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20 Gallon Journal

15K views 109 replies 15 participants last post by  pdludbrooke 
#1 ·
Hey everyone,

First, I would like to start off with introducing myself. Some of you may have seen me around the forums a few times and may have even answered a few of my questions. I am a college student who has always loved fish and aquariums. I could spend hours at the aquarium in our local zoo (and believe me I did). This led me to my purchase of a 10 gallon aquarium when I was about 12 years old. I didn't have a clue what I was doing at the time; I only knew that I wanted to keep all of the "cool" fish in my tank. I had everything from tetras to Koi fish in the 10 gallon aquarium. Like I said, I didn't know what I was doing or what the fish were. These fish were recommended to me by the Petsmart employees! The tank always smelled and the fish never lived long, so after about a year and a hundred fish later, the tank was packed up. I just couldn't take it anymore and neither could my parents. Now, six years later, I finally convinced my parents to give me another shot at it. I know that bigger tanks are easier to maintain and you should always buy the biggest tank you can afford. After staring at the huge 90g+ tanks and dreaming of owning one, I bought my self a little 20 gallon starter kit (I know it isn't much, but it is the biggest I can afford. I am a college student remember?). Everything I do with this tank is going to be at the lowest cost possible. My plan for this tank is a low tech/natural planted with some neon tetra and a gourami. I have been doing hours of research on this type of tank so I will know exactly what I am doing (I will still have questions later on though). To get myself started, I painted the back of the tank black. This is the best looking and cheapest background IMO. I also bought two bags of play sand for the substrate. This weekend, I took on the challenge of building my own stand. The pre-made stands were just to expensive. The stand came out nicely to my suprise and I will be finishing it up tomorrow. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I cannot wait to get to know everyone and share my little adventure with you. I will be posting pictures and keeping everyone updated on my tank in this thread.
 
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#36 ·
Ok, I know I have changed my stocking list at least 10 times already. I think I finally found the perfect set up though. I will get 7 bloodfin tetra and 1 whiptail catfish. Along with some MTS to keep the sand from compacting. This will be a S.A. flooded jungle theme. I know that some of the plants I ordered are not South American, but I will slowly change them out later on down the road.
 
#37 ·
I started with corckscrew vals as my first plant. all i will say is that they start out slow, but will overgrow your tank soon enough. Make sure you plant them far and few between. I would also recommend putting all the little rocks closer together as it helps with the visual flow of the tank (where your eyes look).
 
#38 ·
How does this layout look? I was also thinking of combining the wisteria and val along the back and moving the amazon sword in the back left corner behind the rock. Which do you think would work better?
 

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#39 ·
i would move the sword behind the rock and reduce the amount of space the val takes up, and add it across the right side a bit more. i also think that the wisteria should be behind the vals because its a thick bushy plant and vals are single leaved plants. wisteria will give a nice background for the vals
 
#40 ·
Green Text Font World Fictional character



this help?

The wisteria is the red (behind the vals as i previously said.)

This is just an option
 
#41 ·
My plants were not shipped on Saturday or Monday like Sweet Aquatics told me they were going to be. So I emailed them again and asked for a status on my order and an approximate shipping date and told them I hope to have my plants soon. They responded today and told me that my plants will be shipped out this saturday and I will receive an email friday evening with all of the shipping info. Hopefully they really do get shipped out on Saturday this time, so I can get my tank going.
 
#42 ·
It has been a long two weeks, but it is finally official. I received an email from paypal that said my plants have been shipped!! I am so excited to continue on with the next step in this project. I will have pictures up of the plants in the tank as soon as I get them planted.
 
#44 ·
I agree. I was going to give them this weekend to ship may order out. If it still didn't get shipped out by monday then I was going to file a dispute on paypal. That seems to be the only way to get them to mail the order.
 
