New To The Hobby - 20 Gallon Tall Build

***Scroll down for 20 Gallon Tall Dwarf Puffer build currently in process***

Stock:
1 Red Flame Dwarf Gourami (Albert)
12 Neon Tetra
9 Corydora Habrosus
3 Nerite Snails (Zebra, Olive, Horned)
3 Amano Shrimp
2 Red Cherry Shrimp
1 Guppy Female (Hitchhiked as a fry in some plants)

Plants:
Anubias Coffeefolia
Anubias Nana
Anubias Nana Petite
Java Fern
Dwarf Sagittaria
Water Sprite
Green Foxtail
Bacopa
Frogbit

HI –

I am brand new to the forum although I have been using FishLore for the abundance of information contained within for a while now. I picked up the hobby about six months ago when I bought a family member a Betta to help deal with the loss of the family dog. Ever since then I picked up my own Betta and was soon gifted a 20 gallon tall aquarium from a neighbor who quit fish keeping after dosing his tank with pool chlorine to kill off an algae bloom, and thus all his fish as well.

My planted 20 gallon tank has been up and running for about 6 months now and I absolutely love it. It hasn’t been without it’s difficulties however as I have had to fend off a sizeable bloom of cyanobacteria a couple months in. I did this by blacking out for 3 days, lowering lighting to 8 hours a day, increasing water flow with a power head, and decreasing my feedings to every other day. The little fishies and invertebrates are as healthy as can be and the tank seems to have found a great balance. I do dose daily with Flourish Excel and weekly with Flourish ferts however I may stop once I run out just to see what happens.

I have noticed some black beard algae starting on some of my plants in the higher flow areas recently however. I am not sure of the cause or really how to battle it. It isn’t out of control or unseemly to look at so I’m not too worried about it. I have increased the amount of Flourish Excel a little bit as I have read that this can work. Any other suggestions are welcome!

Since starting my 20 gallon build I have also rehoused my Crowntail Betta, Leo in his own 10 Gallon planted tank with a couple of Zebra Nerite Snails to keep him company and to clean up the brown algae bloom that happened with the new tank. Initially he was housed in about a 2 gallon filtered bowl for a couple of months but I felt bad about it. He is happy as can be and loves swimming around all the new space and laying on everything he can find. I’ll try to get up some pictures of this one up as well.

I was just gifted another 20 gallon tall the other day and have plans to eventually start keeping a few Dwarf Puffers and a couple of Ottos. Once I get that build up and running I’ll be sure to post some updates.


Cheers!

 

Oh my gosh what a gorgeous tank!!! I have my own 20 gallon tall and a 10 gallon and they look nothing like that. I ish mine looked that good lol. What substrate are you using? As well, I am looking for a good light for my tank and I was wondering what you use.

 

Tank looks great!

 

Are you sure your new . Your aquascape is amazing!

 

I was gonna suggest ottos but it looks like you already are planning on them lol!
Very lovely tank! Wish some of mine looked like it

 

Oh my gosh what a gorgeous tank!!! I have my own 20 gallon tall and a 10 gallon and they look nothing like that. I ish mine looked that good lol. What substrate are you using? As well, I am looking for a good light for my tank and I was wondering what you use.

For my 20 gallon tall I used CaribSea Flora Max substrate and an inexpensive Amazon 20''-27'' Nicrew LED Aquarium Light. Both are fine for what I'm doing. I did try keeping a mat of Monte Carlo initially, however I don't think the light is powerful enough to reach the bottom of the tank to allow carpeting plants like that to succeed and it pretty much died off. I have some dwarf sag in there now that isn't exactly flourishing either. Oh well

Filter is a Tetra Whisper 30 and a little $4 sponge filter that I had in my Betta's bowl before moving him. There is also an Aquaclear 20 running on it to jump start the cycling for my girlfriends soon to be built 10 gallon African Dwarf Frog tank that she is planning. I also use lava rock as filter media in my HOBs.

