Pfrozen's 20g Aquascape Build

[JLAquatics]

I'll be following this thread now. Blackwater tanks look very interesting, much different than your typical planted tank. As you said, Rasboras are wonderful fish to have even though they may be common. The crazy thing is that I originally planned on getting Harlequin Rasboras for my planted aquarium but the shop had Espei Rasboras instead. I do not regret it, though.

 

[Pfrozen]

I'll be following this thread now. Blackwater tanks look very interesting, much different than your typical planted tank. As you said, they are wonderful fish to have even though they may be common. The crazy thing is that I originally planned on getting Harlequin Rasboras for my planted aquarium but the shop had Espei Rasboras instead. I do not regret it, though.

The lambchops are pretty similar anyways, just a tad smaller. Yours are quite nice too but I've already told you that Like I said, they're picky with their coloration. I had to adjust my food quite a bit before I got them to stay at full coloration. High protein flakes work very well, I buy quality earthworm flakes in bulk and that's the main food that all my fish eat now

 

[JLAquatics]

The lambchops are pretty similar anyways, just a tad smaller. Yours are quite nice too but I've already told you that Like I said, they're picky with their coloration. I had to adjust my food quite a bit before I got them to stay at full coloration. High protein flakes work very well, I buy quality earthworm flakes in bulk and that's the main food that all my fish eat now

I agree with this. When I first got my 12 Lambchops, they were not that vibrant at all and mostly a faded grey orange in a tank with just gravel. Now they show much better coloration after some time in my tank and the largest males are a deep coppery orange now! On top of the food I feel that the presence of plenty of live plants in their tank helps as well, it allows them to live more comfortably in a natural habitat which you definitely have.

 

[Pfrozen]

Nothing like a good WC with some extra tannins

 

[MacZ]

Love it!

But looks like the SAE will be moving soon.

 

[Pfrozen]

Love it!

But looks like the SAE will be moving soon.

Lol yup, almost time now. Size is around 4 inches already. I might just replace it with another juvenile and grow it out... I kind of like having one in there

 

[Pfrozen]

The plants are having a rough time lol. I'm guessing lack of phosphates and potassium. I upped my fert schedule so we'll see how it goes. My plants are used to 0.5-0.75 ppm P at all times

I think I'll move the pencilfish or rasboras over to their own tank and rehome my SAE. That should open me up for some interesting stocking choices. I'm sure that whatever I put in there will be happy

Hopefully my anubias and lily come back. I'll be dosing an extra 6 ppm K, 0.15 ppm P, and 1 ppm N twice per week along with the Tropica Specialized that I already use. I'm hoping that the extra kick will carry my plants. Anubias are undemanding but the pothos sucks everything out of the water instantly. I realize that the extra 1 ppm N isn't much but I use Aquavitro, which is an ammoniacal tank fert.. the dosing is a bit different over traditional nitrate ferts

The load of K is not unreasonable for my tank considering the pothos, lily, and anubias are all heavy K feeders. Again, the pothos will suck a lot of it out. Oddly enough, the pothos was showing K deficiency too, which is wild

Pros and cons of remineralized water I suppose

 

[Pfrozen]

Plants have ready perked up a bit and a lot of the BBA disappeared overnight.. I think it's because I leave home for 3 or 4 days at a time and can't keep the tannins up to an appropriate level and can't fertilize. My wife has been rocking it with the fish so I will kindly ask her to fertilize and add Blackwater extract if I'm gone longer than 2 days

Also cut the pothos back about 1 foot to where the healthy growth ends. Put the cutting into one of my 10g tanks

The lily has a tiny leaf coming up from the bulb so hopefully it revives itself

I looked closer at my plants and did some research and it looks like N and K, not P. Probably need to be adding N every couple days but no big deal for now.

I've been talking to a contact and looks like I will be changing up my stocking. If all goes well this tank will have Chili Rasboras, Honey Gouramis, and Otos. Will post pics once the stocking is switched

 

[Pfrozen]

Can't believe I haven't updated this since May

A lot of the plants recovered and I replaced the ones that didn't. I switched to easy green so I don't really need to worry about macros and micros so much now. I just dose a bit of extra K whenever I feel the need.

I changed up my stocking as well. I now have 5 honeys, 5 otos, and 4 amano shrimp. I originally had 6 honeys but lost one during our heat wave

I consider this tank fully stocked. I won't be adding anything else as the honeys are beautiful in their own right.

I stopped caring about algae so much. The otos are always out grazing and seem very healthy. I'm hoping that they'll spawn soon.. same with the gourami

The pothos has been cut on one side to let the front vine take over. I like this look better

And the suswassertang has gotten enormous of course. I'm going to have to thin it out eventually. For now my shrimp and honeys like to graze off of it

I started using peat so my pH sits somewhere around 6.5 now. Perfect for what I have in there

And no more SAE obviously. I traded it and the harlequins for the 6 honeys solid trade imo and they went to a good home



Dominant male honey with an oto in there