ctwentz
Seedling
Hello all from San Francisco!
I've just gotten back into the hobby after about a decade. I've started with an ADA 60H (60x45x45) that's been running for about 4 months now. This setup was designed to be heavily planted, with hardscape meant support lots of emergent plants in the style of a Japanese nature aquarium. Breaking with this style's relative minimalism in terms of inhabitants, it houses a small school of juvenile discus fish.
Before any objections to having discus in a 32 gallon tank, rest easy! We're about to set up an ADA 120P (80 gallon). As you will see from inhabitant list below, the 60H wasn't going to keep up with my penchant for buying more and more plants anyway...
Brief details of current setup: (photos coming)
ADA 60H with Wabi Kusa mist wall (essentially, a vertical wall extending ~ 12" above the back edge of the tank, with continuous water flow to support growth of a moss wall and emergent plants. Currently this is really mostly misc moss species, with some Anubias thrown in).
The layout hardscape has a healthy amount of driftwood emerging from water surface to support large African ferns ( a pair of mini Australian tree ferns). Clusters of Java fern also peak above the water surface.
Inhabitants:
(The main act in this tank, aside from plants, is a school of juvenile discus. Given their very high biological load, the cleanup crew is probably more than a typical tank of this size)
Fish:
-3x juvenile high body blue tiger turquoise discus ( moving them at the 3" length size to the 120P)
-2x juvenile blue diamond discus
-2x SAEs
~5x otos
-6x Sterbai cory
-school of Norman's Lampeye kilis - these guys breed like crazy so not sure how many we have!
-school of neon tetras
Inverts:
-10x olive and tiger nerite mix
-3x assassin snails
-2x chopstick snails
-10x Amano shrimp
~10x red cherry shrimp (grade A)
Plants:
Above water or emergent:
-mini Australian tree ferns
-African ferns (big guys - emergent)
-various moss species
-various Anubias
Below water level:
(lots of epiphytes on driftwood, softened by various stem plants)
-Anubias nana petite
-Anubias nana
-Anubias hastifolia
-Microsorum variatals including: pteropus, pteropus 'Trident', pteropus 'tropica'
-crypto balansae
-ludwigia super red
-bacopa salzmannii 'purple'
-tiger lotus red nymphaea zenkeri
-pogostemon erectus
-hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan'
-Bolbitis heudelotii
-Java moss covering driftwood
Equipment:
...Several aspects a bit overkill with anticipation of upgrade to 120P.
Filtration:
- 300W Fluval inline heater (w/Eheim filter) using Inkbird wifi connected temp controller (in case the fluval thermostat goes off the rails, secondary backup
CO2:
-GLA dual regulator
-inline GLA diffuser
-Milwaukee CO2 controller
-Nilocg drop checker
Lighting:
-Dual AI Prime freshwater pendants w/ ADA stand
Humidity Control:
-DIY closed loop controller (based on the ReefPi project) - humidity sensors on wall and at tip of emergent driftwood are used to turn on humidity sources when needed - I've found this is critical to support the growth of African ferns above water! Most sources state that these take years to grow to get the emergent behavior... as a fast-track, source XL sized rhizomes, attach to hardscape a few inches below water surface, and ensure a high humidity environment for them for first few months. slowly back off of supplemental humidity as new tendrils unfurl.
-- 2x ultrasonic mist heads sit in the top reservoir of the Mist Wall
-- 2x mist nozzles mounted on top of the Mist Wall, fed from ATO reservoir by peristaltic pump.
Misc:
- DIY version of ADA's "Air Sweeper". System is running in an office so want to ensure things are odor free!
-DIY automatic top-off system and water changer. Given the high biological load of the discus, this system does 50% water changes every other day using a 25 gallon ATO reservoir. Water changer output uses submersible pump head housed in a DIY hang-on-back weir, output plumbed via 3/8" RO filter tubing to nearby sink drain.
Water level control for both ATO and water change purposes is driven by a DIY closed loop controller running on a Raspberry Pi using triple redundant sensors: float switch in the weir, optical sensor through-glass, and eTape solid state resistive sensor. (If they don't agree, the controller sends an alert).
