New 20 Gallon Long Planted, First Tank(not counting frog tank)

Hello All,

What a blast this was planting my first tank with ADA Aquaroil and Caribsea substrates:

 

Great looking tank

 

Super jealous

 

 

Tank Update. Added:

Amazon Sword
6 neon tetra
4 True SAE
1 Amano
1 Cherry
More dwarf baby tears on left side

Getting some good growth already.

 

Beautiful!

 

That is one good looking set up. Boy do I have a dwarf Gourami that would LOVE to call that home. Unfortunately he would redecorate (rip to pieces) all those lovely plants before you could get out a scream.

 

HAHA ya this tank isn't suited for much action.

This week I added

6 Galaxy Rasboras
8 Crystal Red Shrimp

I am bordering overstocked and will most likely transfer my neon tetras to my community tank

 

Photo update, not much time passed, added some cool plants and put a piece of black background behind the tank that I need to stick to the glass.. driftwood tied some moss in..

Bought and installed paintball C02 & ada counter & diffuser and an ugly thermometer.

 

Getting phenominal growth with my CO2 system.

Absolutely obsessed with Celestial Pearl Danios. They swim so gently and gracefully, without any real sharp movements. I removed all but two of my Neon Tetras. The two that I kept in the tank have coupled up. I witnessed them spawning but did not have my phone on me.

I have 4 CPDs and plan to add a whole group more very soon..

Also added more cherry shrimp, one of which is berried.. and some Amano..

 

Weekly Tank Update:

Added some Red Cherry Shrimp, two of which are berried and in the breeder box

Added some sand because I was getting bad mixing. I use a small ziplock cut a corner off and sort of do a baking pipette method in the water. It works really well.

Trimmed a bit. Plants look good. Lots of growth and trimmings replanted are doing well...moss is pearling... Lost one of the cherry reds when added, the other 4 are doing great. CPDs are really popping with color now. SAEs are going strong since way back. Took out all but 2 of my Neon Tetras and things have been much calmer in the tank..

I should also add, I bought some Amquel + ( I usually use API dechlor). Did a water change and boom killed 3 shrimp. I went back to API with no other issues.

I couldn't believe it. I am VERY careful with measurement of dechlor.

I picked up a bottle of Prime but I am extremely cautious of switching again. The only reason I set out to switch is my LFS always runs out of dechlor and with two tanks I go through it rather quickly.

Started dosing equilibrium and Alkaline bc my PH was around 5.5-6 and no KH.. Much improvement. Put some in a water change one day but can't do WC every day so next days took some tank water out added it to the water then put water back in after it dissolved. Works good for now hopefully no surprises.

That's all folks

 

Your tank looks amazing! I just set up a new 20 gallon long and your photos are pretty inspirational. What kind of light are you using on your tank, and how many hours do you leave it on typically?

 

Thank you

I bought the tank and the light from petco. I sort of fell into this hobby all back when I found some frogs in our backyard. So now I would probably go with a better light, but this one is Fluval Aquasky. Its nice that it has a remote control. But there are better ones out there with the same remote, just better light for plants..check out the brand Finnex

I would love to see your tank! What are you going for etc...

 

Ahaha OK, I just checked out the Finnex flights and just out one on my wish list. They sound pretty good.

I really like the more wild looking tanks and biotopes and I've been interested in setting up a southwest Asia or blackwater tank. Hopefully I'll get around to posting my tank diary soon too.

 

I meant to tell you I run my light for 10 hours and then turn it dI'm until dark outside. CO2 runs the whole time the light is on. I try to move the light when possible, half of the day toward the back half of the tank and half of the day toward the front.

 

Tank Update Photo

I trimmed and moved some plants around, have good growth in the dwarf hair grass as well as the crypt in the back. Added two white clouds from my outdoor tank to throw some color and added some ottos for additional clean up

 

Rescaped a bit and added 5 tissue cultures of Monte Carlo. I'm hoping they carpet bc I haven't been happy with the sand so far.. The contrast is interesting but the mixing w aquasoil drives me insane.

added some of my white clouds from my outdoor frog & fish tank. added a couple of neons as well.

 

Tank Update

I began a Seachem liquid ferts regimen this past week. Growth has taken off. Even though I had been dosing Potassium, Excel, using Equilibrium, and injecting CO2, I was missing the macroferts that now have made new growth quicker than I thought possible.

My main adversary now is the recent spike in temperature, My tank is in the garage and unfortunately, other than aI'm a fan at the water surface, (icepacks haven't worked) I am at the mercy of the weather.

I lost a few shrimp, about 4 Crystal Red and about 5 Red Cherry, some due to the weather and others due to an overdose of iron one day as I started dialing in my dosing amounts...sucks! No fish loss..

Monte Carlo is beginning to carpet, I am really excited to see this fill in completely.

 

Tank Update

I began a Seachem liquid ferts regimen this past week. Growth has taken off. Even though I had been dosing Potassium, Excel, using Equilibrium, and injecting CO2, I was missing the macroferts that now have made new growth quicker than I thought possible.

My main adversary now is the recent spike in temperature, My tank is in the garage and unfortunately, other than aI'm a fan at the water surface, (icepacks haven't worked) I am at the mercy of the weather.

