# ADA Cube Garden Mini



## taggerz28 (5 Aug 2012)

Well, after being away from the hobby I've finally gotten back into it, yay, and this is my first journal! 

I've recently purchased a large marine tank and in the process of starting it but I guess my heart is really in tropical nature aquariums, so I thought id start a small ADA tank. This time I figured I would start with the best equipment I can get (debatable) ADA. 

Anyway, here are the items i've been patiently purchasing over the last 7 months:

*Tank*: ADA Cube Garden Mini M
*Volume*: 20.5l
*Dimensions*: 36x22x26
*Substrate*: Complete ADA system - Penac W, Penac P,Tourmaline BC, Power Sand Special S, Bacter 100, Clear Super and finally Aqua Soil Powder Malaya with Seiryu Stone (i think)
*Lighting*: ADA Solar Mini M (27w) - 12noon to 10pm (10 hours)
*CO2*: Pressurised, ADA clear system, ADA Cabochon Ruby, cheap diffuser and beetle bubble counter - may upgrade to ADA, disposable 390g CO2 bottle with JBL Proflora u001 regulator, needle valve and profilux solenoid - 11am to 9pm (10 hours)
*Heat*: Inline Hydor heater (not installed yet)
*Filtration*: Hydor Prime 10 external filter (ADA Bio Rio, ADA NA Carbon, ADA Bacter Ball, ADA Bamboo Charcoal, ADA Tourmaline F, Seachem Purigen) plus cheap 10mm glass lily pipe and inflow pipe
*Fertilisers*: ADA Step 1 (and 2 eventually), Brighty K, Green Bacter, Special Lights (plus other ADA spot treatments e.g. ECA)
*Plants*: Rotala sp. 'Green', Hemianthus Micranthemoides, Rotala Wallichii, Eleocharis Parvula & Hemianthus Callitrichoides 'Cuba' 
*Livestock*: To Be Decided/Purchased - Amano shrimps. Anyone know what fish these are (from 2:25)? The red ones!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tF10Wb-m7E&feature=player_detailpage

Right,i think that covers everything, onto the photo's!





Tanks location
Must say a huge thanks to my fiancée as it was her idea for us to have the tank where it is instead of where I originally wanted it which would have meant alterations to the furniture (just because I wanted a bloody ADA Solar Mini M lol) Just had to move a few things off the cabinet first!




Substrate system




ADA products   




Penac W & P




Tourmaline BC




Power Sand Special S




Power Sand Special S all flattened and in position




Bacter 100 & Clear Super




Aqua Soil in place, used some structure supports to help keep the shape




1st attempt at rock landscaping and damn its tough. I've read people saying it takes them ages and you should perhaps scape 1-2 days before plants arrive so you can take the time to see if you like it but this really was tough. Plus I already had the plants arrive that day so decided to rush it and press ahead. I had a rough idea of what i wanted the final scape to look like just not sure what rocks I'd use out of the ones I had.




Felt the attempt before was missing something and I wanted to take away some of the attention from that large rock in the left centre so added a 2nd one. I'm quite happy with it   This rock may now receive too much attention but I feel once the surrounding plants grow around it it'll look better. Plus the Wallichii on the other side should draw the viewers eyes across, a little focal point on each side you could say.




Onto the planting, and in first is the 'cuba.' It really is so much easier to plant when the tank is only filled up to the substrate.




Top view




Hairgrass in




All the other plants planted 
Back left corner: Rotala sp Green with Hemianthus Micranthemoides next to it before the gap. 
Back right corner:  All the same as above in reverse but with Rotala Wallichii in the middle.




Filling up




Looking a little cloudy




Full shot




Glassware all setup - this photo was a day after the tank was setup




2 weeks later and looking good. The Cuba has grown thick and fast and the Wallichii is turning pink   Been dosing just Brighty K everyday plus 1 drop of Green Bacter a day in the 2nd week. 








And here comes the algae!! It came very thick and quite fast, still need to get some shrimp in there fast.




Algae on the rocks




And here comes the cavalry,in the form of an electric toothbrush lol £3 purchase from Hong Kong (had to wait 6 weeks for it lol) off eBay. Worked wonders. Cleaned up the rocks in minutes.




Major clean of the rocks and glass plus used a regular toothbrush to get the algae off the plants - worked really well. 40-50% water change.




The enemy!




How it looks now after a full tank clean   

Next week I will buy a load of Amano shrimp so they can help out with any further algae blooms and then check water parameters and purchase the fish a week or 2 later.

