# Ada 45p ‘Slope Side’



## buttons (8 Feb 2020)

* Instagram - james_aquascaper * 

This will be a new journal on my ADA 45p scape, the tank is up and running but I have documented the process to get everyone up to scratch.

Tank - ADA 45p. 
Stand - DIY ADA style cabinet made by myself. 
Light - Twinstar 450ea. 
Filter - Oase 250 Biomaster Thermo with glass lily pipes. 
Co2 - Co2 Art regulator with bazooka diffuser. 

Hard scape - Seiryu Stone & manzanita wood.
Substrate - Tropica soil
Fertile - E.I

Plant list. 

Staurogyne Repens
Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Roatal Rotundifolia
Rotala Yao Yai 
Ludwigia Arcuata
Bucephalandre Godzilla

Livestock

My dumbo Betta

Here a few photo of the cabinet build and set up












Hard scape done, it all went together quite easily for once, wood was glued to the rock so no need for pre soaking. 




Plant from K2aqua on eBay and Tropica from pro shrimp.




All planted and filter running, I seeded the filter from another filter so hopefully my Betta can go it quicker. 







At the moment I have the lights on 6 hours a day with the power at around 70% to let the plants settle, it been 3days now and did my first 50% water change today.  I haven’t added any fertiliser yet, When do most people start adding the fertiliser.

Thank you for reading all the of the first post. 

I will linked my old 60p journal and my current Low energy 60p scape below. 

Old 60p scape - https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/james-ada-60p-iwagumi-journal.50377/

Current Low energy 60p scape - https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/low-tech-60p.59463/



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## Steve Buce (9 Feb 2020)

Nice scape and some nice woodwotking skills on the cabinet


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## buttons (9 Feb 2020)

Steve Buce said:


> Nice scape and some nice woodwotking skills on the cabinet



Thank you. Cabinet came out great, I did one for my 60p as well. 


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## buttons (9 Feb 2020)

How soon does a everyone start dosing ferts on fresh Tropica soil?


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## Deano3 (9 Feb 2020)

Think i started around a month old but could probably wait longer, hardscape looks great and i have always done DIY stand so much cheaper and looks great.

Usually people do 50 percent water change daily for the first week. Then every other day week 2 then ever 3 days nedt week then weekly to get rid of all the bad bacteria in water column from plants adapting to underwater form and gets oxygen into water column.

But if worked in your kast scape sure will be fine mate. 

Keep us posted
Dean

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## Sammy Islam (9 Feb 2020)

I set up a tank recently with tropica soil and started dosing pretty much straight away, think it was 2 days after the tanks first 70/80% water change i started dosing full EI, could have started at half dose but went with full dosing. 3 weeks later i've got great growth and still no sign of any type of algae.
I planned my dosing around my water changes, first two weeks i did 4x 70/80% water changes, now i'm doing 3 x 70/80% water changes for another two weeks before dropping it to 1x 70/80% a week. The first 3 weeks are definitely the most important for water changes, as the soil is leeching nutrients/ammonia and the plants are adapting/melting depending on how well they are doing. I am also increasing the lighting 10% every 2 weeks (starting from 50%) as long as i see minimal melting.


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## buttons (9 Feb 2020)

Deano3 said:


> Think i started around a month old but could probably wait longer, hardscape looks great and i have always done DIY stand so much cheaper and looks great.
> 
> Usually people do 50 percent water change daily for the first week. Then every other day week 2 then ever 3 days nedt week then weekly to get rid of all the bad bacteria in water column from plants adapting to underwater form and gets oxygen into water column.
> 
> ...



I’ve been following the Tropica app which tells you want to do lol. I’ve set up loads of tanks before but thought I would give there app a try. I normally start dosing straight away but sen others waiting, so may hold off at the moment. 


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## buttons (9 Feb 2020)

Sammy Islam said:


> I set up a tank recently with tropica soil and started dosing pretty much straight away, think it was 2 days after the tanks first 70/80% water change i started dosing full EI, could have started at half dose but went with full dosing. 3 weeks later i've got great growth and still no sign of any type of algae.
> I planned my dosing around my water changes, first two weeks i did 4x 70/80% water changes, now i'm doing 3 x 70/80% water changes for another two weeks before dropping it to 1x 70/80% a week. The first 3 weeks are definitely the most important for water changes, as the soil is leeching nutrients/ammonia and the plants are adapting/melting depending on how well they are doing. I am also increasing the lighting 10% every 2 weeks (starting from 50%) as long as i see minimal melting.



I’ve started my light lower, I normally do to let the plants settle in. I will probably water change every 2-3 days. I’m trying the Tropica app so I’ll see what they say about dosing on the scape.  


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## CooKieS (10 Feb 2020)

buttons said:


> How soon does a everyone start dosing ferts on fresh Tropica soil?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk



Hi, i only dose K for the first 2 months and then I start to dose macros and micros slowly


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## CooKieS (10 Feb 2020)

Forgot to say that I change only 40 to 50% water per week


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## buttons (13 Feb 2020)

Seeing some good growth now, no signs of algae yet. 






