# ADA style 20 gallon



## IUnknown

Since I have a lot to learn about aquascaping, I thought the best way to learn would be to copy the ADA style. I think I read in a Japanese landscaping book that wood and rocks should not be used together. I noticed in the aquajournals that when Amano did use both, it was only in a layered type fashion. Foreground substrate, rocks, wood, and background substrate. Here are some examples:




























I've used diamond black in place of peat in the past, on a recommendation from Erik from e-aquaria.com. I'm very picky about water clarity, and have found that using peat or mulm can create problems. This time around I used a bunch of diamond black to see what would happen. It is dark like aquasoil, so it blends in real well. You can find a local dealer here:

http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/wheretobuy.html










I do my slopes at about 4" at the back and 2" in the front. I exagerate it because in the end things kind of get pushed to the front. I've also noticed from ADA setups that the layout materials (wood and rocks) are farther back than the middle of the tank to allow for more room for the foreground. Although perspective wise it looks balanced when the plants grow out.



















I was planning on trying out different arrangements, taking pictures, and then picking my favorite one. I got lazy and only did two.










At first I was going to try a centered focus type layout, but I'm thinking about using a right triangle layout with this arrangement. There are some plants that are personal favorites, and others that from seeing them in aquajournal, look great in combination. I'd like to use:

Ranalisma rostrata/Glossostigma mix
Giant hairgrass
Rotala rotundifolia 'Green'
Rotala Magenta / macronda Var narrow leaf


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## Blazerfrs

I really like the arrangement of the hardscape in the first picture... very nice


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## bharada

Greg,
Great start. Glad to see you getting back in the game!


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## jeff63851

Nice hardscape! Where did you get the rocks and driftwood?


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## IUnknown

http://www.e-aquaria.com/aquaforest.html

hopefully Mike gets the store in San Diego to carry ADA, so we can get rocks from them.


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## John P.

I was just about to ask if you've set up again.

Which shop does he own in SD?


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## IUnknown

Aquaforest is in S.F. I was talking about this thread,

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/scape/13042-scape-group-membership-socal-2.html


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## turbomkt

John P. said:


> I was just about to ask if you've set up again.
> 
> Which shop does he own in SD?


It's not that I own a store, but rather I'm working to get one of them to carry ADA similar to Aqua Forest. Really, there are only two stores down here that I think could handle it, and only one I am willing to work with of the two.

Regardless...I like the start on this tank. Can't wait to see where it goes.


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## fishfry

ooo...do tell...is it octopus garden or aquatic warehouse?


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## niko

Ah, a refreshing thread at last 

What I mean is that you have shown the thought process and research preceding the actual aquascaping.

I think that if one takes their time designing the aquascape the end result is very rewarding. The process itself is rewarding too.

Please post progress pictures of this tank after adding the plants.

--Nikolay


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## plantbrain

photo #2 will look nicer with more plant types.

You need some different wood.
Rocks are nice though.

See about getting two taller pieces perhaps of rocks or more wood.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## IUnknown

So I changed the hardscape to include the position of the wood that I liked in the first pic and the amount of rocks from the second. Niko thanks for the plants, got the tank setup today, with a few of the species I was hoping for. I plan to work on it some more on friday. I've got some glosso and anubias that have been in my emersed tank, while I was taking a break from the hobby.


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## T-Bone

Looking good so far. Nice job on the hardscape. It's going to look great soon.


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## mlfishman

*nice job*

looks good...cant wait to see it grown in


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## Lauren

It isn't very ADA now with your placement of the plants. however, it will still look great when it grows in.


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## MikeD

I also think it`ll look quite good. But you´ll have alot to do with cutting your plants when the grew enough. Much luck


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## Bavarian3

Nice man  Any updates? What plants do you plan to keep for the final scape?