 :?: I'm wondering if I should add a small flat rock to the front right corner to give more balance or should I leave it as it is? Your thoughts please  :?: 

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the photos (I know I do when I read other peoples journals).

I'll hopefully update this thread each week and let you all know how I'm getting on.


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## Garuf (5 Aug 2012)

Co2 and dosing just needs tweaking and you'll shake the algae, daily 50% water changes too. 
Great little scape though! It'll be grown out fully in no time at all.


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## taggerz28 (5 Aug 2012)

Thanks. What tweaking would you recommend then?


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## Garuf (5 Aug 2012)

More co2. If there's nothing in there just ramp it up. Dosing is tricky, presumably with buying all the ADA bumf you're dosing their system? If not you can just add a bit more. With the ada system it's hard to guess at because it's very lean.


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## taggerz28 (5 Aug 2012)

Thanks, i'll up the CO2 then whilst i have no fish and shrimp. 

Yeah dosing as per ADA's instructions - 1ml Brighty K (potassium) every day for the 1st 2 weeks. 2nd week started to dose 1ml Green Bacter each day for promoting filter bacteria growth along with Brighty K and then after 19 days i'll start dosing Step 1 (trace elements) for 3 months. I've done E.I dosing in the past but figured this tank i would do everything like ADA lol


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## Ady34 (6 Aug 2012)

taggerz28 said:
			
		

> Anyone know what fish these are (from 2:25)? The red ones!
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tF10Wb-m7E&feature=player_detailpage
> 
> :?: I'm wondering if I should add a small flat rock to the front right corner to give more balance or should I leave it as it is? Your thoughts please  :?:
> ...


Hi there,
really nice looking tank and a great start, seems like your winning the fight with the algae   
I think the fish in the video are ember tetras.
As for adding a rock at the front right, i know what you mean about balance, but i think right foreground may look a little too contrived, maybe the foreground about a third of the way in from the right hand side at the point the two (or 3 or 4, i cant quite tell   ) existing rocks meet. This may balance the rockwork and add to a valley type feel by drawing the eye between two rocky mountains/hills/outcrops. Having said all that i do think it looks great as it is and may not need anything.
Im loving the pics....we all do   
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## leonroy (6 Aug 2012)

Look great, well done. The ADA Mini is a design classic IMO. I have a very similar setup and went all ADA to start with but found their ferts didn't work that well for me (too expensive for one!). After going EI things improved.

The ADA Solar Mini was a lot of light for my Mini-M so I had to scale it down to 6 hours per day otherwise I was seeing algae issues. Daily water changes for the first few weeks and then bi-weekly after that helped a lot as well. 

I also noticed that you're using PowerSand. It's a bugger if you disturb the scape and bring up any of the PowerSand pebbles since after a while they become brilliant white and stand out against the substrate and amongst the plants like a sore thumb.

Otherwise great job, TBH can't tell you're not using a non-ADA beetle counter/diffuser. Probably can't tell the difference in quality unless looking up close I'd imagine?


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## taggerz28 (6 Aug 2012)

leonroy said:
			
		

> Look great, well done. The ADA Mini is a design classic IMO. I have a very similar setup and went all ADA to start with but found their ferts didn't work that well for me (too expensive for one!). After going EI things improved.
> 
> The ADA Solar Mini was a lot of light for my Mini-M so I had to scale it down to 6 hours per day otherwise I was seeing algae issues. Daily water changes for the first few weeks and then bi-weekly after that helped a lot as well.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the feedback   

Yeah i have to agree it is a design classic, i just loved the whole setup - tank and light, very smart, plus was the only reasonably sized ADA tank i could ever really afford! Could go down E.I. route again but as its a small tank the running costs for ADA ferts shouldn't be too bad.

Was wondering if my light times were abit long, never really double checked, just remembered those were the timings i had on my last tank a few years ago (using the old wpg rule lol). Will keep up with daily water changes for now (thank god its a small tank).

Luckily i think i added too much aqua soil, especially at the back so hopefully shouldnt disturb the powersand (fingers crossed) but i know what you mean. Hopefully none will poke through at the front.

Didnt like the look of the nano ADA CO2 diffuser and pipes so got them off eBay for about £20 (from Hong Kong of course), all good so far.


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## taggerz28 (21 Aug 2012)

Right, time for an update, its been a few weeks. I'll just update it as 1 big post, showing the transition within the last 3.5 weeks.

After increasing the CO2 to 2.5 bps, decreasing the light time to 9 hours and 50% water changes the algae seemed to be decreasing.

Week 2.5: Hemianthus Micranthemoides is growing very slowly unfortunately. The whole section of this on the left has died off completely   Cuba looking lush and thick though   





First major trim, trying to promote new growth.




