[shambhalove.]

I started this back in April with the intent on documenting the entire thing and keeping a journal for it...haha...well I took pictures of the whole process, but thats about it. Half points maybe? :confused1: Oh well I suppose its better late than never.

Anyways, so I really wanted a nice simple tank for my room and i needed a safe haven to put my shrimp if any were to survive the rainbows in my 75. I love the look of open top tanks as well, but my rainbows also seem to think they can fly. Oh and i also really wanted to try Aquasoil and didnt want to cycle it in a bucket or something. So really, when you add it all up i had to start another tank. roud:

I decided on a 20L. There's so many amazing ones on this site and i had a 20L qt tank that was painful to look at full of plastic, pvc and terracotta.
This hobby is expensive. My plan for this tank was to spend money on what I felt was more important, a quality substrate and filtration. Scrap 2x4s and black paint for a nice cheap stand and i have a few dome cfls laying around so lighting was free.


Building the stand...simple, free and the exact height i want! lol


Stand and background painted...fill test...laugh...use half a bag of shims :icon_eek:


Light!...a bit too much...

Decided on AS Amazonia, bought the Power Sand S as well. Starting to waste money already haha. I was impressed by the AS, it was able to knock my ph from ~8.2 down to 6.8-7. Still waiting(being lazy) to test gh and kh.

Went with a 2215. I have a 2217 and love it so the choice was easy, battled with getting a 2213 but i'm happy with the overkill. Main concern here was noise since its the 2nd tank in my room and feet from my bed. Plugged it in and had to do the usual eheim touch my filter to make sure its on dance, the things are awesome.

Also got a 200w Hydor inline heater. Wont need it now but my room drops to like 15-16c in winter...Plan to have a cheap bedroom tank slowly falling apart...


Cycling...Lots o Frogbit = bye bye ammonia


More plants.


Cycled. In go the shrimp! Some rescued from the Boesemani massacre and some from the lfs.


Another collapse in the budget plan...well ive never tried leds before! What was i supposed to do? :wink:


And where we are at today. Things are growing in nicely, done a few trims already and there are shrimplets everywhere!

The plants are staying...for now. 3 kinds of Crypts, Vals, 2 kinds of Bacopa, Flame Moss, Rotala, Hygrophila, Dwarf Sag, Pennywort.

Well there it is. My condensed, yet slightly long winded journal for the past 3-4 months. Maybe I'll try and update this on some sort of normal schedule, maybe...

Questions? Ideas? I'd love some input!

Here's some camera phone eye candy

 

[TankYouVeryMuch]

Very nice! Any nutes or co2 dosing?

 

[shambhalove.]

Very nice! Any nutes or co2 dosing?

Thanks!

No co2. Light weekly dosing with dry ferts.

 

[joejoe123]

what kind of lights were you using at first I liked the look and currently looking for lighting for my 40 breeder

 

[shambhalove.]

what kind of lights were you using at first I liked the look and currently looking for lighting for my 40 breeder

The are clip on dome reflectors from home depot, each with a 13w 6500k cfl. I just took off the clamp part and hung them from the wires. I actually liked the look as well, but with 3 on my 20L and 2 on my betta tank my room was getting a little too toasty on hot days.

The Fugeray is a great little light but makes everything a little washed out. Ive ordered the Current led fixture so we'll see how that looks...totally gave up on the budget at this point....

 

[Hilde]

The Fugeray is a great little light but makes everything a little washed out. Ive ordered the Current led fixture so we'll see how that looks...totally gave up on the budget at this point....

Welcome to the addition! I find it hard to stay on a budget for this hobby too.

Read that other's found that the Fueray washed out the colors. One suggested the Current USA Satellite LED+ , which has a control unit. I have seen the control unit sold separately.

 

[shambhalove.]

Welcome to the addition! I find it hard to stay on a budget for this hobby too.

Read that other's found that the Fueray washed out the colors. One suggested the Current USA Satellite LED+ , which has a control unit. I have seen the control unit sold separately.

Yeah thats the light ive ordered, the 24-36" version. Im sure I will get bored with the weather settings and such within a day but I'm interested to see how much of a difference the RGB's make in person.

 

[tylergvolk]

Great tank. I hope to have amount of healthy plants you have in my 20L startup!

 

[jpappy789]

Nicely done!

I currently have the LED+, I think it's a bit less intense than the Fugeray though so I wouldn't count on hanging it.

 

[cableguy69846]

Bravo sir. Well done. Seeing all the LED fixtures out there is making me really want to try them out now.roud:

 

[Bradleyv1714]

I just bought a current sat+ led light and awaiting to receive it. I hope it is much better than what a double bulb shoplight looks like.

 

[shambhalove.]

Thank you everyone!

Everything has been filling in nicely and the shrimp continue to multiply :smile: I`m debating pulling out all of the vals, they need constant trimming in a tank this shallow and the runners want to take over the tank. The Hygro grows like wildfire and is quickly becoming one of my favorite plants, it brings a nice splash of colour to a low light tank.

I finally got around to setting up my Satellite+ and i couldnt be happier. Being able to customize the colours is awesome! Personally I like the orange setting with a little extra red added the best, it really helps bring out the non green plants in the tank and I love the "warmth" it brings to my room. The dynamic effects are more fun than i thought they would be and i cannot wait for the timer so i can setup the sunrise/sunset and cloud cover. Very impressed with this light and you cannot beat the price!! Only one problem, why the blue moonlights? Whats with everyone and their blue moonlighting?? Personally i think its a cool effect in itself but it certainly doesnt look light natural moonlight. Oh well :icon_roll

On a side note, I ordered 2 of Current's TrueLumen Lunar LEDs (1200k) for for my 75 gallon and they look amazing! Finally natural looking moonlights!! :icon_mrgr

Anyways here's the good stuff...

http://s1294.photobucket.com/user/ryan_1001/media/20130831_223154_zps27a7661c.jpg.html




Moss lawn that needs constant mowing lol


Hygro and Pennywort trying to leave!

 

[Jonnywhoop]

What are the small crypts in the front? Awesome looking tank

 

[shambhalove.]

Cryptocoryne Wendtii. They'll get quite a bit bigger, but fairly slowly. :red_mouth

 

[tattooedfool83]

Awesome tank man. I love the hygro to, it's green by the substrate and as it gets closer to the light the color really comes out.

 

[shambhalove.]

Thanks!!

Yeah it almost looks like its flowering how it changes near the tops.

 

[The Dude]

That really looks great. All my hygro died off. I don't know why. Its gonna be really hard to get those guys out of there to sell of cull, but man does that look nice!

 

[shambhalove.]

That really looks great. All my hygro died off. I don't know why. Its gonna be really hard to get those guys out of there to sell of cull, but man does that look nice!

Hahaha yup, sometimes you cant even see any shrimp. I'll just use a bottle trap when the time comes. Although i have noticed that shrimp are a lot easier to net than fish.

Any opinions on pulling up the vals? I was thinking of spreading out the hygro and rotala in its place. Any other plants that you people would suggest instead?

 

[shambhalove.]

Well i pulled the vals, they thought they owned the place! The middle looks pretty empty now but it should fill in real quick.

What do ya think?






detail of left back, shows whats to come!


right back

 

[pianofish]

I think that it looks great man without the vals! And yes once that background grows in, I think that it'll have a nice lush look to it. At first I was thinking that you should move that slightly dead center gap to the right so that the eye will naturally follow the moss towards the back right corner of the tank, but if your plants fill that gap, then problem solved!