, lowest growing carpet plant available. The effect and the impression of the stone would be completely different using a plant that grows just a little bit taller - like glosso, and even -more- so different using a taller growing carpet like HG. Furthermore, I surmise that the fish chosen for a tank also serve an important role to reveal the true size of the tank. The eye is always looking for things that put things into perspective - which is why it's so important when trying to make things seem bigger than they are to plant things and put things in the tank that are much smaller.

When I get a camera back I'll mess around with some different pictures to see if I can't visually recreate and display some visual effects from changing the water line. Hopefully someone else learns something from my efforts as well!


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## Francis Xavier

Without further blabbing, finally some pictures:

Ze FTS:









Central Carpet:









Right Carpet:









The Angle I see it from mostly:









The money shot:









Another money shot:









The New Mini L aquascape (criticisms please! I'm adjusting this still, but that's the general idea so far):


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## Francis Xavier

Morning Photo update (to make up for my long winded blabbing! or something! honestly, I just wanted an excuse to play with the new camera):

The Mainstone looking even bigger than normal:









Basically a thickness check the HC shot:









The RCS chillin:


















Full Tank Shot:









In some of these shots you can notice riccia in random places - this is completely and totally the fault of the shrimp. I have watched them pick up strands and carry them places and then toss them aside casually...actually one of the ghost shrimp decided he wanted to pile riccia in a certain corner of the tank (in photo 2 and 1 you can see it at the far edge of the tank). They also clump it in a spot behind the main stone that isn't easily visible.

Oh - and you can see the algal war has resumed  GSA (i'm probably getting the acronym wrong..but you all should know what it is) on the glass. Yay...GSA for me is kind of like when you're falling from 10 feet up, and you know you're going to land on your arm and break it, so you expect it and make measures for how to deal with your broken arm later...but when the impact happens it still sucks.


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## Jack Gilvey

Wow..love that last pic of the 'scape. It gives the impression of _enormous_ scale.


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## Francis Xavier

I'm flattered, Jack, I don't even notice it or why it seems to be the way you describe. I'd love to hear your further thoughts on that. 

The GDA spread more today, I suppose i'll wait the 3 or so weeks for it to go through it's lifecycle, but that's such an impatient and tedious thing to go through...it's green stuff where green stuff isn't supposed to be!!! I've also got this weird thing growing in the left hand front corner, it looks like it might be tiny riccia, but there's no riccia close enough for it to be growing out of it, but I don't know how new riccia growth looks yet, just seems to magically appear like the older 'parent' to me. But the stuff is a pale darkish green and in a branch formation attached to that HC piece, and like I said seems to branch similarly to riccia. Tried to get a picture of it but all of them were too blurry to be any good, it moves with the current a little too well.

Anyway!

Shrimp heading down into the fields for a day of work, I thought this was a nifty shot:









FTS (haven't replaced evaporated water, trying to see if there's any substance to my water level idea earlier) :









And by the way, pearling is so -erratic and emo- like an oto. Sometimes the HC will go and pearl everywhere, sometimes only a few intermittent bubbles here and there. Also it seems riccia pearls much easier when it has more mass to it and it's not directly tied down.

IF anyone has some plant suggestions, i'm all ears. I might modify this plant formation to add some character when I move things around later (if, whatever). I've got a ton of plants coming in that I'm going to use my now drained 30L to farm plants (HC, glosso, Dwarf HG, UG, MS, e. tennellus, etc), the plan here is to basically grow them all emmersed, probably with the Dwarf HG in the areas where there will be more of a water line. If the local fish stores won't supply plants, I'll have to grow my own stock!


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## Francis Xavier

I've been messing around with some techniques for depth perception (mostly used in painting on a flat surface, kind of seldom seen in aquatics), and i'd like some input on this (ignore the fact that there is an even number of rocks, this isn't permanent) :



















Essentially what i'm trying to do here is place the larger object in the front, and the smaller object in the back to try to make the back seem more distant. I'm not sure how this'll go, but hey, now's as good a time as any to tinker with effects and illusions.


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## Ugly Genius

I think the illusion works. Were it not for the Heafty garbage bag box in the background, I'd swear the rear-left piece was miles away.
Speaking of that rock, UG would look phenomenal growing down that slope and around the rock angled out of the hill.
If you were to put a differently-hued carpet on the right-hand front slope, the effect of distance could be accentuated even more.


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## Francis Xavier

Oh boy! the algae is in full swing, as tempting as it is to remove it manually, I'm keeping it there, kind of testing that whole 3 week wait period. But! as soon as evil and easy to get rid of brown algae showed up, I added two oto's that part of the crew cleaning my 55gallon over to here, so hopefully in the next few days they'll start doing their thing...

I've definitely decided on a rescape for this tank - how yet I'm not entirely sure but I plan on refining it a bit, but I've also got two other tank projects i'm working on right now and setting up my plant farm (I decided to turn my old 30gal "ukiyo" into an emmersed farm, since there are no good plant stores nearby I'll just keep a constant stock of plants myself). 

Is it just me, or is there a lot of growth here?!














































The algae looks bad, but it's not really - it's all mostly on the glass, some has grown on the rocks (mostly brown algae) All and all it's pretty tame and pretty easily removed algae in general...which is interesting this is like the algae that grew in my 55 gallon with stock lighting, as opposed to Ukiyo which had horrible, horrible horrible thread algae, staghorn, etc.


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## Ugly Genius

I don't have the patience for the three-week GDA wait period. I know it works because I've done it, but I've also gotten rid of it just as (if not more) quickly by scraping it off.

Your plant growth is fantastic. I think you've picked very good plants on which to learn the subtleties of a Mini-S. As it's only moderately planted, you're learning right from the get-go the light and CO2 thresholds for optimal growth with minimal problems. (The algae you currently have is like the common cold: we all get it. It's not indicitive of an imbalance in the tank inherent in your parameters.) It took me close to half a year to get to where you are in terms of experience with the Mini-S.