Week 3: Amano shrimp added, 11 in total. Tank now nearly 3 weeks old here. No more algae issues now, just a bit on the rocks, which i can clean off with a toothbrush.









Week 3.5: Rotala Sp Green is growing quite fast now and will need trimming again soon however the "cuba" has started to discolour. Some parts of it going light green, is this die off or an imbalance somewhere? You can just make out the discoloured areas on the photo below. 





Otherwise quite happy with it so far, just waiting for some more growth with a few of the stem plants. Also now dosing ADA Step 1 and Brighty Special Lights daily in addition to Brighty K.


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## taggerz28 (20 Sep 2012)

Update time:

Having some major issues with this tank now    I seemed to lose all 12 of my shrimp! I came home from work and found they all decided to have a high jump contest and scattered across my living room floor. I believe it was my fault though, so feel very gutted. I increased the CO2 slightly so i'm putting this down as the main cause.

The tank is now 8 weeks old so figured it was time to get some fish (as well as some more amano shrimp). 

I decided to go for 7 amber tetras, to add abit of red, and 10 amano shrimp. My partner also fell in love with the bumblebee gobies so ended up getting 1 of these as well. I know i shouldnt have without doing my homework on them but felt the advice the store gave me would suffice.

Bumbleebee goby named "Otto"(my partner Hayley named him this as i originally wanted to get a few Otto fish lol)




Tetras (apologises for poor phone camera photos):




These were added on Saturday and seemed to settle in well however on Monday i noticed they were all gasping at the top of the tank. Again i tweaked the CO2 (ever so slightly) so i assumed this was the cause so lowered it down straight away. Unfortunately most of my new Amano's jumped out and died. Luckily i kept my bucket next to the tank on the floor and 2 amanos managed to land in there and were alive, in just 1cm of water, not even enough to cover them!!!

Now i'm having problems with my plants. Grrrrrr! Only the Rotala Green and Rotala Wallichii seem to grow, the rest is very slow if at all.

Major colour loss on the Cuba and H.M. and melting:




Further colour loss 4 days later (taken last night):












Now i've put the colour loss/yellowing down to lack of iron, so started dosing 1-2ml of this per day and increased my ADA fert dosing to 2ml each for Brighty K, Step 1 & Special Lights. My main concern is the CO2 being lowered, it seems to be fine now for the fish and shrimp but causing my plants to die off. Started to get hair algae now plus the glass seems to get a fair bit of algae on it if i dont wipe them for a few days.

Any ideas/help please?!

Possible actions to take, will any of these help:

1). Increase CO2 (just bought a new drop checker, last one broke) and monitor closely.
2). Lower light period (currently 1pm - 10pm)
3). Check water (don't have any test kits, always reading people saying not to both as they can't be trusted, should i buy them, if so recommendations???)
4). Increase ADA ferts
5). Swap to E.I. Dosing
6). Daily water changes
7). Buy more amanos (currently have 3 now lol) and/or Otto's.
8 ). Swap to RO water


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## Ian Holdich (20 Sep 2012)

wow thats quite a dramatic change in there...

1). Increase CO2 (just bought a new drop checker, last one broke) and monitor closely. *yes, increase the C02 and monitor the fish as well as the checker*
2). Lower light period (currently 1pm - 10pm)* again. yes, lower it to 7 hours*
3). Check water (don't have any test kits, always reading people saying not to both as they can't be trusted, should i buy them, if so recommendations???)* no point, what are you checking for??  this is a fert, C02 and general lack of maintenance (in the first few weeks) problem*
4). Increase ADA ferts* Increase the Special lights, then if you feel it's getting expensive, change to Tropica specialised or TNC complete or EI.*
5). Swap to E.I. Dosing* as above*
6). Daily water changes * this is crucial IMO, this should have been done from day one. Daily water changes from now will help though.*
7). Buy more amanos (currently have 3 now lol) and/or Otto's.* IMO a CUC is just as important in a planted tank as in a marine tank. Up the shrimps whether that be cherries or amanos. You might want to try cherries as if you add 6, you'll have a small army in there in a few months
8 ). Swap to RO waterno real point TBH, unless you're thinking of keeping sensitive fish

keep us updated.*


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## taggerz28 (20 Sep 2012)

ianho said:
			
		

> wow thats quite a dramatic change in there...
> 
> 1). Increase CO2 (just bought a new drop checker, last one broke) and monitor closely. *yes, increase the C02 and monitor the fish as well as the checker*
> 2). Lower light period (currently 1pm - 10pm)* again. yes, lower it to 7 hours*
> ...


