[Church]

UPDATE: This is the way the tank looks right now:

To skip ahead to the most current photos, click here.







Well, I finally got my shipment from Big Al's. This means I now have a stand for the 20g and, yay, another project! I've already assembled the stand and set the tank on top of it. Just to start this thread properly, I figured I'd take a few pics:

I'm currently in the middle of rinsing the old 3M colorquartz from my 45g, now that it has been retired. Once I get it all rinsed out, and snails removed, I will then start working on the hardscape.

Speaking of hardscapes, I'm kind of in a bind right now, because all the rocks I have are too small to achieve the look I'm going for in this tank. All the manzanita branches I have (and I have LOTS!) are useless to me for this tank, since my mom wants it to be an all-rock hardscape. I went to the rock store today to see if they had anymore Texas petrified wood, just like I have in my 2.5g, but he said he would have to bring more in to the shop. I explained what I'd be looking for, essentially a chunk about the size of a football, and a couple others not much smaller, and he said he thinks he has what I'm looking for. So all I can do is cross my fingers and wait for him to call me, which will hopefully happen in the next few days.

If I cannot find what I'm looking for locally, I just might have to take the chance on ordering some seiryu stone or something similar from I guess AFA, and that thought isn't too appealing since I don't get to hand-pick the pieces. So here's hoping my "rock-guy" (lol) comes through for me.

Hope everyone's having a happy Thursday!

 

[mumushummus]

nice stand sahib!
it will match the scape?

 

[Church]

Thank you! To be honest, I didn't care so much about the stand matching the scape, as I cared about it matching the living room. But now that you mention it, I think it will match the scape I'm planning.

 

[Church]

Today was a good day! I got some more petrified wood, and I've already begun my hardscape. This will be an all-rock hardscape, but it will not be an iwagumi. More like dutch meets wabi-sabi. Some sneak-peek pictures are forthcoming...

 

[Church]

:biggrin:

 

[Church]

Okay today's the day that I go through my big bucket of plants and see which ones survived. I can see that the ones floating on top of the water look pretty good still. Mostly this means the Anubias nana and the H. tenellum. But I also have weighted bunches of Rotala down in there somewhere. I'm curious to know what they look like now.

Anyway, hopefully I can start planting today. I will take some more pictures as the project unfolds. I know at least a few of you out there are watching this thread, judging by the number of views.

 

[DevinWolfe]

That looks really nice so far. I have recently been given a 20G-long by a friend getting out of reptile keeping so I will keep an eye on yours for ideas.

Do you have any ideas for stock so far?

I hope more of your plants survived! Most of mine didn't make it while tearing down my 50G.

 

[Church]

I'm pretty sure I want this tank to have a large school of small fish. Whether we are talking tiny fish, like Boraras, or just some small tetras, or even maybe Espei rasbora... I just don't know yet.

Seeing as how this tank is going to feature more reddish/orange type of hues, I may very well go with some Espei or Hengeli rasbora. But it would be nice to go with a type of fish I haven't raised before... like maybe green neons, or boraras.

I'm open to suggestions!

 

[Church]

Also, Devin, make sure your friend's tank wasn't one of those ones that are made specifically for reptiles, as opposed to fish. If it is, I don't recommend filling it with water. Hopefully though it's just a standard 20 long.

 

[hydrophyte]

Hey that looks real good! You built that stand? It's very nice.

 

[Church]

No, no, I did not build it. I suck at woodworking (for now, anyway). No, this is one of those stingray stands from Big Al's. I have 3 of these stands now, one for each of my tanks. They are the best, cheap stands I've found so far. It's cheaper actually ordering one and paying for shipping than it is getting the equivalent particle board stand from Petco or Petsmart, or something of the like.

But thank you for your compliment anyway!

[edit: I see... I accidentally said "built the stand" instead of "assembled the stand" up above. Fixed. Thanks Hydrophyte!]

 

[Church]

Arrrrghhh! I've run out of plants. Most of the plants I was trying to keep alive in a 5 gal bucket did not make it. This was mostly a bunch of Rotala rotundifolia, and Rotala magenta. This sucks. I was able to use most of the H. tenellum, because it was floating on top of everything else, and therefore got the most of what little light was available.

Poop.

So now I've gotta quickly acquire more plants so that I can go ahead and fill the tank with water. I don't want to fill the tank until after I plant. It's so much easier that way. But maybe I'll have to go ahead and fill it, and then drain it when I get more plants.

If I don't submerge the tenellum soon, I'm afraid it will dry out or convert to emergent growth. (I am misting it down every few hours).

Anyway, it's off to a good start, IMO. Here's what it looks like right after planting the tenellum:

I guess I'm calling Everglades nursery today to see what they have available. Whatever I can't get from them I'll have to go get from Marine Warehouse, or another LFS. This sucks.

On the bright side, all the Anubias nana seem to have survived. They even threw flowers up above the waterline in that 5 gal bucket! I just don't have any room for anubias in the aquascape I've planned out. Murphy's Law strikes again...

 

[Church]

Okay, so it looks like I'll be getting some Rotala rotundifolia and Hemianthus micranthemoides from Everglades on Wednesday, and I've spoken to the guy at Westside Aquarium (thank you Hilde for mentioning them in my 10g thread!) who sounds real nice and actually knowledgeable about various aquarium plants, and he believes he can get me some glosso and/or HC. I just have to call him tomorrow because he will have talked to his plant supplier by then.

So, I went ahead and filled the tank just to the top of the substrate level at the very back. This means all the tenellum is now submerged. I think it should be okay for a few days, as long as I keep topping it off.

So, things should be looking up for me in the next few days!

 

[luckydud13]

So are you going to be morphing IAPLC #10 and #11?

Hello from ASW

 

[Church]

Kind of, yes!

 

[luckydud13]

Looks good, subscribed

 

[Church]

^ Thanks lucky!

Nothing new to report. I'm still trying to get my plants in order. Some are on their way to me now. I've got about 2 gallons of water in there now, enough to submerge all the tenellum. I've drained and changed that water once so far. I'll do it again in a couple of days, too.

That's pretty much it for now.

 

[Church]

Okay I received my Blyxa (and tons of other stems and moss I've yet to sort through!) from Sewingalot, so I went ahead and found the best specimens, then planted them strategically. Here's what I have now:

The glosso should be here early next week, then followed by the rotala. I still need to find some HM though, but I'll worry about that later. Just wanted to continue with the photo updates, as this thing takes shape.

 

[vtkid]

nice start, just subscribed soo, stems? or iwagami?

 

[Church]

Stems, for sure. I'll be loading it up with various rotalas, HM, and probably didiplis. I want my stems (aside from the HM) to all color up into pink and orange hues. This tank is coming together sloooooowly, but that's okay. I'd rather do it right the first time than have to stir things up replanting as time goes on.

Thanks for visiting!