I haven't made it to the post office yet, but because of my slowness, I'll add Mini Pellia, a couple of hairs of that Japanese Dwarf Hairgrass I got (cool stuff), and if I can find a frond of the Special Fern with the UG. Meaning, I'll make it worth your wait.


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## Francis Xavier

Wow man, that's exceedingly cool of you to do. Your compliments mean a lot to me too. My desire to do the 3 week method and put up with it plaguing my aesthetics on the glass is to test the efficiency of the oto's exactly, since they never seemed to do much for Ukiyo, but that tank had more staghorn and really really bad thread / hair algae, which was caused because my CO2 levels were always manually done and inconsistent. 

I'll make sure to take care of the plants well. I always feel an obligation to spend extra care with RAOK/gift plants. The HM and HC in this tank was from Craig; hard to believe that a month ago it looked like this:










Not seen in the picture is a small patch in a second batch he sent that was put behind the right hand side rock. 












Which means that those spiffy plants you're sending will end up in the Mini S for growing until they get to a point where I can feel safe sparing some (which means you single-handedly preserved this version of the aquascape for at least a month or so) to try emmersed growth and other propagation methods I'm experimenting with (my mom used to be big into hydroponics, so I'm toying with the mechanics of establishing a setup like that). The riccia in there started as a few sprigs I harvested from the local river (one of the few non-invasive/illegal plants to possess/sell that grows there), I wanted to see how they'd grow in an environment that replicated their state in the river (it's a fast-flowing river, the San Marcos river) and observe how they grow close to the substrate.

I have to admit though, most of my learning has been from catastrophic-forest-fire-esque failures, and lots of little small problems that often required spot fixes. The other part of it has been mistakes! I didn't figure out how beneficial flow was until I put the eheim in the mini s because thats what I had lying around, then after observing the river and remembering differences in it from year to year and levels of flow rate in the river and correlating plant growth it all came together and clicked.

Now i'm focusing my efforts on really refining techniques and methods of planting/trimming/etc, and visual effects with the hardscape. I think figuring out new ways to do things (or at least experimenting) is my favorite aspect of the hobby. Working on the 45-F has been a unique challenge and I think I finally have a workable solution with that. The other fun part of the hobby is sharing those "epiphany" moments so that maybe someone else can learn from it too.


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## Francis Xavier

Here's the latest Mini L scape musing:



















And the plant farm I setup! 6 species and counting!


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## Francis Xavier

Nerites are awesome. So far they seem much cooler than Oto's at eating algae. These buggers are thorough and clean through just about anything, and they're pretty good indicators of Co2 levels, oddly enough. I was tinkering with Co2 levels today and noticed that if I had it set too high, they'd come to a complete standstill and halt in their tracks. So I was able to adjust the Co2 accordingly to provide optimal Co2 for the plants and O2 for the fauna. 

Clean FTS (I didn't remove any of this algae, except the output pipe and the diffuser which got bleach baths last night, since the diffuser had some weird hair algae on it (probably onset of staghorn), and the output isn't close enough to the glass for the snails to reach, but the intake is another story!):










Some nifty shots:










I like these top shots since they really show the thickness growth of the tank:










I'm tinkering with some normal dwarf hairgrass in this tank in preparation to propagate the mini dwarf variation, one thing I noticed right away is these things attract algae, I'll have to run experiments on the best way to remove algae from it without harming the plants. This introduction might be responsible for very minor staghorn algae growin on the main rock (I removed the strands big enough to be pulled with a tweezer), but the presence of that in general is kind of concerning for me. I'm going to try pulling out the dwarf hairgrass and individually planting strands of it.

Does anyone know if yellowed leaves are an indication of a dead strand in dwarf hairgrass?


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## Francis Xavier

It's a really rainy day here in San Marcos. I've been working on my research paper all day, I accidentally startled an oto, and this is what happened:










You can see the tip of it's tail here:









Oto's are totally emo in nano tanks. To the point where I'm convinced that I'm going to remove these guys from the tank soon. They'll come out at night to do ****, but otherwise they spend their entire time hiding in the brush. I think part of the problem in Nano's with oto's is space, and the fact that you can't cram 5-6 in there (which they feel a lot more safe in groups, and will come out a lot more in those groups, and they seem to like room to gallop so to speak).

My work area:









Outside, from my balcony, just some cool shots, I love messing around with this camera:


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## Francis Xavier

In the course of the week I actually got motivated enough to remove the bulk of the riccia from this tank. I also dispersed some of the normal dwarf hair grass around a bit, so it's not in the up front right corner...evidently true to DHG nature it attracts all sorts of nasty algae...mostly fuzz stuff from the looks of it. I've already trimmed it down a good portion since it seems to be browning out its leaves (in what i'm hoping for is new growth in the transition from emmersed to submersed).

UG sent me a generous portion of UG and MP, the UG all went into the Mini L; the Mini Pelia is being tied to a rock right now until I can figure out what better to do with it.

He also sent a few precious little treasures:










In this picture is one shoot of Japanese Dwarf Hairgrass (grow baby please grow!) and a tiny frond of special fern. The JDH has yellowed a bit, but it's in a prime real estate spot near the diffuser. So far the 2 ghost shrimp and 2 CRS have shown no interest in the Special Fern (it was so cool, it felt and looked plasticy). There is also some mini microsword from UG, but the rest went into the Mini L. All this stuff came algae-free. You the man ugly!

Today's work station:









Menage et tois (sp?):









The State of the Union:


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## Craigthor

Looking good!


