ADA 60F v2.0

[Wills]

A few of you might remember my flat tank that I set up in October 2021, at the time I was hoping for a working at home (at least a little bit) but it didn't happen and I was back in the office full time. Since then, from February this year I have set up freelance and am now working for myself and have a better home office in a different part of our property. It's not been a terrible start to the business but it is tough to say the least so I want to make sure I make the most of being my own boss and making my office a place I want to be.

This isn't a journal about my office but its where my hobbies are going to be and they are all a bit interlinked and hey its my journal so here we go The first steps were kitting out my office with a desk and a chair and I've since decorated it white and navy (which you can see a bit in the pictures). The plan is for my Aquascaper 600 with my puffer fish in to sit to my left and then this tank sits to my right on a run of kitchen cabinets (with a sink) and lastly I've got a bunch of pots in the back left corner behind me. I also would like to make a few small terrariums in some storm jar type things. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought of documenting this on a YouTube channel...

But back to this tank! It's an ADA 60F which means its a flat or shallow tank, not hugely practical for fish but I have some cool options. Its 2 foot long, 1 foot front to back and 8 inches tall making 30 litres or just over 8 US gallons. The filter is an Oase Filtosmart 100 which is a bit too powerful for this tank but I get the external heater which is a pretty big benefit in a shallow tank. The light is a Chiheros A Series which is quite a green light so I may change it eventually but it will be great for now.

I floated a few ideas around in this thread and basically had 3 options that I'm still trying to decide on. Dwarf Puffers, Emerald Rasboras or Shell Dwellers. The one I started on was the Dwarf Puffers - I like the idea of having 2 puffer tanks - but I drifted over to the idea of the Emerald Rasboras. BUT today I was in an LFS and saw the most amazing Platies (I know right) that I have ever seen. They were a bright coral red high fin with blue eyes and I can't stop thinking about them! So I'm now setting the tank up now with an aim to go back and get them at the weekend.

Still quite a bit to do, I've ordered some black acrylic paint to do the back and left side (to hide the pipes), I found a bag of DOOA Jungle Sand that I didnt know I had! I only want to do quite a thin layer of sand to maximise water volume but I do want to plant in one area. I've stacked some wood in so far which I do like but the way it goes around the light is a bit awkward and I may need to saw a bit off to get the light in the right place I also want to split the sawn edges of the wood to make it look more natural.

Planting wise I want to keep it pretty simple, I'd like either some Vallis in the back left corner or I may get a stem plant, not sure which I'd like to maybe try something different? I've not kept Ludwigia for a long time and that could be cool. Will definitely have some red root floaters on the surface and I want to get some small Anuibias species for the branches, probably some sections of moss and maybe some Bucephalandra too. The tank will definitely have some riparian planting most likely a peace lily sat on the wood. I might also try growing some Anubias out of water too. To help with the riparian planting I am going to get a grow bulb for the angled spot light over the tank as the room does not get a great amount of natural light.

So tomorrows job is to paint the glass when the paint arrives and wash the sand, probably play with the positioning of the wood. I'm planning to soak the wood in the tank and use some Seachem Purigen to help keep the water clear, plus the tank is right next to the tank so changing out water is fine. Before I add fish in I'm going to seed the filter from my other tank and hopefully with the submerged, emerged and floating plants the bioload of 3 small Platies will be compensated

Wills

 

[Wills]

Got the background painted black today and added in the DOOA river sand, sand is looking a bit to shallow so I'm going to mix in some black sand I have to increase the depth and I think it should look good, grey off the orange of the sand (though its not too bad as it is). I've tried a few different configurations of the wood and nearly there. I have a lot of smooth river cobbles that I'm debating adding but not sure if I want to keep it wood only.

I've also ordered some plants from Aqua Essentials I've gone for

3x Vallisnera Nana
2x Anubias Nana Coin
1x Bucephalandra Pygmea Bukit Kalem (which is a Tropica 1-2-grow)
2x Hydrocotyle Vulgaris

I wanted some Vallis in there as it seems to do quite well in my tanks so going for the Nana which is the smallest species and should suit this size tank nicely. Most excited about the Hydrocotyle Vulgaris which is a Hydrocotyle that can carpet and send up singularly mushroom like stems with a single leaf on, hoping if I plant it well I might even get some growing out of the water.

