# ADA 45x27x30 First Iwagumi Tank Attempt



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

So I have been round and about trying to collect my items for my second planted tank.

I stumbled across some videos regarding Takashi Amano and just fell in love with his tanks and decided to try and start my own.

Searching for ADA products in Canada is not easy but luckily there is a distributor in my city.

So I acquired a ADA Cube Garden 45x27x30 and I am stunned at the craftsmanship of the overall tank.

































Unfortunately, the place where I brought my stuff did not carry any Garden Mats for the aquarium so I was forced to DIY it. So I did some research and tried to find some closed-cell foam or neoprene and was unsuccessful. Then I read on a forum about some people using yoga mats for their ADA tanks. So I decided the yoga mats were my next best option and now I have a cut up yoga mat.

The substrate I used is ADA Powersand Special S and ADA Amaziona (the amazonia smells nice....)


















It took about another week or so to find and gather some stones which I felt will go well in the tank, here they are!










And finally, here is what the tank currently looks like.










As of now, I am waiting for my supplier to get back to me on the plant list I had put in a week ago. 
The list consists of:
Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Eleocharis Acicularis
Pogostemon Helferi

I plan to have HC carpet, hopefully, the entire aquarium. As for the Pogo Helferi, I was thinking of planting it close to and surrounding the stones. As for the Dwarf Hair Grass, I was thinking of planting it in the back right hand corner.

The lights I will be using are 2 CFL rated at 6500K @ 13W each. Accompanying this will be DIY CO2.

As for the filter, I am quite lost as of now. I somewhat narrowed it down to 3 filters:
Zoo Med 501 Turtle Canister Filter 501 Turtle Canister Filter: Amazon.ca: Home & Garden
Ehiem Filter 2213 Eheim Filter 2213 - Plus Kit: Amazon.ca: Home & Garden
RENA Filstar XP1 Canister Filter RENA Filstar XP 1 Canister Filter: Amazon.ca: Home & Garden

Anybody have any experiences with these filters and if so, do you think it will overpower a 10 gallon tank?

Anways, I would like to tank you for reading my thread and I hope to gain some valuable constructive criticism on my setup. Any comments and/or suggestions are welcomed.

Thank you very much!

*Sunday, January 22, 2012*

Just wanted to do an update.

After readjusting some of the rocks and slopes, this is what the hardscape currently looks like:










Please feel free to criticize and give me some feedback!

I finally finalized my order with Canadian Aquatics and am waiting for my package to arrive with the plants. Therefore, this may be the last chance for you guys to give me feedback before I dive into planting and flooding this baby up 

*Tuesday, January 24th, 2012*

So I finally got my package in the mail today. Thank you Canadian Aquatics. Amazing people and the best customer service ever. (Shipped out yesterday and arrived today)

Anyways so I spent a large park of the afternoon planting my HC, helferi, and DHG

Heres a shot before the fill up.










Filling up.










And finally filled up. (Topped it off a bit more after I took this shot)










You may ask where is my filter and heater and I have to say I am embarrassed at them so I took the shot before I put those items in.

Currently using a HOB and I have to shop around for a canister ASAP!

Thanks for reading


----------



## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

Beautiful tank  How can you be embaressed by anything?


----------



## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Great layout and choice(s) for your plants.Those rocks compliment everything else in there as well.Iam sure once this starts to take form and fill in it will be an eye catcher! All great filter choices, but iam biased towards Eheim.They have yet to disapoint me,reliable, and 'workhorses' of a filter.Do you plan on going pressurised Co2 or staying with DIY? Whats your stock plans for this ? Sorry one two many questons! thanks for sharing and keep us posted as to how it turns out.


----------



## Jasonator (Jul 12, 2011)

Incredible. Nuff said.
Please keep the pics coming as things develop!


----------



## Nicklfire (Apr 21, 2010)

looks really great, i love amano's stuff as well.

Where the heck did you find ADA in Calgary. I lived there for the last 3 years and was really big into the aquarium scene.. was part of the CAS when i lived there. 

Dont tell me Pisces carries it? lol that's the only place i think who would...


----------



## Tarobot (Jun 27, 2010)

o man, very nice rocks.


----------



## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

This looks fantastic. Great job. Keep posting updates!


----------



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

Momobobo said:


> Beautiful tank  How can you be embaressed by anything?


Thank you very much. I won't be as embarrassed once I install my Glass Lily Pipes 



Luke78 said:


> Great layout and choice(s) for your plants.Those rocks compliment everything else in there as well.Iam sure once this starts to take form and fill in it will be an eye catcher! All great filter choices, but iam biased towards Eheim.They have yet to disapoint me,reliable, and 'workhorses' of a filter.Do you plan on going pressurised Co2 or staying with DIY? Whats your stock plans for this ? Sorry one two many questons! thanks for sharing and keep us posted as to how it turns out.


Thank you for your feedback.

As for the filter, I hope I won't disappoint you but I ... um... went with... EHIEM..  Ordered the Eheim 2213 yesterday and am waiting for it in the mail.

