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My high tech 20 gallon long

11K views 49 replies 21 participants last post by  Jalopy 
#1 ·
Hey guys,

Just setup my 20 Long today, here is the setup video.

thanks for taking a look


 
#4 ·
take the adress/link and cut out the first part "http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/" so its just "www . youtube.com/watch?v=oE9lFVbXBcE" (without those spaces at the beginning)
 
#9 ·
wow thanks for that awesome compliment. I was going for production value quality, im glad to hear you think i nailed it. I just need a british narrator and id be all set aye? haha

thanks!


Great start, and awesome vid. What are you using for substrate? I have a 20l with a carpet of repens, and I was thinking about changing to hairgrass. Not to happy with the look of a repens carpet.

as for the substrate, im using a florite base to get elevation, then floramax on top of that and sifted eco-complete fine grade as the cap.

heres a lengthy video showing the substrate i used for this tank:

 
#14 ·
First update picture.

Day 5

Ive done two 50% water changes and have started to seed it with bio material from my other tanks to get it cycled quickly so i can get an algae eating crew in there asap. Zero signs of algae at this point, im only running a 5 hour photoperiod, with the Co2 Cranked to around 5bps, that turns the drop checker a very vibrant yellow, no doubt it would be lethal to fish, Taking advantage of the fact that there arent any fish yet.

Looks like all 3 plant species have new growth, and the S Repens and AR Mini that were grown emersed arent showing any signs of stress being in a submersed environment, yet.

thanks for looking!

 
#17 ·
im thinking about switching to an inline diffuser, only because the little ceramic diffuser im using now is quite loud, easily the loudest thing in my entire room. This wasnt something i was expecting, however i put a lot of effort to get my room to be very silent, so saying that its the loudest thing doesnt mean its actually loud, or intrusive, its just too loud for me. Another thing i dont like about intake Co2 diffusers is it creates whats called " sprite water " very bubble water with at minimum ruins the viewing experience and at worst ruins pictures and videos. Ive heard that inline diffusers help to alleviate this problem, but im not sure 100% how. we'll see...

Finally got a chance to watch it. Lookin good buddy. Nice job on the video!

thanks for watching Lub!
 
#19 ·
Quick update guys,


Each day i look very closely at everything in the tank to make sure everything is behaving, today i noticed my first runners on the belem DHG. also starting to see some light algae form on the rocks, im going to scrub them today and do a 50% water change, then seed with more bio media from my other tank and in a couple more days it should be fully cycled. Then i introduce an army of Ottos!

 
#28 ·
Hey guys,

A small update, the last couple weeks ive been having an all out war with Diatom Algae. Just in the last couple days ive gotten a leg up on it and have started to see signs of it falling back.

It was frustrating because the tank wasnt cycled yet so I couldnt get any algae eaters in there to battle it, so I was manually removing everyday. Seemed like every day I removed it and every day it was worse than the last. The most frustrating part was when i would syphon out what i could it was taking small layer of substrate with it, exposing the Belem Hairgrass roots, and some of the nodes came up rooted, very very frustrating.
The tank fully cycled on monday and i quickly got a small army of Ottos in there and they seem to really be doing the trick. They polished the rocks and large leaf plants off in no time, the rocks and AR Mini leaves dont have a single sign of any algae, but they seem to be uninterested in the algae growing at the substrate level. so im still manually removing it.
Ive started doing water changes with RO/DI water to get the hardness and GH down to a level where Shrimp can thrive. As soon as i get the GH down ill get a few Amano shrimp in there, i think they will do a better job of eating the algae at the substrate.

Anyway guys, so thats where i am at with the tank. a quick picture from my nightmare...

 
#32 ·
No the light i have is EXTREMELY bright. the area in front of the father stone where the substrate is banked very highly, I get about 90 par, at the substrates lowest point i get about 65 par. For the videos and pictures i have the ISO of the camera turned to -2 to keep the shot from looking washed out, but it also makes it look much dimmer than it actually is.

Tank looks good. Is the tank rimless? If so what brand is it or did you take the rim off?
It is rimless. Im not sure what brand it is, i got it at petco during their dollar per gallon sale, took the rim off my self and im pretty pleased with the way it turned out.
 
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