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## IUnknown

For now I'm not focusing to much on the aquascape, but more on getting the tank balanced and the plants growing healthy. One thing that transformed out of accident is the path between to two rocks on the left. When things grow in more, I think it would look nice to exaggerate the path with some foreground plants. I slacked off a little with ferts and checking co2, and some of the plants I received arrived in poor shape, so I had to clean a lot of algae out of the tank. And I'm getting some coloration in the water, either from the driftwood or from the diamond black.










I'm running 2x24W t5 bulbs, 10 hours a day. My KH drops from 140 ppm to 80ppm by the end of the week from the aquasoil. I'm dosing 8mg/l No3 and .5 mg/l three times a week, 3 ml of flourish three times a week. The ferts I mixed up using the fertilizer calculator,
Mono Potassium Phosphate 1 lb. KH2PO4
2tsp(11.2 grams) added to a 500mL container will add .24 P04(17 gallons water column)
for every mL dosed.
Target = .5 ppm
Potassium Nitrate 1 lb. KNO3 
7 tbsp (109 grams) added to a 500mL container will add 2ppm No3 (17 gallons water column) for every mL dosed.
Target = 10 ppm


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## turbomkt

I'm looking forward to things filling in.


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## John P.

Hey Greg,

Are you sure that's not unicellular algae ("greenwater") coloring the water? Also, Amano seems to like to level the substrate along the front edge ... if you're really up to the idea of borrowing his style.


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## Aquaspot

The hardscape looks good but your choice of plants does not complement the hard work you have put into the hardscape. 
Try to have fewer plants in there (especially the fast growing stem plants), otherwise it will end up maturing into a dutch tank.


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## s0mt1nf1shy

I cant see the pictures..


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## Anti-Pjerrot

Pics gone!!! Get'em back NOW


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## IUnknown

Thanks for the advice. I'll try out the recommendations once the tank has established itself. First trim:


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## dennis

Overall I think it has potental. Nice job! Personally though, I think the tennelus/glosso kills it. I believe at least the tennelus needs to go as its height and messy tendencies look to unruly for this tank. It also seems to rob the tank of its depth. Glosso alone would probably be nice, or HC, or M. minutea (or that yet undiscovered species of Eleocharis that only gets 1" tall, no matter what)


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## IUnknown

Dennis,
Your right, I went back to look at the photos where I got that idea. Looks like Amano uses the E. tenellus and glosso combination with simple layouts where the foreground is the main focus. Like this layout:










He uses it more as a middle ground tank with tanks that have more going on, which is what I will try out.


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## IUnknown

Another thing with the leave curling, maybe it's the chlorine that is causing it,
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=1600&c=12

I don't have any fish in the tank yet, so I wasn't using any kind of conditioner.


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## IUnknown

New growth this week came with stunting and leaf curling. If anyone knows a good thread on K deficiencies or Ca deficiencies with a solution that actually worked for someone, let me know. I measured my GH and it was at 13 dGH. Ratio of ca to mg was 4:1 (192:44). Read a thread that said 44ppm of mg might be a problem. I'm going to stop adding GH booster, add a little bit of mg a week to even things out (and because it is stressed a lot in pps). My light has been sitting 3" off the water surface, so I raised it to 7" (can plants get burned?).

Algae problems so far,
brown algae (diatoms)- It was completely new substrate so I attributed this to the silicates, that would go away after a couple of water changes, and it pretty much has.

Green spot algae- sign of a healthy tank, no real cause.

green dust algae- current issue. Good thread on tom's site. Treat the algae like a parasite that has a life cycle. Don't wipe the glass, let the algae eaters take car of it, will die out after a couple of weeks. I noticed, that when I added No3 and Po4 on the same day of the water change, it came back a couple of days after I wiped the glass (my tap seems to have plenty of No3). So I'm going to stop dosing No3 on the W/C day.

other than that, just a little bit of string algae the last couple of days, but the tank looks like it's balancing out.


