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My First 20L

7K views 37 replies 12 participants last post by  Hilde 
#1 ·
So after seeing so many awesome 20L on here I've been going insane wanting one. So I bided my time for petco to come along and give me a sale and the sale happened BANG! I've got a 20L :icon_mrgr

I haven't officially moved the tank inside yet, but I thought that I would get some pictures up. I want this to be a super early start journal so I can watch everything and maybe learn from all of the awesome experience on here.

The tank still sits in the car...I've been busy with finals and all that great stuff and trying to write some papers (taking a break from them right now to start this journal)


I got a deal that I couldn't refuse on FloraMax (which I've been using in other shrimp tanks. I'm not sure the amount of rooted plants I will be using but this substrate seems to work out for my corkscrews and such in my other tanks coupled with root tabs so yea...


Collected some things that I will be needing here very soon ;)


I got a really good deal on some Riccia so I ordered it...it will kinda press me to get this going...WOW this stuff is great looking!




And I got some wood from an awesome RAOK -- It's a lot for a 20L so I will be cutting it and redistributing the love once I get placement and such figured out -- MAN I love doing RAOKS ;)



-----------------------------------------

That's it for the pictures for now...so here's the plans....so far

  • De-rimming the top rim from the 20L
  • Cutting the Wood
  • Buying some type of stand / deciding if I want to use the breakfast bar that can't really be used for breakfast as a tank stand...(although I'm thinking with a stand I can go canister filter)
Things I'm still finalizing for purchase
  • Light
  • Co2 setup (paintball or regular, I guess it depends on the stand situation)
  • Lights
  • Filtration (again dependent on the stand/breakfast bar question)
  • Other plants for the tank (I really wanna put some moss in there with the Riccia with what I have planned)
  • Still trying to decide cardinal tetras or yellow shrimp for livestock
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Anyone know how long I can leave Riccia in that container while I get this rollin? I've got some of the larger kind floating around a tank but that is active with shrimp, filtration, etc

I've been looking at a lot of threads so far on de-rimming and any other tips would be greatly welcomed

Thanks for lookin and your suggestions are always welcome!!!!!
 
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#3 · (Edited)
Thanks! I've got a few more shots, I have the tank where I kinda want to put it....

Almost a PERFECT fit :)


But I want to go rimless with this and hindsight is 20/20 I should of checked the inner upper corner seals. Looks like I will have to do some corner seal work if I want to keep this as a rimless.... :(



I'm contemplating hitting up petco and seeing if they have some with a better inner upper corner seal job, there's only one here where I wouldn't have to reseal the corner if I remove this rim

------

I've decided to do a water test on this tank if It's sound I will figure out if I will go through with the de-rimming or not
 
#4 ·
I've decided to leave the rim on the tank due to the location that it will be in (pictures soon) I just don't want to run the risk of the cats possibly cutting their paws on it, if it had a dedicated stand that the cats couldn't get up on I would pull off the rim.

I've got some things which are in shipment and should be arriving Saturday so I can start the cycle process. I've only got 1,000-1,200 more words to write for the spring semester and then I am FREE MWAHAHAHAHA :)

Be looking for a potential update tonight! I know that I have to do some stopping on the way home tonight to pick up a few more things for the tank... I should have the light coming in today too (I didn't go all out with the light, looking for something that will keep this pretty low tech since I'm planning on shrimps)
 
#5 ·
I'm looking forward to seeing this tank develop! Are you still going to use the breakfast bar? I really like the idea of it because you could scape it to where it is visually appealing from both sides, but it may also be hard hiding the cords and such.
 
#6 ·
Hey Aqua!

Yea I am still planning on using the breakfast bar which is why for now I have to leave the tank rimless until I see what the cat's interest level is going to be. I won't be putting any livestock in for a while and I don't mind waiting while it cycles up to tear it down and rework it to take the rim off...it all just depends on the cats I guess...they do like to come up onto my 55 every now and then to investigate so I just want to make sure
 
#8 ·
Inital Setup

Big Update Time!!!!!!

So yea, I got a little bit of time and I went to work tonight. It was driving me mad and I was worried about my riccia dying some of it started to, so I HAD to get to work...I hate seeing plants that aren't healthy

Anyway.....

