Standard size 20 gallon community tank

[Byron Amazonas]

I'll also be procuring some plant nutrients in addition to the fish waste and blackwater extract (all that vitamin B has to have some effect on the plants, doesn't it?)
not quite sure what nutrients to get at this point- something with phosphate and perhaps nitrate will be good no? I'm hoping my stock will be enough to negate the need for a c02 injector.

I would not waste money and effort on CO2 in a 20g. Plus, with rams you want dim light.

Are you really sure you want the Blackwater extract? The less stuff entering the water, the better. Also, water changes are simpler if you don't need to fuss. And, with commercially-raised rams (which these will be) the water parameters should be close to those in which they were raised. Rams are rather delicate fish.

As for plant fertilizer, this will depend a bit on the plants. Low light plants need less, high light need more. Fish waste and water changes replenish nutrients naturally. So if something needs to be added, in this sort of set-up it should be a complete liquid fertilizer. Aquatic plants require 17 nutrients in a fairly specific proportion to each other; excess of this or that can cause real problems for plants. I use Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, another equally good is Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti.

decided on:

12 rasboras
6 cories, either panda, julii or peppered depending on the store stock- may get sterbaii or another species depending on species+tank stock
1 blue ram at the end of the fish-adding period
one clown pleco-will provide a varied diet and several kinds of driftwood (assuming it is the appropriate species: Panaqolus maccus- no p. vittata or L038 in my community tank)

any ideas for additional fish/invertebrates? Will amano shrimp survive with these fish?

Corys. With the warm temperature (80F plus) rams need, corys have to be carefully selected. Corydoras sterbai manages in warm temps, but C. panda and C. julii definitely do not. [Also, the species usually sold as "julii" are in fact C. trilineatus, and these need the cooler temp too.]

With the ram, rasbora and corys, there is no space (thinking water quality as much as physical space) for plecos or other fish. Shrimp may work, if they are not small enough to be eaten as crustaceans are a natural food of all forest fish.

Byron.

 

[kumar420]

I would not waste money and effort on CO2 in a 20g. Plus, with rams you want dim light.

Are you really sure you want the Blackwater extract? The less stuff entering the water, the better. Also, water changes are simpler if you don't need to fuss. And, with commercially-raised rams (which these will be) the water parameters should be close to those in which they were raised. Rams are rather delicate fish.

As for plant fertilizer, this will depend a bit on the plants. Low light plants need less, high light need more. Fish waste and water changes replenish nutrients naturally. So if something needs to be added, in this sort of set-up it should be a complete liquid fertilizer. Aquatic plants require 17 nutrients in a fairly specific proportion to each other; excess of this or that can cause real problems for plants. I use Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, another equally good is Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti.



Corys. With the warm temperature (80F plus) rams need, corys have to be carefully selected. Corydoras sterbai manages in warm temps, but C. panda and C. julii definitely do not. [Also, the species usually sold as "julii" are in fact C. trilineatus, and these need the cooler temp too.]

With the ram, rasbora and corys, there is no space (thinking water quality as much as physical space) for plecos or other fish. Shrimp may work, if they are not small enough to be eaten as crustaceans are a natural food of all forest fish.

Byron.

Alright sorry for the radio silence, had to get my midterms out of the way (two deferred finals next week :/)
So i've decided on 11 harlequin rasboras, either the true harlequin, hengel's or espeii depending on which one the store has (doesn't have to be an even number to be a school right?) Will be getting six today (water parameters- 0.25ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, 5ppm nitrate, pH 7.4) and five a couple of weeks from now
6 cories, most likely sterbaii assuming I can find them- these will be going in 3 weeks to a month from now, will research cories that can survive warmer temperatures (any other ideas on warm water bottom feeders? small loaches perhaps?)
1 male blue ram, going in a month and a half to two months from now

Going to look into aquatic plant nutrients- my experience is with garden plants and hydroponic vegetables (bok-choy grows like wildfire) which require NPK as well as iron, magnesium, molybdenum, and some more micro-nutrients in trace amounts

Haven't seen any brightwell products at my LFS's, I'll check out the Seachem flourish supplement though

 

[kumar420]

Updated pictures: Added six rasboras last Thursday, they have been very happy in their new home (I rescued them from petsmart, they coloured up five minutes after being put in the tank and were exploring after 15 minutes)

Also added a few stalks of red ludwigia, loving the colours on them

Not really sure what kind of rasboras most of them are: I know one is a true rasbora for sure, three of them have a green stripe above the black patch on the tail, and one has a narrower body with green scales near the head/gills and shines bright green when the light hits his/her scales right

Also boiled my driftwood after soaking it for a week, let it cool and added it in (gave it a good scrub with a stiff bristle brush first, rinsed it then into the tank)




I apologise for the blurriness, the little guys don't stay still so its hard to get a good picture with a cell phone camera

Edit: Oh yeah and I researched warmer water corydoras- sterbai get a little big for a 20g so I won't be able to fit a sufficiently sized school, same with the species that is found near to the GBR's native range (both are 2.5-3").

Apparently Adolfo's cory is my best bet (c. adolfoi), the species profile on seriouslyfish claims they are happy in temps of up to 26c (82F- the temp I currently have my tank at, might raise it when I get the GBR depending on the temps at the store and the tanks they were bred in)

 

[Byron Amazonas]

From the photo, those are Trigonostigma heteromorpha, the Harlequin Rasbora; the black "hatchet" is thicker on this species than the other two (T. espei and T. hengeli). There is a light stripe along the upper edge of the black hatchet mark. Depending upon the fish and the light, this may vary somewhat.

