20L low light planted aquarium

took these a few months back, i'll get some updated ones soon.

Pictures of how it looked neglected.



Did a little cleaning up,







UPDATE PAGE 2

Looking good...Keep up the good/hard work

looks nice n' clean

What is the arch looking thing at center bottom?

dano wrote:

What is the arch looking thing at center bottom?

just taking a guess at what you mean, but i think you are referring to that spot where the glass is showing. I have a xp2 on a 20 long so flow is not a problem and it blows the substrate away from the glass.

very nice. Should of got some Lemons when you were here.

KMX wrote:

very nice. Should of got some Lemons when you were here.

actually crossed my mind for a planted tank im putting togather for my little girl. should have gotten about 20.

Im sure I will have more later.

next time i come to texas, i want you to have some of those wc rummynose tetras available.

looks great! good pruning!

What were all those plants growing up on the left size like heck? In the before picture.

Nice tank I love the planted they are very nice to view.

depends on what your trying to accomplish. I have a low light setup thats not to involved. Its helps to pick a substrate for planted tanks like eco-complete etc.. Leave your photoperiod at 8 hours per day, Lighting is important, but the wpg rule is kind of dated unless your going with t8s. Seachem is your friend, they make alot of liquid ferts to help in plant growth. There is a cheaper way with dry ferts once you get the hang of things though. Try going with some of the easy plants first off, like anubias, java fern, java moss, Anacharis, and Hornwort. I do 50% water changes every week or bi-weekly, and don't really vaccum the substrate. leave all the organics for the plants. And i recommend diy co2 on the lower light setups that are 30 gallons or less. Just don't let the mixture end up in the tank like mines.

Thebanker: could you elaborate on this statement "but the wpg rule is kind of dated unless your going with t8s"..........I use T8 lighting and so far no problems.

Did you put all those plants that you bought in there yet?

dano wrote:

Thebanker: could you elaborate on this statement "but the wpg rule is kind of dated unless your going with t8s"..........I use T8 lighting and so far no problems.

i meant you can go by the wpg rule if you have t8s, now with t5 and t5ho lighting it puts out a little more lumens per watt consumed, so you think you are getting 2wpg and it actually could be 2.5-3wpg. But im no expert, i just google things.

Ghoulish_chaos wrote:

Did you put all those plants that you bought in there yet?

I actually brought all those plants for another tank, i've yet to really "scape" it so i haven't took any pictures.

IMO, the watt per gallon rule was always off, If they had a lumen per gallon then it would be a good system for any type of lighting... Just my 2 cents

Few new shots, nothing has really changed i added a few vals, and some microswords in the foreground.







And the view from my bed.




Im looking for more microsword to get a carpet going, but i may end up pulling them out and trying something else.

Keep us updated on how those corkscrew vals do for you, I've never had lick with them.
Just an fyi, sword plants can get huge, I have one that takes up half of a 90g tank.

yeah that swords has grown a lot. As soon as i can get my hands on the plants i really want its gone. I actually just wanted a plant that would hide the blue rena filter intake. I thought i was the only one who had bad luck with vals. These seem to be doing pretty good for the moment, i had a lot more but they melted after the yeast and sugar was spilled in the tank. I even have new little shoots coming up from them.

If you have a LFS that will give you credit for it grow it as big as will fit and then trade it in for some smaller stuff. Mine is now roughly 1.5' tall and 2' wide and still getting bigger!

banker...looks awesome! where are you at as I'd love to get the sword when you decide to sell it

I have to 2 nd Fern about the watts per gallon. I done something pretty crazy on my 55g that a lot of people told me would not work because it was not "true watts". I started out with 2 small Swords (not sure of type) last October and they have grown huge! They have produced so many babies that now all my daughter tanks have one or two and have even gave some away.