My 20g has a new owner, so RIP journal

[Karackle]

About 6months ago (~nov 2007) I decided it was time to take my 20 gallon out of the plastic and into the planted realm. I decided I wanted to make the tank look a little more sophisticated and figured I could either purchase all new silk and plastic plants, or spend the money on live plants, something I'd always wanted to try. I was also having trouble with water quality (WQ) and was losing fish due to a worn out bubbler that was no longer passing enoguh water through the small filter. So it was time to upgrade the whole system. Here is a photo journey from the start until now, and I will try to update regularly from here on out (this 20 gallon journal took a backseat to my 5 gallon tank which i started from scratch)...I hope you enjoy, and thanks for looking! Also...any suggestions are welcome!

Tank Specs:
20 gallon High tank
Regular aquarium gravel substrate
Marineland Penguin 100 Bio-Wheel HOB filter
18" 15watt fluorescent bulb

Flora:
Crypt spiralis
Crypt wendtii red and/or bronze
Crypt wendtii v. 'tropica'
Guppy grass
Sunset Hygro
large Anubias (sp.?)
Anubias (on driftwood)

Fauna:
1 female Betta
5 glolight tetras
7 neon tetras
5 zebra danios
2 endlers
1 clown pleco
3 Otos
3 amano shrimp

My 20 gallon before "renovations" began:




After preliminary renovations:




And moving into more renovations as the new filter began doing it's job and my WQ and tank had restabilized...

January:


February:


March:
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[Karackle]

And some of the inhabitants of my 20gallon:

Lady Bettas (2 of the 3):




The 1 baby guppy survivor (he figured out how to hide out from the other fish and get enough food to grow!):


and my Gourami:


Of course there's more, but these are the ones who have "sat still" long enough for me to get half-decent shots of them!

[Ozymandias]

really all I have to say it you might consider going for new substrate. other wise it looks pretty good. by the way what are the specs for the tank (equipment, plants and fish)

[Karackle]

Thanks, yeah, I'd love to change the substrate....i worry about upsetting the delicate balance of the tank that I finally got restabilized by switching out all of the substrate....maybe one day though. I did add the black in, so i like it at least a little better now than when it was all blue and purple :-P Perhaps I'll take out half of what's in there and add more black (which i have on hand anyway) and slowly weed out the blue and purple that way. Of course that means pulling out all the plants and re-planting.....so maybe i'll wait until i'm sick of how the plants look and want to rearrange them

I've added the tank specs in an edit to the original post

[Karackle]

Just wanted to post some updated pictures of my 20g. I think it's growing in pretty well, I added some more Crypt spiralis (sp?) in the back and moved around some of the older spiralis toward the back and over a little. Let me know what you think, and enjoy!

My 20g without a flash using a couple different settings:

[Karackle]

20g Update! It's getting a bit jungle-y on the left side, but i think the Crypt Spiralis (sp?) is growing in nicely in the middle (it's only been ~3weeks)

Here's a couple very similar pictures, I was wondering which lighting you think looks best in the pictures? (it's just different settings on the camera).

Let me know what you think about the tank and the camera settings or anything else!!! thanks, and enjoy!

[@marko@]

substrate could be better, but i LOVE the shadow the wood gives off.

[Karackle]

Thanks! I like the shadow as well! and yes, i know the substrate isn't the best, i worked with what i had, ah well...i was hoping when I added the black that it would cover more of the purple and blue, but alas, not so.

[lauraleellbp]

It's coming along really well, the plants look nice and healthy

I think the crypt is C. balansae?

[Karackle]

lauraleellbp - thanks so much, it sure has come along way and i'm so glad I can share it with everyone on the forum! And it certainly could be C. balansae, it said spiralis on the glass at the fish store, but that doesn't mean they're definitely right

[Karackle]

I was away for 3 days last weekend and my roommate accidentally left my fish tank lights on the whole time and unfortunately there was a lot of plant die-off in my 5g, BUT my 20g apparently had enough nutrients to sustain the extra growth from the added light and they grew like crazy! My crypt spiralis (or balansae) was pearling like mad when I got home. My large anubias (i realized it's probably an anubias and not a large crypt wendtii) in the front grew a whole large new leaf in the past week!

Here's a couple new pics of the tank:




Would it look better if I pulled out the purple cabomba and moved the large anubias to the corner where the cabomba is now?
Here's a close-up of that corner:



And I finally got a clear and decent picture of the blue female betta:



Any input, feedback, questions, comments, or concerns would be great!

[Jimbo205]

I think the substrate is fine. I like bright colors. Which is why I like freshwater plants and fish.

With the HOB with the Bio-wheel have you considered replacing the O2 in the bubbler with DIY CO2? (airline hose, 2 soda bottles, bread yeast, sugar, baking soda, etc.)
So long as you always have the filter on, the CO2 should do great for both the plants and the fish. Just an idea.

[fshfanatic]

I have probably 75lbs of SMS Charcoal. Let me see if I can find it. If so, I will send you enough for that tank in flat rate boxes. You only pay shipping. IF you promise to get rid of that gravel.

Let me see if I can find it.

[Karackle]

Jimbo - thanks, i liked the bright colors before, but they just don't seem to fit anymore with the more natural look of the live plants IMO As for CO2, i don't think I have enough light to warrant CO2, nor the space to set it up, and mostly I want to keep the tank low tech. But if I ever get more ambitious, it's not a bad idea. Thanks for the thought

fshfanatic - if I can mail the flat rate boxes to you, i'd take that! (I don't have paypal) Though I must admit I'm not exactly sure what SMS charcoal is....i'd assume a solid black plant-friendly substrate?

[lauraleellbp]

It's more a dark gray, and it's very lightweight- but good for promoting root growth.

I'd worry a little that your cory cats might keep it stirred up, though?