After my initial setup I tweaked it a bit to try to avoid so much splash on the light so I lowered it a bit as you can see here...all rinsed and the initial few drops are in there :)



A rear view pre-airline running, notice the black cable on the left, that's for my in tank thermometer



A general idea in case I have airline issues (which I did I needed to put in a pressure dial in the middle line) Left, Middle, Right, Airline



Airline work made neater, still not sure how I'm going to hide this on this side



Front view of the hoses, almost hidden, notice the line for the sensor is tucked behind so if I have to change out equipment tubes for any reason I won't have to pull the thermometer



Man I forgot how dirty Floramax is.....



Burying the sensor



Base layer down, next up rock work



Placing sponges at substrate level



Creating a cave for planned bristlenoses :)



Using other rocks to support the cave on both sides to prevent movement of the walls



Back of cave support



Living room to kitchen view



Kitchen to living room....a breakfast bar well used :)



Thanks for dropping by for the big update :) Any comments/suggestions are welcomed...I know I want to add a few more plants, trying to find a short height runner style plant if you guys have any suggestions I'd love to hear them
 
#9 ·
Still cycling on this tank, I'll get some pictures soon. The Riccia that I ordered as a mat has really taken off glad I ordered as much as I did....

Looking for plant suggestions that will be low height growing plants, shrimp friendly, and low-medium light friendly with no co2

Any suggestions are very appreciated and as always thanks for stopping by!
 
#11 ·
Man thats one heck of a sponge filter wall! haha

Looks good so far.
 
#16 ·
Orig I planned on breeding them but I 've decided to leave my 55 Gallon for that in a soon to be upcoming re-scape because I want to be able to give them a bit more room to breed.

I'm going to be leaving this cave in place though and am planning on adding 1 BN Albino in here. I'm planning on having a few more plants show up for this tank and then adding 1 bn and 2 mystery snails and then I will make a final shrimp decision
 
#19 ·
So again I've been slacking here! Time for an update!!!!!

I added a few more plants, moved some stuff around but the general theme remains the same :) I also got my shrimp in there !!!! I ordered some SS Grade CRS (there's 20 in there somewhere), 3 ivory mystery snails, a canopy (just in case the snails want to breed) and an albino BN Pleco.

Here's the female ABN chillin on a cholla wood piece under the filter with the IAL leaf and one of the shrimp now :)


Another view of two shrimp hanging out on this side of the tank


Two CRS hanging out at the base of the Peacock moss rock (WOOT a new moss species for me :))


And another of the same two as they inch their way out :)


Riccia (floating freely -- trying to see if I can get it to succeed as a floater in this tank) in between some pennywort, look at the root and leaf color! I can't get enough of staring into this area of the tank!


Another CRS checking out the cholla wood with attached needle leaf java fern, I've never tried this plant before and am interested to see if it will attach itself to the cholla.


Full tank shot view from the living room (please excuse my messy counters I just did tank maintenance)


And last but not least!!!! I got an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING shot of one of my new shrimps with my Galaxy S4 Camera. I couldn't believe it when I was looking at it on the computer...I'm still in shock!!!


Thanks for dropping by! As always if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them, This tank has become my favorite. I hope you enjoy it too :)

BTW Speedie these are some absolutely amazing shrimp! Many molted within the first 2 days of being in the tank and they have really been active happy shrimp since the first 3 or 4 days! I've seen some active shrimp but these are just wonderful!
 
#21 ·
Me too! They've been pretty active. I was really nervous the first few days when I really didn't see them come out. There's usually two or three in the cave now just hangin out. I'm so glad I came across the BN plecos they are so awesome with shrimp.
 
#26 ·
So I got some shots of the shrimp tonight :) I've had a small hatch and once my phone cooperates with the youtube app I'll be posting a video.

Tank shots to come soon, I need to do a bit of trimming/reattaching in the tank before I do some shots, but the riccia is growing well and getting trimmed about monthly :)

Anyway here's some of the shrimps! As you can see they've been happy and have had at least one hatch since arriving

Here's a few enjoying some tasty veggie treat :)


I'm on my way! Don't eat it without me!


Some more headed towards the front of the tank :) Notice the runner's I'm getting as well going to replant them facing towards the front rather than towards the rocks


The big one kept pulling it away from the little ones and it was quite amazing to watch them eat tonight they literally were chasing and flipping the food and the big one did some amazing movements as well, I hope the video uploads
 
#28 ·
Update! There's going to be a lot of pictures for this one.