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## Ugly Genius

You're welcome. Sorry I couldn't give you more of the cool stuff, but the JHG is growing a lot quicker than I expected, so keep an eye on my Elements journal and the second you hear me say that I'm about to trim, PM me your address and the stuff's yours.
Funny story about the Special Fern I sent you. The one you have was my last one. For a single selfish moment, I thought that I should hold onto it "just in case" I needed it. Then I remembered that selfish people suck and stuck it in the baggie.
Long story short, later that day I go to AFA to pick up some Bolbitis and stuck inside the wire holding the Bolbitis to a rock is a piece of Special Fern almost exactly the same size as the one I gave you!
Karma does not get much more instant than that.

Tank's looking awesome! You've come so far so quickly.

Oh, I don't know if that's MP attached to a Riccia Stone in that tank, but if it is, you might want to know that I've had little luck attaching mosses to Riccia Stones as they're not all that porous. MP might work, but I've never tried.


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks Craig and UG. UG, i'll definately hit you up for more of that stuff, it looks like it's got some good potential.

I removed the big rock in Sanctia today, cause well, it had some trace staghorn that irritated me that was hard to get to because it was behind the area of visibility. After removing it and bleaching it, I looked at the tank and decided "you know what, to hell with it!" and rescaped the tank. The oto's should be happy they got this opportunity to get the hell out of dodge and back into the 55 gallon. 

Holy crap this is a lot of HC...that wasn't even half of it, this stuff just rolled like a mat!









It's funny how creativity strikes you. In this case I was staring at flat stones again thinking "OH MY GOD YOU ARE SO USELESS." However, in this case...they proved to be quite useful in my quest to further my Iwagumi techniques. 

Murky, unclear photo:









Ignore the 'white' looking stone, I put that there to hold down a segment of the HC...in all reality i'll probably have to mess around with replanting this stuff better but for now I'm seeing how well it'll sit and root using it's own plant mass to hold it down.

Workstation:









I'll post more pictures when the water clears up. I decided to add some of the mostly dead glosso to the tank, maybe it'll become of something, and the JDHG is in there, as well as the special fern and the mini microsword, mostly scattered but I know where they are to watch em!


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## Craigthor

Copy cat....

HC will root itself again I just wasn't paitent enough for it. I also enjoy watching it grow out each time. Takes 5 weeks to make a beautiful carpet in my tank.

This time I also added another plant to get a dual carpet that would look similar yet different.

Craig


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## ZooTycoonMaster

You either stay up late or wake up early:icon_eek:


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## Francis Xavier

Haha craig! I rescaped! not just replanted! I'm toying with whether or not I want to mix glosso or something with the HC in this one...but I have a feeling with the current layout that just HC with intermittent JDHG/DHG it'll work out really well. Maybe some sort of taller grower in the back.

Zoo: I don't sleep usually.

As promised:


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## Ugly Genius

I like it. Very striking and distinctive.

Mini Pellia sprinkled about would accent those rocks perfectly here and there if you ever got the gumption to do so.


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## Francis Xavier

I was thinking about the MP UG, but i'm not exactly sure where would be a good spot or if it'd even mess well with the layout. Do you have any thoughts about where would be good? I have zero experience with that plant!


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## Francis Xavier

6 Days later:









I subjugated the tank to a 5 day emmersion period, then flooded the tank again. The hair grass doesn't seem to grow too much while under emmersion, nor the MP. I decided to mess with MP a bit, and added pieces of it to the main rock, curious to see how this will look when it grows in a little. CO2 overdose time!

I also got my system fully automated for my 3 week absence that'll be coming up starting next 3 thurs. Hopefully there will be no major algae problems in that time period, but I finally got amanos so between a couple of those and a nerite or two, I don't see any major issues coming up.

My cal aqua intake pipe broke while I was cleaning it, so I had to jury rig it back together...Going to overdose ferts also for a few days before fauna's back in to see if I can't get some interesting results.


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## Francis Xavier

So I got back from my 3 week or so hiatus, and well, it's kind of disastrous in here:









the culprit? while I was gone one of the patches of HC got stuck in the filter intake and killed the flow, and probably about 2-3 or so days before I got back (a guestimate based on what roommate had said before hand) the co2 cartridge ran out. Most notably though, the death of flow most likely caused the outbreak. Now i'm saddled with the task of fixing it, de-algifying then packing it up in a month or so to move! At least the 8g tank survived a lot better.


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## Ugly Genius

It's bad but most certainly fixable. The focus, I think, is not eliminating the algae, but getting the plants back up to 100% so they'll be better able to bounce back after your move. Pump them full of CO2 and ferts and the'll be fine in three weeks.
From the picture, all I'd say is the tank needs a trim and with it, most of the algae will be gone anyway.


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## Francis Xavier

Well, here's an updated scoop. Because of how tangled in the algae is in this tank, I decided to introduce it to a 3 day blackout period and see if it can't just die in that period, blackout started this morning, will go back to being lighted probably this weds. morning.

Yeah, I was trying to trim it to get rid of algae ug, but the stuff kept coming back! and soon I was losing more plant matter than algae.


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## DC_84

Wow, look at all the algae...but otherwise it looks very wild and natural.


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks! Just one more day of complete black out and then it's time to play clean up the collateral damage.

I'm already planning the changes that'll be made to this tank once I move. I think they'll be pretty positive.


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## Francis Xavier

Well, the co2 ran out today, so this tank is officially being torn down as I type this, in preparation for the move. All the plants right now are going through anti-algal treatments after which they're going to be transplanted to another co2 injected tank (Probably the 45-F), since I need to empty a 5lb cylinder in 2 weeks, I've got it running during the day on the Mini L and at night in the 45-F which has become a de facto algae recovery hospital.


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## niptek

any updates on this tank?


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## Kayen

Won't be for awhile.
He has the tank torn down, and he's preparing for a cross country move, so it's all packed up.


