The Planted Tank Forum banner

New 20 gallon tall setup - April 6, 2008 update

8K views 67 replies 11 participants last post by  2wheelsx2 
#1 · (Edited)
Hey guys:

I've lurking and searching for a while, since I didn't have a serious planted tank. I recently (at Xmas time) acquired a 125 gallon for my cichlids, so decided to make the 20 gallon tall they came in a planted tank.

The specs. on the tank are: 24"x12"x18" (l x w x h), Penguin 100, Visitherm 100 watt heater, and Coralife 24" Aqualight Power Compact 1x65W light (bulb is a 6700K I think, since this is the f/w light).

This started out life as a Hagen tank with one of those black Marina tops with a 15W light and had a Fluval 2+ and a Hagen heater, which I ditched.

Anyway, I wish I had researched a bit more before I did the revamping last night.

I got a new glass top and the Coralife and 2 - 12 lb bags of Red Sea Flora Base (on the recommendation of the LFS - which uses it in their big dispaly tank). I am happy with the new light, it's great. The glass top from Hagen is pretty cheaply made, but only cost me $16 CDN, so no big deal. But I was searching around this morning on here, and it seems many people are unhappy with Flora Base. :( I also had a choice of Fluorite or Eco Complete, but chose Flora Base since I had read on Planetcatfish that the substrate should be fine and smooth for Corys, which I plan to keep in there.

Anyway, did I screw up royally, and will I regret this choice 6 months down the road?

I plan to do the natural "cycle" by introducing a fairly heavy stocking of bunch plants tonight (it was set up with fresh water last night), getting the water up to temp first (heater wasn't in it after a heavy cleaning). Cabomba and Wisteria to begin with I think. And in a couple of weeks, I plan to add a few guppies and cardinal tetras and finally a few corys, at which time I want to put a centerpiece plant like a sword of some sort in there.

I don't plan on using CO2 (although the Flora Base says it naturally adds CO2 - how does it do that?) and want to keep it fairly low tech so that my wife can take care of it when I am on the road (I travel a little in my work).

Do you think my plan would work, or should I look into changing a few things. I guess I should plan on acquiring an SAE or two to keep up with the algae too.
 
See less See more
#28 ·
I thought that too. But all readings are 0 except 10 PPM nitrate. The filter is established from the other tank. Healthy bacteria colony. I took it back to the LFS and the guy tested my water for everything under the sun before he gave me a replacement.
 
#29 ·
At the advice from another thread, because of my low water hardness (KH <1 and GH = 4 tonight, just measured), I added a teaspoon of baking soda. I'm afraid of a pH crash. I'll test again tomorrow and report back.
 
#31 ·
Thanks.

Yeah, it was sad. But I guess it's one of those things. When you add 30+ critters at once, there's bound to be some casualties. And I dont' know how to assess the health of shrimp like I do with fish, so I don't even know if it was because I got a sick one or what.
 
#32 ·
Just took a pH and KH reading and with the baking soda (1 tsp) and the coralline rock I added, the pH is now between 6.5 to 7 and the KH is 3 - 4. I think things will now stabilize a bit. I am getting a bubble per 5 - 6 seconds on the Hagen ladder. Fed the fishes frozen bloodworms for the first time tonight, and they loved it.
 
#33 ·
I just bought some RS florabase on impulse at Big Al's...haven't added it yet...how's yer batch working out?
 
#34 ·
It's not bad. I think if I had to do over, I would use Fluorite. YOu have to be very careful when planting and when working close to the substrate because it stirs up a lot of dust/clay. But the plants seem to be rooting extremely fast in it. I have no diggers in my tank, so cloudiness is usually not an issue.
 
#35 ·
Well, now I know how quickly anacharis can grow. When I got home from work tonight, the left side of the tank was basically completed shaded by them. I had to do some trimming so that the other plants got more light. The Anacharis had grown 4+ inches in one week!

Here's what the tank looks like now:

 
#39 ·
Did a water change last night. About 25%. pH=6.5, ammonia = 0, nitrate = 0, but KH ~1, so I added a teaspoon of baking soda.

Unfortunately, this morning, I found 2 more dead Amano shrimp. :(

I don't think I'll be replacing them, as something must be wrong with my environment for them
 
#40 ·
LindaC said:
It's coming along very nicely! Are you going to be dosing ferts?
I have been doing it from day one. Kent Freshwater Plant Supplement, once a week (5 mL). For the Sword plants, I have inserted a portion of a Terrapur root tab in the substrate (big cone shaped tabs). Even though Flora says no supplements required for 6 months, I am not sure that's accurate.
 
