Delivery Day!

Christmas came early this year! I bought all of the dry goods from an online store (http://www.charm.co.jp/). Their prices are 10% to 30% cheaper than the retail shops in Tokyo. And shipping is free (if you order over JPY 20,000 or roughly USD $200) and very quick (less than two days).

The Tank

I went with ADA's Glass Garden Mini. The dimensions are 36 x 22 x 26 cm or 19 liters. This is roughly 14 x 9 x 10 inches or 5.5 gallons. I was tempted to set-up a larger tank, but I didn't want to deal with breaking it down and shipping it back to the States once my Tokyo job assignment ends.

Each ADA tank is signed by the assembler and the inspector. Talk about German quality combined with Japanese attention to detail!

The Lights

This is ADA's Solar Mini with a square, four-pin 27w power compact. It is made to match with the tank and is asthetically perfect in my opinion. My only complaint is the reflector. The reflector is a simple polished, curved piece of metal. I think they could do a better job of maximizing the light with a better reflector design ala Spider or Lumenarc reflectors.

This is the side view of the light. The light pivots forwards and backwards for easy access to the tank.

The Filtration System

I am using a simple Ehiem canister filter.

This is ADA's Lily Pipe (Mini V-1). It is the intake to my external canister filter. It is hard to see in this picture but it is basically a tube capped on one end with slits cut into the glass.

This is the return pipe (Mini P-1) for the outlet from my canister filter.

The Supplements

This is liquid fertilizer made by ADA. Green Brighty Step 1 is for the first three months of a new aquarium set-up. Green Brighty Step 2 is used for aquariums from 3 months to a year old. Green Brighty Step 3 (not shown) is for mature aquariums over a year old. The Bright K is used with water changes and/or after pruning.

These supplements are added to the substrate when setting up the tank. There is not alot of information on what is exactly in this stuff. According to Jeff Senske of ADG (Aquarium Design Group), Clear Super is a powder-grade carbon to polish the water and absorb excess organic substances and promote the proliferation of nitrifying bacteria. Bacter 100 is a bacteria and enzyme supplement containing over 100 different microorganisms in a dormant state. Toumaline BC is a mineral compound of iron, aluminum, sodium, boron, lithium and magnesium.

The CO2 System

I wasn't going to use CO2 on this tank, but I just love ADA's glass work and wanted to use their beetle counter and pollen glass. This CO2 system is relatively cheap and comes with a disposal CO2 canister, stand and regulator.

This is ADA's Beetle Counter. To be honest, this bubble counter is overkill and a bit big for my small tank. But I figured that I could re-use it when I upgrade to a large tank. Besides, this CO2 bubble counter is a work of art. The CO2 bubble rises in a spiral instead of straight up. What's the benefit over a standard bubble counter? None! It's just nice to look at.

I couldn't resist this all-glass check valve for the CO2 system. Beautiful to look at and almost 100% reliable unlike other cheap plastic check valves. The little, red glass ball is the valve and seals completely if there is any back-siphoning.

ADA Pollen Glass Mini. It contains a diffusion plate to aid absorption of the CO2 into the water column.

I plan to shut-off the CO2 at night so I bought the solenoid.

And I bought a cheap timer for the solenoid.