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks for the interest niptek! But yeah, as kayen said it's currently torn down and being boxed up for shipping. I'm moving to Seattle this upcoming sunday. I do have some big plans though as far as this and the Mini L are concerned.


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## Ugly Genius

Love Seattle.
Was up there for a business trip a few years back. 
I was standing on a corner in the rain and I notice that I was the only person standing on the curb. My initial feeling was that Seattle people were cowards; afraid of a car jumping up on the curb or some such nonsense. I looked back at all the wusses huddled five feet back near a storefront doorway and sneered an internal sneer. _Cowards! I don't know what kind of city you're running here, but if you're afraid of a car somehow jumping up the curb, I'm going to run for Mayor of San Francisco and wage a war against Seattle and take this city from you cowards! You don't deserve a beautiful city like this._
It wasn't until a car drove by, heard the spash, and felt a cool, wet sensation against my shirt and pants that I understood why Seattleites stand away from the curb on rainy days.
Smart people, those Seattleites.

My advice:
Don't stand close to the curb on rainy days, X.


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## Francis Xavier

Hahaha. I bet those people were thinking "watch, this mook is totally going to get splashed, it's going to be great."

And yeah, Seattle was great while I was up there, beautiful city and scenery, temperature at a nice constant 70-75. So by the end of the 3 weeks I said "you know what? screw this Texas thing, I'm moving to Seattle." Since I got back to Texas its been 100+ everyday with humidity up the wazoo. I think we've been breaking heat records every other day. That cemented the plan. If you haven't been in the forests around there, you should go. The way the mosses and ferns grow around the trees and fallen trees is pretty radical and could inspire some pretty cool driftwood layouts.


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## Ugly Genius

I know you're an iwagumi man through-and-through, but just be open to the possibility that being around all that natural beauty may -- just maybe -- swing you to the driftwood side of things.
No one said you can't play on both sides of the fence, X.


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## Francis Xavier

Hey man, you never know! Weirder things have happened. I've had a driftwood layout in my mind based on what I saw there for a while now, it might see fruition should I get my hands on the appropriate kind of wood, moss, and stone. In my mind it'd have some archaeic looking wood with mosses weeping down off the side of it (like a weeping-willow, but thicker), with special fern accents, and probably a UG carpet.


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## Francis Xavier

an addendum: the wood would probably have to be the coloration and texture of the wood you have in Source now.


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## Ugly Genius

I read that it's a new driftwood introduced into ADA supply channels. Can't find the post, but I'll look around and give you the name.


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## Ugly Genius

Found it. Ancient Dark Wood is what it's called.


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks, I'll have to look into it. Once things are settled this'll probably be a project for a third tank, probably Do!Aqua mini M or the like.


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## Francis Xavier

I pulled up all the plants in my Mini L today, and the surface area of all of what was pulled up covered a 2ftx3ft container entirely in dense growth. Hard to imagine that this all started from a 2x2inch portion of HC from craigthor, two sprigs of glosso from an LFS, a couple sprigs of Mini Microsword, couple sprigs of japanese dwarf hairgrass and a roughly 2x2inch portion of UG from Ugly Genius, and a .5x.5 inch portion of dwarf hairgrass 2-4 months ago (the HC is the oldest, at 4 months, rest at about 2 months).

This mixed carpet is going to be a PAIN to separate later when it arrives in Seattle.


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## Vladdy

I think that this rock position looks best.


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## blair

Vladdy, you called it! I sure hope X revives this formation. We discussed a larger stone than that present tiny impostor pointing back at those two stunning and commanding pieces. A wider and deeper tank would be essential to pull it off, but oh man, what a treat to the eyes 

Hope the move goes smooth X.


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## Francis Xavier

I haven't done much with this thread, it certainly has been a while and a pretty long journey overall. Though, for sure, I've still been active. This particular setup is near and dear to my heart - it's been with me through two cross country moves and has always had it's spot right on my desk next to my computer.

What can I say? I love this system. I know where all the focal points are on the tank, I know the amount of water that needs to be changed, the amount of soil to use, the size of rock that can fit and the amount I need (or don't need) to dose. I know how much Co2 it needs exactly; I can make those ADA co2 cartridges last for about 2 months! I truly know this tank by heart and I don't think I'll ever get rid of it, I even like the fact that this seems to be the only tank on the market with a crooked ADA sticker, haha. I still like the name I gave to it: Sanctia. It really has been my escape. Unfortunately right now it sits empty while I'm in the middle of a move (currently in Austin, headed for New York and back again before the summer is through).

The specs of the tank as it stands now:

*Tank:* ADA Mini S
*Light:* ADA Solar Mini S
*Co2:* ADA Co2 System 74-YA/Ver. 2 w/white cap stand
ADA bubble counter, non-brand glass diffuser (gonna replace this with an
ADA one sooner or later, the generic glass diffuser tends to whistle annoyingly).
ADA El-Valve (solenoid)
*Filtration: *Eheim 2213
ADA Lily Pipe inflow Mini V-1 (originally this tank had cal aqua lily pipes, but they broke the first time i tried to clean them, fortunately the ADA glass is a little bit thicker...plus I learned my lesson to be extra gentle when cleaning these)
ADA Lily Pipe outflow Mini P-1
ADA Clear filtration hosing

*Substrate:* this tank has always used Amazonia II, Amazonia II powder type and Power Sand.

*Ferts:* ADA Brighty K & ADA Green Brighty Step 1 - but I've never really had a big need to dose ferts much in this tank.

*Hardscape:* Even though I now have a wider stone collection, I've always used Seiryu in this tank. While in Seattle the fact that it rose PH a little bit was a good thing for the shrimp, since the water was too soft there.

I've got reams of photographs for the tank, and quite a few stories to tell about it in the time it's been around to play catch up.

