20 Gallon Tank Planted tank beginner

[SinisterCichlids]

My first attempt at a planted tank currently housed by a GBR and hillstream loach. The plants are anubius, java fern, staurogyne repens, and tissue culture.

Happy to hear your thoughts, questions, comments, and concerns

 

[ruud]

I imagine the leaves of java fern and annubias to become affected with algae pretty soon. Especially so close to the lights. You keep these species deep green and algae-free in the shades.

Big chance for the tissue culture to melt away, but species matters also.... the tissue culture is Alternanthera?

Given your situation, I'd probably have picked Rotala rontundifolia, Heteranthera zosterifolia, Micranthemum glomeratum and Hydrocotyle leucocephala. The latter to inhabit the stones and wood.

 

[kansas]

A quick growing plant like frogbit or hornwort will soak up nutrients and help keep algae at bay.

 

[TClare]

Yes, I would definitely add some floating plants to provide shade, I would also add more plants especially fast growing stem plants (including some already mentioned by ruud.

I am concerned about your species choice, the temperature required by the GBR will be much too warm for the hillstream loach.

 

[SinisterCichlids]

Yes, I would definitely add some floating plants to provide shade, I would also add more plants especially fast growing stem plants (including some already mentioned by ruud.

I am concerned about your species choice, the temperature required by the GBR will be much too warm for the hillstream loach.

Yeah I definitely want to add some floating plants !! I think having floating plants on the ends of the tank will provide for some much needed shade. I added flourish tabs to the substrate for a boost. I feel like I have a lot of learning to go with plants, but hopefully not too much trial and error !!

The light is on a natural timer to increase and decrease gradually throughout the day.
Been having a hard time finding floating plants and fast growing stem plants in store. Might have to order, but I prefer supporting stores near me !!

As for the loach and GBR: they’ve been tank mates for a bit now. Tank is set at 77.5 and haven’t seen any problems. I’m of the belief that consistent temperature is significantly more important than it being 2.5 degrees above their “recommended”. Despite the misinformation, they are fairly hardy fish and hands down my favorite bottom dweller.

 

[kansas]

My mentor told me to avoid Seachem fertilizers as they are not complete. I have been told to use an all in one like Thrive or Easy Green.

 

[SinisterCichlids]

My mentor told me to avoid Seachem fertilizers as they are not complete. I have been told to use an all in one like Thrive or Easy Green.

Thanks for commenting !!

I was thinking of getting easy green, keep it simple and expand as I learn more and see what the tank needs!

 

[SinisterCichlids]

Here’s a bit of an update. I added 5 otos and 10 neon tetras. The s repens is growing slow, but I’ve noticed the roots really starting to ground themselves.

The TC is cardinalis I believe. It lost its bright color, but I have since split the plant up and it seems to have regained color on the bottom side of the plant.

The large Java fern is growing baby Java ferns on it. I put a few more flourish tabs in the substrate and picked up NilocG Thrive. I think that’s about all of the updates.

 

[3Fishnight]

Thanks for commenting !!

I was thinking of getting easy green, keep it simple and expand as I learn more and see what the tank needs!

Dry fertilizer would be most cost affective and best for targeting specific nutrients. I.e since you have a decently stocked tank you wouldnt need to add much nitrates or phosphate. mostly just some extra potassium. All easy green and other liquid fetrilizers sold commercially are just dry fertilizers mixed with water, heavily diluted for profit. Dry fertz are muuuch cheaper just letting you know early.

 

[SinisterCichlids]

Dry fertilizer would be most cost affective and best for targeting specific nutrients. I.e since you have a decently stocked tank you wouldnt need to add much nitrates or phosphate. mostly just some extra potassium. All easy green and other liquid fetrilizers sold commercially are just dry fertilizers mixed with water, heavily diluted for profit. Dry fertz are muuuch cheaper just letting you know early.

Thanks so much for the comment. Id be a fool to not save same money!

Could you explain the dry ferts and how you would go about it, if you were in my position? Right now with a 30% water change weekly, I’m reading between 5.0 - 20 nitrates. Whatever products or tools you suggest to go that route long term would also be appreciated.

 

[3Fishnight]

Thanks so much for the comment. Id be a fool to not save same money!

Could you explain the dry ferts and how you would go about it, if you were in my position? Right now with a 30% water change weekly, I’m reading between 5.0 - 20 nitrates. Whatever products or tools you suggest to go that route long term would also be appreciated.

Try a dosing calculator. Like rotala butterfly. First buy the specific dry fert you are after. Since you live in the US you could try green leaf aquariums dry ferts. On their website they break down every detail you would ever need to know about dry fert dosing. In your case likely K2SO4(potassium sulfate). Once your plants start to grow and get dense you will likely need some others. To put into perspective just how long they last. I bought some maybe 7 years ago and havent even got halfway through the bags. I only have 2 tanks tho.

Once you go to the website scroll down to navigate and hit fertilizer dosing and calculator.