*

Thanks Ian for the quick reply.

Drop checker just arrived this morning from Aquasabi (am i allowed to discuss suppliers? If so, brilliant service again from Tobias) so will up the CO2 tonight.

Wanted to check water just incase it wasn't the CO2 that made my shrimp jump (it was alot higher when i first got the shrimp and they seemed fine), thought it might be an ammonia/nitrate/nitrite spike or something.

I was doing daily water changes when i first started the tank and got the initial algae bloom. How much would you recommend, 50% daily?

Will get more Amano's asap, possibly Cherries as you recommended   

Will update in a few days.*


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## Ian Holdich (20 Sep 2012)

the problem with water testing is that many ferts are ammonium based, so they will register on hobby grade test kits. Obviously ammonium isn't anything to worry about, as plants can utilise it. 25% -50% should be a decent amount of water to change. Do it before or after lights on or out as then you will minimise you chances of getting bba.

good luck with it, this tank has loads of potential.


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## viktorlantos (20 Sep 2012)

Swap to RO will just cause extra headache to you in this small tank because the hardness will fluctuate a lot along the week (your stone makes it). This fluctuation will stress your plants and will give more chances to algae. 


Mi másról, mint iPhone-ról Tapatalk progival


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## taggerz28 (20 Sep 2012)

viktorlantos said:
			
		

> Swap to RO will just cause extra headache to you in this small tank because the hardness will fluctuate a lot along the week (your stone makes it). This fluctuation will stress your plants and will give more chances to algae.
> 
> 
> Mi másról, mint iPhone-ról Tapatalk progival



Noted   

That's £120 saved!


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## Ian Holdich (20 Sep 2012)

viktorlantos said:
			
		

> Swap to RO will just cause extra headache to you in this small tank because the hardness will fluctuate a lot along the week (your stone makes it). This fluctuation will stress your plants and will give more chances to algae.
> 
> 
> Mi másról, mint iPhone-ról Tapatalk progival




how is this Viktor? How does GH stress plants??


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## Lindy (20 Sep 2012)

Are you drip acclimatising your shrimp before putting them in your tank? Doing this over a period of a couple of hours might stop them jumping ship. 
Cheers


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## taggerz28 (20 Sep 2012)

ldcgroomer said:
			
		

> Are you drip acclimatising your shrimp before putting them in your tank? Doing this over a period of a couple of hours might stop them jumping ship.
> Cheers



Yeah I slowly acclimatised them for 1-2 hours.


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## viktorlantos (20 Sep 2012)

ianho said:
			
		

> viktorlantos said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



It is also my conclusion watching high energy tank without any limitation. My current 240L tank using 100-120L RO weekly at WC. But because of the massive mini landscape rock set the hardness goes up from 80TDS to 230-280TDS within 4 days. Plants grows 2-3 times slower than in a stable soft or mid water. Regenerate more slowly after trimming. The plants looks 70-80% healthy than their perfect form. You can check reborn scape in my flickr gallery, but since i used the same decor for Asian Spirit tank i am watching these reactions and symptoms nearly a year ago on my tank meanwhile we're running many others in our gallery and at our clients so we have real comparsions to many scenarios


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## Ian Holdich (21 Sep 2012)

sorry to discuss this in your thread Taggerz (hope it's OK). But TDS and hard water are two different things. Water is considered hard when it has a relatively high concentration of calcium and magnesium ions, this is only 2 out of the 3 things that make TDS. Water softeners do not reduce TDS. They remove magnesium and calcium ions, which cause hard water, but these ions are replaced with an equal number of sodium or potassium ions. This leaves overall TDS unchanged.
Ferts are also going to increase the amount of TDS in the water. 

I understand what your saying, but i'm unsure whether it has anything to do with what water you're using. I do know that mini landscape rock increases hardness and will to a point increase TDS, but not a great deal.


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## taggerz28 (21 Sep 2012)

ianho said:
			
		

> sorry to discuss this in your thread Taggerz (hope it's OK). But TDS and hard water are two different things. Water is considered hard when it has a relatively high concentration of calcium and magnesium ions, this is only 2 out of the 3 things that make TDS. Water softeners do not reduce TDS. They remove magnesium and calcium ions, which cause hard water, but these ions are replaced with an equal number of sodium or potassium ions. This leaves overall TDS unchanged.
> Ferts are also going to increase the amount of TDS in the water.
> 
> I understand what your saying, but i'm unsure whether it has anything to do with what water you're using. I do know that mini landscape rock increases hardness and will to a point increase TDS, but not a great deal.



No worries, I might learn something


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