# corporate p's mini m



## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

i actually had this fish tank since the beginning of november. i bought it to reward myself from all the overtime and stress i was having from my job. too bad the week after i purchased everything, the work load at the job decreased and i was laid off. i had thoughts of selling everything and this tank definitely added stress in my life. but now, 5 months later this tank is starting to look decent and i'm really glad i kept everything.

one of the reasons it took me so long to start a journal is because i hate trying to remember latin scientific names for plants and fish and i also hate testing the water. so, let me warn you ahead of time...just rate this journal now with a 1 star because this is gonna be the least descriptive journal ever.

so here we go...

equipment:

ada mini m
solar mini m (stock 27watt bulb)
eheim ecco 2232 (flowrate value turned halfway)
5lb co2 tank with milwaukee regulator
eth 200w inline heater

substrate is AS, and i have old black wood from afa and yamaya stone to prop the wood up and hold it down.

plants:
started with glosso, but now i have hair grass
java moss
java fern
and i red stem plant i don't know the name of
crypts

fish:
7 green neon,
7 small sliver fish i don't know the name of
1 guppy
4 cherry shrimp (now about 20)
2 ottos

heres a picture of the tank during initial setup.









a month later with new doaqua lily pipes, diffuser, and 4 cherrys.









these lily pipes were so clean and at this stage, the tank was algae free.


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## Outlawboss (Dec 30, 2008)

Wow! What a clean layout! I love it. Any current pictures? It would be great to see how it has filled in.

Don't worry about not knowing the latin names of fish/plants. I think a lot of us don't. I don't know the names of anything until I take an interest in it. Otherwise, it becomes "that plant with the cool leaves." :thumbsup:


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

heres some old pictures of my tank...










disaster...this was taken around xmas. at this time, we introduced all the fish (list above) and every single type of algae known to man (thanks to lfs). i don't think the bio. filter was at 100%, we were over feeding the fish, and there was this constant struggle between the glosso and algae. when i had the photo period at 8 hrs, the glosso would run and grow low, but the aglae would bloom. when i cut the photo period down, the algae prob. would get better, but the glosso starts to grow up. i couldn't figure it out.










me tryin to be artistic...



















jan. 07


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

thanks for the comp. outlawboss.

to be honest with you, i really didn't like the layout at that time. the wood and the rocks were placed too far back. i only had enough space to plant one row of stem plants on the right side of the tank. plus cleaning the glass was a pain...the space was really tight and every time i hit the wood it would shift and droop down. i also didn't like the placement of the rocks. it looked to centered and unnatural.

so i decided to rescape the tank...kind of...
jan. 21










i used wood tie and secured the wood together, shifted the rocks towards the right and forward, threw away a lot of the moss because of algae and attempted to retie clean moss on the wood, moved the java fern which use to sit on top of the rocks and moved it directly in front of the driftwood, and bought some rolata green. sorry for the run on sentence.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

at the time of the rescape, i changed the ferts from brighty k and step 1 to EI. the plants started to flourish and the algae began to disappear. i think i figured out why my algae was getting out of control. 










i don't know what these silver fish are called but theyre really fragile. a month after a bought the fish, one lost its eye and eventually died. another died from an unknown cause. i also had a guppy that jumped out. i found it, threw it back in the tank, but eventually died. i never noticed any of these fish die and they just rotted away inside the tank. the ammonia spike probably cause the insane staghorn problem i had for months. 

heres some more pics of the tank...

jan. 28










ripped out the glosso and put in hair grass.










waiting for rolata greed to grow pass the water line. i was duped.

feb. 9


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

it just occurred to me that i only take pictures after heavy trimmings. heres some updates from yesterday, april 2.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Love it! Looks awesome with the changes you made.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

thanks UG. coming from you, that really means a lot. hopefully this tank will look as good as yours someday.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

i might as well post my to do list or "to do when i finally come across some cash list":

-buy pipe brushes.
-find 90 degree elbows for the filter tubes.
-transition plants between dwarf hair grass and rolata greens.
-co2 drop checker


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

i rescaped my tank over the weekend. but before i continue, i guess i should fill in what happened in the last 4 months or so.

i changed the carpet from glosso to hair grass and back to glosso. took out the rolata green and bought other stem plants that have more browns and reds. my cherry shrimp exploded from 4 to +50. my girlfriend fell in love with micro rasboras and bought 10. that brought the number of fish in the tank to +20. it sounds bad, but with all the vegetation in the tank, bi weekly WC kept everyone happy.

heres some before pictures...



























did i mention that i was following the dosing regime for a 10 gallon and pumping 2-3 bps of co2.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

now for the rescape. last week i went over to the bonsai store, in japantown, and bought some rocks. I decided to go for an iwagumi layout because im lazy. i hated trying to scrub the glass around the wood and stem plants. trimming less is also a plus.











all that for 7 dollars...and they even gave me a wet nap to clean my hands right after. 

i decided to rescape my tank saturday, which was a really bad idea. saturday was the beginning of a heat wave here in the bay and it was 90 degrees my apt for most of the day. that and the nitrate i disturbed in the AS was probably the cause of about 20 shrimp deaths. :...( 

heres the tank...














































it was so hot, my stem plants wilted in the heat during the rescape.










and the survivors...


