20L First High Tech setup

2323 Views 30 Replies 5 Participants Last post by andrewq, Jun 15, 2014

andrewq

Discussion Starter · Apr 20, 2014

So I've always wanted to get a 20L. I like the way look, and I can imagine a small school of tetras. Heavily planted with some type of carpet look. Well after about 3 months of gathering supplies im finally ready to put all together. The stand is DIY, and stands at 3.5ft tall. Nothing fancy, and I wanted it to look clean ( If that makes sense).

Substrate-regular black sand mixed with first layer laterite, and root tabs.

Plants-dwarf baby tears, anubias nana petite, blyxa japonica, and staurogyne repens. Hydrocotyle japan will be hear tuesday.

Fish-10 bolivian rams that I raised from fry. Presently about 6 months old. Also 4 otocinclus. I plan on removing rams, and adding maybe 10 to 15 neon tetras. Dont know what Im going to do with rams.........future ROAK???

Lighting-Odyssea dual T5HO [email protected] 13500k total.

Filtration-Aquaclear 30
Hydor koralia nano 240
random heater for LFS

Ultimate paintballsetup/pressurized co2 ( puchased from nilocg )
Ive never used pressurized co2 before, and this was definetly a learning experience. I know how to put it all together, and how it all works. So I felt good when I started hooking everything up. One big mistake I made was, I had assembled everything except the co2 tank a few days ago. So the connections today are a little lose, and. As soon as opened the valve..........whooooosshhh. My reaction was Holy [censored][censored][censored][censored] WTF, do I still have all my fingers, lol. Needless to say I depleted the entire co2 tank. So enough talking, and will post pictures in a moment

1 - 20 of 31 Posts

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #2 · Apr 20, 2014

Sorry for bad picture quality

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 20, 2014

Sorry for bad pictures

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #4 · Apr 20, 2014

Bad pictures

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #5 · Apr 20, 2014

Bad quality

See less See more

Shremph

· #6 · Apr 21, 2014

looks good. I like the layout.

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #7 · Apr 21, 2014

Thanks, and suggestions welcome.

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #8 · Apr 23, 2014 (Edited)

So I move some plants around, and removed some. Tanks been running for a few days. Will the co2 kill the algae? Was also considering getting some shrimp to battle algae.

Also I have 2 6500k bulbs @ 24watt sitting on top of tank. I've tryed to calculate my lighting, and I believe I have high lighting. Maybe I should raise the lights some?? Suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #9 · Apr 23, 2014

Another picture

See less See more

Shremph

· #10 · Apr 23, 2014

What are you doing for fertilizers? What is your bps for your co2?

I have a 4x24w t5ho fixture on top of my 20 long and I have little algae (GDA on glass etc). It's all about balance. High light is fine as long as you can meet all the other requirements to reach an equilibrium, e.g. ferts co2, etc.

For ferts I am just using osmocote leeching from the substrate. I will Ei dose when needed. No livestock yet and I keep my co2 at an uncountable bps (shallow bubble counter). 70ppm roughly.

8hr light cycle.

Tank in question. Still a new tank and I have yet to add a carpet. Concentrating on my Fissidens growth and propagating my s reps.

Sent from my Nexus 5

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #11 · Apr 24, 2014 (Edited)

Thanks for responding. 200+views and somebody finally responds, lol. Thanks again.

Ferts I am using first layer laterite mixed with black sand. Also some root tabs. Co2 is presently at 3bps. I have liquid micros, macros, and excel. I haven't started using them yet. I think the algae present is actually diatoms, and hopefully it will go away. Lighting is on for about 10 hours.

It looks like we are using the same rocks. I actually took mine out yesterday, and pressure washed them. Now they look much better, and are actually black not brown, lol.

Nice tank by the way. Topless? 4x24w sounds like alot of light. I calculated my light using 24wx2/20gallons=2.1......is this they correct calculation?

Shremph

· #12 · Apr 24, 2014

Watts per gallon are fairly irrelevant nowadays. You can estimated par via hoppy's thread in the lighting sub forum to see where you stand in lighting.

Yeah, diatoms come and go in every tank I start. I found that a high amount of circulation helps reduce the amount of diatoms that ate allowed to build up in any given spot. I currently have an AC 50 and a sunsun 302 canister on my 20l

Definitely topless, I need to keep my temperatures in the low 70's so topless plus a small fan on each tank is required. My shrimp breed best if temps are maintained at 73-74 degrees.

Sent from my Nexus 5

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #13 · Apr 25, 2014

What are you using for substrate? Looks like sand.....

H2Ogal

· #14 · Apr 25, 2014

AndrewQ, I like colors and simplicity of your tank design. Beautiful rocks, and it's all restful to look at, which is something I'm trying to do with my 29g. Will let you know if I ever get there. :icon_roll

I love a 20g long. I started with a used set-up that, unfortunately, inlcuded tons of stuff I ended up replacing. And then I upgraded halfway through the process to my 29g. So the old tank is just sitting around unused. Have been thinking about setting it up, as soon as I can decide on stocking. And lighting. and find a new stand ...

Btw, a RAOK of tank-raised Bolivian rams would be awesome!

Crazy4discus

· #15 · Apr 25, 2014

Looks good! Can't wait until your plants fill in the tank!

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #16 · Apr 25, 2014

Thanks everyone, and I appreciate the feedback. I wasn't happy with the way things looked. So I changed things up a little bit. Also added a few fish, and shrimp. My LFS had Amano shrimp for $2 each. SCORE! Had to grab a few! Also took out all the s repens, and cleaning as much algae as I could. Started dosing excel today to see if that will help. I'm going to eventually separate the large clumps of baby tears, and plant them stem by stem. There growing really quick right now. Enjoy the pictures!

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #17 · Apr 25, 2014

More pics

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #18 · Apr 25, 2014

Have to post pictures individually

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #19 · Apr 25, 2014

One more

See less See more

andrewq

Discussion Starter · #20 · Apr 28, 2014 (Edited)

So I was thinking about adding a river in between the two rock structures. How hard would this be? Also Im moving in a few weeks. So I think I'll have my best chance to do so then. Do I need to add some type of plastic divider? Also would the plastic remain in the tank, or can I simply remove after scaping?

1 - 20 of 31 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.