# ADA 60p



## FJK_12 (7 Nov 2018)

Hey everyone, here is my new 60p I have just set up. I have always been inspired by the classic nature aquarium style and have been collecting materials for a concave layout for a few months now. Managed to get some good deals on second hand ADA equipment for almost the full setup too.

Blank canvas...





Hardscape in







Foreground planted....






And background stems








The full setup:



 

*Equipment*
ADA 60p + Garden Stand
Solar 1 + Solar arm
Oase Thermo 250
Pressurised CO2 (CO2art reg)

*Hardscape*
Redmoor root + senganni roots
Frodo stone

Flora
*Foreground:*
Marsilea crenata
Helanthium tennellum
Crypt parva
Riccardia chamedryfolia
*Midground:*
Crypt wendtii green
Juncus repens
Ludwigia arcuata
Anubias nana bonsai (smallest Anubias I've ever seen)
Bolbitis difformis
*Background:*
Rotala green
Pogostemon erectus
Pogostemon stellatus

Very happy that it has initially turned out more or less as I had envisioned (which has been pretty tough in my experience with past scapes!) Need to get some more moss in there I think, and some Anubias petite as the bonsai is incredibly tiny. Now to sit back and watch it grow in/cycle....and come up with a name!

Let me know what you think!


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## FJK_12 (7 Nov 2018)

Week 1:

Twinstar m5 is in, and have placed a rock temporarily holding down wood on left. Some of the senganni roots have shifted and will have to glue them back in place, they are very fiddly and superglue doesn't seem to work that well. Doing daily 50% WC's as I am using Amazonia - no ferts just yet.


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## J@mes (7 Nov 2018)

Wow nice setup & ‘scape


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## Raquascape (7 Nov 2018)

This is the style I'm looking to achieve too. Great scape and a lovely setup.


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## Siege (7 Nov 2018)

Looking really good  Did Dave at AG help with the hardscape (got a bit of his style about it!)?

A few thoughts -

- Need to plant a lot more MC in foreground.
- What does the filter and co2 look like under the stand?
- Are you going to lower the height of the light as the tank grows in.

S.


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## FJK_12 (7 Nov 2018)

Raquascape said:


> This is the style I'm looking to achieve too. Great scape and a lovely setup.


 
Thanks for the kind words!



Siege said:


> Looking really good  Did Dave at AG help with the hardscape (got a bit of his style about it!)?
> 
> A few thoughts -
> 
> ...



haha funny you mention Dave from aquarium gardens, I paid a visit to AG not too long ago to pick up the Frodo stones - no help from him in fact but perhaps I was subconsciously inspired by his tanks (which look amazing!)

- I ordered 2 pots of MC and felt I had pretty good coverage, but I did plant them quite deeply to avoid them floating. They got covered by some of the soil that moved as well. I assumed that as long as some part of the plant was exposed the leaves would slowly make their way out of the soil towards the light....might be wrong but hopefully it works out?

- First time using the Solar 1 and MH and have it 30cm from the surface of water which seems to be the height most use with it, will just have to experiment with it.

The filter and CO2 do look rather ugly under the garden stand, especially since it is a bit of a mess atm. One of the drawbacks of it I guess if you don't have the nice ADA filters etc... Also the filter noise is quite noticeable not being in a cabinet


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## Siege (8 Nov 2018)

30cm is good for the light I think. Appears higher in the pics.

You could frame the stand in wood to give you more of a cabinet feel. Stand in itself is very nice though so might be worth getting a different cabinet in time and keeping the one?


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## CooKieS (9 Nov 2018)

lovely nature aquarium


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## soggybongo (9 Nov 2018)

you could either get a seperate small cabinet to house your equipment or get yourself an acoustic pad to sit under the filter which should make it a little more quiet, wall mount your extension lead and cut the wires to fit. but if it was me i would buy a small cabinet to house filter, co2, and extension lead and sound proof the cabinetwith acoustic foam, would only be about £30 / £40 and alot cleaner looking.


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## FJK_12 (9 Nov 2018)

soggybongo said:


> but if it was me i would buy a small cabinet to house filter, co2, and extension lead and sound proof the cabinetwith acoustic foam, would only be about £30 / £40 and alot cleaner looking.



