ideas

jerzsky

jerzsky

GALLON GUZZLER
Dec 25, 2006
134
0
0
45
LANOKA HARBOR, NJ
i have a 20 gal tall tank just sittin around, from when i changed to my 55gal.
i would like to do something with it..
maybe a small reef tank with nemo..are they hard to maintain??
or should i just stick to fresh water, i wanna do something really colorful and captivating! all suggestions greatly accepted! thanx all! :shark:
 
im pretty sure the rule of thumb for maintaining a small marine tank is 30 gallons due to high levels of maintenence and things like taht, but if you want to go fresh water i reccomend two schools of about 6 colorful tetras like the cardinal or neon, or my personal favorite the harlequin rasbora. for an entertaining lower portion of the tank you can get assortment of cory cats because in a large group those are incredibly fun to watch. hope this gives u a few ideas.
 
search Nano reefs

different level of experience..typically SW are a bit pricier to set up.
 
Heavily planted tank with 12 Cardinal tetras. Thats pretty colorful and captivating! ;)

edit: just noticed it was a 20g :D
 
Last edited:
thanx everyone!

never planted a tank..difficult? would love to, but really dont know what is involved??
 
did you ever see a rummynose tetra?? i was just lookin at them, they are beautiful!
 
A nano reef would be lovely but they are a lot of work and tend to be quite a bit more expensive then freshwater tanks. That's not saying it cannot be done but they are a lot of work. If you want a planted tank then you will need to consider what kind of planted set up that you want and plan according to that. In a planted tank you will have to consider lighting which for most low to medium light plants you need between 2-3 watts of lighting per gallon of water. More then 3 watts then you will need to consider co2 injection for the tank. Planted tanks are beautiful but again you are talking about a lot of work to maintain it.

Marinemom
 
Last edited:
thanx! i new they were a lot of work, and i hate to do something that i cant succed in..maybe ill just stick to my regular setup that i use, just change it around a bit..any suggestions from you on stocking this?? freshwater i mean.

thanx a billion! :shark:
 
Planted tanks aren't that much work....you just have to know what your goal is. And the watts per gallon rule breaks down over smaller tanks. So, if you got a 65 watt fixture for the 20g and had alot of stem plants that grow fast (and outcompete the algae), you could get away without CO2 IMO. I've seen people on other sites do it. The key is to make sure you have alot of plants in the tank though. With that light, you have alot of options because it is medium-high light. You could have a variety of stem plants and some lower light plants as well and not have to worry with CO2. You could use Flourish Excel every other day or so and use Flourish (plant fertilizer) once a week after your water change.

Planted tanks need regular maintenance like any other tanks and about every 2 weeks or so, they need trimming, but its nothing difficult. To me, planted tanks are more aesthetically pleasing, so the work is worth it. They aren't much more work than a non-planted tank, except they require more start up costs (usually to increase lighting).

If you could get a fixture that would give you around 40 watts, you could have stem plants and low light plants and definitely not have to worry about CO2.
 
Last edited:
As far as stocking goes I would consider a dwarf gourmai for a centerpiece fish and then a small school of some colorful tetras with him. You may also cosider a small school of cories as a cleanup crew and possible a snail for algae or even three or four otos for the algae. If you plant it up then this would be one very awsome tank.

Marinemom
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom