Here is a little photo log of my 20 gallon since I started it two months ago, it has changed quite a bit.
This isn't my first aquarium, but is my first real attempt at live plants (I tried a single one once before many years ago). At first I had mostly plastic plants, but quickly replaced them.
Can't really see the live plants, but there are three Amazon Swords in the back left, a Java Fern hanging out to the right of them, and Wisteria off to the right.
Here is a side view of the swords. You can really see the new growth starting to replace the old.
I then tied the Java Fern onto a sand castle decoration, because I didn't have any driftwood or rocks to use.
Eventually I did ditch all the plastic plants, and got some Mopani Driftwood and tied an Anubias to it. Looks a little better, but still sparse. I also moved everything around.
To correct the sparse problem, I ordered a bunch of plants online. Makes it look quite a bit different.
At this point I think I'm done adding plants to this tank, but I might someday replace the Brazilian Pennywort that is floating. I'm just not liking it most of the time.
Anyways, here is another new shot a couple weeks later and also with slightly different light. I'm experimenting with creating my own LED light. This is shot using a single high power LED.
The last photo was shot this past weekend, and is what it looks like right now (mostly) I cut off the Wisteria that is shooting off to the right and placed it into my wife's 10 gallon. Her tank will be where I send all my cuttings until her tank fills out. This is also back to the original flourescent light. I'm still building the LED fixture, it will use two of those high power LEDs. I was originally going to use three, but seeing how much just one did I don't want to go overboard.
This isn't my first aquarium, but is my first real attempt at live plants (I tried a single one once before many years ago). At first I had mostly plastic plants, but quickly replaced them.
Can't really see the live plants, but there are three Amazon Swords in the back left, a Java Fern hanging out to the right of them, and Wisteria off to the right.
Here is a side view of the swords. You can really see the new growth starting to replace the old.
I then tied the Java Fern onto a sand castle decoration, because I didn't have any driftwood or rocks to use.
Eventually I did ditch all the plastic plants, and got some Mopani Driftwood and tied an Anubias to it. Looks a little better, but still sparse. I also moved everything around.
To correct the sparse problem, I ordered a bunch of plants online. Makes it look quite a bit different.
At this point I think I'm done adding plants to this tank, but I might someday replace the Brazilian Pennywort that is floating. I'm just not liking it most of the time.
Anyways, here is another new shot a couple weeks later and also with slightly different light. I'm experimenting with creating my own LED light. This is shot using a single high power LED.
The last photo was shot this past weekend, and is what it looks like right now (mostly) I cut off the Wisteria that is shooting off to the right and placed it into my wife's 10 gallon. Her tank will be where I send all my cuttings until her tank fills out. This is also back to the original flourescent light. I'm still building the LED fixture, it will use two of those high power LEDs. I was originally going to use three, but seeing how much just one did I don't want to go overboard.