20 gallon low tech journal

After seeing some of the amazing transformations of many of your tanks from start to current, I decided I should take some pics and document my progress with this tank.

I have just finished the final stocking,(for now), and the tank has been set up for about 2 months with slowly increasing fish and plants. Today I added some crypts, pygmy chain sword, onion plant, mondo grass and another small grass that I can't remember right now. I already had a Bleheri and an Amazon and an argentine sword. There is also a patch of some sort of stem plant that noone seemed to be able to tell me what it was, but it looked nice so we will see what it turns into.

Anyway, here's what it looks like today. I may have to re-arrange some once things start to grow but it's a start.

As you can see I need to hide the equipment better. I have a large peice of wood that will hide most of it once it has soaked enough water to stay submerged. And once the plants mature I should be able to hide everything well.

For livestock It is sort of a Noahs ark of a community tank, only they mostly came one by one rather than two by two, heh heh. Eventually I will move some around to my other tanks and make a more thought out list but for now I have:

1 lemon tetra
2 glo light tetras
1 rummynose that somehow got into a bag with another fish
1 sterbai cory
1 albino white cloud
1 pencil fish
1 albino brislenose
2 cherry shrimp

So that's where I am today. hopefully in a couple weeks it will start to look a bit different.

Thanks for looking, and thanks for all the great advise and inspiration.

I added some Hornwart today and moved a couple things around. My other tube came in today as well so now I have plenty of light. I will post another pic after the water clears since I stirred it up a bit.

I also am trying to decide on what fish I ultimately want in this tank. The ones in there now really need several freinds of their own kind but I am not sure how to split them up, which to keep here and add to etc. I have another 10 gallon for QT and I will likely move some of the species in there and get pals for all, just have not made up my mind on that yet. I will have to pick up another QT from CL before that happens. Also my LFS is pretty lame and doesn't stock much of anything really. So for now my stock will stay as is for awhile. It's close to a 200 mile drive to Seattle where there are tons of great fish stores and plenty that I am familiar and comfortable with so I am planning on incorporating fish store visits into my future travel plans. And for plants there is always the internet.

I never mentioned what equipment and ferts I am using so here goes:

filters: 1 Aquaclear 30 1 penguin 150B
heater: 1 Aqueon 150W
Lights: 24" Coralife 130w fixture w/ 1 10,000K and 1 6700K on 9 hours

I am currently dosing Flourish excel, Kent Marine pro plant and Kent Marine Iron and Manganese. I am open to suggestions as to what dosages and other ferst would be reccomended. I have been dosing at about half the volume the directions for these say every third day, alternating them so they don't all get added at the same time.

As mentioned, I am working on DIY co2 but have not gathered all the stuff for it yet. Mainly just waiting on silicon tubing and probably a small powerhead to dispurse it.

Anyway, thanks for looking. Here's the latest pics. Sorry for the blurry ones, I guess I should get out the tripod.

I just used Caribsea sand and some Laterite underneath. I may eventually use ecocomplete but I am not really looking forward to completely starting over. If it crashes at some point then that is what I will do.

Thanks for the recipe. I have a buddy that is a brewmaster at a microbrewery so I may have access to several different yeast varieties. I understand that champagne yeast is very long acting but too expensive for the average hobbyist. Maybe my buddy can help me out with some IDK.

Ahh! You are Canadien, not you are? Merry Christmas to you as well.

I have not tried looking at yeast or prices yet, although I am getting close. I think I will go to Hobby Lobby right now and see if I can find the silicon tubing. I have the bulkhead fittings, airstone, hard air tube and check valves. Tubing and a 2 liter bottle are all I really need at this point.

I want to make a double 2 liter system and have enough stuff for it but I don't have a drop checker yet so I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. I have no experience with how fast the system will produce co2 so I'm a little leary of going that far with it, what do you think?

Also I don't have a powerhead yet so I would have to use the intake of the Penguin and not sure if that would work.

Yes the Aquaclear would probably be a better place to inject it since it flows very smoothly and the water from it goes very deep into the tank. The Penguin mostly has surface current.

I think you are correct on the stem plant.

I will have to get back to you on the one behind the log. Do you mean the tall one or the shorter that's right behind the wood? I think the short one is pygmy chain sword but I get confused. Pretty new at plants so I'm not real good at knowing what's what yet. I will try to take some better shots of the tank tonight.

I went on a run looking for the rest of the supplies I need for co2 and was moderately successful. I think I can get it working tonight. Just going with a one bottle system and will run an airstone when the lights are out so I don't gas anybody.

How soon after you mix it does it start producing co2? Hours or a couple days?