Jpappy's planted 20 gallon long "build" thread

jpappy789

jpappy789

Plants need meat too
Feb 18, 2007
26,364
5
89
34
Gainesville, FL
Real Name
Josh
FINALLY get to set up another tank after my 10g crashed and burned. Ready to do things right again!

My plans...

Flora:
-Ludwigia repens
-Bacopa monnieri (moneywort)
-Hygrophila difformis (wisteria)
-Hydrocotyle leucocephala (Brazilian pennywort)
-Rotala rotundifolia/indica
-Sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag)
-Nymphaea stellata (dwarf lily)
-Various Cryptocoryne wendtii
-Anubias spp. and/or java fern for the wood

Going to be a fairly low tech tank. Excel dosing with a modified EI regime to account for slower growth and fert demand.

Fauna: still up in the air. Thinking "nano" fish, but still have to cycle anyways.

I'm using a substrate of Miracle Gro Organic Choice potting soil (~1-1.5") capped with Eco complete (~1.5-2"). I've seen it do well before, but it will be an experiment. Hoping the EC is a good cap as I've had messes using PFS or play sand.

Now for some pics...

Sifted through the potting soil to get rid of the large chunks of wood and the pebbles.



Here's the substrate...



Nice piece of wood I luckily found at the LFS here. Hoping it doesn't float since it's kind of wedged in.



FTS but empty right now. Going to try out the Current Satellite LED+. It's on the low end for PAR, but has some pretty neat settings. Very impressed with the brightness of LEDs given their sleekness compared to T5.



I have some plants getting shipped out tomorrow so hopefully they'll arrive later this week. Need to finish cleaning out my old equipment, get a background, and then start cycling all over again!
 
looks good! im excited to see it materialize. are you going to cut down the wood so you can out a lid on?

as for stocking, you could put 5 or 6 dwarf puffer fish in there. they love heavily planted tanks and they are a very fun fish to keep!
 
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I have an oversized piece of wood similar to that sitting under my 20 gallon long on the lower shelf as a decorative item. I'm looking forward to see how you incorperate that into your aquascape.
 
Nice tank set up. The wood coming out of the tank is very aesthetically pleasing I am excited to see how it takes form. Are the LED's you ordering 3w each and if so how many of them will you be running on a single unit? Cant wait to see how the miracle grow substrate works.
 
Ooh, I can see a pretty tank on the way :P
 
Sean W. said:
looks good! im excited to see it materialize. are you going to cut down the wood so you can out a lid on?

as for stocking, you could put 5 or 6 dwarf puffer fish in there. they love heavily planted tanks and they are a very fun fish to keep!
Click to expand...

Will probably leave it open top for now. Not a huge fan of DP's, more looking to get a community setup going instead.

gmh said:
I have an oversized piece of wood similar to that sitting under my 20 gallon long on the lower shelf as a decorative item. I'm looking forward to see how you incorperate that into your aquascape.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping to find some good plants to attach to the wood once I get everything into the substrate.

huapala said:
Nice tank set up. The wood coming out of the tank is very aesthetically pleasing I am excited to see how it takes form. Are the LED's you ordering 3w each and if so how many of them will you be running on a single unit? Cant wait to see how the miracle grow substrate works.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Really like the look of it sticking out as well. I'm just using the Current LED+ fixture, rated at 18w total (48 white/ 24 RGB) so not sure what that works out to for each diode. Right now I'm going to see how well it holds up on its own (36 PAR at 12" so low-medium light) but might add on later.

The miracle gro works well IME. But hopefully it will do better with Eco complete having a much higher CEC than PFS or play sand.

Fishfriend1 said:
Ooh, I can see a pretty tank on the way :P
Click to expand...

Me too ;)
 
You can get away with a long photo period with those lEDs and it wont even cost you that much in electiricity. I'd get some myself if I didnt already have a supply of 12 T5 bulbs sitting in my closet!
 
Well, you can...but at some point it doesn't do anything for the plants. A long photoperiod wont make up for a lower intensity.

In case anyone is wondering, Current is coming out with a more plant-oriented LED in the near future (the LED+ is nice for lower light but not marketed for plants like Finnex) AND also dampers/programmable timers for the "older" fixtures. I'm hoping to get a timer when they're released since you cannot currently program when to have full spectrum, moonlights, storms, etc. Should be a fun addition!

Tested the tap today:

pH- 7.6ish
GH- 196.9 ppm
KH- 3 dKH

Kind of weird to me, I'm used to everything being pretty much off the charts. May have to end up bumping the KH depending on what I test the tank at with substrate, wood, plants...
 
Nice! But you know it would look so much better if that top rim wasn't on it. :D Love the wood sticking out! Is that straight from the tap readings? Have your 24 hr readings yet? I know mine changes drastically, from 7.6 to 8.2! That timer sounds like fantastic fun!
 
Yeah that's straight from the tap, left out probably longer than 24 hrs before I tested. Checked all three sources of water in my apartments and literally got the same readings out of all of them...so at the very least my API kits are consistent!

Not sure I want to go rimless on this one though ;)
 
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