Wills

 

[connorlindeman]

Looking forward to seeing the finished product

 

[Guyb93]

Iv got to ask ,what do you do for work ? I know the thread is about your tank but to go self employed I’m really interested lol

 

[Wills]

Iv got to ask ,what do you do for work ? I know the thread is about your tank but to go self employed I’m really interested lol

Marketing & Design Consultant

 

[Guyb93]

Marketing & Design Consultant

I’d like to pretend i know what that is lol but I’m a simple man I build houses ahahah

 

[Wills]

I’d like to pretend i know what that is lol but I’m a simple man I build houses ahahah

Basically means I do logos, brochures, websites etc - not a proper job like yours

Got the sand in tonight here is a picture of just the DOOA sand

And here is after I mixed in the grey sand

Genuinely dont know which I prefer... the extra depth the grey sand has given me works nicely and it does look kind of natural but not sure. Probably need to sleep on it the other option would be to take some of this out and add in more black sand but that could look quite flat?

I've done a few scapes with the rock and wood that I have, I've got some great branching pieces but not sure if they are just too big? Especially when I started to factor in adding plants but I think the second picture deals with this pretty well. I can picture the Vallis left and right with the Hydrocotyle on the sides, maybe the back middle? And there are some obvious places for the epiphytes to fit in quite nice too. Hopefully the Peace Lilly I want will sit in that sort of next area near the middle and grow roots through the wood.

Wills

 

[Guyb93]

Basically means I do logos, brochures, websites etc - not a proper job like yours

Got the sand in tonight here is a picture of just the DOOA sand

View attachment 162213

And here is after I mixed in the grey sand

View attachment 162214
Genuinely dont know which I prefer... the extra depth the grey sand has given me works nicely and it does look kind of natural but not sure. Probably need to sleep on it the other option would be to take some of this out and add in more black sand but that could look quite flat?

I've done a few scapes with the rock and wood that I have, I've got some great branching pieces but not sure if they are just too big? Especially when I started to factor in adding plants but I think the second picture deals with this pretty well. I can picture the Vallis left and right with the Hydrocotyle on the sides, maybe the back middle? And there are some obvious places for the epiphytes to fit in quite nice too. Hopefully the Peace Lilly I want will sit in that sort of next area near the middle and grow roots through the wood.

View attachment 162215
View attachment 162216

Wills

I would say yours is the proper job , I failed to achieve anything academically so I have to build houses for the people who actual contributed to society ahahaha and tank is looking amazing to be fair I wish I actually planned and did things before adding fish .I stubble across success rather than anticipate it

 

[Wills]

I would say yours is the proper job , I failed to achieve anything academically so I have to build houses for the people who actual contributed to society ahahaha and tank is looking amazing to be fair I wish I actually planned and did things before adding fish .I stubble across success rather than anticipate it

I plan tanks out far too much - I should just get on with it and go get those platies but this tank is pretty hard to take apart if I wanted to rescape it so want to get it right.

That said I think I'm going to start again on this scape as not loving it at the moment. The substrate is annoying me quite a bit... wish I'd stuck to just one type rather than making this mix. Might try the dark sand, also might try and go to an lfs and see if I can find anything else...

Wills

 

[Guyb93]

I plan tanks out far too much - I should just get on with it and go get those platies but this tank is pretty hard to take apart if I wanted to rescape it so want to get it right.

That said I think I'm going to start again on this scape as not loving it at the moment. The substrate is annoying me quite a bit... wish I'd stuck to just one type rather than making this mix. Might try the dark sand, also might try and go to an lfs and see if I can find anything else...

Wills

I like the mixed substrate look in fairness I think it has a natural look , mine is just all the same sand and it looks clean I suppose but there’s still something missing sounds crazy but I prefer the look of my sand after a week of fish poo and how the plecos will dig and create a wild mess banking sand in hills , I honestly would like some algae in my tank also not on the glass but across the sand and wood but I can’t achieve it weather it’s lack of light or nutrients I’m not sure , I do prefer a scape that looks natural rather than those professionally clean cut precise scapes but that’s probably because it’s too much effort for me to maintain

 

[Jitsz]

Beautiful ADA tank and some really nice hardscape pieces there! I particularly like the layout that works around the light, I'm a big fan of shallow tanks with protruding hardscape though so I am a bit bias..

Have you got any ideas for what sort of plants you'd like to add yet?

