Marko's College 20 Gal Long: home for the summer 5/19/13

[@marko@]

got some amazing pearling shots just had to put em up.

[Geniusdudekiran]

WOW. You weren't kidding!

[@marko@]

i know.
i have really high hopes for the growth in this tank.

[@marko@]

got the remainder of my plant species (excluding e. hydropiper and n. pedicellata golden, still looking for them if anyone has), and planted tonight. pics tomorrow.

also noticing new runners on the e. belem, and new growth on just about everything. im expecting to be growing out the plants for about 3 weeks or so, and then be able to start shaping.

trying to figure out what fish i want. i definitely want shrimp, so they need to be shrimp safe. any suggestions?

[@marko@]

r. green didnt ship too well... but some should survive.

here are the pics:

[hydrophyte]

Those plants look happy in there. You have a lot of nice plants.

Did that box get there yet?

[@marko@]

not yet. maybe it will arrive with the mail today in an hour or so.
but the substrate fertz arent for this tank. with MTS and brand new AS amazonia, i dont think this substrate needs anything added.

[JoraaÑ]

Such a small tank with so many varieties....

[@marko@]

collectoritis at its finest. lol
i will probably tone down the amount of plants i have as the tank progresses, and i see how well each of the plants does and how it looks in this particular scape.
the h. tiger on both sides is definitely going out. its just there to add plant matter while the other plants fill in.

[@marko@]

the plants are growing alright, but im noticings diatoms starting to spread.
its not too bad yet, but i dont like em. i know its probably just due to the new tank, but my erios, tonina, and d. diandra wont do well if any significant diatoms grow on them and shade them.
have good CO2 (i think)- 3-4 bps all photoperiod long via a GLA inline atomizer. high flow too. dosing EI and doing 50% daily WCs.
still not testing any nitrites, so it will be a while before i can add amanos and otos to clean this mess up.

[@marko@]

finally got nitrites. hopefully they will drop within a week or 2.
i need to add some otos and amanos. the diatoms are starting to get out of hand. it happens every time i use a new tank, and it always goes away as the tank matures; but they are starting to spread extensively onto the foliage of the plants, and im worried for some of the slower growing plants (namely the erios and tonina) that they may be shaded out before the diatoms clear up. any suggestions?

[@marko@]

nitrites are on the decline . but the diatoms have been getting worse. since classes were canceled for 2 days i went in and manually removed as much as i could (even cleared it off the lower leaves of the r. colorata leaf by leaf). im hoping the diatoms will run their course soon, but in the meantime im planning on adding tank-bred otos and some amanos as soon as my nitrites hit 0.

here are pics of the before and after cleaning
before:


after:

[Byakuya]

nice tank man; cant wait to see it in a few weeks

[@marko@]

No power. Will likely last 4-10 more days. Likely to loose most of the plants, not to mention my bettas in other tanks.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Oh NO! I hope your plants and other fishy animals make it okay! :