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## IUnknown

So looks like the things I tried out have been working. I've been adding 1/4 tsp mg to balance things out. I need to look up old articles I've read and link them in this post. They basically say that harder water = more chemical bonding, so you need to add more fertilizer to avoid deficiencies. By keeping my water softer, the fertilizer I put into my tank feeds the plants more. I've been leaving the green dust algae alone. Last weekend I had an explosion of these little white creatures (couldn't get a good picture, and haven't had time to research what they are) that have cleaned the tank spotless. Those things will probably start to starve and things will finally be balanced out with the tank. Now I can reduce the types of plants I have, and start playing around with the aquascape. BTW, I'm now a loyal fan of Aqua Soil. I've never seen the Rotala green grow in so nice. The leaves are long and slender compared to what I've seen using flourite.


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## John P.

Glad it's going in the right direction. The Rotala sp. Green that you gave me at the SCAPE meet keeps growing horizontal on me, despite my best efforts. Ugh!


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## IUnknown

This is the first time I've run a tank without fish or inverts. There are little bugs that have been keeping the tank spotless in terms of algae. Usually I think the fish eat these things (need to look into what they are). Maybe thats Amano's secret, only add the fish when he has a photoshoot. Thanks to Mr. Barr for the correct advice with the green dust algae. Also with the stunting it seems like it's from not dosing enough ferts (haven't really been keeping up with it), and it seems like the plant load has a lot to do with it. For example, after trim I can get away with 4mL flourish, at the current point it needs more like 10 mL.

Tank has stabilized a lot. I'm at the point were I need to start writing down the growth rates of each species I have in the tank so that I can trim them to grow in at the same time. In this current picture, it looks like the foreground isn't going to fill-in in time for the stem plants to be just right.


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## Bavarian3

Lookin good man  Anxious to see it grow back out. 

A couple questions about your tek fixture:
How high is it suspended? 
How many hours are each set of the bulbs used?

Ive been running my 36" with 2 bulbs 10 hours a day and 4 bulbs 6 hours a day. I get really good growth and pearling with the 4 bulbs and havent had any algaes yet. 
Im doing this with no fish as well, its so much better this way. What are these white creatures you speak of?  

-Charles


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## IUnknown

I guess they would be Ostracoda? From this thread,
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/photo-album/31656-neat-little-creatures-2.html

The tek fixture is suspended 6" over the water surface. I use two bulbs for ten hours and turn the other two on for two hours in the middle of the day. Still too much momentum in the tank, would like to prune the tank less. The way it is, I prune every 2-3 weeks. Maybe I'll shorten the time period to slow things down.


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## IUnknown

Tank is overgrown, so I plan to tear down the tank next week to try to get rid of all of the bladderwort. I've trained the glosso to grow in the way I want it (low to the ground and tight). I'm going to get rid of the Eusteralis stellata on the left and use the tenellus as middleground on the left and right edges of the tank. Still need to keep track of the growth rates of each plant. The Rotala "green" seemed to not grow in as bushy after the 4-5th trim.


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## neilw

this is fantastic really, one of the finest tanks I have seen. respect!


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## IUnknown

So I tore down the tank last weekend. I went through every single stem plant and got rid of any bladderwort or snails that I could find. I've placed the stem plants where I want them. Going for a mound type aquascape, with more foreground and middle ground this time around. I'm going to keep track of the growth rate of the different plants and trim things frequently to keep it how I want it.


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## IUnknown

The Rotala reached the surface, so I trimmed it. Took about two weeks in my setup.


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## turtlehead

Very Amano like Greg, nice. Anti bladderwort haha.


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## jassar

lol, now with all the tall plants gone we could acually see the rocks and wood.
very nice setup


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## shewey

Very nice!!

Whats the plant on the back right? Sorry if this is a stupid question. Also are those Anubias nana on the log?

Cheers,
Mark.


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## madcaow

awesome tank. very interesting watching its progress.


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## IUnknown

I believe it is Eusteralis stellata. It turns a really nice yellow, which will hopefully be a good contrast against the bright green rotala green. The anubias are the petite kind. They were hidden in the rotala green and turns out they grew like crazy, so I split them up and pulled them out front.