#45 ·
My tank is finally planted! Now comes the really tough part, waiting for everything to grow and fill in. All of the plants look really healthy, there is some brown on them. Sweet Aquatics was unable to ship the water wisteria to me, so they are offering me a refund which is fine because the wisteria didn't fit my SA biotope theme. They did however give me 2 amazon swords. Not sure what to do with the second one ATM so I just put in next to the original one. I will get 4 bloodfin tetra on sunday if my parameters are where they should be.
 

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#47 ·
Thanks! My corkscrew val isn't looking very good either. Most of the leaves are brown and there are not to many leaves on each plant. The only that really looks good is my amazon sword.

Does anyone know what I should do with the brown leaves? Should I cut them of or just let the plants get established before I start trimming?
 
#48 ·
Let the plants settle in. Brown leaves will not recover and can be removed at the base but there is no harm in leaving them presently.
 
#49 ·
Here are a couple questions that I have that I hope you guys can answer:

1) Does corkscrew val grow taller than 12 inches?

2) Does the crown (point where the roots meet the stem) on the corkscrew val need to be exposed? I read somewhere that if it is buried then the plant will rot.

3) Is not enough flow bad? I got a sponge filter because the tetras like really calm water, but does this mean that I am going to end up with a lot of dead spots that lack nutrients for my plants?

4) How quickly does amazon frogbit send off runners? I am using this to dim the light in my tank so my tetras will not be stressed, but I only have 3 plants of it right now.
 
#50 ·
1) Does corkscrew val grow taller than 12 inches?
I put 12-20 inches max in the profile since this is what the sources report. My plants are maybe 8-10 inches max, but then I have very soft water and I am quite certain this is affecting them.

2) Does the crown (point where the roots meet the stem) on the corkscrew val need to be exposed? I read somewhere that if it is buried then the plant will rot.
True. All plants generally do this, so plant the crown just slightly above the surface of the substrate. Sometimes a plant will pull itself down into the substrate; my crypts are always doing this.

3) Is not enough flow bad? I got a sponge filter because the tetras like really calm water, but does this mean that I am going to end up with a lot of dead spots that lack nutrients for my plants?
No. There are thermal currents, fish swimming, plus the filter to move the water around, and more than one might realize. After all, one can maintain good plant growth in tanks with no filter at all.

4) How quickly does Amazon Frogbit send off runners? I am using this to dim the light in my tank so my tetras will not be stressed, but I only have 3 plants of it right now.
This depends upon the plants and their cycle. I have noticed with this species that it regularly goes through growth spurts followed by a slow down that actually even causes the plants to die off. In the two years I have had this species this has happened twice, so I believe it is seasonal/cyclical. All plants need a period of vegetative rest. Swords go through spurts of new growth, inflorescences, leaves, whatever. Then they sit almost static for a couple months. If our plants flowered in our aquaria, I am sure we would see this relating to these periods. This week I have noticed several plant species in my tanks beginning to show increased activity. This relates to the seasons in South America, we are entering the end of the dry season for areas north of the Amazon [if I've got my directions accurate:)].
 
#53 ·
Thanks twocents. I am assuming you are talking about the stand. It turned out better than I thought it would so I am proud of it. If by chance you are referring to the driftwood, then I have Dr. Foster and Smith to thank for that. They picked it out for me :-D
 
#52 ·
Thanks Byron, I would be lost without you! I truly appreciate all the help you have given me along the way. I pulled all the plants up a little bit and they look better already. The leaves are now spread out more instead of just pointing straight up. I am hoping the vals at least reach 15 inches as I am using them as a background plant. If they don't then I guess I could put them in the mid ground. Do you think the fish would be ok with the light the way it is now? Then in a couple months I should have the dim light I am going for with the frogbit.

I will be getting a few fish this sunday. I am torn between the bloodfin tetra and the black neon tetra :-?. I guess I will go to my LFS and see what they talk me into. I love the look of the bloodfin tetra, I just wish it were a little smaller. I like the black neon tetra because it is small, it just isn't as cool looking as the bloodfin.
 
#54 ·
Here are pictures of my plants. If you see anything wrong with them then please let me know so I can get it fixed. This is my first planted tank and I am still trying to figure out how everything works.
 