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## buttons (13 Feb 2020)

CooKieS said:


> Hi, i only dose K for the first 2 months and then I start to dose macros and micros slowly



I will more then likely goes E.I on the set up. When you say you only dose K, what does K apply too? 

I will probably start dosing around the 14th day. 


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## alto (21 Feb 2020)

buttons said:


> what does K apply too?



This is potassium K on the Periodic Table of Elements 

When to begin dosing rather depends on plants, tap water parameters, substrate etc
ADA tends to lean water column dosing (not sure if they’ve amended this with the Amazon Light Soil range), especially at the start (stepped program of fertilizers)
Tropica is somewhat more inclusive in water column dosing, re their Specialized and Premium fertilizers
Like ADA, Tropica has developed a system based upon many test tanks, and has modified protocols for 1-2-Grow range vs Pots

If your tap water is very soft, and given information above, I’d begin dosing sooner rather than later as little is known of the plant source and some 1-2-Grow present
(though element toxicity can be observed in very soft water, so proceed with care and attention  - as long as water changes are sufficient in amount and frequency, toxicity in soft water is unlikely (this is in reference to EI style dosing not ADA, Tropica or similar))

Lovely scape


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## Ghettofarmulous (16 Apr 2020)

Any updates? Lovely tank


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## buttons (17 Apr 2020)

Ghettofarmulous said:


> Any updates? Lovely tank



I’ll put an update photo later, tank has caused a lot of problems for some reason and not looking like I had hoped it would, I’ve also had a fair amount of algae issues in it. 


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## buttons (25 Apr 2020)

Sorry for the late reply, life is crazy at the moment with everything that’s going on in the world right now. 

Quick update, finally getting on top of the algae now thank god, it’s been a right nightmare. I was going to tear it down but stuck with it, glad I did now. I’m going to address more of the algae tomorrow and trim the stems.  I’m also considering replacing the sand for soil and plant it with some hair grass. The bylxa is starting to grow in the left hand back corner so won’t be long and it will be visible in photos. 

I will try and update this more in the coming weeks

Stay safe everyone, stay home!


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## Deano3 (25 Apr 2020)

Glad you stuck with it,  looks great  i did exactly the same last time and eventually got rid of the sand got aquasoil in and planted hair grass, happy woth mine with sand at the minute for now . Stay safe and keep us updated.

Dean

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## Molder (27 Apr 2020)

Hello! Great looking tank!
Was wondering if the oase bio master 250 is not a bit overkill for 45p? Was thinking about that one too, but went for filtosmart 100 instead because I was scared it would just be to much.


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## Deano3 (27 Apr 2020)

Molder said:


> Hello! Great looking tank!
> Was wondering if the oase bio master 250 is not a bit overkill for 45p? Was thinking about that one too, but went for filtosmart 100 instead because I was scared it would just be to much.


No i have the 250 on mine and seems perfect , actually sold the 100 filtosmart and upgraded to the 250 for the easy pre filter and better flow , 100 is good enough but 250 works great  

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## Molder (28 Apr 2020)

Ah okay. Thanks for your reply. Now I will also probably just buy the 250 also haha. The pre filter seems really convenient..


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## LondonDragon (23 Jun 2020)

Any updates on this one? Tank looks awesome, lucky betta


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## buttons (25 Jun 2020)

Quick update, tank growing in well now, I removed the sand and added Monte Carlo and hair grass in it place. The tank is overcrowded due to having all live stock from my 60p the I sold off, themes will be getting move to my 60f soon. 

I’m going to give the tank some maintenance the weekend and post up a cleaning photo then the one I’ve added today. 







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## buttons (30 Jun 2020)

Stems have now grown to the top, I’m unsure on which way to trim, should I go diagonal or oval?


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## Deano3 (30 Jun 2020)

buttons said:


> Stems have now grown to the top, I’m unsure on which way to trim, should I go diagonal or oval?
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


Id say diagnol oval if was full length but i think asthetically diagnol will look best.

Dean

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## buttons (30 Jun 2020)

Deano3 said:


> Id say diagnol oval if was full length but i think asthetically diagnol will look best.
> 
> Dean
> 
> Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk



Diagonal will look better for sure, dunno whether to go short or just trim to shape. I’m hoping to start getting some better colours soon as well. 


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## buttons (27 Aug 2020)

Overdue update, the tank is still running but has had a lack of maintenance for a couple of months, I’ve started to get back on top of it try to remove the bba and actually giving the tank some ferts. It is slowly starting to look a decent scape again.


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## rubadudbdub (7 Sep 2020)

Even after a couple of months neglect it's still looking better than anything I've manged to create. 

The shallow tank next door looks interesting too.


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## buttons (7 Sep 2020)

Thank you, there is plenty of bba when looking close.
I posted up a pick of the the shallow yesterday on a anither section of the forum the link is here https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/ada-60f-shallow-scape.62169/#post-612962


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