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## Svennovitch

IUnknown said:


> I believe it is Eusteralis stellata.


That doesn't really look like ES. I would say it's Didiplis diandra.

Nice setup!


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## dodgefreak8

looks nice!


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## pineapple

Utricularia gibba, bladderwort, is worse than algae, IME. I had to remove all the plants from a 20g aquarium in order to get rid of it - and then it reappeared again from within a small group of Anubias sp. petite. But I picked that piece out - I'm sure there must have been others - and it finally departed for good. Perhaps it was because there were about 60 mini shrimps in the aquarium that it took off in the first place. Unbeknownst, the bladderwort came with Riccia that someone sent to me.

Hopefully you will not suffer any reappearance of bladderwort.


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## Tankman

Looking forward to a update


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## IUnknown

Svennovitch,
I think you are right. Then I guess my No3 is a little high, because the Didiplis diandra has only got yellow, not red. The red Rotala reached the surface (week 3). I trimmed the top, replanted and got rid of the bottom half. I've noticed that the Dipdiplis Diandra and the red Rotala do better when you replant the tops rather than topping them off like the Rotala Green. The glosso should be filled in by week 4, and the Didiplis Diandra ready to top off. Maintenance on this tank: I've been stirring the tank every other day to try to get crud into the filter. I've started using a gravel cleaner to get whatever is resting on the surface. I've been trimming algae infested leaves when I see them.


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## IUnknown

I gave up on the java moss and cleaned up all the driftwood and rocks. The rotala green seems to take a better shape the second time you trim it. Growth rates for the stem plants have been 3 weeks, and 4 weeks for the foreground to fill in. I redid the glosso this week and plan to trim the rotala next week so that it is even.


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## xcooperx

i love the rotala green, if you have soem to sell when you trim it let me know, i really want to try that plant.


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## slickwillislim

I like the rotala green as well. It looks really nice in those small tanks. I hope you get those growth rates right. I cant even get my rotala rotundifolia all to grow at the same rate let alone all the different stems. 

I know this is a little over critical but the only thing that looks odd to me is that the aqua soil seems to be sloped up to the right. I dont know if this is on purpose to give a certain affect but it did stand out to me. I know how hard it is to mess with that after planting but it just stood out to me. 

Other than that I really like this setup. That is some really tiny nana petite. I guess its smaller than I had imagined.


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## shewey

Sorry for the stupid question, but whats the big bushy plant in the middle at the back? I've seen it in several tanks and never certain what plant it is.

Mark.


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## slickwillislim

The green one in the middle is Rotala rotundifolia sp. green. You can read about it in the plant finder.


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## shewey

Thanks William. I had a feeling it was.


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## turtlehead

slickwillislim said:


> I know this is a little over critical but the only thing that looks odd to me is that the aqua soil seems to be sloped up to the right. I dont know if this is on purpose to give a certain affect but it did stand out to me. I know how hard it is to mess with that after planting but it just stood out to me.


I'd have to agree. But overall the growth and the health of these plants in your tank is amazing Greg.


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## IUnknown

This weeks update,


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## slickwillislim

Looks very healthy. Cant wait to see those stems grown in.


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## Ben Belton

I love this thread for a reason that aquascapers seem to never be able to admit to. It seems you are always told that you have to be able to visualize the finished priject in your head when you plant it. Well, I can't do that. I put plants in that I think will look good and move them around to see what looks better. Trim, move, replace... eventually I have something I like. My tanks are usually always a work in progress. Like this one. tweak here and a tweak there... This is how most of us do it. This is how you learn. This is great stuff.

Ben


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## Robert Hudson

I agree with Ben. Thats pretty much what I do, just wing it as I go along, but what I find interesting about this, and a little frustrating is that it has changed so many times before it ever matures into anything. Looking back I read a lot of comments like, will look good when it grows in, or looking forward to seeing it grown in. But it has never really reached that point!