This is exactly what I was thinking. Would like to keep the minimalist look of the ada stand tbh so a separate small cabinet would work wonders. Trip to IKEA is in order I think haha!


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## soggybongo (9 Nov 2018)

FJK_12 said:


> This is exactly what I was thinking. Would like to keep the minimalist look of the ada stand tbh so a separate small cabinet would work wonders. Trip to IKEA is in order I think haha!



you could go one step further and clad in old pallet wood or laminate/ spray silver to match either floor or ada tank stand


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## FJK_12 (21 Nov 2018)

Day 20 update:

Up until now the tank hasn't caused too many problems. Temporary rock holding down wood has been removed and plants have just about established themselves.

Slowly but surely though I am beginning to see algae here and there, mainly filamentous diatoms/algae on hardscape and marsilea + moss. Going to keep the heavy maintenance up because I know how hard algae is to remove from moss and finer leaved plants once it is established.I am determined to win the war before it gets the chance.




Plants wise, all the stems have really taken off, along with the helanthium tennellum as well. I might buy another pot of m. crenata to help it spread though, which is what another user suggested after I planted it. Also, the Bobitis difformis seems to be suffering slightly, it isn't growing and is attracting algae. Will probably remove it and replace with regular Bolbitis heudelotii. I had read before setting up this tank that people struggle with the difformis variety, and with some further research it seems it might not even be a true aquatic plant, eventually dying after being submerged..





I am looking to use some mature media from a friend to help the cycle along, does anyone know if using mature media from a tank with algae and snails in it it likely to 'contaminate' my tank?


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## CooKieS (21 Nov 2018)

Well, M.Crenata is an slow grower, so even if you add more, it will take it's time to carpet (a lot more Time than HC cuba or MCC for example) and the carpet won't look as 'full' but more natural.

 problem is, h.tellenum is an fast grower and will cover your crenata carpet fast if you don't trim the new plantlets weekly.

As for the algae, riccardia and b.difformis are algae magnet, riccardia should grow faster once acclimated but My advice is too put b.difformis later when the tank is mature to avoid any risk. It's growing on my low tech but slow as hell, slower than anubias or buce!

You could replace it with microsorum trident pr b.heudeuloti, no worry, those are growing faster and are less prone to algae.

Finally, mature media from your friend won't contaminate your tank as long as he has no cyanobacteria in it....

Cheers, keep up!


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## FJK_12 (9 Dec 2018)

1 month in and a week ago seen an explosion in this stuff - can anyone tell me whether this is algae or diatoms? It sticks to the foreground plants and hardscape only, with only a few clumps here and there in the stems. All plants seem fairly healthy so can't work out what it is... A real nuisance as it is hard to remove from finer leaved plants.


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## aquacoen (9 Dec 2018)

Looks like hair/thread algae to me. Is not very uncommon in a new setup. Would suggest removing it manually and keep dosing your fertz.

How many WC are you doing? And how many hours of light? What fertilizers? Do you use a drop checker?


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## FJK_12 (9 Dec 2018)

Running 6 hrs light per day + lime green drop checker and dosing complete liquid plant food every day.

Fairly heavy maintenance schedule of 70% WC every 3 days. Also the fact it is only on foreground plants + brown colour makes me think it is diatoms but I really don't know!


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## Fred13 (9 Dec 2018)

FJK_12 said:


> Running 6 hrs light per day + lime green drop checker and dosing complete liquid plant food every day.
> 
> Fairly heavy maintenance schedule of 70% WC every 3 days. Also the fact it is only on foreground plants + brown colour makes me think it is diatoms but I really don't know!



Unfortunately , it reminds me a battle that i lost few years ago with a type of algae very similar to this.
Back then, Tom Barr told me that is a filamentous algae probably "melosira". I was struggling so much to remove it everyday and next morning it was always back there. 
It was the fastest thing i have ever seen ..
Finally, after 5 months i did quit... 
But every tank is different ! 
Just be sure you continue your maintenance schedule strictly. 

Last but not least, i believe that you have too much light in there.. Can you raise the solar a little bit higher?