I lost a few shrimp, about 4 Crystal Red and about 5 Red Cherry, some due to the weather and others due to an overdose of iron one day as I started dialing in my dosing amounts...sucks! No fish loss..

Monte Carlo is beginning to carpet, I am really excited to see this fill in completely.View attachment 198818

Wow. What was the time frame between the last two pictures you posted? That's looking great. What is you water temp fluctuating between?

 

14 Days

The temp was ranging between 74-6 and up to 79-80 when I noticed it... I like to keep the tank around 74 but we have had consistent 90-100 degree weather lately.

I have a fan on the tank now and its keeping it around 78.

It took me a while to fully grasp the fert schedule, accumulate all the products, and make sure not to overdose.. I think that in 2-3 months I will have it fully grown in

 

14 Days

The temp was ranging between 74-6 and up to 79-80 when I noticed it... I like to keep the tank around 74 but we have had consistent 90-100 degree weather lately.

I have a fan on the tank now and its keeping it around 78.

It took me a while to fully grasp the fert schedule, accumulate all the products, and make sure not to overdose.. I think that in 2-3 months I will have it fully grown in

Very cool. I'm hoping I can have some luck with a low light tank, I really like the planted thick look.

Nice job on yours.

 

You will do fine! Plants are really not hard to grow.

Thank you!

Now that I've been at it for a few months, I see many things I would do differently. Starting with the tank, its size, and down to the plant choices. Eventually I will go all out, but I want to see this tank through a year first.

For a low light tank, I would suggest doing some research on low light plants, and only plant those. There are some really cool low light tanks out there.

Here is a link to a list of low light plants:

 

Tank update pic. Monte Carlo carpeting in. Clipped and moved some around the tank for better spread. Removed plant in front right.

Have 3 plants coming Tuesday. Haven't decided exactly where to put them but thinking of removing the rock in back left and relocating the mossy driftwood to make room.

CABOMBAPURPLE CABOMBA PALAEFORMIS,
PALUSTRIS PROSERPINACA PALUSTRIS
ROTALA WALLICHII

 

The carpeting looks great! The look of the tank has really evolved as you rearrange things and plants grow in

 

Looking back, I think it would have made a great scape for shrimp if I had planted monte carlo on the aquasoil only, and left the tank as is.

Adding a powerhead for circulation, as well as more plants and fish, changed everything. The powerhead smoothed out the sand, taking away that nice wavy look.

One of the issues was the mixing of substrates. I didn't put anything between them. It was a mistake I recognized the day after I scaped the tank. I watched some videos and saw they used rocks to really divide substrates. Some even use plastic dividers. The mixing really got to me over time. It had me adding more sand to get fresh layers, which my siamese algae eaters would just end up messing up.

This tank has been a great experiment where I've been able to hone my skills and understand my strengths and weaknesses, between the equipment, the ferts, the fish, and mistakes everywhere in between.

I will most likely tear it down and use all the plants in a new setup. What I would really like to do is buy two new tanks, both low iron rimless glass. One will be a shrimp tank, hardscape, carpeted, most likely with all this monte carlo, since its so easy to cut and repropogate. The other will be a fish tank. This is where I will use the big plants.

But for now, I am going to let this tank really grow in, until everything looks super healthy, then decide finally what to do.

 

Tank Update Photo

 

 

your tank is gorgeous! I was wondering what lights are you using?

 

Thanks Esoree I bought a Fluval Aquasky at Petco before really knowing anything about planted tanks. I would probably go with an ADA, finnex now or 2 kessils now

 

Final update pic

Added new plants, removed driftwood

I've outgrown the tank quite literally

Bought two rimless tanks this week. a 12 gallon and a 20 gallon low iron.

I will be tearing this tank down and using the 10 to do an IwagumI shrimp tank, with the ADA substrate method and perhaps the SL-Aqua shrimp cycle as well (investigating their possible synergies), hardscape with Utricularia Graminifolia carpet, Staurogyne sp. 'Porto velho', and Seiryu Stone or Ohko. I'd really like to go for a shrimp like Taiwan Bee. We'll see...

20 gallon will be planted, more of a fish tank.. not sure exactly how or with what yet. Whatever I do, this time I am going to stick with only a small number of plant types and try to grow them out rather than adding many different..

 

Tank officially torn down

Put all my shrimp in a vase with the original water before I did a thing... setup with as much plants as I could and with a heater set to 78 and an airstone


Drained a lot of the water and added to holding tank
Put all my fish and plants into the ~50 gallon and using it as a livestock and holding tank for everything.. I have enough monte carlo to carpet a 60 gallon

So far no deaths yet! I added a ton of new water to fill the holding tank but used as much original water as I could get..and a ton of RO before turning to the hose mixed with prime.

So now I have 4 tanks on one rack in a better spot in my garage. Feels good to get this done today!

Top will be a dwarf shrimp shadow pinto breeder tank - this tank I tore down: 20 gallon long

Second down is an iwagumI will have UG carpet and Staurogyne sp. 'Porto velho' 10 gallon

3rd will be a Dutch planted - 20 gallon rectangular

4th is the holding / livestock tank

 

I will do separate build threads for each.