Planning for a 20 gallon

iamtetsuo

Woo set the tank up today!

Starting out



Tank with gravel in it and a couple of gallons of water. The skull is in there to help not disturb the water.

Several runs to the sink and back later and we have:



Plants and driftwood and another skull! Woo we're getting somewhere.

Even MORE trips to the sink and back and a bit of swearing because I spilled water on the filter directions before I had even opened them (whoooops) and we have:



Tah dah! All full of water and planted and good times!



Raaawr! Jaguar skull! Also present in photo Red Melon Sword and Anubis Nana hybrid. The sword is a bit beat up but the LFS gave it to me for half off becuase of that.



Yar matey! Here we have the two pieces of driftwood, the Jager 75w heater and the Duetto 100 filter. Also present is a bunch of java ferns and the anubis again.

Off to the fish store now for some more plants!

brownmane

Looking good

LasColinasCichlids

Awesome work! I personally love the look of melon swords!! And the jag skull is an awesome piece!!!

Byron

Nice layout, well balanced. I am not myself partial to certain "decor" but that is not an issue, it is your tank and should reflect your needs. And the decor will do absolutely no harm, the fish don't care, they just like "stuff" around them.

The swords will recover; If that is not an enriched substrate (Flourite or something, can't tell), add some Flourish Comprehensive or substrate fertilizer next to the swords. They are heavy feeders and need some "food" to get going. The existing leaves will all die, just so you know; new growth from the centre of the crown will indicate the plant is fine.

Byron.

iamtetsuo

Haha thanks! Skulls aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I like a bit of whimsy in my tank

The substrate is Eco-Complete which is enriched. The sword is already looking better, the greens are a bit brighter today.

iamtetsuo

Also noticed this morning that the back driftwood brought along some fungus. I thought I had cleaned all of it off after removing it from my old 3 gallon, but apparently I was wrong. I was thinking about maybe picking up a snail to help remove it.

Good idea? Bad?

Just saw Byron's warning in the other thread. I will be removing this driftwood ASAP. Can I save the Java Fern rooted to it? Or does that need to go too?

iamtetsuo

Disaster!

The other piece of driftwood had been soaking with the infected driftwood and had started to grow fungus too!

So my plan currently is remove everything associated with the bad driftwood. So both pieces are out (really pissed about this as the centerpiece was REALLY expensive). All Java Fern is gone as it has been rooted to the fungus driftwood since I owned it.

Sad thing is that after this fungus appeared on the driftwood (after having it in the tank for almost two years) my betta got sick and died. Not taking any chances on this one, it could just be coincedence, but I'm not willing to bet a tankful of fishes lives on it.

Should I remove the thermometer and pirate skull too as they were from the same tank that the "bad" driftwood came from? What about the nana and sword? They soaked in the same bucket with the driftwood overnight after I purchased them before going in the tank.

Amethyst123

Sorry about having to remove your driftwood. It was really nice looking. Maybe there is some way to sterilize it - by boiling, perhaps? I don't know what warning you are referring to, so this may not be a good idea. Just a thought.

Another thought, totally unrelated to the driftwood - I personally wouldn't put bettas in a tank with your skulls, because their fins could get caught and tear on the teeth and other pointy parts. Probably more of a consideration with male bettas, but some of the females might have long enough fins for it to be an issue, too. Also, you'll need more places to hide for a betta sorority tank.

Also, you talked about a "heavily planted tank" and not needing to cycle due to that. Your tank doesn't look to me like it's heavily planted, especially if you had to take out the Java Fern. Of course, you may be planning to add more plants. Seems like Byron said something about 70% or more planted in his response to my earlier post about still needing to cycle a tank in spite of plants.

Good luck with your tank. I'm looking forward to more photos as you get everything settled and get your fish.

Byron

Sad news about the wood fungus. That chunk does look like Mopani wood (two-tone), and that is the culprit. I have never seen any fungus on the dark (near-black) wood I use, which is called Malaysian driftwood, or iron wood, or jeta wood, or mangrove root. All of these may not be the same, but they are names I have seen applied to the wood looking like that I use, and never an issue for me.

I would leave the non-wood decor; this fungus as far as i know needs the host wood.

iamtetsuo

Actually the Malaysian driftwood (at least that's what the LFS called it) was the culprit. Odd thing was it took two years before this fungus appeared.

Maybe it was carried in during a water change? I was using spring water at that point and though the local water company did treat it with chlorine sometimes they used very very minimal doses of chlorine.

Purchased an interesting rock from the LFS to root the anubis to. Purchased a small piece of Mopani from petsmart which I will start soaking tonight. The LFS has another piece of Mopani that is interesting but nowhere near as intricate as the previous piece was.

Going to go rinse the rock with boiling water and put it in then set the mopani to soak.

More plant purchases in the future now. Need to find a good floating plant, petsmart had some Anacharis but it looked pretty nasty (brownish green color instead of the healthy bright green). Will talk to LFS owner tomorrow to see if he can order something.