# New tank journal ADA 30-C and 60-P



## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Hi,

I recently got back into planted tanks after spending a few years in SW reefs. I'm still relatively new to planted tanks and have enjoyed reading various members tank journals. I decided that I would go with pressurized CO2 this time and also with smaller tanks. I selected two tanks from ADA, a 30-C because I've always liked cubes and a 60-P for a more traditional layout.

I ordered the 30-C cube from Aquaforest in SF, CA and it arrived well packed and with a free copy of the ADA 2006 layout. Will definitely order from the Lo brothers again.

The rest of my order came from ADG, and the Senske's were very pleasant to deal with. My 60-P came boxed separately from the rest of my order and was well packed. I also ordered a large bag of Aquasoil and two grey line kits for my glass CO2 diffusors. In my opinion both outfits are great to deal with. The ADA tanks have very clean lines and good silicon jobs, glass is a bit thinner than what I expected but that shouldn't be an issue.

I bought a set of glass intake/output tubes from Cal Aqua labs and they look great and a set of glass diffusors from Aquatic Magic which have not arrived yet. For filtration I will be using Eheim 2224's with Hydor inline heaters. And both tanks will be lit by a pair of 70 watt metal halide PFO pendants running 10k bulbs off electronic ballasts.

I plan on running both tanks off the same CO2 system so I ordered a small manifold from Rex Grigg and when that arrives I'll hook up the CO2 system to run off the light timer via a solenoid.

I'm still in the process of building my own stands for each ADA tank. I've finished the small 30-C stand. I followed the general directions from other folks that have done ADA like stands, I used 3/4" MDF and two coats of primer and sprayed a flat black for the finish coat.

Still deciding on plants and such, I may go with Eco complete for the small cube since that is what I used on my last planted tank. I may use the Aquasoil on the 60-P only unless I hear that Aquasoil is so much better than Eco. I do plan on some HC or similar foreground plant in both tanks.

Some pics

Tanks unpacked









Tanks moved to basement fishroom along with other equipment









Door open on stand (it comes completely off since its such a small stand - the Eheim barely fits in there.









The tanks behind the ADA are my nano reef setups, two 2.5G tanks plumbed to a common 10G sump and a 1 gallon cylinder reef and a large in-wall reef.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Update on progress.

Added larger base to stand to improve stability. Made DIY foam base for tank (aquamat). The Eheim piping will eventually be replaced with clear plastic returns that I plan on making as well. The Eheim 2224 and Hydor and metal halide ballast are mounted inside the cabinet as well as a power strip in the upper section.

Updated setup with door closed.









Door open









Still need to hook up the CO2 system and decide on an aquascape.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Very nice in all respects. Nice house too! (I hate you )


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## b4igo (Mar 14, 2007)

Melbourne said:


> The tanks behind the ADA are my nano reef setups, two 2.5G tanks plumbed to a common 10G sump and a 1 gallon cylinder reef and a large in-wall reef.


Hi Melbourne,

Your setups looks fantastic. I am curious though how you run two tanks off a single filter? How do you balance the output, etc, to stop one tank being pumped full of the water from the other tank? (eg hose blockage to one tank, etc)

Also, have you used the Eheim 2224 on such a small tank before? I have a 12inch cube and a 9inch cube, and wanted to put a canister filter on it (to get the filters and heaters out of the tank) but was told the flow would be way too strong. I'm interested to hear your experience. I assume you use an inline tap to reduce the flow to what is required, but does that have any negative impact on the filter/pump itself?

regards,
Mike


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Dennis, thanks. Any suggestions on the aquascape for a cube? My initial plan is for a standard sloping grade of aquasoil with a large patch of HC with 1 or 2 rocks and a small piece of branch wood. Fill in the areas around the rocks with B.Japonica and the background with Rotala and other stems. 

b4igo - the reef tanks that share a sump each has its own return pump. There are two float sensors one that shuts off the return pumps if the water level in the sump drops too low and another tops off at a much slower rate via an aqualifter pump. Both tanks are drilled with 1 inch bulkheads but I'm only pumping through about 1/2 what they are rated for with each return pump dialed back a bit. 

