20L low light planted aquarium

First topic message reminder :

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

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.

nice additon of plants.
your plants seem to really thrive in that tank. i dont see any algea at all.
cant wait till the micro sword fills in. if you add root tabs it will really speed up the growth.

im a sword kind of guy. i have 4 in my 75 and 2 of them HUGE.
also that drift wood is cool looking.


mee to fern, i never had luck with the vals spiral.

i wonder if you could grow some flame moss on that DW?

Most mosses will grow on anything porous that you tie them on to... I can't get flame moss here

alan j t wrote:

nice additon of plants.
your plants seem to really thrive in that tank. i dont see any algea at all.
cant wait till the micro sword fills in. if you add root tabs it will really speed up the growth.

im a sword kind of guy. i have 4 in my 75 and 2 of them HUGE.
also that drift wood is cool looking.


mee to fern, i never had luck with the vals spiral.

i wonder if you could grow some flame moss on that DW?

thanks, The driftwood is supposed to be called spider wood. i use root tabs, i need to put some more in though. I never tried flame moss, And i've never really had success with java moss, it would always just tend to die off. I think its the overdose of excel i use. Im enjoying how easy the maintenence is on this tank.

nice spiderwood.
i know excel is hard on some plants, so i guess moss is one of them.

seems the OD on excel is doing a good job on the algea too.
i use it on algea for spot treatment and/or h202.

anyway, nice job on the tank.

whats the fauna in your tank?

I've never had an issue with using excel... but then again I don't use it on a regular basis, anywhere between once a month and every other day....

i use excel daily, unless im just being lazy and don't do it.

Fauna:

8 cardinals
1 neon tetra
5 pristella tetras
3 amano shrimp
6-10 rcs, hard to tell because i usually only see six at any given time.


I lost all my rummy nose, so im on the lookout for some more of those. And i seen a intresting tetra at a lfs, forgot the name, but didn't forget the price @ 12.99 each.

12.99 tetra?
i would like to know what kind or pick would be nice.

i hope one day i could do CRS tank.
i have a 40b ready w/ AS and all, but ya know.

what your substrate?
lighting etc....

Ever thought of a small school of hatchet fish? I think they would work with what I'm envisioning your water readings to be... But they jump that's the only downside.

alan j t wrote:

12.99 tetra?
i would like to know what kind or pick would be nice.

i hope one day i could do CRS tank.
i have a 40b ready w/ AS and all, but ya know.

what your substrate?
lighting etc....

Im going to have to stop back in the store and get the name of that tetra, I want some crs myself, but they are pricey. I hear the AquaSoil is some really good stuff, helps the ph stay low and is nutrient rich. My lighting is a double coralife t5 no fixture, each bulb is 18w. Im using flourite blk sand as my substrate.

Fern wrote:

Ever thought of a small school of hatchet fish? I think they would work with what I'm envisioning your water readings to be... But they jump that's the only downside.

i don't really like the look of them, all i can think of is silver hatchets. Is there any more besides them out there? I have a glass lid so they would bang there head if they jumped, lol.

There are marble hatchets.

Look up farowella catfish, they are pretty cool I have one and they are docile and plant safe.
Pygmy corys would also look nice in there.
What all are you looking for in a fish? I have several aquarium books that are my light reading from time to time and I may spot something that may or may not interest you.

now that i tried AS, it overrated.

those rummy are the best schollers i ever saw.

did you ever see a galaxy rasbara? cool stuff!

AS?

It was funny I was looking at these pic and saying to myself I know these tank then I look at the name.

alan j t wrote:

now that i tried AS, it overrated.

those rummy are the best schollers i ever saw.

did you ever see a galaxy rasbara? cool stuff!

yeah i've seen them in pictures, never seen them for sale at any lfs. I would grab a dozen easy if i ever say them. I want to try emmerse growth with some as, and really try and get a real foreground going.

AS= AquaSoil

rdoyle wrote:

It was funny I was looking at these pic and saying to myself I know these tank then I look at the name.

haha, yeah double post.

The galaxy rasbora is a spunky and fast fish, I don't think they would do well in that sized tank, they seem like they would need a bigger tank.

the galaxy rasbora is a really small fish. once i start a nano tank i might get some, if i could find them locally of course.
that and some CRS.

the dry start method is a good idea with the AS. maybe some HC? what would you try?
i never thought about doing that. i might try it.
but i finally got my blxya to stay down in the substrate, its soooo friggin light.

PM if you ever want to add some different plants to your tanks
the tank looks nice and planted w/plenty of open ness.

i just like to make my tanks into jungles so dont mind me.

hc is exactly what im thinking for emmersed growth. Thats on my wanted list, and im looking for a good bit of blxya. I like the jungle look myself, at one time i had that, but wasn't really taking care of the trimming and what not. So i pulled all the stem plants out and started over with just my anubias and java ferns.

Heres a pic showing the tank full right before things got out of controll.

Once my planted sump gets over grown and needs to be trimmed up I will have plenty of nifty plants for sale, I have all kinds of random funky plants in there now.

It looks great in that pic.
I never trim my plants, if one starts breaking the surface I cut the top off and stick it in the sand and end up with even more of the jungle look.

i'll be looking forward to seeing what you have available. Thats what i use to do also, just trim the tops and stuff them in the substrate,

nice!
whats the foreground on the wayyy left there? its not DHG is it?

looks like rotala sp. in there too in the back.
can you grow blxya in your setup? i never tried it w/ lowlight.
im soo hatin on your DW;-P

No, the foreground is microswords, i had going along the whole front but the flow from my filter blows the substrate away from the front glass.

Here is another angle of the tank.



I had Rotala rotundifolia, Rotala sp. green in there. Really hardy and easy growing plant. And im actually not using that same couple pieces of driftwood in the pictures right now. There sitting in another tank to stay water logged.

Len, with the meeting coming up soon, you should be able to get a good start on your planted tank. There should be plenty of plants being handed out. Good luck!!