Personally if i were you i would just start off with a bag of K2SO4 and a bag of micro mix. You may not even need the micro mix. Its mostly for some extra magnesium because most tanks are deficient in that. They have magnesium nitrate bag on their website that may be helpful if you see the plants are sucking nitrates out of the water, then with magnesium in that bag you know you have it. the micro mix has magnesium in it too, so you could just get that(thats what i would do). Then i personally would get the bag of KNO3 and KH2PO4 just to have it in case you need it. Maybe not necessary tho. For now just try the k2SO4 and the micro mix and dose your tank with those.

As for how much you dose thats another debate. I would just dose a small amount of both once a week and observe how your plants do. I think the dosing calculators measure in ppm doses. So 5-10 ppm K2SO4 and something like .5 or less ppm of iron of the micro mix( it goes by iron because thats the main micro nutrient) Both once a week. If none of that makes sense once you go to the dosing calculator and read a bit you will undertand it rather quickly.

 

[cdr63corv]

Curious, what substrate are you using? I like the look of yours

 

[SinisterCichlids]

Thank you so much! Honestly it’s nothing special, generic black sand from petco/petsmart. Can’t remember which one as it was years ago, but it was definitely the “store brand”. There is also some white in there !!

 

[SinisterCichlids]

This is exactly a two week update.

The repens has definitely grown. I personally don’t know if I am going to like it as a carpeting plant, but I’m trusting the process here. I moved both Javas to the back right. It appeared that the two branches in filter current weren’t happy. So we will see how that pans out. The cardinalis really just took off, but I haven’t been able to regain the original red/pink color.

30% weekly WC with nitrates around 5.0 - 20.

I am looking to find a different food as well. Any recommendations ?? there are neon tetras, Oto catfish, a German blue ram, and a Hillstream Loach in the tank.

 

[3Fishnight]

This is exactly a two week update.

The repens has definitely grown. I personally don’t know if I am going to like it as a carpeting plant, but I’m trusting the process here. I moved both Javas to the back right. It appeared that the two branches in filter current weren’t happy. So we will see how that pans out. The cardinalis really just took off, but I haven’t been able to regain the original red/pink color.

30% weekly WC with nitrates around 5.0 - 20.

I am looking to find a different food as well. Any recommendations ?? there are neon tetras, Oto catfish, a German blue ram, and a Hillstream Loach in the tank.

Hello the tank is looking good. Thats an interesting red plant(cardinalis) in the background i dont see those very often. The red pink color is likely hard to achieve without proper lighting. You would likely need a higher end light, although what do i know? S repens carpets look really cool in my opinion. If you can get it to grow out nicely props to you. I have a few in my tank that are doing so so. One tip as the tank gets older you may need to watch out for algae.

I recently started to use a turkey baster to shoot the substrate with little bursts of water to get the muck and mulm/fish waste out, then sucking up that little cloud with the siphon. ( Used for cleaning the aqua soil without sucking any up). I used to be a big advocate for leaving the substrate alone in a planted tank. Although if this dirt cleaning method helps with my algae i will make it a practice. I have a ton of bba i've been fighting with for a few months lazily. I have seen 2 hour aquarist talk up that turkey baster method and his tanks do look pretty dang clean despite them being older planted tanks. Happy fishkeeping and i wish you well.

I just realized after i posted this that you dont have dirt. On the bottom haha.

 

[SinisterCichlids]

Hello the tank is looking good. Thats an interesting red plant(cardinalis) in the background i dont see those very often. The red pink color is likely hard to achieve without proper lighting. You would likely need a higher end light, although what do i know? S repens carpets look really cool in my opinion. If you can get it to grow out nicely props to you. I have a few in my tank that are doing so so. One tip as the tank gets older you may need to watch out for algae.

I recently started to use a turkey baster to shoot the substrate with little bursts of water to get the muck and mulm/fish waste out, then sucking up that little cloud with the siphon. ( Used for cleaning the aqua soil without sucking any up). I used to be a big advocate for leaving the substrate alone in a planted tank. Although if this dirt cleaning method helps with my algae i will make it a practice. I have a ton of bba i've been fighting with for a few months lazily. I have seen 2 hour aquarist talk up that turkey baster method and his tanks do look pretty dang clean despite them being older planted tanks. Happy fishkeeping and i wish you well.

I just realized after i posted this that you dont have dirt. On the bottom haha.

To be honest, it was an absolute impulse buy. When I went to petsmart I knew I wanted Javas, anubius, swords, and some carpeting plant like montecarlo.

I got there and the carpeting plant option was s repens. A quick google search told me it’s low maintenance and slow growth. Therefore long term it would be less maintenance. so I picked up two packs and here we are today.

The cardinalis was honestly an impulse buy, the color was amazing, but I couldn’t find anything about it while standing in the plant section of petsmart like a psycho googling. Surprised petsmart sells it.

No I don’t have any dirt haha. Some root tabs are in there though. If I wanted to start all over, that would be the first thing I would do, but this tank/sand has been up and running for a few years.

I actually use a little dropper / baster for collecting test water. I will give it a try on any dead zones!!

 

[Redshark1]

So far so good I like your aquarium. I'm not an advisor as I like to keep things simple so haven't developed skills in this way.

I think if I had a red plant and wanted it to colour well I would try a spot light on it because I have such a spot light in storage.