On the 2224 on a small tank - this is the first time trying such a large canister on a small tank. I put in the aquasoil tonight and I'm running the canister at max flow rate and there is a good amount of flow in the tank but not terrible. The problem with the Eheims is that you can't dial them back too much otherwise they tend to leak. The Eheims reduce flow either via the ball valves at the quick connects or on the 2224's they have a lever on the canister that allows you to adjust the flow for intake/outtake.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

Re: Aquascaping a cube. Check out Tony Gomez and Luiz Navarro cube tanks. You can find some pics through past AGA contests and some here at APC. I believe you can find some about each by their interviews in the Library section.


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## b4igo (Mar 14, 2007)

Melbourne said:


> b4igo - the reef tanks that share a sump each has its own return pump. There are two float sensors one that shuts off the return pumps if the water level in the sump drops too low and another tops off at a much slower rate via an aqualifter pump. Both tanks are drilled with 1 inch bulkheads but I'm only pumping through about 1/2 what they are rated for with each return pump dialed back a bit.


Ahh of course...sump... I was stuck in "canister" mode. :doh: As long as the outlet from the tank to the sump can flow more water than the pump is flowing back then there is no problem!

Keen to hear how you finish up with the cube, so I'll follow this thread with interest!

regards,
Mike


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## Steven_Chong (Mar 17, 2005)

With regards to the aquascape (since this is the only thing I talk about anyway lol)-- it's hard to say much. I think it's got to start with you-- namely, what are you trying to make? Even if you had the vaguest idea like, "I want to make a forest with crypts"-- I bet a lot more ideas could be put forth. Dennis and the other members probably feel the same thing as me in that we don't want to impose our own ideas on you for a beautiful blank tank.  If you gave us a basic "genre" though, people might be able to offer up ideas as suggestions.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

b4igo - yes sumps are great. But I'm not confident enough with my glass drilling skills to try it on my ADA tanks 

steven/dennis - thanks, I did go through all the contest entries back to about 2002. Many excellent ideas in there. I'm trying to go for a very dense backdrop with heavy growth and it opens up into a meadow. The path for the eye to follow is roughly up the center between the rocks into the "forest". I'm trying to create a sense of depth in a small cube. I'll post up what I've done so far with the 2 rocks and the soil gradient so you can see. My wood won't be here until next Tuesday but I'm going to plant the HC tonight.

The two rocks take up a lot of real estate in this tank but I like the texture and look to them.


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## Steven_Chong (Mar 17, 2005)

From my experience working with a cube, You do get nice depth, but developing a background that balances a large foreground can be difficult. Looking at your hardscape, I'm guessing to get the nice thick background (if we're going stems here), you'll need either a higher slope, or give less space to the foreground. My guess is you could do with less space given to the foreground here.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Update - flow in the tank seems to be ok now that I have planted some stems in the back. I planted some HC in the front and Rotala/Cabomba in the back and some B.Japonica by the rocks. I'll probably replace the Cabomba with something else once the tank has grown in a bit. Still need to plant a few more things when I get some time. I'll see how the rock looks once its grown in a bit, it should not be as prominent. I wanted to get a larger foreground than I've seen on other small cube tanks. You can see my substrate gradient in the picture below - does it need to be higher?


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Tank update. I took an updated front pic today. My Brighty K Step 1 came in today so I'm going to start to use that. The tank is going through the cycle now and the associated algae bloom appears to be in full force. The HC and rest of the plants are pearling still despite the brown algae (diatoms?). I've done a few water changes but I still have the brown algae - should I raise my pendant and/or reduce my 8 hr photoperiod? I also switched to RO/DI water - when I first started this tank I used tap water with prime. The TDS on that measured out around 55 or so.

My camera skills are terrible.

Front shot









Algae on HC


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Tank update: Not much to report - HC is growing in a bit. Cabomba needs to be trimmed and replanted. Still have a good bit of algae, once things are stable I plan on replanting the center with something nicer and adding in some Cherry shrimp.


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## Genin (Jan 28, 2007)

Once that blyxa takes off and the HC covers the foreground I think your tank will look really sharp. Good luck with the diatoms, most people say that after the tank settles a bit they should go away.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Genin - looks like the diatoms are gone now. I rescaped a bit but left one blyxa in the center.

Tank update: Looks like the cycle is complete. The rotala rotundifolia and cabomba were a bit too large for the scale of this tank so I transferred them to my shrimp tank. They were shading the HC foreground so I decided to remove them and look for a better stem(s) for the back. I also added in another rock to give a little more structural height to the middle. I temporarily replanted the hairgrass around the back to grow out a bit more. Planted a small hygro in the back to see how fast it grows - will pull it once I get the other stems in. I also put a black background on the tank.