First this tank has only had one real aquascape while I was living in Seattle - it participated as part of the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society's Home Show Contest in 2010 and took home first place in the Planted Tank category (it was bundled together with the Mini L (although, at the time of the competition it wasn't fully grown in yet), as they were kind of designed to be seen together). Since my computer / internet access situation is weird, for now I'll show you some of those photos from the competition (Taken by Steev Ward and Erik Olson, both great photographers by the way!) You can also see them at www.gsas.org under the home show section:

Full tank shot!









Upper viewing angle shot:









One of the contest judges examining the winning tank pair:









The tank inhabitant at the time, Scarlet Badis (yes, that's the small diffuser edge...love how these guys were like tiny cichlids in appearance) :










One of the S-grade CRS:









Another Sanctia Scarlet Badis:










I'll post more pictures at various stages with this tank as it goes along...and I think i might do something with the tank while I'm in between moves, if I do i'll post some photo's of that process. The algae in the pictures was the only algae outbreak this tank ever had - and it disappeared on it's own.


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## CL

Great scape- very well put together. The hc works great in this tank. That scarlet badis is indeed a tiny fish. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the next iteration.


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## Francis Xavier

Thanks CL!

If some things go right in the next few days - I'll be doing something temporary with this tank before my next move that should prove to be...unexpected.


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## Francis Xavier

Some photo's I dug up:

the build:



























This scape was always more on the conservative side of iwagumi design, trying to find a balance between open space and non is a bit of a challenge in these small tanks.

horribly overgrown, in need of a trim (right before final disassembly in April) :


















By the time the tank got to this stage, only 1 or 2 bps was needed from the co2 cartridge - those little cartridges were lasting a good month and a half, nearly two months, each.


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## Francis Xavier

I've got a real treat being delivered by a friend of mine today, picked up all the way from Japan:

A bona fide ADA wabi-kusa. 

I'm super excited to finally be getting my hands on one, and i'll temporarily be putting it in this tank until I finish my moving around and put it in a more wabi-kusa appropriate container. I'll take photo's and post it as soon as I get it here. This is going to be seriously cool. Had to go through a tremendous amount of effort to get that baby here.

Was kind of funny when my friend who went to Japan had no idea what to do and called me at 3 am in the morning here, requiring me to talk to the store clerk in Japan while half-awake with rusty Japanese.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

The Badis don't bother your CRS? I read that they are not shrimp safe and will attack shrimp :/


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## Francis Xavier

Hey ZTM;

The Badis never bothered the shrimp - and the shrimp were even added after the Badis were already in the tank. That being said, the shrimp in the Mini S were Amano's, who more or less completely pushed the Badis out of the way whenever they were in the same area (the crevice in the rock was a favorite cave for the Amano's and the Badis, and usually the Amano's would just push straight through and force the Badis out).

The way they interacted was pretty simple; the Badis ended up roaming the hair grass area (which got decently dense) to the left, another favorite spot was grazing in front of the front left rock. The Amano's favorite spot was the enclave (all 5 of them I had in this tank would hang out there most of the time) and pretty much anywhere there was any algae to be had.

I never had the CRS in the Mini S - they were all in the Mini L, since they were directly from the Japanese blood line I kept them pretty much to themselves. I don't know if I'd recommend putting a CRS with a Badis, since the CRS tend to get bullied easy. But Amano's don't take anything from anybody. I've seen them bully pufferfish.


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## Francis Xavier

Clean canvas in preparation for wabi-kusa:


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## Francis Xavier

The ADA wabi-kusa is finally here! I am pretty crazily excited about this. These things are seriously cool.

Picture meet thousand words and instant aquascape:


----------



## CL

That is cool. Excited to see it grow out


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## Outlawboss

You were able to buy it like that? Awesooome! I'm with CL, can't wait to see it grow out.


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## Francis Xavier

CL, Outlawboss, yeah these wabi-kusa come like that. They're -seriously- cool. If I had managed to get my friend to get 2 or 3 more through customs, it'd be an easy instant scape. You just put them where-ever, add water and either a spot with light or light and they grow. 

The only other person I know with one in the country is Jeff Senske, he told me about how he had his outside and it lived just fine through two full-fledged frosts in Houston.

I can't wait to pick up the vase and light specific for this baby to grow out. 

I counted the species as best I could in the plant ball earlier, there are 5 that I can tell:

Rotala Green
"Ceylon" Rotala
Hair Grass
riccia fluitans (no idea how they get it to stick to the side of the ball without floating off in water)
and a fifth stem I can't identify.

These things truly embody the essence of 'wabi sabi.' Evidently they're planted pretty much at random in certain pre-determined 'plant sets' (i.e. a rotala version, a crypt version, all glosso, all hc, etc); and it's pretty much up to luck to see what grows and what stays 'dormant.'


----------



## A Hill

It looks awesome, right now I'm researching how to make the perfect WK ball, since very few are in the US could you try to explain what you think the composition of it is, and what if anything is helping to hold it together? 

Thanks,
-Andrew


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## Francis Xavier

Well the substrate itself feels hard, and there's not really anything visible holding it together. Unfortunately I can't really tell what exactly is holding it all together without cutting the thing in half!


----------



## CL

A Hill said:


> It looks awesome, right now I'm researching how to make the perfect WK ball, since very few are in the US could you try to explain what you think the composition of it is, and what if anything is helping to hold it together?
> 
> Thanks,
> -Andrew


This thread is pretty amazing, and describes how to make them http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ture/58291-emersed-growth-trial-wabikusa.html


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## A Hill

Francis Xavier said:


> Well the substrate itself feels hard, and there's not really anything visible holding it together. Unfortunately I can't really tell what exactly is holding it all together without cutting the thing in half!