-7 stage RO/DI system w/UV provides the tank water
I've just gotten back into the hobby after about a decade. I've started with an ADA 60H (60x45x45) that's been running for about 4 months now. This setup was designed to be heavily planted, with hardscape meant support lots of emergent plants in the style of a Japanese nature aquarium. Breaking with this style's relative minimalism in terms of inhabitants, it houses a small school of juvenile discus fish.
Before any objections to having discus in a 32 gallon tank, rest easy! We're about to set up an ADA 120P (80 gallon). As you will see from inhabitant list below, the 60H wasn't going to keep up with my penchant for buying more and more plants anyway...
Brief details of current setup: (photos coming)
ADA 60H with Wabi Kusa mist wall (essentially, a vertical wall extending ~ 12" above the back edge of the tank, with continuous water flow to support growth of a moss wall and emergent plants. Currently this is really mostly misc moss species, with some Anubias thrown in).
The layout hardscape has a healthy amount of driftwood emerging from water surface to support large African ferns ( a pair of mini Australian tree ferns). Clusters of Java fern also peak above the water surface.
Inhabitants:
(The main act in this tank, aside from plants, is a school of juvenile discus. Given their very high biological load, the cleanup crew is probably more than a typical tank of this size)
Fish:
-3x juvenile high body blue tiger turquoise discus ( moving them at the 3" length size to the 120P)
-2x juvenile blue diamond discus
-2x SAEs
~5x otos
-6x Sterbai cory
-school of Norman's Lampeye kilis - these guys breed like crazy so not sure how many we have!
-school of neon tetras
Inverts:
-10x olive and tiger nerite mix
-3x assassin snails
-2x chopstick snails
-10x Amano shrimp
~10x red cherry shrimp (grade A)
Plants:
Above water or emergent:
-mini Australian tree ferns
-African ferns (big guys - emergent)
-various moss species
-various Anubias
Below water level:
(lots of epiphytes on driftwood, softened by various stem plants)
-Anubias nana petite
-Anubias nana
-Anubias hastifolia
-Microsorum variatals including: pteropus, pteropus 'Trident', pteropus 'tropica'
-crypto balansae
-ludwigia super red
-bacopa salzmannii 'purple'
-tiger lotus red nymphaea zenkeri
-pogostemon erectus
-hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan'
-Bolbitis heudelotii
-Java moss covering driftwood
Equipment:
...Several aspects a bit overkill with anticipation of upgrade to 120P.
Filtration:
- ADA SuperJet 600ES
- Eheim Pro 5e 450 w/split return to supply wall
- Oase 7W UV sterilizer (in line w/Eheim filter)
- 300W Fluval inline heater (w/Eheim filter) using Inkbird wifi connected temp controller (in case the fluval thermostat goes off the rails, secondary backup
CO2:
-GLA dual regulator
-inline GLA diffuser
-Milwaukee CO2 controller
-Nilocg drop checker
Lighting:
-Dual AI Prime freshwater pendants w/ ADA stand
Humidity Control:
-DIY closed loop controller (based on the ReefPi project) - humidity sensors on wall and at tip of emergent driftwood are used to turn on humidity sources when needed - I've found this is critical to support the growth of African ferns above water! Most sources state that these take years to grow to get the emergent behavior... as a fast-track, source XL sized rhizomes, attach to hardscape a few inches below water surface, and ensure a high humidity environment for them for first few months. slowly back off of supplemental humidity as new tendrils unfurl.
-- 2x ultrasonic mist heads sit in the top reservoir of the Mist Wall
-- 2x mist nozzles mounted on top of the Mist Wall, fed from ATO reservoir by peristaltic pump.
Misc:
- DIY version of ADA's "Air Sweeper". System is running in an office so want to ensure things are odor free!
-DIY automatic top-off system and water changer. Given the high biological load of the discus, this system does 50% water changes every other day using a 25 gallon ATO reservoir. Water changer output uses submersible pump head housed in a DIY hang-on-back weir, output plumbed via 3/8" RO filter tubing to nearby sink drain.
Water level control for both ATO and water change purposes is driven by a DIY closed loop controller running on a Raspberry Pi using triple redundant sensors: float switch in the weir, optical sensor through-glass, and eTape solid state resistive sensor. (If they don't agree, the controller sends an alert).
-7 stage RO/DI system w/UV provides the tank water
Love to see pics.