I am dieing to see what this tank will look like when it reaches a full potential, if it ever does. I have a feeling it would blow everybody away.


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## IUnknown

Haha, thanks Robert. I've been timing things for the AGA deadline. Foreground and the grass plants are how I'd like them, just need a couple of weeks for the stem plants to fill in. Hopefully I trimmed them right to get the bushiness I'm looking for. I'm planning on renting some good equipment this time around to take pictures. I've got the fish arriving in two weeks (blue neon rasbora's). Here is the progression of the tank from last year,


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## jassar

Bravo! this is really something.....so, are you on your way to the AGA contest?
-Jassar


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## Pyro

Hey!  

That's a really nice aquarium, I love the layout and the plants. The only thing is, is it just me or is the substrate pretty thick? I do think it kinda adds to it, but I was just curious about that.


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## T-Bone

Now that is what I call progress. Its almost unbelievabe the first tank, and the last, are the same tanks! The black matting around the front of the tank is an interesting idea. Makes photos much easier I guess.


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## Robert Hudson

What is that you did in the last picture? It looks like you made a picture frame around the tank! A flat screen aquarium! 

Cool, I will be interested to see how you have honned your skills


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## turbomkt

I'm sure the border around the tank is to keep stray light from the camera, making glare free photos.


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## IUnknown

Yeah, the border helps get rid of light that would cause reflections on the glass. I'm thinking about taking photos of the photo shoot, to brainstorm the best way's to get full tank shots.


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## redstrat

Pyro said:


> Hey!
> 
> That's a really nice aquarium, I love the layout and the plants. The only thing is, is it just me or is the substrate pretty thick? I do think it kinda adds to it, but I was just curious about that.


The substrate just looks thicker because its a frameless tank, a thicker substrate is generally better for the plants so the roots have room. Its more noticable in smaller tanks especially when hills are used for the aquascape. 
I hope that helps.


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## IUnknown

Kind of been slacking off with the tank. Installed a diffuser to see the difference between the reactor.


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## turtlehead

Nice, be sure to post the difference if you see any.


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## epicfish

Not meaning to threadjack, but what are some good resources to learn about aquascaping? Not the technicalities per se, but more of the artistic side and tips/tricks and whatnot?

Books, sites?


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## Steven_Chong

epicfish said:


> Not meaning to threadjack, but what are some good resources to learn about aquascaping? Not the technicalities per se, but more of the artistic side and tips/tricks and whatnot?
> 
> Books, sites?


To be honest dude, you won't find much. Amano's Nature Aquarium world books are probably a good place to start from in terms of "Aquascaping Philosophy," and I'd advise most to try find the basic step-by-step ADA guides just for a flavor of his process, but really . . . there's not much useful information readily available. You kind of have to find it for yourself.


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## turbomkt

The english ADA catalog has a step by step of how Amano sets up tanks. It goes into the different types of layouts, too.


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## Steven_Chong

Yeah, those catalogues are of incredible printing quality and photography! Hard to believe ADA can give those out for free! 

edit--> Oh, and sorry for the thread jacking Iunknown!


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## IUnknown

A little update on the tank. I've tried everything suggested to deal with the GDA. Lights are down to 8 hours a day and the pendant is now 10" from the surface of the water. So I bought some algae fix and I am going to nuke the tank. If the algae fix actually deals with the GDA, then when I stop using it, if the GDA returns, then it must be something wrong with my dosing schedule.

The other thing I started using was flourish excel as an algaecide. I designed the tank a little wrong. Ideally, the Lillie pipes should be on the right side of the tank. The way the water flows, the water near the E. tenellus is usually stagnant. And it shows because the E. tenellus usually gets BBA all over it (indicating low flow and poor Co2). The excel is the secret weapon to get the tank just a little more algae free.


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## hedson_25

Greate Looking Tank...


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## manifresh006

Man I need some HC...
Nice Tank


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