Thanks for the information, I would not want you to cut it in half! That is for sure. Where did you get yours, was it from Japan? One of my friends is in Shanghai for the summer so I may ask her to keep an eye out for me. 



CL said:


> This thread is pretty amazing, and describes how to make them http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ture/58291-emersed-growth-trial-wabikusa.html


I've seen this, he uses a lot of cotton thread if I remember correctly. Right now I'm trying to formulate a substrate ball concoction that will stay together better than that a mix of clay, and other materials.

Looks good,
-Andrew


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## Francis Xavier

Yeah, a friend of mine was in Japan and brought it back with her for me for my birthday. Was kind of funny since i received a phone call from her while she was over there at 4 in the morning, and i had to talk to the guy in japanese to get the right thing.

The wabi-kusa is definitely very solid - it doesn't lose it's shape or form when submerged.

Because I can't get enough of staring at this thing, I took more photos:



















Still trying to get this shot right with the camera between flash, lighting and some photo editing for brightness...it's a work in progress but a good shot:









(if that last one doesn't show up i'm still having some trouble with uploads)


----------



## A Hill

That must have been a funny conversation at four in the morning! 

Have you seen the new lights for the wabi kusa that ADA makes via Do!Aqua line in person before? I saw them at AquaTouch and they look awesome. I actually just got a really good glass for WK and will need to find a light next.

I've read that these are really popular with the newbs in the hobby because it is a very easy way to start out and then as time goes on they get more advanced and whatnot and I think that it is a great idea. I also just like the WK in general though, for advanced aquarists as well trying something a bit simpler and different. 

-Andrew


----------



## Francis Xavier

A Hill said:


> That must have been a funny conversation at four in the morning!
> 
> Have you seen the new lights for the wabi kusa that ADA makes via Do!Aqua line in person before? I saw them at AquaTouch and they look awesome. I actually just got a really good glass for WK and will need to find a light next.
> 
> I've read that these are really popular with the newbs in the hobby because it is a very easy way to start out and then as time goes on they get more advanced and whatnot and I think that it is a great idea. I also just like the WK in general though, for advanced aquarists as well trying something a bit simpler and different.
> 
> -Andrew


It was a pretty funny convo! Fortunately between what I could remember of my Japanese upon immediately waking up and since most plant / aquarium lingo is the same in Japanese anyway, it was a pretty easy conversation. Then there was the whole 24 hour panic period on whether or not customs was going to randomly search her bag and remove it. This little weed ball has been through a lot! The coolest thing? immediately when I put it under the Solar Mini the stems started moving / unfurling towards the light (one of the funniest things I heard all night was my friend going "oh my god!!! I swear! the plant moved! the leaves weren't positioned that way before!).

The Do!Aqua vase and accompanying light is what this little wabi-kusa will eventually be homed in. I've seen them in person and they're perfect for the wabi-kusa. Literally perfect. Even the way the light casts it's shadow over the vase causes the Wabi-kusa to be 'framed' by the slight shadow around the edge of the vase.

They're pretty good for newbies - they really can't be killed easily...and you just drop them into a tank and have a decent looking aquascape going. But as an 'expert' in Iwagumi / aquascaping aesthetic, you just end up appreciating all of the fine details that the wabi sabi element brings home. At my parents house, they have a lot of japanese paintings, one set of paintings is a portrait of a bonsai potted with various other plants in wabi sabi fashion - and I was able to illustrate wabi sabi by holding the wabi kusa to the painting to show my friend and they immediately saw the correlation (someone who has no knowledge of aquascaping or any of these concepts we nerd about)


----------



## A Hill

Thats hilarious, the plants must have been so happy to be in light! Aquarium talk is a pretty universal language, I didn't even think about that before posting lol. 

I love the Do!Aqua vase and light combo. 

It is really great how it is appreciated by all newbies for maintenance, experts for aesthetics, and others for the simplicity of the aquascaping/art side. (But to be honest, experts love all three parts! the more time in the hobby simplicity and low maintenance is valued by most)

It'll be interesting to see how this grows for you. I'm guessing you've seen the new catalogue with the WK balls as an instant aquascape and the progression of growth, pretty neat.

-Andrew


----------



## Francis Xavier

Saying Glossostigma in japanese isn't fun. It's pronounced something like gurosso****iguma. I had to say that word to make sure it wasn't the "glosso" only version, and had to mention Kuba to make sure it wasn't the HC only version.

Believe me, the zero maintenance part is a huge boon for me. Especially since this'll end up in my office in August or so with the vase + branch light (and that'll be about the same time i'll try my hand at a reef tank in addition to having the Mini S holding what it's supposed to hold (a new planted scape). There is a good part of me that's tempted to go buy a betta or some guppies or something to throw in the water. But I'm going to avoid that for obvious reasons.

I haven't seen the new catalog yet. But it's pretty obvious once you get your hands on one how easy it would be to make a cool scape (especially with a piece of driftwood) with a couple of these. Put down some sand, some driftwood, a glosso or hc only wabi kusa in the front to carpet, then one or two other mixed wabi kusa around the driftwood / in the back and you're done with a scape that'll put most of ours to shame when it grows out.

I'm really curious to see how it grows out in person myself, and how fast it does. I've seen pictures from random Aqua Journals, but it's not quite the same as seeing it in person. Jeff tells me that his exploded in the vase / branch light when he put it under there, but last time I saw it he had -just- put it in that same day.

I have a feeling i'll be taking trimmings off this baby to use in aquascapes for some time to come! New SnS angle: trimmings from wabi kusa for sale! it's maaagic (i'm joking).


----------



## phangtonpower

Francis Xavier said:


> Saying Glossostigma in japanese isn't fun. It's pronounced something like gurosso****iguma.


