First Tank - 3.5G ADA Mini-S

[zx6r]

This is my first fish tank, and I now realize I'd have done a few things different - but hey, that's how it goes, right?

Hardware:
ADA Mini-S 3.5G
Ecoxotic Par38 w/ 3 white and 2 blue
Aquaclear 70
Mini-Jet 606 - Removed

I haven't bothered with a heater because the tank never drops below 75.

Anyway, on to the pics.

Dry tank and setup on 10/24

Tank started growing cyano on 11/2

Added my first 'livestock' on 11/2
Pink Birdsnest
Red Monticap
Blue Clove Polyps (I know, I know"¦)
Small rock with 4 heads of a morph similar to Eclipse, this also has a weird half and half morph head on it
A 'ball' of ~20-30 heads of Eagle Eye and Radioactive Dragon Eye Zoas (?)
3 Blue Leg Hermets
3 Snails
1 Nasarus Snail

Replaced the Mini-Jet 606 with a AC70 fuge w/ chaeto and carbon on 11/3
Kinda ghetto rigged the intake with a piece of the screen to cover it, I also clipped the little tab to make it flow less.

Added some more coral on 11/7
1 Head Duncan
1 Head of a cool Zoa, don't know the name of it yet.

Current tank shot as of 11/9

I can tell everything is happy where it is so far, the small rock of Zoas has sprouted three new heads and the monti/birdsnest both have made some growth. I do have a few aptasia in the tank but I haven't figured out what I can get to eat them in this small of a tank. Ideas?

 

[Zero Cool]

Nice little tank! What kind of substrate is that?

 

[bassplaya12]

Awesome!

 

[zx6r]

Nice little tank! What kind of substrate is that?

Arag-Alive Hawaiian Black. Doing it over I'd have gone with a different sand because I don't like all of the big pebbles in this sand, but I am overly picky about stuff like that. I went through with tweezers and took out a lot of the big ones by hand. :lolspin:

Thank you guys

Also, for guys looking to use the Ecoxotic PAR38 bulb on a nano - which only comes in 40 degree optic - I have it approximately 15" off the top of the water.

 

[brainchild24]

cool looking tank, makes me want to redo mine (7.5 Mr. Aqua)

 

[Kevin_Bullis]

Sweet tank, I will have a ADA eventually.

 

[zx6r]

Bought an acan on 11/10. It seems happy so far, the Monticap and Birdsnest have grown quite a bit already, guess they are happy. Hoping to have the Duncan grow a new head soon - I've been feeding it every other day. Also, I cut the giant Zoa ball into three pieces and glued them at various points to see how they do under the different lighting areas in my tank - we'll see how that goes.

I stuck a 5300k CFL bulb over my Chaeto in the AC70 and it has pretty much exploded in growth after barely 5 days.

I'd like to pick up a fish of some kind today, but I have to do a mini race wire job on my friend's bike - hope that doesn't take too long. Also, the temps have been going between 72 and 78 degrees depending on the day, which I thought was rather low but everything seems happy. Maybe I will finally add a heater into the AC70.

 

[Brian94558]

Looks good. Have you been able to find any smaller powerheads that may fit in it better?

 

[zx6r]

Looks good. Have you been able to find any smaller powerheads that may fit in it better?

Vortech MP10 - I bought one for my girlfriend's old ADA 1gal cube and it worked fine. I've yet to have any issued caused by lack of flow so I will hold off until I upgrade to a bigger tank eventually. :lol2:

My ADA thermometer

This is my workaround for using a Aquaclear on an ADA tank. They need a rim to sit on, which these tanks don't have... so this is what the AQ70 sits on. Not very pretty, but functional.

Setup picture and current FTS, AQ stand isn't pushed over all the way yet.

 

[dontgetbit]

Very nice little tank. What did you do to the AC intake? It that just a screen? I like the little stand for the AC too. Have you thought about painting the back to hide the equipment?

 

[zx6r]

Thank you The screen was made out of part of the little media basket that comes in the AC70... as far as painting the back I plan to drill this tank when I move next month so there will be no AC70 anymore.

The current plan is to drill two holes in the bottom of it, one for a drain to a sump in a stand I will build, and another as a return. I'd like to hide both as much as possible with rock work or encrusting corals and the tank will be completely clean 360*. I've already checked and the glass isn't tempered. If that fails then I will just let the back encrust in coraline... I don't really like the black back look, but I guess that is far better than seeing the crap there now. Haha.

 

[Aquarianer33]

Verry nice tank. I love smal nano cubes. Plese post more pics.

Best regards from Germany
Mike

 

[zx6r]

Thanks I found -=NiCd=-'s thread that had a cool overflow that I'm trying to get more info on. It's got the overflow drain coming from the bottom as a clear acrylic tube with teeth cut in the top for surface skimming. Inside of the tube is somehow also the return which comes out the side of the outside tube. Really nice looking piece, I'd love to design one myself.

 

[cherubfish pair]

I hope that thermometer is filled with alcohol and not mercury. If it cracks, mercury could kill everything.

 

[zx6r]

It's alcohol, I don't think a company like ADA would sell a mercury filled thermometer.

 

[windowman]

Sweet looking tank

 

[cherubfish pair]

It's alcohol, I don't think a company like ADA would sell a mercury filled thermometer.

:thumbsup:

 

[Drag Racer]

Pepermint shrimp will take care of aptasia. Have one in my tank for over the last year and half and does a good lob in my tank.

 

[zx6r]

Is this tank big enough for one?

Picked up a rock with a few blue/purple/etc mushrooms on it on 11/17

11/21 and it's already noticeably bigger. Luckily I like these things.

Also got a chalice, it has 3 mouthes.

A colorful ricordea too. Just put it in, so it was still ****ed off.

And a current 11/21 FTS

I feel like I need to re-aquascape or something, I don't really know where I can put everything right now. I had to empty the chaeto today, it went from baseball sized to a little over softball size so it looks like the 3500k CFL is working well enough.

 

[KafudaFish]

If you want you can take your AC tube, the one with the screen that attaches to the uptake pipe and cut the strainer off at the little groove above it and then flip it over and it will fit into your intake. The suction will keep it in place. Power turns it will fall out and you can clean it.

Nice looking btw.