So It's been a busy few months and there's been a lot of growing in going on. I'm most proud of the dwarf sag which seems to be carpeting on it's own with some creative planting here and there! I've been letting a residual amount of algae grow in the tank, namely on the filter housing and along where the gravel and glass meet, since I always see shrimp in those areas of the glass picking at it happily.

Here's the view from the front corner :)


The view from the other front corner, you can see my 55 and moss area in the background as well as where I sit 95% of the time when I'm home.


This is the view as you're standing in the kitchen. You can see that the dwarf sag is running along the back as well. All this started from two tiny nodes about 8 months ago


I've got some trimming work to do with some of the older leaves, plan on getting to that here at some point after finals -- however you can see how dense it's starting to become and all the runners that it's shooting out. I just trimmed the riccia so it's still refilling in....


Here you can see a CRS enjoying her time on the C. Red. I've been seeing a lot of plantlets start at the bases of these plants


If you look through the base level algae that I leave, you can see a baby CRS. Not sure how old this one is, but I've got 7 of them in here at last count -- they're really hard to catch with the camera, and tiny as you can see!


My needleleaf java fern is starting to spread out, but I'm finding that it grows at a very slow pace. Seems to be doing alright though, I just haven't seen any plantlets on it yet, anxiously waiting for it too!


And I'll leave you with another shrimp picture :) These guys seem to love going through the denser areas of the carpet to come back out to the sparse areas and then back through the denser areas. I noticed the babies doing this today as well.


On my list
  • Adding more CRS -- Hurry up Speedie ;)
  • Maybe some floaters, not sure, I'm thinking about it
  • Continuing to work on the carpet
  • Updating this thread more often :)

Biggest thing I've learned about having a 360 viewing tank is that it's A) for some reason hard to keep clean especially the side facing the kitchen and B) remaining super vigilant on scraping the upper portions of the glass is a must

This tank gets so much attention from everyone that comes by. Much more so than any other tank I have!

Thanks for coming by and if you have any questions or suggestions, you're more than welcome to reply :hihi:
 
#29 · (Edited)
Wow this is overdue for an update......the CRS and I haven't gotten along, the water here is horrible for them.

I got a decent hookup at the LFS for the rams so lets give them a go
 
#30 ·
OK so I guess it's time to get this update underway.

My CRS side of the project has really fallen by the wayside. I just couldn't keep them happy at all. The rest of the tank has been doing well, however just the CRS and the slow die off and I gave up on the shrimp. Decided to move on to GBR and try my luck there.

I picked up the GBR at the LFS who seemed to be quite happy even in standard tank water. I'm planning on lowering the TDS down to levels which the fish would be happy with, although tonight they've been following each other around and exploring the tank. They weren't very active when I first put them in there, but now after a few hours they're swimming about and exploring, the male always keeping within a foot of the female, and if she goes somewhere he always follows to keep an eye on her and if he goes somewhere she's usually not far behind him :)

So on to the photos!!!!!!

The first shot here is kind of looking the long way into the tank. The hornwort has been kind of meh of late, not sure why, I did have a light go out and was without a light on this tank for a while, so I'm hoping that it will bounce back here soon. The needle leaf java fern has been doing OK but the growth does seem to be slower than that of my regular java fern that I have in the other tank.



Here's a look from the corner, you can see that I have a pretty nice carpet going on in here, and that they have a nice flat stone as well as a cave to hide in if they so choose.



The Dwarf Sag carpet is coming along beautifully as you can see here, nice thick and dense, sorry about the blur, but I added two pictures so you can see how nice it has filled in. I could try to give you a count, but they're so tight and packed in there that it's nearly impossible!





Here you can see the front of the tank as it looks from the living room. Some fresh IAL placed in the tank underneath the filter to keep it nice and low. I'm planning on re-adding the peacock moss to that rock by the leaves, or I may just leave it out and place it in another tank. I'm not sure yet.



Here's the little girl who has been more explorative than the guy. He still likes to dart off when I come close with the camera.



And here's the male, who seems to like hiding whenever I'm around with the camera. Maybe his shyness will wear off with the camera as he gets used to me.



Thanks for dropping by. I still have some pieces of riccia in the tank which browned but have been insanely difficult to get out of the Dwarf Sag, I'll be working it out slowly over the next few days as I gradually bring down the TDS.

Any comments and or suggestions are always welcome! -- Until next time!
 
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