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## jackyuen89 (Apr 2, 2009)

Nice tank! You should clean the lily pipes to give it a neat clean look overall


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

thanks. yeah i know...i never got around to buying pipe brushes.


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## Reginald2 (Mar 10, 2009)

That's a really nice tank, and some great pictures too.


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## jrafael (Jan 7, 2009)

Here is a cheap one $0.59 + shipping ~$6 but you can probably stock up at lot of cheap stuff (check the clearance section).

http://www.fish.com/item/aquatic-edge-single-ended-flexible-brush-20in-long/790007 001/


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## spikeit (Nov 24, 2008)

Nice tank.. just a quick question.. what glassware did you buy for the 2232? I have the 2232 and was wondering exactly which lily pipe and inflows to buy?

Thanks,
Rob


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

spikeit- the glassware i have are violet glass mini made by doaqua. 

http://www.adana.co.jp/_e_products/doaqua/filter/violet_glass_mini.html

be careful. intake pipe fits the stock tubes that the 2232 comes with, but the outtake is a size smaller. to fix it, u can buy a small piece of acrylic tube, with an outside diameter of 1/2" and placed it at the end of the outtake pipe. after that, you can connect the stock 2232 to it.

you cant really see it in this picture, but here u go.


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## DC_84 (May 2, 2009)

Really nice pics and I like the layouts very much.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

its been about a month since i rescaped my tank, so i thought id give a little update...

the glosso is starting to fill in. i'm really loving iwagumi layouts because theyre way easier to maintain. i finally bought 90 degree elbows and tube brushes for the filter equipment. unfortunately, i broke my doaqua! glass outtake. if its not one thing...its another...oh well.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Clean and simple. I like it. A lot.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

I like this layout a lot. It's iwagumi is done right, in my opinion. 
It's not all about the stones. 
It's not all about the plants.
This tank is about both. An understated-yet-elegant rockscape with simple plant choices in the prime of health.
Really nice.


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

Ugly Genius said:


> I like this layout a lot. It's iwagumi is done right, in my opinion.
> It's not all about the stones.
> It's not all about the plants.
> This tank is about both. An understated-yet-elegant rockscape with simple plant choices in the prime of health.
> Really nice.


I agree! :thumbsup:


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

You don't need to brush your pipes just bleach them. Also when removing glass the trick to getting the tube off is to lightly push the tube upwards on the glass pipe to break the seal then the tube will slide right off. I never broke a pipe this way. Surge tought me this trick, thanks surge


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

thanks for all the compliments fellas. 

mott - ill have to try that when i replace my outtake pipe. btw, do you dilute the bleach and how long do you bleach your pipes?


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## mott (Nov 23, 2006)

corporate p said:


> thanks for all the compliments fellas.
> 
> mott - ill have to try that when i replace my outtake pipe. btw, do you dilute the bleach and how long do you bleach your pipes?


I used 50/50 water/bleach and soaked for as long as it took...usually 5-10 hours or so, I then rinse my pipes in tap water real good and finally a soaking for an hour or so in heavily dechlorinated water.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

what happens when your career and personal life goes down the drain...










...this. to be honest with you guys i haven't been taking care of this tank. i broke the outtake pipe and never replaced it, the nice mound i had in the middle flattened out, and bba got out of hand. i never knew fish tanks were such great barometers for mood or self esteem. oh well. at least i dipped the rocks and diffuser in h2o2 so in a week or two things will look a little better. hopefully things will turn around and this tank and i will make a comeback.


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## ermano (Nov 15, 2009)

Hopefully!! Still looks good man...keep up the work.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

The plants look healthy! At firt I thought you put pumice in there lol. It's good that you didn't quit. :thumbsup: Things should perk back up in no time


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## Reginald2 (Mar 10, 2009)

CL said:


> The plants look healthy! At first I thought you put pumice in there lol.


I read this post 3 times, looked back and forth from post h2o2 to pre h2o2 several times, and sat dumbfounded for a few minutes before I figured out what had happened. lol

CorporateP- I can empathize with you. Also, i think I am going to take a thousand pictures tonight and see if I can get some as good as yours.


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## corporate p (Jan 14, 2009)

time for an update. nothing really worth noting inside the tank, but i did move from my apartment, in san jose, to my parents house in daly city. i have no room in the house to put the tank so i dumped it in my friends house. here's a couple setup pics. excuse the camera phone quality.


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## rengb6 (Nov 11, 2009)

That is very very beautiful, i love the pop of color. Things have deffinetly turned around. Keep us updated!


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Once you get settled and have the tank in your own house/apartment, corp, take a trip down to AFA or where ever, light the fuse, and get back into the game with both guns blazing. You got a lot to work with here as the tank's still in great health. All you need to do, it looks like, is get the carpet growing again and make the rockscape a bit more pronounced.
Or, as you're half-way there, you could remove the rocks completely and go Dutch.


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