I'm going to start building the stand for my ADA 60-P tank soon and I want to order all my plants at once from Aquaspotworld. For the cube I'm planning on ordering the following plants.

All of these stems are either really small or fine leaves - any other suggestions I should look at?

Microcarpaea minima
Rotala sp. 'Nanjenshan'
Myriophyllum mattogrossense

For the 60-P I plan on adding in a few more Rotala and pulling some other plants from my shrimp tank. I'm plan on a HC foreground there as well, I just like the way HC looks compared to glosso.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Update: I have a ton of snails in this tank probably hitched in on the stems I had earlier. This one snail is particularly large - it doesn't look like an MTS or a Ramshorn - should I remove it or is it a safe/good snail?


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## Blue_Dolphinvn (Nov 12, 2006)

THis kind of snail reproduce very fast and they can eat your new leaves when they have not enough food...morever they have bad looking, haven't they?


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Update: I left that big snail in there  I have a some hair algae on the rocks. The rocks were from my old cichlid tank from years ago. I probably should have bleached them but I didn't. I'm going to pull them and bleach the rocks. I added in some floaters to help with nutrient uptake due to the lack of stems. My order from Aquaspotworld should ship this week, I'll post up when my order arrived.


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## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

looks like the HC is taking o spread nicely..also i kind of enjoy the greenish patine on the rocks.. why bleach?? you can probably just add some yamato shrimps..and the hair algae should be gone in like 3 days


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

I would add some sort of slope in there.......it looks very two dimensional! You need some depth, I think, to really bring out the plants and hardscape.

I think that you have really nice plant choices in there, but the one stem in the back looks kind of out of place!


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

ranmasatone - yes I like the green aged patina also but the hair algae is growing on the rock. I have some cherry shrimp will they eat it if I put them in there? I already put in an otto but the hair algae is still there. Other than the hair algae I don't have much anywhere else thats why I thought somehow the rocks needed to be sterilized due to the prior use.

donaldmboyer - I agree it looks a bit flat, I tried to do a steep gradient using aquasoil but beyond putting up a stone terrace I don't think I'll get much height to the back. Also the angle I took the photograph makes it appear flatter than it actually is. The stem in the back is temporary its a hygro to help with nutrient uptake while I wait for my stems to arrive. If you look back at the older pics you will see how the soil slopes.


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## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

Cherry shrimp will surely help..but on a personal preference, nothing beats yamato shrimps when it comes to getting rid of hair algae... The Oto is also a good thing to put in there.. helps control some of the brown diatoms that may appear.
The tank is truckin along quite well... congrats... more pics when stem plants come..


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Tank Update: My Aquaspotworld order arrived  I basically pulled all the rocks and gave them a thorough cleaning using a bleach solution, plenty of water changes and prime over the period of a week or so. Hopefully the rocks are clean and safe for the tank.

About my Aquaspotworld order - everything was well packed and labeled. Out of all the plants I ordered only one batch was melted and may not recover. Everything else looks good.

Here is what I ordered - some of this will go in my 60-P once I get around the building the stand. 
I have a lot of extras that I'm storing in 2.5g buckets of water next to one of my reef grow out tubs, 150 HQI Lumenmax system spillover light should be enough to keep them for a few weeks or more.

Bacopa Myriophylloides (not in the cube tank)
Cladophora Aegagropila (not in the cube tank - very nice size BTW)
Hemianthus callitrichoides (decent portions - a bit dry, I only used a small portion to plant the bare spots in the front)
Hydrotriche hottoniiflora (looks like all the leaves melted, stems still there - may pull through) - not in tank.
Myriophyllum mattogrossense (planted a small grouping in the bank right)
Myriophyllum tuberculatum (not in tank)
Rotala sp 'Nanjenshan' (planted a good 8-10 stems on the left side of tank)
Rotala rotundifolia 'Green' (planted 2-3 stems on right side)
Rotala wallichii (planted right side of tank 6-8 stems)

Basically I pulled all the dwarf hairgrass and the glosso since it was just there to grow out. I still have bits of gloss around the edges and some that grew into the HC mat that will be hard to remove. I leveled out the soil a bit and redid the rock formation to give a more standard layout as well as increasing the foreground a bit.

On to the pics

Tank was prepped for the stem order shipment for sometime. Basically a huge grouping of floaters for nutrient uptake. Rocks
removed to be bleached. Here is the tank before I started the replant.