I have thought about pressurized CO2 but I just can't afford it at the moment. It is definitely something I want to get in the future but for the time being I will have to stick with DIY. Perhaps I should get a bubble counter just so I have more control of the amount of CO2 going into the system. As of now, its just whatever the bottle decides to put out... (probably not a good thing)

For fishes, I have thought about what I want to put into it but since that is pretty far off into the future. However, what I want to have is some sort of small schooling fish. Possibly some Neon Tetras or Threadfin Rainbows? Maybe some Ottos but I can't seem to care for them well enough  The other ones in my other planted tank doesn't seem to eat zucchinis or cucumbers or plain old wafers. Perhaps there is enough food in the tank but I just don't know. They don't seem to be doing too well to me.



Nicklfire said:


> looks really great, i love amano's stuff as well.
> 
> Where the heck did you find ADA in Calgary. I lived there for the last 3 years and was really big into the aquarium scene.. was part of the CAS when i lived there.
> 
> Dont tell me Pisces carries it? lol that's the only place i think who would...


And you are correct!!! Pisces carries them now. They are a retailer of ADA from Miyabi-Aqua. We just had a seminar on Monday with Joseph and it was an awesome awesome seminar!


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice looking setup. You won't regret getting that Eheim. I'm running one now in a 20 gallon. And the ADA tanks are awesome. Anyone who says they are not worth it hasn't seen one. Are they overpriced? yep. But are they were it? Yep. I love my 30 cm cube garden.


----------



## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Meeiu,

What the heck was i writing, i am a fan of Eheim! Looking back at what i wrote i feel like an idiot,since all i use myself are Eheim products too(canister).Good choice of filter.



meeiu said:


> Thank you very much. I won't be as embarrassed once I install my Glass Lily Pipes
> 
> Thank you for your feedback.
> 
> ...


----------



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

*Thursday, February 2, 2012*

Just wanted to do a quick update today. Just took this picture and it seems I may need to trim soon.

Any suggestions on keeping the HC lower and more dense?

Thanks!

P.S. ignore the heater and filter please haha.
Waiting for my Lily Pipes and gotta find a solution to hide the heater.... :S


----------



## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

Beautiful tank  Depending on the occupants/temperature of the room, you might even need a heater?


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Your solution awaits here: Hydor Inline Heater (200 Watt)


----------



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

Momobobo said:


> Beautiful tank  Depending on the occupants/temperature of the room, you might even need a heater?


Thank you. However my tanks are in my room in the basement and currently a tank without a heater is at 14 degrees Celsius. =(



2wheelsx2 said:


> Your solution awaits here: Hydor Inline Heater (200 Watt)


I have looked into that but does that fit Ehiem 2213 tubes?

I believe my tubes are 13mm. =(


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

This one will do it. J&L used to carry it, but they don't seem to anymore. With the 15% discount and free shipping, very close to J&L pricing anyway. Hydor ETH 200 In-Line Heater-200 W : Heaters


----------



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

*Thursday, February 23, 2012*

Took this shot a few days ago.










You can't really tell from the photo but my HC is not as green as I want it to be. There are some leaves that are starting to turn brown.

I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on this for me.

I am currently using a 24W 6400K T5HO on this. Fertilizes NPK and micro minerals.

Lights were on for 6 hours but have been reduced to 4 hours because of the browning (I thought maybe they were getting too much light so I reduced them about a week ago)

Thanks!


----------



## Flygirl (Jul 23, 2011)

Sorry can't shed any light on the browning issue, but just wanted to say I think you did an awesome job scaping your tank. Everything looks well balanced and proportional. The asymmetry adds interest. Sweet!


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I can't help with the browning issue, either (maybe you can post that as a question in the plants/ferts/lighting forum), but your tank is extraordinarily beautiful. I love those rocks! Do you know what kind they are? The plants have grown in like a lush carpet. What kind of fish are those?


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Where did you get the HC from? If they were grown emersed, there will always be some die back. Mine did that for a little bit, but it's all green and spreading wildly now.


----------



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

Morainy said:


> I can't help with the browning issue, either (maybe you can post that as a question in the plants/ferts/lighting forum), but your tank is extraordinarily beautiful. I love those rocks! Do you know what kind they are? The plants have grown in like a lush carpet. What kind of fish are those?


Thank you! Those are just some guppies 
As for the rocks, I have no clue...haha



2wheelsx2 said:


> Where did you get the HC from? If they were grown emersed, there will always be some die back. Mine did that for a little bit, but it's all green and spreading wildly now.


I got them from AquaFlora. I have no clue whether they were emersed or submersed in the farm.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

meeiu said:


> I got them from AquaFlora. I have no clue whether they were emersed or submersed in the farm.


Cell cultured and emersed. Same as mine. They'll be green soon enough.


----------



## meeiu (Jan 25, 2012)

Thanks for all your suggestions.
So I went out and purchased some Excel and oh my, what a turn around.

Here is a shot of the HC at its most brown point:
*February 26, 2012*









and here it is today:
*March 5, 2012*








(44 days after planting)

And some of my Amano Shrimp


----------



## Algae Beater (Apr 21, 2010)

thaks for sharing, beauty of a tank !!


----------