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## alto (10 Dec 2018)

I’ve overlooked this algae page on Green Aqua website until it was mentioned in the recent algae video

Algae Guide 

Excellent photos and ideas offered for each type

I’ve only experienced algae that looks anything like yours upon a return from holiday - CO2 solenoid was stuck closed, lights were stuck ON (24h/day for 2-3 weeks) ... it was much more beautiful than your limited bit of algae 

It ranged in colours through blues, greens, some browns and one could not see the back of the tank
As tank was fishless, I just stripped it all down and binned everything - some of the plants were in decent condition beneath their algae drapes

I suspect raising your light may help (that’s a lot of light on a tank that is only 36cm tall), you could add in some floating plants as well
If possible, return to daily large water changes, removing as much algae as possible (before refilling tank)

What do you have for algae crew?
I’d add Clithon sp. snails, otocinclus, japonica etc shrimp


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## alto (10 Dec 2018)

Gorgeous set up


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## Ady34 (30 Dec 2018)

Lovely set up and scape, how is the algae battle going?


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## FJK_12 (5 Jan 2019)

Thank you everyone for your advice on the algae, I really appreciate it.

I've raised the Solar 1 significantly and it has helped. What I don't understand is that it was 30cm away from the surface before which is what ADA recommend/others use, and I was carrying out a significant maintenance schedule on the tank, yet saw a huge explosion in this brown algae. It was growing back incredibly fast.

Also, I do have 6 amanos, although there is only so much they can do on their own in the battle against this much algae! There are a couple of rasboras in there now too, which I am looking after for a friend whilst he rescapes.

I have actually been away on holiday for the past couple of weeks and so I have left the tank in the hands of someone at home. They are carrying out water changes, and I reduced lighting period to 4hrs and CO2 respectively. He sent me this picture the other day and to my huge surprise the tank looks pretty good considering it has had little maintenance (and no ferts....!). I guess lowering light massively really helps with algae and slowing the tank down.



 

Obviously still bits of the brown algae about and ludwigia arcuata seemingly suffering. pogostemon stellata has lost its red colour too. However, I reckon once I'm back a few big cleaning and trimming sessions the tank will bounce back and finally be well on its way to success (crossed fingers!), and some exciting fish on the way too!


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## FJK_12 (24 Mar 2019)

Hello all, its been a long while since I've posted an update on this tank. Unfortunately this tank is still suffering with algae and I am on the verge of giving up... maybe some of you here can give me some motivation to keep this alive! I really like the scape itself, but the algae is ruining the experience. Brown hair algae which just refuses to go away - particularly in the MC carpet, crypts and anubias. I've got CO2 dialled in perfectly and dosing recommended dosage of liquid Fert. The only thing I can think of is the Solar 1. I've raised it to 45cm above the tank now but still have these problems. I did buy it used, and its not the stock bulb so I'm thinking maybe its way overpowered or something? 

Also, I bought a load of lovely bucephalandra + s repens from aquarium gardens which is melting away pretty quickly for some reason  Im reluctant to keep on adding new plants because they just seem to get the algae eventually as well. Does anyone know what would cause these plants to melt?

Heres a photo mid WC, doesn't look bad from a distance at least!


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## TBRO (24 Mar 2019)

Sorry to hear of your algae woe. I agree the scape looks great, very much in the Amano style. 

Maybe just let the stems overgrow the scape. Stems in optimal conditions will put algae to the sword. The stems can always be cut back hard when the algae looks to have faded. 

Could also try a black out? 

Good luck. T


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## Onoma1 (24 Mar 2019)

Fantastic scape. 

I found that Black Helmet Nerite Snail (Neritina pulligera) seem to do amazing job clearing off bba and other algae from wood.  The size and diversity of the clean up crew made a big difference for me as did adding in floating plants tp provide natural shade. 

I am not an expert, however, 4 hours light may mean that the plants aren't getting enough light ..perhaps increase the duration.

Just don't give up! Superb scape!


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## TBRO (25 Mar 2019)

Nerites are good. If it’s mainly BBA then it will go eventually. Just a tank settling in thing. It lasted a long time for me. 

When you start seeing green spot algae the BBA will disappear. 


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## Monkfish (25 Mar 2019)

I love these open top rimless tanks, would love one one day. at the risk of sounding stupid though what does the p mean in 60p?


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