 

[Wills]

I like the mixed substrate look in fairness I think it has a natural look , mine is just all the same sand and it looks clean I suppose but there’s still something missing sounds crazy but I prefer the look of my sand after a week of fish poo and how the plecos will dig and create a wild mess banking sand in hills , I honestly would like some algae in my tank also not on the glass but across the sand and wood but I can’t achieve it weather it’s lack of light or nutrients I’m not sure , I do prefer a scape that looks natural rather than those professionally clean cut precise scapes but that’s probably because it’s too much effort for me to maintain

I'm sort of in the middle I think, I don't like tanks that are too simple or thrown together but the high end look is too much for me to keep on top of, I achieved it for about a month in my other tank with the hills of Rotala and a Hair Grass carpet but so hard. I think I might go pick up some dragon stone to try with this scape, the colours might match the sand better than the river rocks I have in there - they are getting lost right now and I can smash some dragon stone pretty easy to grade the sand which will help too. Had a message from DPD saying my plants are coming Monday so won't be getting fish this weekend. Curious to see where it goes though Would love those platies but they will probably go, plus live bearers in an 8 gallon is probably going to cause issues - plan would be to transfer them to my 90g when I get it though.

Beautiful ADA tank and some really nice hardscape pieces there! I particularly like the layout that works around the light, I'm a big fan of shallow tanks with protruding hardscape though so I am a bit bias..

Have you got any ideas for what sort of plants you'd like to add yet?

Thanks Yeah I like the wood coming out of the water too I've got 2 big curved branches but I can't fit them both in at the moment I might see if I can sneak off to an LFS over the weekend and see if I can get an other piece - even if its a chunk I need to snap up to get the right bits. Plant wise I've ordered

3x Vallisnera Nana
2x Anubias Nana Coin
1x Bucephalandra Pygmea Bukit Kalem (which is a Tropica 1-2-grow)
2x Hydrocotyle Vulgaris

And I want a peace lily growing from the surface and I'm going to add some red root floaters from my other tank. I also might add some small grass plants like dwarf sag or Blyxa Japonica - I've read some of the 1-2-grow ones are good and they are meant to like hard water and nutrient rich water which mine definitely is!

Wills

 

[Wills]

What do people think of this one? Think I prefer the wood all going one way, not totally happy with the bit going over the light though. Wondering if I just take that out and fill that area with the Vallis Nana? Really like the rest of the structure though.

 

[Jitsz]

Thanks Yeah I like the wood coming out of the water too I've got 2 big curved branches but I can't fit them both in at the moment I might see if I can sneak off to an LFS over the weekend and see if I can get an other piece - even if its a chunk I need to snap up to get the right bits. Plant wise I've ordered

3x Vallisnera Nana
2x Anubias Nana Coin
1x Bucephalandra Pygmea Bukit Kalem (which is a Tropica 1-2-grow)
2x Hydrocotyle Vulgaris

And I want a peace lily growing from the surface and I'm going to add some red root floaters from my other tank. I also might add some small grass plants like dwarf sag or Blyxa Japonica - I've read some of the 1-2-grow ones are good and they are meant to like hard water and nutrient rich water which mine definitely is!

Wills

Nice I look forward to seeing it all come together. A surface peace lily sounds fantastic too. I'd love to try something like that further down the line! Those red root floater look really cool! I have some frogbit that I've just been spreading round but I will have to have a look at those

What do people think of this one? Think I prefer the wood all going one way, not totally happy with the bit going over the light though. Wondering if I just take that out and fill that area with the Vallis Nana? Really like the rest of the structure though.

I prefer the wood going one way also. I think the wood going over the light does looks very interesting. I think without it though and having vallis in that area would look really neat too. I think the central arrangement looks good, seems like theres more visual depth. Have you decided what to do re the substrate yet?

 

[Wills]

The plants have arrived today which is a nice surprise! The Valis Nana is very nano! Probably the right size for the tank though hopefully if I plant it well I can get it to thicken out quickish.

The anubias looks in good shape and the hydrocotyle too - looks a bit bigger than I was expecting but I'll get it planted and set up. The Buce is a 1-2-grow pot but its not looking that hot in the tub will see how it looks when it comes out and is rinsed. Just because of how small the Valis bunches are I'm going to

I decided last night after watching George Farmers latest video that I need this tank to be pretty spot on otherwise its going to be a source of regret and sat next to it going to wear me down so going to fix it now. Shame as I liked the DOOA river sand which as only £5 a bag but hard to get now but going to change it all for a lighter sand and put soil in mesh bags underneath. I have a few bags of tropica soil and soil powder so I can use that and cover it with sand to prevent too much leaching

I also got a pack of these mesh bags MD style! Ordered them last night here today £5 for 5 black and 5 white which is pretty good, nice small size for this tank too.

@AdoraBelle Dearheart did you use the bags in yours? Hows it been working out?

Wills