#41 · (Edited)
Anti-Pjerrot said:
It looks absolutely stunning - but i would move the swordplant away from the front of the driftwood, and place it right of the driftwood.
Thanks, that's actually a Java Fern tied to the Malaysian Ironwood. The Swords are actually all behind the log. I had it all tied up before I realized how it would look when in the water. I should have tied the small one that you see on top of the log in that spot and put the big one on the right. You can see another bigger one on the right side of the log behind the hairgrass. I agree that it's not the best location, but that was such a big job that I am going to leave it for now, and trim it back once it has taken hold of the log.
 
#42 ·
Well, first update in a while. Bad news. I was away on a two day business trip and when I got home, all the fish had a severe case of ick. The only ones not seemingly affected are teh otos. I immediately raised the temp to 82 degrees and put in some of API's Ick Cure. Since I no longer have any inverts (shrimp all died), I figured it should be ok. This morning, everyone looked the same or better, except one Rummy Nose. It looks like it might succumb to the disease. I'll check on it when I get home.

Sucks...why does everything happen when you are away? Anyway, I am hoping the elevated temps and the medication won't harm the plants of fish (reduced oxygen is my main concern). Should I stop the CO2?
 
#43 ·
Ick all cleared, but I lost 10 of my cardinals and one rummy nose. :( Just reducing the temp back down to 78 F. Changed the CO2 mixed 4 days ago and now it's back up to 8 BPM.

The wilted red plants were removed, the anacharis trimmed (some sprigs were removed to use in my other tank) and two sprigs of water sprite were added.

Here's a pic:

 
#44 ·
Another adjustment. Two nights ago, I finally got rid of my anacharis. It was just requiring too much work. I removed half to my cichlid tank, and gave half to a coworker (he has a 240 gallon planted tank). I then trimmed the stem plants to the right of the tank (Bacopa sp?) and put them where the anacharis was. Cleaned up the chain swords and the hairgrass some. Trimmed the Riccia down to < 1 inch because it was starting to come loose. I'm pretty happy with the look now, but I think it needs some colour. I would like to try some red/reddish plants again. Would red Cabomba be a good addition in that left corner? I would get rid of the two sprigs of water sprite if that were the case.

Here's the latest pic:

 
#45 ·
Just did a 30% water change. Not much change except the addition of a Fluval 204. :D Too bad it took me a while to figure out that the CO2 at night from decreased surface agitation killed off my cardinals. My tank went from fully stocked to lightly stocked now....after a bout of ick and the CO2 problem. Anyway, here's a pic.

 
#46 ·
congrats its starting to come together ! its looking real good ok here are my critiques all of your plants are the same of almost the same green! try to get some dark greens and some pinkish, redish plants mabey sunset hygro or you could try red cambomba, its too bad about the ich ,but there was a very high bio load and co2 levels with off of the fish.... but atleast u know what was wrong! **** luck!
 
#47 ·
D.gilly said:
congrats its starting to come together ! its looking real good ok here are my critiques all of your plants are the same of almost the same green! try to get some dark greens and some pinkish, redish plants mabey sunset hygro or you could try red cambomba, its too bad about the ich ,but there was a very high bio load and co2 levels with off of the fish.... but atleast u know what was wrong! **** luck!
Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking of the same thing, so I was going to get some red Cabomba (great minds think alike :)) or maybe something slower growing to give it some variety. It's a bit bland. But the hairgrass and the chain sword are filling in, which is nice.
 
#48 ·
Well, ask and you shall receive. The LFS did not have red Cabomba, but did have this species (looks like a Ludwigia species - I have put a thread in the plants section to ask about it):



It's a bit buried in the back at the moment, but I am hoping tat since it's in a higher light area, it'll grow a bit and be hanging over the corkscrew vals for a nice effect. Here is a new pic of the tank with the plants in. Also refreshed my CO2 solution today.

 
#50 ·
Just a quick update. The corkscrew vals are starting to overrun the tank, so I pulled up a bunch and planted them in my 125 SA Cichild tank. Last week I added 6 cherry shrimp, but they weren't doing anything with my green thread algae, so I decided to try my luck again with Amano shrimp. Big Al's (the local store) had hundreds of them in today, so I got 3. Here's a pic I snapped today after a water change.

 
#51 ·
its looking pretty good that i believe plant is anthernani renecki ( spelling i no ) it is a high light plant hopefully if survives to fill in! i only have one small thing that kind of turns me off this tank i think its time for some sort of scape! ( no offence ) but i find it a bit of a jungle. but im not one to talk as when i started out my twenty it deffenatly didint have a scape it hardly had plants that looked like plants ( as in the didint grow ) so u must be doing someting right..... mabey its the flora base:redface: good luck! it's really come a long way since the begining!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top