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#55 ·
The plants look as I would expect them to for new plants. They will perk up.

Don't know what other fish are intended for this tank, but Bloodfins can be nippy with many fish, esp slow sedate ones or those with longer fins. Every species in that genus Aphyocharax is prone to this, some are real terrors.
 
#56 ·
The plants look as I would expect them to for new plants. They will perk up.

Don't know what other fish are intended for this tank, but Bloodfins can be nippy with many fish, esp slow sedate ones or those with longer fins. Every species in that genus Aphyocharax is prone to this, some are real terrors.
It is going to be a species only tank, aside from the one whiptale catfish that will inhabit the bottom of the tank along with the MTS.
 
#57 ·
It has been 2 days since I have put the plants in my tank and they are not looking any better. I know it is going to take some time for them to settle in, but until then I am going to be very worried. I do not want all the plants to die on me. It will be a huge relief the day I see new growth on all of them. The only plant that is thriving right now is the amazon frogbit. It has already sent out two new shoots.
 
#59 ·
You need to have patience. I have had plants take weeks to settle, then off they go. Changing environments (water parameters) is one issue, plus shipment. Floating plants usually recover faster because they are closer to more intense light, and can assimilate CO2 from the air which is faster than in water.
 
#60 ·
I did some tests on my water today and here is what I got:

Ammonia: .75ppm

NitrIte: 4ppm

NitrAte: 0ppm

pH: still around 7.6

I still need to check with our water company to find out what my water hardness is. Hopefully it isn't to hard so that the pH will naturally lower. I am guessing that I am at the nitrIte spike in my cycling process? Should I do a water change to help bring this down?
 
#61 ·
Are there fish in this tank now?
 
#64 ·
Finally made my way over to my LFS today, Trilby Tropicals, and alll I can say is WOW :shock:!! The quality of everything in that store is amazing and I don't think I will be going back to Petsmart again. They had rows and rows of nothing but freshwater tanks. On the other side of the store was rows and rows of saltwater tanks. I went in there to get some Flourish root tabs and I came out with a nice peice of driftwood and root tabs. They had an entire shelf of driftwood that I just couldn't pass up. The best part is, I found my new inspiration! One of there freshwater display tanks is amazing. It had 2 big peices of driftwood in it and the only plants it had were jungle val. They put the val in the front, middle and back of the tank and it added a ton of depth. More than the usual big plants in back, little plants in front look. I loved the simple look. So now I set my tank up in a similar manner. I now have 2 big pieces of driftwood, and I moved my corkscrew val all around the tank. Now I just need to wait for all the plants to get big so I can add the finishing touches. I will tank a picture of the tank next time so you guys can see it.
 
#66 ·
Look forward to seeing how the tank is coming along. Wish I had a place locally that had a decent plant selection other than the typical choices from petsmart.
I thought I was stuck with petsmart for a while then I did some searches online and found Trilby Tropicals. Not sure how far up in Michigan you are, but it is located in Toledo. It's about a 25 minute drive for me, but worth every minute.

By the way, when I got home from school today, I discovered 3 very tiny snails on the front of my tank. They must of hitched a ride on the plants I got from SA. I am actually really excited to see the first signs of life in my tank. Who knows, maybe fish fry will appear next. Hahaha just kidding :lol:
 
#68 ·
Took another step in simplifying my tank today. I removed all of the big rocks that I had added earlier because they just didn't look right and they were almost to much. My next step will be to siphon out some of the sand in the back of the tank so I get an even 2 inches of sand in the whole tank. I won't need the deeper sand in the back because I will be giving my amazon sword to my LFS along with the dwarf sag. I will probably trade them in for some more corkscrew val so I can fill my tank with it.

I tested my water today and here is what I got:

Ammonia: .25ppm

Nitrite: more than 5ppm

Nitrate: 5ppm
 
#69 ·
Tested the water today and here is what I got:

No more ammonia!!!

Nitrite: above 5ppm

Nitrate: 30ppm

By the way, here is a picture of the new piece of driftwood I got on sunday.
 

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