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20 Gallon Tank given

4K views 35 replies 6 participants last post by  Trey740 
#1 ·
Okay, so a friend recently gave me his old 20 gallon tank. After wiping it down and cleaning it out, I have bought some substrate (gravel and sand, I did gravel in 70% of tank and sand in other 30%) I also bought some plants at the store today by the name of Cocomba.

I am going to do the fish-less cycle as this appears to be my best option. I have a filter and heater that I will be using as well as planting the plants throughout my tank.

My only quesiton is should I use some of the artificial plants from my other tanks to speed up the process with my new tank or could I possibly take another decoration?

Also, I would like to know some stocking options? I seen a dragonfish today at the pet store and I REALLY liked it. If any one has experience with them and fish that go good with them, I would appreciate it.

p.s: I want to stay away from guppy and gourami as I already have those in other tanks. Thanks
 
#33 ·
I like giant vallsneria to get some height, particularly in a tall tank... up the side or back and over the top if you let it go.... if you are keeping the water on the low end of the ram range at least.

Crypts (lots of varieties to choose from) and amazon swords (they get pretty large not just tall so one, maybe two max for a 20 gallon... I found two too much for a 37 tall).

Aponogetons are nice and a little less large than swords... I would choose them over swords if I were doing it again.

Brazilian Pennywort can be planted as a stem or floated, good versatile plant, I tried both and choose to float it now.

Dwarf lily (bulb) is on of my current favorites but I haven't' had it long enough to see how it will do. Green with red spots on the leaves, interesting variety.

I just go and look at the plants and pick ones that I like the look of and try them out... I've have about 30 varieties in my tank at one point or another in the last 5 months. Most work, a few I didn't care for so I am down to 20ish. Those listed above are my favorites... I've gotten away from stem plants for a variety of reasons, preference for leaves mainly.

Jeff.
 
#34 ·
When I got to the fish store, I was pretty limited on the amount of plants that I could get. SO, I ended up getting a sword (not sure on which variation) and some other red/green plant (I already forget what the name of it was). I also took some more pennywort (I believe thats what it is) out of my 10 gallon tank that was floating and put it in the 20 gallon. With the sword and the other plant, my tank looks a lot more lively and full.

As far as fish wise, I wanted to do some more research and keep seeing that dither fish would be good to go with my blue ram. I have read a couple places that guppies would be okay as a type of dither fish with my blue rams. They said that with the guppies having babies constantly, it would give my blue ram something as a live food to eat. Is this true, or is this not a good idea? The reason I ask, is because I already have a 10 gallon guppy tank that I could just move the guppy to the 20 gallon tank with my ram. I could put the serpae tetra in there short term until I can find a good place for them to go. Thoughts?
 
#35 ·
When I got to the fish store, I was pretty limited on the amount of plants that I could get. SO, I ended up getting a sword (not sure on which variation) and some other red/green plant (I already forget what the name of it was). I also took some more pennywort (I believe thats what it is) out of my 10 gallon tank that was floating and put it in the 20 gallon. With the sword and the other plant, my tank looks a lot more lively and full.

As far as fish wise, I wanted to do some more research and keep seeing that dither fish would be good to go with my blue ram. I have read a couple places that guppies would be okay as a type of dither fish with my blue rams. They said that with the guppies having babies constantly, it would give my blue ram something as a live food to eat. Is this true, or is this not a good idea? The reason I ask, is because I already have a 10 gallon guppy tank that I could just move the guppy to the 20 gallon tank with my ram. I could put the serpae tetra in there short term until I can find a good place for them to go. Thoughts?
Your espei rasbora will make excellent dither fish, as they are quiet and peaceful.
 
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