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20 Gallon Long Planted


ATM
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After not having kept fish for a number of years I have decided to get back into it with a 20 gallon long planted tank. Here is what I have so far:

20 long tank

2 bags of fluorite substrate

hang on tank marineland heater

Eheim 2215 filter and aquaclear 70 filter

Along with this basic stuff I'm in the process of putting together a Co2 system which I currently have:

Concoa 212 regulator

Parker solenoid

5lb co2 tank

and a DIY bubble counter

I'm just waiting on a swagelok needle valve to come in to complete the setup. Along with this I'm making a DIY co2 reactor based on Rex Griggs model which is almost complete.

The tank is setup and cycled as of right now and I've been adding drops of pure ammonia to keep the bacteria alive and the tank cycling. I'm trying to decide on the stocking list and what plants I want to put in. I'm thinking of dwarf hairgrass, moss of some sort, rotalla, and some vals for the plants and a school of neons or cardinals, a bristlenose pleco, some small corys, and then a centerpiece fish which I have no idea about, maybe a pair of dwarf chichlids or gouramis?

Currently I'm kinda in a holding pattern until the needle valve comes in, then I can get plants and then finish stocking.

I've been keeping my eye out for a used hydor inline heater so I can take out the one I have now. I'm also looking for a good place to get a 5lb co2 tank filled in Edmonton. I bought it from a friend so its not affiliated with any particular shop or swap program.

Here is a few pictures of the setup so far, ignore the aquaclear filter and bubbles as that is out of the tank now and the eheim is running.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ShLhG5ARFKM/TAbjWdhjh2I/AAAAAAAAAA0/81wnkKhJmhY/s800/Start6.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ShLhG5ARFKM/TAbjXh4qYLI/AAAAAAAAABE/Gt7F4Ujy-2I/s800/Start4.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ShLhG5ARFKM/TAbjX8Cq5LI/AAAAAAAAABI/LLYuL6L9_rI/s800/Start5.JPG

I was thinking of having the dwarf hairgrass in the open area to the left and along the from with some higher stem plants and moss along the driftwood to create a cave like maze area in among the driftwood.

Edited by ATM
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Another update is in store I believe:

Lighting: I can't believe I forgot to mention this :rolleyes:, I have a coralife 30" T5 fixture with the stock bulbs. I'm not sure if what I have will be high enough light and if it isn't what bulbs I should get.

The driftwood I got a Big Als in Edmonton. I had been keeping my eye out for a good long twisty piece to fill up a good portion of my tank and found this there one day.

The needle valve I was waiting on came in but it has the swagelok tube connections so I had to order the fittings so I can fit it onto a bubble counter. They should be in early next week. I filled the Co2 tank and built what pieces of the co2 setup I have. The DIY co2 reactor is done and I'm quite pleased with it. It turned out excellent and I just have to plumb it into my eheim now. I got a hydor heater used from ebay and am waiting on that to come in as well. So hopefully by the middle of next week I'll have all the components and be able to put the whole thing together.

On my wishlist is a stand for everything so I can hide the equipment and make the whole thing look cleaner and some DIY clear intake and spraybar for the filter so I don't have the big ugly green pipes in my tank. I saw a great idea on bending acrylic tubing to achieve this and I'm planning on visiting Johnston plastics to grab some tubing to try this.

I'm now looking into plants and fish to stock with. What apistogrammas would you recommend? I'd really like to get some German Blue Rams, tetras, and then a BN pleco and some cories but I'm open to suggestions :thumbs:. I'm also going to have to find a good place to get plants from in the near future,

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I'm guessing your light has 2 bulbs, so that should be great.

As far as plants, keep your eye open on the Buy/Sell forum, or if you're in Edmonton and want to stop at a store, make sure to stop at Nature's Corner - best selection in the city, IMO!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have another update! Since the my lasthttp://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?app=forums&module=post&section=post&do=reply_post&f=126&t=29553 post I've come a ways. I've updated my equipment list as I got a few new goodies. After picking up a sweet deal on Kijiji here I now have a stand, extra light,and glass top. Along with that came two quite large plants that I'm not too sure of the names, I think one is a sword of some kind and the other I have no idea.

I really wanted to have a clean looking tank with all the equipment very low profile and unobtrusive. In the spirit of this I was looking around on the forum and found information on making custom spraybars/intakes out of acrylic tubing. Here are the spraybar in the making and the finished products in my tank:

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There are quite a few plants scattered around the tank now, mostly just the 2 mystery plants I got as part of the package deal. I have a package of plants on its way from another fourm member in my area packed with tons of different types, very exciting

I took a few pictures of the german rams, the plecos were camera shy. Heres a couple of them and the tank as a whole (what sexes do you think my rams are, I think both female but I'm not sure):

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And finally my CO2 system is up and running, I haven't had the time to put in the hydor heater yet so that's why the jager heater is still visible in the shots of the tank:

IMG_2503.JPG

Edited by ATM
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  • 2 weeks later...

Tank looks good and that stand looks like its pretty nice too. You don't see many of them with the drawers. Very handy. The one plant on the left looks like a melon sword plant but its hard to tell. Some in those other 4 clusters look like cryptocoryne wendii or a similar variety.

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  • 1 month later...

Another update! After letting the tank settle in and getting a bunch more plants they are finally starting to take off. I have to trim at least once a week if not more often for a couple of them. Since the plants I have are up and growing I was thinking of adding a few more to fill out the scape and add some variety. I'm looking at getting some pogostemon helferi to round out the forground scape and then I'm looking for some color and leaf shape variety for the back/midground. Any suggestions?

Here is what it looks like now:

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Edited by ATM
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For color and leaf shape, see if you can find a Red Tiger Lotus. If you find any let me know, I'm looking for one as well.

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Looks good looks good :)

The hygro polysperma (the one that's growing towards the light and turning whiteish) didn't quite fit in was my first impression, but after I look at it it seems ok. But if you want a more flowy look maybe try willow hygro instead?

I also don't see why you would need a more colorful plant since a all green tank looks really relaxing, I like it very much!

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Thanks for the suggestions. For the left side at the back I was thinking of the cabomba or maybe something like rotalla wallichi for the red color. But the rear left does need some more work. That hygro does look a little weird in this picture and I think its because there is a stem of floating pennywort mixed in with it. It does look decent right now but I want to add a few things just to make it more interesting.

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