Well if you are new to my tank experiences, then you should take a look in
this thread to see what I have gone through up until now. It involves much evolution of knowledge in 'scaping and plant keeping, diseases, different fish and shrimp experiences, going from low tech to high tech, and finally, a false tank leak that prompted me to go from a 20H to a 20L.
Due to the switch, I was finally able to add the soil substrate I have been working on ALL summer. I referred to this article:
Mineralized Soil. This process was very long for me, but I was in no rush. I was also able to spread out my 'scape and hopefully make it a little more my style. I turned it more into a jungle type- I have always been interested in an Amazon biotope tank and I think I am going to work on it in this tank.
So let's introduce the tank! It is not going to include pictures yet as the soil is making the water very brown, almost like tannins would. Due to the fear of a cycle (especially after I change my filter floss as it needs it BADLY), I will be doing daily or semidaily water changes to remove the colouring and the possible ammonia and nitrites. I am hoping that some of the cycling bacteria is left on the flourite from my other tank that I put in this one to speed it up, but we'll see.
Tank Size: 20 Gallons
Tank Dimensions: 30"x12"x12"
Substrate: 1-1.5" mineralized topsoil, 1/2" layer of flourite gravel on top
Filter: Penguin 150 with biowheel
Heater: unknown brand 100W
Lighting: 68W PC 6700K 24" Coralife Fixture
Other Equipment: Koralia 1 powerhead, Elite Mini Submersible Filter (for CO2 misting- see here:
Ultra Mini Diffusor), Milwaukee MA957 Regulator on Paintball CO2 cylinders
Current Fauna: many fancy guppies, 4 neon tetras, 3 ottos, pond snails
Current Flora: Bacopa caroliniana aka Giant Bacopa, Bacopa;
Eleocharis accicularis aka Hairgrass;
Heteranthera zosterifolia aka Stargrass;
Microsorum pteropus aka Java Fern;
Microsorum pteropus var 'Windelov' aka Windelov's Fern;
Riccia fluitans;
Rotala indica aka Rotala;
Crinum Thianum aka Onion Plant;
Vallisneria gigantea aka Jungle Val;
Vallisneria spiralis aka Val;
Vesicularia dubyana aka Java Moss
Due to problems in my 20H before this tank, the Stargrass and Rotala are both doing quite poorly, so they will likely get tossed before much longer- the Stargrass before the Rotala. The guppies are going to be taken to my LFS as soon as I can find the time to do so, and I will likely fill out the neon school to about 10 or so. The ones I have now are really quite large for neons, and the ones I will buy will be quite small- it will make for a funny picture if the water is cleared when I get these new fish
.
If the Rotala and Stargrass get ditched, I may use the bacopa as a sort of centerpiece and then let the vals take over in the background, trimming them as needed to allow the hairgrass to grow. My hairgrass was really fillign in in my other tank, but now I am back to the patchwork foreground
. Time will fill it in though, so I am not too worried.
So this is my tank and my lightly placed plans so far. I hope I can get a picture or two up soon enough, so you can all see what I have done. So far though the 'scape is almost identical to the 20H- stems on the left, vals on the right, and the wood is place the same- I don't have much choice as I apparently didn't know how to pick driftwood back when I grabbed these
.