Tank after dwarf hair grass and glosso and other misc. plants removed










Aquaspotworld order - everything well packed and labeled










Bleached rocks









New rock layout



























Replanted front









Corner shot









I'm a bit concerned I did not have enough stems in this tank due to the large HC lawn. So I left in a few floaters and I'll see how things progress.


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## Genin (Jan 28, 2007)

great rescape job you did. i'm going to watch and see how it progresses for you. i think it will look great with those stems in the back and thick HC carpet in the front..... nice contrast.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Genin, thanks - the HC is starting to get nice and thick now. Pearls quite a bit which is nice.

Tank Update: Not much to report. I need to find some Amano shrimp, I have some clado growing in my HC bed. I think it came in with some of the stems I had planted earlier. Beyond manually cleaning up the HC bed and filter intake every few days I'm just waiting for things to fill in a bit more. I stopped dosing Brighty K step 1 as it seems the clado grew faster when I added that. I'm doing a bit of Excel in addition to the CO2 to help keep the clado under control until I get the shrimp.

I started on building my 60-P stand, same style as the cube stand.










60-P stand cut out waiting to be screwed together / bondo'ed / primed / painted.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Tank update: Not much to report - haven't finished 60-P stand yet. Placed some Cherry shrimp in the tank.


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## UG Dude! (Apr 12, 2007)

Filling out nicely...


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## nevada (Apr 3, 2005)

Nice setup!!! Good Luck with the planting ...


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

UGDude,Nevada, Thanks - I'm going to try and get the 60-P stand done soon. I have to putty / sand / prime / paint it still. But the main structure is all screwed together now.

Thomas, here are the measurements and directions on building the DIY stand that I made. Please bear in mind I have very little handyman skills so you will want to measure three times before you cut. I tried to simulate the look of the ADA stand without spending a lot of money. I bought the MDF 3/4" at Home Depot, they sell it precut into 36" lengths for shelving. The larger pieces like the door are bonded together to make the larger size. The rest are simple cuts off the stock size using a regular saw or a if you have it a table saw or circular saw. I did buy a small palm sander since you will be sanding a good amount. All the boards are screwed together using wood screws. I bought a countersink attachment for my cordless drill so the screw heads are below the surface of the MDF.

Items you will need and rough prices
8 or 9 of the precut MDF 3/4" shelving boards from Home Depot, they are around $3.60 each.
a box of 1 1/4" screws (1 lb of screws should be enough to build many many stands) $3
countersink bit $7 (optional)
bondo or wood putty $5
grey wood primer $7
black matte spray paint (two cans) $10
aquamat (from ADGShop or AquaForest)

Tools used
Cordless drill
Saw
palm sander
Tape Measure
Clamps
Wood Glue

MDF Cuts
23 3/4" long x 12" deep (top / bottom) (two pieces - one top and bottom of stand)
11 5/16" deep x 36" height (sides) (two pieces - sides of stand)
22 2/16" long x 13" height (two pieces - back braces for stand - top and bottom, top sits directly under the top board and inside the side boards)
23 3/4" long x 9 6/16" height (one piece - front sits directly under top in front of the side boards)
23 3/4" long x 26 12/16" height (door - two pieces bonded with glue + backing scrap MDF and screws)

assemble the pieces for a dry fit - you can use tape to hold it together on the floor to mark where you will want to drill your pilot holes (see picture I posted earlier). I used about 3 screws per attachment point and I used the countersink bit so the screws would not stick out at all. After you screw together the structure you will sand it so that all the bits are flush - you will want to do this outside since MDF generates a lot of dust. Fill in the screw holes and imperfections with bondo or wood putty. Once the putty has dried sand again.

Once the stand has been rough finished you can apply the primer. I just bought a grey wood primer and used a brush to apply. I did two coats and sanded between coats. After which you can apply the spray paint. I waited a day between coats, I did two I believe on the smaller cube stand.

If you want you can buy european hinges for the door or just have it a snug fit using a smaller MDF strip in the back of the front door that is roughly the width of the opening (22 2/16") the door will fit in nice and flush and whenever you need access to the interior just pull the front door off. This is what I did.

Once last item - you will need to trim the Aquamat slightly since it is a little too long and wide for this stand bit it fits the 60-P perfectly. Label all your pieces with a marker so its easy to put together.