 

Here is my 10 gallon tank for my Crowntail Betta Leo and his two companion Zebra Nerites. Relatively new tank, only been running for about a month and a half so it is still establishing. It is just getting over massive melts to some of the plants and a brown algae bloom that seems to be common in newly established tanks. Leo is one happy fish.

Stock:
Crown Tail Betta
2 Zebra Nerites

Plants:
Anubias Nana
Water Sprite
Lace Java Fern
Pennywort
Red Ludwigia
2 Moss Balls
Crypt Parva that the LFS was struggling with and sold to me at a cost

Eco Complete / Aquaclear 30 (lava rock media) / Finnex FugeRay Planted +

Here is the hardscape while the tank was cycling before the addition of any plants.

 

Found a few little baby Red Cherry Shrimp in my 20 gallon after doing a water change earlier this afternoon. Hope they survive!

 

Wow, Lovely fish tanks.

 

Beautiful!!! Wouldn't have guessed you were "new to the hobby". Your research has paid off very well!

What kind of stone do you use? Love the look.

 

bigdreams - Thank you! The rocks are something that I actually did not research at all and kind of lucked out on. I just happened to be given tons of stone years ago for some landscaping. I just went out to the backyard and selected a few smaller pieces. When setting up my 20 gallon, I tested the PH of our water and didn't see any difference after placing the stone in there so I just rolled with it.

On the right side of the 20 gallon around the piece of spider wood is river rock I believe. On the left side of the 20 gallon and in the 10 gallon is kind of a mystery. I believe it is Basalt, possibly Seiyru stone. I loved the way it started looking in my 20 gallon after a couple months so I used that same type of rock exclusively with the 10 gallon.

 

Man, I wish my tanks looked half as good as your's do.

 

Holy...

Just sprinkled a little flake food into my 20 gallon and one of my neons jumped right out of the tank in front of me and nearly smacked me in the face! Never saw that before. Glad I was there to scoop him up and drop him back in.

Reenactment below:

 

Update: 2 days later and it seems the little red cherry shrimps are still going strong. Was able to spot 4 of them just now. Hoping to have a nice little community of these guys in a few months.

Also, I just picked up a Finnex Planted + 24/7 light for the 20 gallon. Very neat light. Anyone have any thoughts on it? I've read a little bit about them being noisy or finicky.

 

When you dI'm the light it tends to buzz. You will likely need to dI'm the light on a 20 long as the tank is pretty shallow and the light will be pretty bright.

 

It's becoming a bit of an obsession!

Beginning my new build for a 20 gallon tall freshwater puffer tank. Picturing some manzanita wood tangles coming from a pile of rocks on one side. Probably going to keep all low light plants, a bunch of anubias and java fern mixed into the wood tangle and rocks. Going to do something different with the substrate, thinking a light color sand since the plants I'm planning on are not root feeders. I'm open to suggestions!

Just need to figure out where to get my pea puffers now that one of the LFS that carried them no longer do. Might see if they can special order them for me. The LFS that I usually get my fish and plants from carry Bumble Bee Puffers but I hear these guys are very territorial and I wouldn't be able to get more than 1 in a 20 gallon unless I keep them over fed. Was hoping on 4-5 pea puffers in this set up.

 

Update: 2 days later and it seems the little red cherry shrimps are still going strong. Was able to spot 4 of them just now. Hoping to have a nice little community of these guys in a few months.

Soooo.... don't think I'm going to have to wait a couple months for a community of these RCS because over the last day I went from spotting 4 to 7 to 12. And now tonight there are 30-40+ of these little things crawling around my tank. Insane.

 

Following this thread would love to see what you’re doing with your new tank set up. also congrats on the baby shrimp!

 

Hardscape for the new 20 gallon tall Dwarf Puffer tank. Decided to go with a piece of spider-wood from my preferred LFS instead of ordering Manzanita online as shipping would be nearly as much as the wood and you never know what type of pieces you'll end up getting. Rocks are a random assortment. I will test the PH when I start cycling to make sure there is nothing in there that throws the water chemistry off balance. I should be fine considering I use the same type of rocks in my other two tanks.