On your previous post question, about the number (even or odd)--it makes no difference other than to your personal taste; I happen to prefer odd numbers esp when the group is small but this is just as I prefer five to four roses in a vase. But otherwise it makes no difference.

Yes, Corydoras adolfoi does manage in warmer temperatures. This is not always an easy species to find however, as the "adolfoi" usually sold in stores is actually Corydoras duplicareus. David Sands discovered and described the latter fish back in 1995 or 6, and once it became known, everyone wanted it because the black dorso-lateral stripe is much thicker and more intense than on C. adolfoi, and the orange post-orbital fleck is much brighter. I have seen so-called adolfo corys in local stores three or four times, and they have been C. duplicareus. The temp range for this species is 20-26C/68-79F. You may find C. adolfoi though, particularly from online dealers like Corys-R-Us and similar.

The C. sterbai is not that much larger than C. adolfoi. I've had a group of C. sterbai for over five years now, and they are the same as most of my other species, which include C. duplicareus. Tank environment and foods can make a difference; C. panda is said to reach 2 inches, but mine have never passed the 1.25 length. In a 20g long, a group of five C. sterbai would be OK.

BTW, for the future, when acquiring a shoaling fish like corys or the rasbora, add the entire intended group at the same time when you can. For one thing, the fish will settle in even better the more there are. And it helps them to work out their inter-relationships which may or may not matter much depending upon species but is still better.

Byron.

 

[kumar420]

Thought I'd post an update:
Still haven't had the chance to put plywood under the stand and tank, will get it done as soon as finals are over. Over the past month or so I have added:

6 zebra nerites at the start of march to remove the algae, they did a bang-up job and there isn't a strand of hair algae or patch of slime algae left (I don't clean the green algae off the back panel of the tank so the snails have something to eat, you can't see it thanks to be background)

6 more heteromorpha rasboras, one of which died (no problems with water quality or disease, I chalked it up to petsmart fish)

I bought five sterbai corydoras two weeks ago, and added very fine white sand to the front of the tank, have yet to add a plastic divider but it hasn't slid backward too much

and the 2nd last addition, 5 amano shrimp were put in last week. They have been fine, even molted right after going into the tank and reappeared a couple of days later (had me a little worried they had been eaten but it appears my driftwood cave is serving its purpose). They seem to be doing fine with the 82F temperature.

I have been feeding an alternating schedule of tetra tropical crisps for the rasboras and cories as well as 1/4 of a nickel sized algae wafer each night for the shrimp+cories (it is all gone within 2 hours) and bloodworms twice a week. The fish are all colourful and happy, the cories adore the sand patch at the front and snuffle around in it constantly.

I'm going to wait another month or so before adding the GBR.

and the cherry on top: Videos! I also have lots of pics which I will upload soon. Sorry about the lousy quality and shakiness, its from a smartphone camera

[video=youtube_share;ptK3Y4bR0sU]http://youtu.be/ptK3Y4bR0sU[/video]

 

[kumar420]

The cories eating
[video=youtube_share;ci2Eu-Z5Wwg]http://youtu.be/ci2Eu-Z5Wwg[/video]

 

[Byron Amazonas]

Looking good. About the only suggestion now is some floating plants; it will bring out colouration on the fish remarkably. B.

 

[kumar420]

Looking good. About the only suggestion now is some floating plants; it will bring out colouration on the fish remarkably. B.

Those will be going in fairly soon, I just need to scrape some cash together for some more plants. A handful of floating ones, an anubias nana and some java fern tied on the driftwood should complete my setup fairly nicely

I do have one question- Its been a real pain in the *** to clean the gravel because of the sand under it. I was planning on changing it over to 100% sand anyway (white at the front, black at the back separated by a plastic divider). If i remove a handful or two of gravel every time I do a water change will that trigger any mini-cycles from waste trapped in between the gravel? The sand has been in for a couple of weeks now, with all of the previous gravel, should have been enough time for it to get seeded with bacteria right?

 

[kumar420]

Pictures!
I should have put this in the blog section with all the double and triple posting with pics, but oh well






Can an admin perhaps put a tag on my thread that warns people that its image heavy? If I was on 4G and used 20mb of data looking through pics I'd be really annoyed

 

[Byron Amazonas]

I do have one question- Its been a real pain in the *** to clean the gravel because of the sand under it. I was planning on changing it over to 100% sand anyway (white at the front, black at the back separated by a plastic divider). If i remove a handful or two of gravel every time I do a water change will that trigger any mini-cycles from waste trapped in between the gravel? The sand has been in for a couple of weeks now, with all of the previous gravel, should have been enough time for it to get seeded with bacteria right?

I personally don't like mixed substrates (they draw attention to themselves, and make the space visually smaller) but the entire substrate the same, but this is your aquarium. The substrate materials will mix together over time, vertically; and horizontally without the divider.

You should not have any nitrification issues by removing portions of the substrate. I do an entire substrate (tearing the tank down completely, as when I replaced my gravel with sand in each tank) with no issues, as long as there are fast-growing plants (stem and floating are ideal for this) and I keep all the wood wet. So you should not have issues.

As for cleaning, I generally don't touch the substrate much. In a couple tanks I do vacuum into the open areas, and in one tank I sort of run it over the top of the sand. My 115g with 3 inches of play sand has not had the substrate touched in any way since I set it up three years ago. The organics down in the substrate is a prime source of CO2 and other nutrients.

Byron.