GraFFix's 20g - 6 month update W/pics!

[GraFFix]

Well after months of planning and procrastinating (I am king procrastinator) I finally upgraded my old 8 year old 10g to a whooping 20g!

Equipment used:
XP3 (for a 20g you say? I say YES!)
Customized Eheim intallation kits (for that black look)
130w Coralife lunar Aqualight (1 colormax - 1 9325k)(and yes alot of light!)
Aqua Medic 1000 reactor
5lb Co2 tank
JBJ Regulator and bubble counter
Milwaukee Ph controller
100w Visi-Therm Stealth Heater

Substrate:
40bls of Eco Complete
8 years of mulm from old UGF

Plants:
Blyxa Japiconia
Dwarf Sag
Limnophila sessiliflora
Rotala Rotundifolia
Hemianthus micranthemoides
HC (small patch)
algae ball

Inhabitants:
8 cardinals
2 ottos
2 sae's
2 zebra danios
2 pigmy cories
2 antheas (sp?) cories
1 bristlenose pleco
4 amano shrimp
1 albino clawed frog
1 clam

I know i need more plants and am going to pick up some fast growers tonight after work. There is no aquascape yet i just kinda tossed the plants in there for now. I also removed the rock already...i wasnt liking the way it looked. Ill try to use it in a week or so when i redo the aquascape. and without further delay...The pics form the crappy digital camera!

Water is still a little cloudy from filling...




The fun stuff...the equipment




I love the Aqualight....


I built a shelf on the back of the tank to hold the C02 bottle since the 20g stand doesnt have that much room under it. To my supprise the regulator was perfect height.


Moonlights!


thats all for now...ill try to update this post with progress of the tank...hopefully it will grow the weeds as well as the 10g did.

thanks for looking!

[Jdinh04]

Nice setup, I would remove that rock that you have in there. Should of started with fast growing plants, but I guess you are fine with what you started with. Amano doesn't always start with fast growing plants either so you are fine. I wished ehiem had clearer tubes.

[bigstick120]

HOLY CRAP!!! you have enough power there to run a tank 3 times that size. At least if you upgrade you wont have to buy that much equipment

[GraFFix]

Jdinh04:
Yea I removed the rock already...i didnt like it. i just forgot to take new pics after i removed it. Ill be getting some fast growers tonight after work.

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bigstick120:
Yea I have alot of power...Im always one to go bigger then i need. with the XP3 and the reactor on the return line it slowed the return down considerably. Although I still have enough flow to give me the option of adding the inline heater. which i might do very soon.
And with the lighting im only at full light for 3 hours a day...one bulb runs 11 hours the other only kicks on for 3 hours for the mid-day cycle.

I like keeping alot of fish so i always over filter. the current fish list was all from my 10g...Now with the 20g i have room for a few more fish

------

I know there are certain rules to follow when having a tank...but i sometimes do things my own way and after keeping fish for the past 20 years, from fish only salt water and reef to, planted and fish only tanks. I have always had great success with them. So ill stick to what works for me.

[bigstick120]

whatever works for you, it looks good. What is that above your heater running horzontal?

[GraFFix]

Originally Posted by bigstick120

whatever works for you, it looks good. What is that above your heater running horzontal?

Eheim Spraybar from their installation kits.

I modified the Eheim intake and spraybar to work with the XP3 cause i wanted them black to blend in with the background and the XP3 intake/spraybar was gray and blueish.

The heater will get moved down also so you wont be able to see it i just put it up there for now cause its easier top adjust. so once the temps are set ill move it down lower behind the driftwood so it cant be seen.

[GraFFix]

Well the tank has been setup for a little over a week now. I was able to get ahold of some fast but ugly plants from the LFS, as well as some nice new ones that I plan on keeping for the long haul. There is also some unkown plants that I took out of a small lake in michigan this past weekend.

Water parameters after one week.

water temp - 77
Nitrate - 5
Ammonia - 0.25
pH - 6.7
Co2 - 32ppm
KH - 5
GH - 10
phosphate - 3.0

Sorry for the crappy camera and Thanks for looking.

Full tank shots...






Some of the fish...

My newest fish..I absolutly love him.

Picked this up today..it was labled as Red Temple but i dont think it is. Im not even sure if its an aquatic plant but it looked so nice. I guess well see.

[Georgiadawgger]

It looks nice. It may be red temple grown emersed, but I can't really tell. The progression is nice. I was going to comment on the random look of the moss ball (algae ball) in the older pics but I guess you got rid of it.

The L. sessiflora looks nice and healthy too. If the red plant is red temple, maybe consider moving it to the back to replace the anacharis? A splash of red will look real nice for contrast!

[GraFFix]

I just stuck that red temple there yesterday. The LFS only had 3 stems of this which by the time i left the store was down to 1 stem. when i got home I looked into what the plant needs and it and it needs high light. Although pictures online dont look anything like this, so Im am really not sure what I have. but I figured it was 5 bucks for 1 stem I would give it as much light as possible to help grow.

And yea the sessiflora has grown about 8 inches in the past week. You can see from the first pics I posted after setup the cuttings I used from my old tank are hidden behind the ugly rock i had in there. they were maybe 3 inches when i put them in. And the algae ball is still in there...just sitting on the back of the driftwood for now on the left

There still isnt any sort of landscape either. ive just been putting plants where i can find room. I still have more on the way and will slowly start to get the look im going for. but it is fun watching the progression.

thanks for looking

[hueyn]

Looking good there!

[BSS]

Great lookin' start, graffix! Keep us posted on how the "potential" alternanthera works out. Assuming that is the emersed form, it looks nice that way. Personally, I've had trouble with that plant, though many feel it is the easiest of the red plants.

[Cheeseybacon]

Nice looking tank, thats quite an improvement for just 1 week. I see you have a clam listed as one of your tank's inhabitants. Is it hard to care for? What does it do? Does it just sit there? Just curious, I like invertibrates.

[GraFFix]

Thanks!

But about the clam I honestly have no idea what he does. I know hes a filter feeder and you can see him once in a while with his mouth above the surface of the gravel but thats about it. He does move around alot so i never really know where hes at until im moving plants or something in the gravel or get lucky and see his little mouth.

I forgot about him untill i was breaking down my 10g to set up this tank. dug my hands into the gravel to get a hold on the root system on some plant and pulled him out...i put him in the new 20g and after a few hours he dissapeared into the gravel once again. if i find him i will usually pull him out and set him ontop of the gravel, but he instantly starts working his way back into the gravel...and again after a hour or so he will dissapear untill i find him next time.
you have to be carefull with them though cause if they do die that can quickly foul the tank. I do believe he helps keep the gravel loose and keeps it mixed up. ive had him for about 9 months now...I wish i knew how long they lived.

[Kyle]

Ooo, clam pics please!

[StUk_In_AfRiKa]

Wow what a difference from a week ago! I'd also love to see some pics of the clam if you could manage to find him again.