Good news is that my preferred LFS is carrying Dwarf Puffers for the first time, so I won't need to special order from the less trusted LFS that told me they wouldn't carry them anymore or online.

Plant load will be 4-5 batches of Anubias plants amongst the rocks on the left side and a bunch of Java Fern around and between the rocks on the right side. Will throw some Frog Bit in there on the surface as well since it grows like mad in my other two tanks and I love the way the roots hang down.

I'm getting there! Stay tuned!

 

Cycling has begun! Using an old filter bag that I've been keeping in my other 20 gallon HOB for this occasion. Will be feeding it some algae wafers for ammonia and soon dropping in some pest snails once it gets up to temperature.

 

Added 4 batches of Anubias Coffeefolia to the rocks on the left and 3 batches of Java Fern behind the rocks on the right. Also have some clumps of Frogbit growing at the surface. Since I am using all low light plants on this tank, I might actually let it take over the entire surface on this tank. I am hoping that the long roots will allow some more hiding places for the 6 pea puffers I plan on adding once it is fully cycled.

Was able to pull out 4 Ramshorn snails from my other two tanks and add them to help the cycling process. Already noticed some egg sacks along the glass after only 24 hours. I guess that's why they call these guys pest snails.

 

Figured I'd throw this on here too. Soon to be planted 10 gallon African Dwarf Frog tank that my girlfriend is starting. Currently cycling. Should be planted by next weekend. I think she is planning on Java Fern, Anubias, Banana Plants. She should also be adding a couple small clay pots too I believe for her froggies.

 

Small update on my 20 gallon Neon Tetra Community tank. Since switching over to the 24/7 planted plus, I have noticed some new growth on my Dwarf Sag at the bottom of the tank for the first time. Hopefully should start seeing some runners.

Also look at all those little super red cherry shrimp running around the bottom of the tank. You'd also be able to see them in the water sprite on the left if it wasn't so washed out. Counted between 40-50.

 

Are you sure you’re a newbie cuz it sure doesn’t look like it, I mean jeez...

 

Are you sure you’re a newbie cuz it sure doesn’t look like it, I mean jeez...

Haha yeah, only started the tank in my previous post last August. Before that I only had a 2 gallon filtered Betta Bowl with a fake plant and a decoration for about a month.

Research goes a long way as well as having a great local fish store a couple miles away.

 

Well amazing job, it looks incredible. Great inspiration. thumbs way up

 

3 days ago I added the first 3 of potentially 6 Dwarf Puffers to my new 20 gallon tall build. These guys are so entertaining to watch. I've read that they are a bit territorial but as of yet they all kind of hang out together most time. Maybe as they get settled that will change. No aggression or anything with each other. Even the few Ramshorn snails I have in there have pretty much been untouched although I did see the biggest of the 3 puffers peck at one when I fed them some frozen blood worms yesterday.

Other changes include the addition of 3 Wavy Green Bucephalandra between the rocks on the right side. I plan on picking up some additional batches of Java Fern for the back left of the tank as well to kind of balance it out.

 

My girlfriend's freshly planted 10 gallon that is going to house 3 African Dwarf Frogs once the LFS gets some more.

We planted it today with Anubias Nana, 2x Banana Plants, Lace Java Fern, Cuban Ludwigia, 2 Moss Balls, and a tuft of Java Moss that will soon be attached to the driftwood and possibly the rocks.

She also added 2 Nerite Snails (Boogers and Beans) and her Betta (Timmy).

Very happy with how this one has turned out so far. Timmy is one happy Betta!

10g w/ Aquaclear 20 (Lava Rock media) & Finnex FugeRay Planted+ Clip On Light. Regular gravel substrate w/ root tab for the Ludwigia.

 

Update on my 20 gallon tall puffer. Added another small piece of drift wood and some more Java Fern. Moved one of the Buce to the new driftwood as well which has a little cave that the fish like to swim through and hang out in. I still want to add a few more small rocks to the right side. Just need to find a sledge so I can break some up. Also would like to find some similar pebbles and add them around the left side too.

