Kayen

20 longs are awesome! Especially with shorter plans, i've seen nice 20 longs with beautiful carpets due to the relatively shortness of the tank.

It's been two months. Crazy growth. I need to trim. I need a stand so i can hook up the filter to this, and fill up the tank at long last! Top View: That's a really dense carpet!

Transitions from emersed to immersed are taken well by HC. I grew the HC in my nano the same way, and it's still growing that way. I'll fill it up and see what happens from there.

Emersed. Immersed sounds similar so it gets mistaken often back and forth quite a bit.

Haha Devon seems like you haven't done anything since i last came over. Just sticking as is and planning to do something after you com back then ?

Definitely cater to the planted tank community, aside from Nature's noone else really serves us super well. Dry goods for planted tank in Edmonton are heavily overpriced at Big Als.

Well depends on how tall your tank is. But i have my double T5HO's over my 33g, and i can pretty much grow anything in there if i had proper CO2 , and fertilizing. However if you're wary, go get 3 sticks for cheap from the place that Jason mentioned above. As for shrimp , keep good amounts of hiding spots and you should have a sustainable population that doesn't need constant replenishing. Cherries are like guppies.

Go T5HO , seriously you won't regret it in the end. It might be pricier, but it's alot more intense than the power compact fixtures. Also with power compact fixtues the bulbs start to dim out after a year, so you have to change the bulbs every year even if it's still putting out light. With T5HO when the bulb dies that's when you replace it, so the bulbs last longer and are much more intense for light per watt. Long term T5HO is much cheaper.

ADA Aquasoil would be alot. You would need to spend a pretty penny to get an adequate amount. A very good substrate to consider is mineralized top soil if you do all the plantings right the first time. If you cap it with a layer of gravel then a layer of sand shouldn't be too much of a problem unless you do shift the plants around alot.

No, that would be absolute overkill. For a 20-25 gallon tank you're looking at 2-3 feet. I'd go T5HO that stuff is powerful stuff if you get a good fixture with good reflector. -> So for 2ft - 2x24w T5HO, my reccomendation: TEK Fixtures. I hear the Hagen Glo fixtures are pretty good as well. They seem to be pricier though. http://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-su.../p16872947.html Or 3x24w, which i'm sure you can DIY just grab some of those sunblaster sticks from that hydroponics store and rig up a fixture! Pressurized CO2: Get a good regulator, and a 5lb cylinder, also include brass check valve, and brass permaseal. Good regulators can be ordered from: http://www.greenleafaquariums.com/ Diffusors, and other planted goodies can be attained from here. Substrate: ADA Aquasoil Amazonia Powder Type would be the best stuff you can buy. It's not available in Canada anymore, have to have it shipped in from the states, which IMO is not worth the hassle. So .. Flourite black sand all the way easily findable, only thing is It's a PITA to clean. EI Method: Should be solid, go grab some dry ferts and you're good to go. Jason (JVision) knows quite a bit about this method as you already know probably. Filtration: Do no go aquaclear, because it will gas out CO2 as it aerates the water more. Go with a canister filter like a single XP2, or Eheim 2215, planted tanks require much more filtration than an average tank - water flow mainly , dead spots = algae. ->http://www.petsandponds.com/en/aquarium-supplies/c5809/c7359/p16366949.html Inhabitants: Good choice in fish, stick with a single schooling species though. Get Galaxy Rasboras ( which were renamed to Celestial Pearl Danios ) Plants: I'm not a fan of camboba, if you hate Duckweed, then Riccia will become a constant pain in the @$$ for you. All other plant choices are fine. Other things to consider: CO2 Diffusion: Glass Diffusor or a reactor? Scaping Materials, etc etc. Manzanita Wood looks amazing in planted tanks if used properly. -> Found here: http://www.gillsnfins.ca/manzanita_wood.php Consider good usage of rocks as well.

I might as well get this started: Anubias Barteri Nana Microsorum pteropus Microsorum pteropus " Narrow" Taxiphyllum barbieri Pogostemon Stellata Pogostemon Helferi Eleocharis Parvula Eleocharis sp. Japan Echinodorus Tenellus Echinodorus Tenellus " Narrow" Hygrophila Polysperma Limnophila Sessiflora Rotala Rotundfolia Glossostigmas Elatinoides Hemianthus callitrichoides ”Cuba” Hemianthus micranthemoides Hydrocotyle Verticilata Hydrocotyle Sibthorpioides Riccia sp. Dwarf. Monosolenium tenerum That's everything i have at the moment. It's a growing list though so, and i might have missed a few here and there.

http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=18818

HC works, i know that they eventually root onto the driftwood.

Very good points made. Apparently I have forgotten most of what I learned in science class. Haha. So a combination of sunlight and tank lights would be the best? Sorry for all the pesky questions but I don't want to do any of this until I feel confident that I have researched enough... Yeah. Don't let too much sunlight get through. I'd say ideally around 1 hour / day , but tank lights for rest of the tank. A simple desklamp with a 13w spiral daylight bulb would probably be plenty for those plants.

Shrimp are relatively cheap and easy to find just plop them in. And uh shrimp contribute very little to the bioload, so with a well planted tank, the tank can handle quite a number of shrimps - i would say 20-30+, and if they're happy you'll be finding a good number of them .. free food i suppose for larger fish haha.

Shrimps such as cherry shrimp are easy, and they'll breed quite a bit just like the guppies. They won't harm plants. Otocinclus would work too but need to be in groups of at least 3-4 . Plants: Java ferns & Anubias are easy plants albeit slow plants, fast growing stems like hygrophila polysperma and limnophila sessiflora would make a great choice as well, easy to maintain.

Actually metal halides as far as i know have a higher level of intensity than halogens, they aren't exactly the same, but very similar.

Should have some. I should have alot of ferns in the coming months up for sale - that or i might cover my entire tank in ferns. They grow really quick in a mid-tech tank. Also anubias can be tied to wood, rocks etc. You can split the rhizome to propagate them.

This has a number of variables. If you do water changes, etc etc, keeping almost any fish should be relatively easy, so long as tank size & chemistry requirements are met . However - white clouds are what i've had luck with, you can purchase them at a generally low price at 25 cents / ea - they're generally used as feeders - but they're beautiful fish - i like them over neons.

Looks pretty good, and it can easily slide off for feeding, though i imagine that you would have to feed the fish through the back all the time.

Eheims are rated by media, they are way to overrated by the company itself. The classic line is top notch, most people say they haven't died on them yet, i got to toy around with one for awhile, it was pretty fun. Rena's i had an XP3, it was awesome the flow was awesome and setting up was relatively easy, it just took me awhile to do it properly lol. I currently have an eheim ecco 2232 for my nano, i've hooked it up to a bucket of water, damn it was easy to set up, and runs pretty quiet. My vote goes for Eheim, the costs is very justify-able, but if you're looking for flow over filtering capacity look elsewhere.

Looks like a crypt of some sort, possible C. Wendtii since the new leaves i'm getting on them are like that.

called around, none of them had a slightest clue what i was talking about .

Finally an update on my own tank, *note : pic quality on fulltank shot isn\'t bad *it\'s actually saran wrap over the tank. Also has it\'s own phallic properties as well.

Next up tank 3: Low light, low tech. Looking to get more a carpet plant for it, and move the chain swords to act a midground plant.