I bought some glosso here. I think they just labeled gurosso. They also label somethings different here, like whorled pennywort was mini mashurumu.


----------



## JamesReef

Frank! The wabi-kusa is beyond awesome! Simplisticly beautiful. I had to chuckle at myself back in the beginning of your thread, my tank had a simliar "crack" in it right at the very front center of the display, I felt sick. As I rubbed it I started to think it wasn't a crack after all, and it took a glass scraper to get that sucker off then a really serious rub down with an old soft cotton t-shirt to remove the oil from my fingers.


----------



## Francis Xavier

yeah, you are right phangton. they understood as soon as I got to the gurosso part and stumbled my way through the rest. I really need to catch up in my Japanese study.

Thanks James...I agree on the beauty element wholeheartedly. There are things in this hobby that you know you're going to obsess over the minute you pick one up or see one, they just fit. For me it was Iwagumi, and then Wabi Kusa. Probably going to add 'reef' to that soon.

in re to the 'cracks' I know! that was one of my first real tanks in a long time, and i could've sworn they were scratches or something until I did pretty much what you described. I always laugh that I got the one ADA tank in the whole assembly line that had some slop jobs on it (crooked sticker, some messy silicon that were 'scratches' that I hand removed, I think it might've been one of the last from the former manufacturer). I haven't seen an ADA tank before or since that was like that one; so I kind of like the fact it had a crooked sticker.

Fyi, I swear there's been noticeable growth in the 1 1/2 days since it's been with me. But seems a little silly to take a photo at that time. The red stems have definitely gotten a lot more vibrant though!


----------



## JamesReef

Yeah, the ADA silicone is of such high quality, even a micro thread of it bonds so strongly you have to work at it with a glass scraper to get it off.

1.5 days and growth already, nice!


----------



## Francis Xavier

It's been one week since I've had the wabi-kusa in my care. I still can't identify which series it is other than a rotala series; mine has hair grass and many of the other rotala series ones I've seen don't have any hair grass. 

This week the red Rotala continued to get redder, it seems to be the fastest grower of all the species in the wabi-kusa ball; I see new leaves being put out daily. It'll be pretty cool when the red and green rotala start to flower since they both have very distinctively different colored flowers that should look pretty cool together. The tendency the plants have in growing right now is to grow outward then upward. I even traveled 200 miles on an errand and brought the wabi kusa with me and it travels well!

"full tank shot"


















Close ups, one week in:




























I just really have to emphasize that the combination of these plants growing together the way they are is really beautiful. Makes me wish I could take credit for it.


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## ClPat

The wabi ball looks nice. I've wanted one of these for a while.
I really think you should put some sand in the tank tho, maybe a few pebbles, too. Would look great!


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## CL

I love it. That red stem really makes things pop. It's seems kind of silly to be ooing and ah-ing over a little ball of plants in an empty tank, but it does look nice in its simplicity.


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## Francis Xavier

ClPat, i was tempted to put something else in the tank, like a rock or something, but this way it's just a super emphasis on the Wabi kusa itself. keep in mind that the Mini S is just a temporary home for it until August or so. Then i'll put it into a Do!Aqua Plant Glass - Oval.

CL, yeah the red really does bring it all together. I know what you mean how it's just a ball of plants in an empty tank, but something about the Wabi Kusa just doesn't need anything else. Something about the hair grass as well gives a certain elegance to the 'scape.'

So far my count of plants are 6, maybe 7 (need to see two stem's that look similar grow out more to tell if they're different...but so far they look different), part of the fun is watching new species emerge!

After looking at the latest aqua journal (it focuses on Wabi Kusa) it seems that what I can identify so far is

Rotala Rotundifolia sp. Red 
Rotala Nanjean (narrower leaves)
The other green stem is either Rotala Rotundifolia or Bacopa Carolinia (i'm leaning towards Carolinia since the leaves are -really- oval...or it could be Micrantemum unbrosum...Man forget it...I'm totally lost here! Outside of those first two. Of course, i imagine as they grow and/or flower it'll change or be more definite.

One of the bigger stems might be alternanthera ocipus; the leaf structure is very distinct in that it's triangular just like the picture of it I see...though again til more growth I have no idea.

Edit: I think this little thing will provide me with scaping materials / clippings for a while to come once it grows.


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## Francis Xavier

I'm going to be gone out of state for a Month, so I won't be around to see it grow out for the next few weeks (which makes me sad, I have to admit). So these are some final shots in it's temporary home before a follow-up update in a few weeks!

I still can't get these kinds of shots right, my ambient lighting is bad. The Solar Mini's light basically drowns out the dull hue of normal lightbulbs:




























For some reason, the Wabi Kusa looks a lot more lush and full today than it did yesterday, I'm not entirely sure why.










Once I get back in state and finish a few final moves, the Mini S will be back in action with a real aquascape and the Wabi Kusa will be in it's own dedicated permanent setup.


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## CL

Either you rotated the ball, or that hairgrass has grown a ton in the past few days.


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## Francis Xavier

That's the weird thing, CL, the positioning of the ball is about the same as it was yesterday. The only real difference is I manually propped up a drooping stem on the right around another stem.

I thought it was just me being crazy that the thing looked a lot more dense today.


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## ZooTycoonMaster

That's an expensive home for a ball of dirt and plants Are you going to put anything else in it (sorry if you answered this earlier, I'm really tired and can't read all of your posts)?


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## Francis Xavier

Zoo,

The Mini S is just a temporary home for the wabi kusa. In August it'll receive a more permanent setup, and the Mini S will be setup with a bona fide aquascape then.


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## wearsbunnyslippers

you are so lucky to have a genuine ada wabi kusa!

check out this link for how to use wabi kusa's in a scape...

the translation leaves a lot to be desired but the pics are awesome!


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## Francis Xavier

Yeah It'd be pretty easy to actually scape with them. Much easier with more than one. If I had two or three I Might actually make a scape, but as is I'm just going to keep it as itself to enjoy it in it's own majesty. This will look much better once it's in a Vase, et cetera designed for it instead of temporarily in the Mini M.

However, I have no idea how it currently looks since I'm away from it. I Hear it's growing quite well and is having no problems though!


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## Lance Uppercut

wearsbunnyslippers said:


> check out this link for how to use wabi kusa's in a scape...
> 
> the translation leaves a lot to be desired but the pics are awesome!


The engrish in the translation had me and my wife cracking up!


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## blair

Looks great X. Sorry I didn't make it over to Japan for an additional one, but I had to cut my trip short. I'm back now and am just getting around to starting my tanks back up, slightly modified 

The final shots of the Mini M for competition were stunning as well. I cannot wait to see the trouble you will get yourself into once the new move in finalized  You are a lucky man.


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## BradH

Nice. Does anyone have a pic of the DoAqua Wabi Kusa light and tank?


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## Francis Xavier

Bradh, I could probably have a picture of it soonish in the next week or so.

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that upon my return trip, TSA inspected my bag and forgot to zip up the pouch holding my camera, resulting in it's current missing status.

The good news: The wabi kusa thrived while I was gone, got transferred to a temporary vase, and when I got back to see it I found a praying mantis hanging out on the wabi kusa. Good luck! The bad news part about that: the praying mantis on the wabi kusa would have been an awesome shot to have.


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## BradH

Cool. Looking forward to the pic. Too bad about your camera!


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## CL

And you were keeping this thing indoors? It's rare enough to find a mantis outside. How funny that you would find one inside on your wabi- kusa after you got home. Pretty cool  Too bad you couldn't get a picture


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## Francis Xavier

Yeah CL, it was indoors. I call him Hawthorne. He's been chilling on the wabi kusa all night. Apparently, Hawthorne is of the opinion that it's a good hunting ground.

Praying Mantis', tarantula's, scorpions and walking sticks are all fairly common in the Texas Hill Country...while it's still not very common to see a Praying Mantis, you do run into them a fair amount. Only other place I've lived where i've seen as many was in St. Joseph Michigan.


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## Francis Xavier

As of today, Hawthorne the Mantis is still chilling on the wabi-kusa. Maybe i'll take him with me to Houston, since he likes it so much.


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## Francis Xavier

After a slight delay. Here is the wabi kusa now in my office with the appropriate setup. Sorry for the temporary sideways pictures. I'll fix it later.


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## novianto.sutardi

hi francis,

don't know if I've reopened a dead thread or not:hihi:

how is the condition of your wabikusa today?
is it still in fine condition?

just wonder, what is the size of this wabikusa?
is it compact & rather heavy for its size?


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## Francis Xavier

Hey Novianto, 

I took a quick photo of it just now with my mobile phone (really need to get a replacement camera soon).


The wabi kusa is growing very good still - I have trouble keeping up with the growth rate sometimes, as you can see in the photo it needs another trim (it had one last week) to keep it in good form. 

This wabi-kusa is 5mm in diameter at it's base and it's pretty compact but light in weight.


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## Francis Xavier

Oh, and as for the Mini S, here is Mark IV, "the Black Coast:"

It's growing in still, but it's been bouncing pretty well.

unfortunately, again I am stuck with a mobile phone to take pictures with.


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## novianto.sutardi

Francis Xavier said:


> Hey Novianto,
> 
> I took a quick photo of it just now with my mobile phone (really need to get a replacement camera soon).
> 
> 
> The wabi kusa is growing very good still - I have trouble keeping up with the growth rate sometimes, as you can see in the photo it needs another trim (it had one last week) to keep it in good form.
> 
> This wabi-kusa is 5mm in diameter at it's base and it's pretty compact but light in weight.


5mm? Isn't that too small? Or you mean its 5 cm? 

btw, is it OK if I ask you how much is the street price of a wabikusa like this in japan? My friend is going to japan soon and I think that I would like to buy one like yours :icon_mrgr

how do you know that it's truly ADA? does you buy it directly from ADA stores or something? are there many types of wabikusa or just this one?

sorry if I asked you with too many questions, i'm very curious about this wabikusa stuff


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## Francis Xavier

Yes, 5 cm. Typo there.

The street price is somewhere between $20-30 USD. A couple of the more expensive ones were $45 or so at worst.

Wabikusa is a patented ADA design - only ADA sells wabikusa. There are many different types of wabikusa. Most of them (except the ones that are HC or glosso only) have a random element on plants based around a generalized theme.


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## Francis Xavier

I had some extra materials laying around and decided to take the hardscape out of the tank - here's a quick photo of the kitchen counter.


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## PinoyBoy

_-Looks at empty kitchet-_ Someone can't cook :hihi: just joking...

Hardscape looks good. Are you going to leave the wood exposed or cover it up?


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## Francis Xavier

I am barely at my apartment!

This hardscape isn't going into any tank. Its purely a decorative piece on the counter. Although the original intent for the materials was to be used in a tank, but since I do nt have the appropriate size, its a piece of "art" if you will. An application of aquascaping outside the confines of an aquarium.


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## Francis Xavier

I'm going to do something for this layout today, needs some more pop. Probably going to end up replacing the sand with a foreground carpet, add some taller growers in the back, etc.

On a side note, I think my 'minimalist' phase is ending in favor of a more complicated phase.


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## Francis Xavier

So here's the revision to this layout, The hardscape stayed the same, but I decided to go a bit more nuevo on the planting scheme and decidedly not minimalist.

There are two varieties of lilaeopsis, hair grass. Glosso will be planted in the front, and a number of varieties of stems that have the tendency to crawl.


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## Francis Xavier

wabi-kusa update:


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