The puffers have been a little more territorial, just some minor chasing by the big guy (who I am naming Sunshine) when there is some food in the middle area. Nothing too extreme though. I will likely be adding some more Anubias and Buce piece meal when I take trips to the LFS to provide a little more cover here and there.

 

Alright.... so my puffers have been acting quite aggressive with each other. The middle area of my Aquascape in my previous post was becoming a battle ground. My biggest puffer pretty much declared that it was his territory including pretty much everything else near it, forcing my other fish to stay around the outside glass of the tank. Any time they would wonder near the middle, he would chase them out. When I feed them he would chase the others constantly. I actually noticed some of the fish puffing up quite a bit yesterday along with some pretty aggressive circling during feeding.

I decided to make a change to see if I can open up some more space for swimming as well as provide some more obstacles with the hardscape to perhaps allow for more places for fish to declare their own territory. I think I may end up adding a lot more java fern because it is still pretty open but I'm going to keep an eye on it to see if this really changes anything.

 

Java Fern explosion!!!!!

Bought a large mat at the LFS split it up. Now I've got a jungle I am loving every single minute of it. Fed the DPs and noticed a lot less aggression. They still circled a little bit and bullied a little bit but once giving chase they would loose interest due to the additional plant cover. :-D

 

I would stick with the 3 you have now maybe add 1 female AFTER you add more plants or change things up a bit as they would probably have set territories already. I would break up the line of sight in the front as well. The aggression is only going to get worse as they mature. Tiger lotus would look really nice on the left side and one on the right side under the wood overhang. The huge leaves and thin stalks give a nice place to hide when things get too crazy. It would add some nice red color as well. If you go this route, remember to cut the leaves you see shooting to the surface before they get there because they tend to send more up there once one makes it and you lose the nice compact growth.

 

glenCOCO - I actually have 6 of the little buggers in there now. They are still too young to sex properly however I have noticed the belly line on 2 of them. From what I've read I'm guessing I have mostly males which I may trade in for (hopefully) females.

They are only aggressive when I feed them and for a while after feeding. Other than that they are actually pretty calm and do not chase. Right now as I look at the tank they are pretty much all hanging out in their own spots and and poking around the new java fern and roots of the frog bit.

Tiger Lotus is a great idea, I was actually looking at them the other day.

 

Added some Pothos/Philodendron to my HOB filters. My tanks are in the basement so it is a bit of an experiment to see how they do as there is not much light going on down here.

 

Looks good! With 6 you definitely want to trade in any males you have once you’re able to sex them. The wrinkles behind the eyes would be a surefire way to tell as they’re typically more pronounced than the belly line. The pothos should do fine with just the ambient light from the tanks. Doesn’t look like there’s much variegation going on with the pothos so that’s a plus for really low light settings. Were these pothos already in water or are you transitioning from soil?

 

No eye wrinkles yet on any of em but a few of them are definitely showing the belly line. I'm pretty sure I have 5 males and 1 female, quite the luck of the draw! I will probably be heading in to the LFS this week to see if I can trade.

The Pothos are trimmings from house plants, so it may be a while before they establish a root system.

 

I love the look of your 20L.

 

New aquascape for the pea puffers! The rocks in the previous aquascape made cleaning too difficult so I pulled them completely.

Built up previous java fern around my drift wood in the center, placed my anubias coffeefolia in the bottom center and moved the buce up higher on the drift wood. I also added some java moss to the wood, red crypt wendtiI in the front right of the feature as well as some dwarf sag to the bottom left. In the back left corner is watersprite that should grow and fill out that area. Back right corner will be a forest of Bacopa once it grows tall and propagates in this tank and my other tank.

I feel this scape is really sectioning off different areas of the tank better for the DPs to claim as their own. Plus pulling all those rocks gives so much more swimming room that wasn't available to the back of the tank previously. Overall, I love the jungle look of the new feature in the center of the tank and the DPs are already darting in and out of it after only 2days.