Hope that helps  Not a fancy stand but it looks ok and won't break the bank.

One other thing, I added an additional MDF 3/4" board on the bottom of the stand, to give the stand a larger base for stability. You may not need to do this but simply cut to size and attach it to the bottom of the stand with the same screws. See earlier pics of my cube stand for how this looks on the smaller stand.


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## Haeun (Oct 19, 2006)

Looks stunnin! The HC is growing in very nicely!

Wow perfect. I'm planning to try to make an ADA stand myself this summer and I'm going to need all the help I can get cause I'm not incredibly handy with wood! Do you think you can perhaps post the scopes on the stand for the 30-C as well? It looks so sleek and sexy. *insert drooling face here*

Looking forward to pictures of the 60-P stand!


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## teacherthomas (Jul 14, 2006)

Hope the stand is coming along. I have started mine. Just need more space to assemble and paint. Joys of living in Asia, no room anywhere!!!!


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## manini (Mar 18, 2007)

Looking good!


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## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

Any further pictures Melbourne?


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

Haeun, Thanks - here are the rough 30C stand dimensions 11.25" wide x 36" long (2x both sides), 12.25"x12" (2x top/bottom), 12"x36" (door), there are two back braces which fit inside the stand that are about 12"x10.5". And a bottom plate that I added for additional stability on carpet, roughly 15"x14". I used the same 3/4" MDF as the 60P stand. I mounted the Hydor inline heater, a power strip, the metal halide ballast and timer inside the stand. The Eheim sits on the bottom of the stand it is packed with media - the flow was a problem when it was new but now its fine.

TeacherThomas, Thanks - please post up when you are done. At the rate I'm going you will be done before me 
Manini, Ranmasatome - Thanks, here are two pictures I took today. Not much to report, the Cherry shrimp like their new home. Still need to finish the door and sand / 2nd coat the 60-P stand. Hopefully that should be done in a week or two.

Tank pics:










Due for a trimming soon


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## ranmasatome (Aug 5, 2005)

Oh wow... the HC seems to be doing really well..and nice use of plants with small leaf-age... the growth seems to be spectacular.  Its turning out really good dewd!


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## teacherthomas (Jul 14, 2006)

Actually I am falling behind. Just finished putting the stand together and filling the screw holes and joints. I will be sanding it down today and the applying the oil stain to the inside and outside then painting it in a few days. Hope to be finished by the end of the week, but who knows.

Soil is waiting, filter, wood, CO2 and such. Still need to buy lights as I have a 48cm fixture with two 15 watt lights in it left over from an older tank but that will be no where enough light for a 60X40X45cm(high) tank.

Then again I don't have the tank yet either!! haha. I decided to wait on odering it until I had the stand finished as I don't have room to have a tank lying around on a floor especially with two young kids in the house, I am sure it would get broken, or atleast scratched! Once I get the first coat of paint on it I will order the tank. (was told it would take about 10 days as it will be 10cm glass)

Thomas


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

ranmasatome - thanks. I like how this little cube is turning out - fairly low maintenance and it seems to be doing well. 

Thomas - Looking forward to seeing your tank setup. I haven't done anything since I posted my last update except for the weekly water changes. I totally understand not wanting a new tank around where kids can get hurt on it. Hopefully I'll find time in a next week or two to make some progress


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## teacherthomas (Jul 14, 2006)

Well mine is coming along. It is amazing how much time it takes when you have no place to work and kids running around the house. http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/41177-ada-style-stand-frameless-tank.html I will hopefully finish most of it by the weekend and hang the door.


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## Melbourne (Sep 27, 2004)

teacherthomas, your stand looks great. You are going to finish before me for sure 

Tank Update: Received my Amano shrimp today from Wilma and they look great. They seem to cruise around the tank in a small pack of 3-4 scaring away any feeding Cherry shrimp. I tried to snap a photo of the group cruising around. Other than the shrimp addition I haven't done anything on the stand or done the trimming yet. I currently have at least 20 cherry shrimp in this tank, maybe more I see them everywhere and babies as well. And I just added in 6 Amano shrimp - not sure if I'm overstocked yet but I do weekly water changes and I have a Eheim Pro 2224 filter which is fairly large for a tank this size. Do you think my tank could handle/support a small Corydoras panda without frequent feeding? No other fish planned just shrimp for now.

Pics:

Amano's









Front looking a bit unkempt









Top view


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