First tank: 50G with 30G sump, low-light, low-tech, MTS

[crazymittens]

I will have more to update tomorrow after I pick up the equipment. A friend of mine has graciously offered the use of his tanks/etc while he is out of the country for work (years), so I will be picking up 2-3 10-gallon tanks and one 30-gallon tank (all glass).

Goals
The goals for this tank are as follows:

1. Learn how to run and enjoy an aquarium
2. Low maintenance (minimal water changes, fert requirements)
3. Low-light to save on power costs
4. Low-tech - remove complication of CO2
5. Low-cost (relatively, anways)

Water quality
The water, from what I know, is ~pH7 and moderately hard, so what goes in the tank must be able to deal with this - I do not want to deal with changing water chemistry via expensive chemicals.

What's in the tank
Substrate: Mineralized topsoil (AaronT's method) capped with Black Diamond 20/40 blasting grit
Plants: Anubias, Java fern, some type of moss, Rotala, Hygro
Fish: Cherry barb
Inverts: Red cherry shrimp (clean the plants/substrate), Ramshorn snails (clean the glass)

Infrastructure
I would like to experiment with sumps/overflows, but will probably keep things simple to start. 30G on its own and a 10G to breed the RCS. One of the spare 10Gs will be an emergency quarantine tank.

Timeline

1. Mineralize the topsoil
2. Lay the mud, then plant everything
3. 2-3 weeks to cycle
4. Add the RCS (10-15 to start)
5. Give it 2-4 weeks for the RCS to get established
6. Add a school of cherry barbs (~dozen)
7. Enjoy, maintain, and document progress

More to come, and pictures, of course.