LOL, I bet after your 3rd or 4th (or so tank) you relax some of your high standards...We used to redo our tanks all the time (at least weekly)...until we had too many tanks & less time...yes, there's always better to work toward...but not ever "perfect" IMO, but it's a nice goal...Keep up your enthusiasm!
Sunlight’s other tank journal (20g version)
- Thread starter Sunlight
- Start date
Pretty nice, I have a question, all your plants are in the sand? do you have any substrate under them? they look in excellent condition.View attachment 228209
Here’s how it’s looking after today’s water change/replant session! The nitrates were almost at 40 and that’s past my comfort zone so I went ahead and did a w/c and didn’t add any ferts. The plants are growing like crazyI also finally got the 10 to how I want it to look (which unfortunately meant taking the Java ferns out cause they didn’t match the color scheme I wanted). Now I have a bunch of Java ferns/Anubias that need to go somewhere. Considering seeing how they look in this tank? I really don’t like the dark green color they have, I prefer the lighter green/yellow hues/pinks of all of the other plants. So I might just give them all away on Facebook marketplace.
anyway! That’s a lot of rambling. I’m loving this tank a lot, no complaints.
All sand! Just running on fish poop. My other tank has to be dosed nitrates though cause I don’t have a high enough stock to provide enough nutrients.
A kind of sad update... I found one of my guppies on the sand passed away a few minutes ago. My other guppy has been sitting at the surface all day acting like he is going to croak too... I quickly tested my water and I’m about to do a water change. My danios and loaches are acting perfectly normal, so it’s odd... you’d think the loaches would be the first to go if there was an issue. maybe they’ve just reached their time. They’re both rescues and are a year or so old, I’m not sure how long guppies live. My parameters were 0|0|20|7.0 :/ will keep you updated.
I’ll also get some pictures of the tank after the water change because I ended up adding the Java fern last week
I’ll also get some pictures of the tank after the water change because I ended up adding the Java fern last week
Well, the other guppy passed away. I really am so confused as to why they died... I tested the tank AGAIN and showed 0|0|20|7.0
does anyone have any ideas?? I’ve had such a string of bad luck lately. Two danios jumped out a little while ago before I put ceran wrap on the lid, and now both guppies suddenly passed away. That puts me at 3 danios, 6 java loaches, and 2 Amano shrimp, all of which are doing great. I do have a blind loach though, idk if I’ve talked about him yet! He came to me blind. He is such a cutie.
as for my bad luck, in the other tank one of my amanos suddenly died without warning and the other is in a jar being treated for a parasite. I never have such bad luck with my tanks, what is going on
on another note here is the tank after adding the Java fern
does anyone have any ideas?? I’ve had such a string of bad luck lately. Two danios jumped out a little while ago before I put ceran wrap on the lid, and now both guppies suddenly passed away. That puts me at 3 danios, 6 java loaches, and 2 Amano shrimp, all of which are doing great. I do have a blind loach though, idk if I’ve talked about him yet! He came to me blind. He is such a cutie.
as for my bad luck, in the other tank one of my amanos suddenly died without warning and the other is in a jar being treated for a parasite. I never have such bad luck with my tanks, what is going on
on another note here is the tank after adding the Java fern
They were originally my aunt’s (so was the tank) but she didn’t want them anymore and didn’t take care of them at all (no matter what I tried to tell her). So she gave it to my brother while I was away at college, who never fed them or changed the water (there was traces of nitrites and skyrocket level nitrates in the tank when I tested it, plus their stomachs were caved in). So when I came back from college for winter break I took them in, and the story of owning this tank starts at the beginning of this thread. It’s just crazy how they survived for so long under inadequate care and then suddenly die for no reason once they’re properly taken care of. Like wth!! I’ll let the tank go completely and never feed you if that’s what you want
(joking). Honestly it could be that they were so used to the bad water that it was too much of a shock for them to handle long term.
Good news, I found someone who can take the danios! They’re going to someone with a big 75 gallon tomorrow no more tiny tank or extreme bullying for these guys!! They’ll be living the good life across town! I am going to leave the 20 tall as just a loach/snail/shrimp tank for a while until something catches my eye. I quite like the loaches though, so I might just leave it as a loach tank for a longer time than anticipated. The goal is to one day get sparkling gouramis and ember tetras but the tank needs some work before that can happen.
edit: just realized I never updated this forum on my decision to give the danios away. The largest one basically bullies the others until they jump out of the tank and now there’s only 3 left (they jump out of the crack in the Saran Wrap that goes over the filter, which I can’t cover because the water will catch the Saran Wrap and spill out of the tank). With the fewer numbers, the larger danio is able to single out other fish even easier, and since I don’t want more danios (the goal was always to get different fish, remember) to spread aggression, I figured they’d love to go into a bigger tank where they can have more territory and more fish to spread aggression. And I found exactly that! They’re about to go live it up in a tank more than 3x the size they’re in right now!
no more tiny tank or extreme bullying for these guys!! They’ll be living the good life across town! I am going to leave the 20 tall as just a loach/snail/shrimp tank for a while until something catches my eye. I quite like the loaches though, so I might just leave it as a loach tank for a longer time than anticipated. The goal is to one day get sparkling gouramis and ember tetras but the tank needs some work before that can happen.edit: just realized I never updated this forum on my decision to give the danios away. The largest one basically bullies the others until they jump out of the tank and now there’s only 3 left (they jump out of the crack in the Saran Wrap that goes over the filter, which I can’t cover because the water will catch the Saran Wrap and spill out of the tank). With the fewer numbers, the larger danio is able to single out other fish even easier, and since I don’t want more danios (the goal was always to get different fish, remember) to spread aggression, I figured they’d love to go into a bigger tank where they can have more territory and more fish to spread aggression. And I found exactly that! They’re about to go live it up in a tank more than 3x the size they’re in right now!
Last edited:
