20gL "mini" community

[bassbonediva]

Alright. Got my 20gL mostly done. Just need to add a few more plants (some nice, biggish swords), a female GBR and three panda cories (to round out my school). I'm *hopefully* getting my female GBR tonight. I call it a "mini" community because none of the fish in this tank will get over 2". So, here's the specs and such on the tank.

Tank specs:
Top Fin 20gL tank
Stock 30" hood (pirated from my 29gal when I upgraded the lighting on it) w/one 18W Plant Gro flourescent bulb
AquaTech 20-40 filter
150W Marineland VisiTherm heater
Pool Filter Sand substrate

Decorations:
1 large piece of wild collected driftwood
2 medium/large rocks (to hold the driftwood down)
Sunken ship bubbler

Plants:
About 12 dwarf sagittarius
3 small argentine swords
Coming soon-two or three medium amazon swords

Stock:
1 male GBR
10 black neon tetras
1 panda cory
1 clown pleco
Coming soon-1 female GBR, 3 panda cories

FTS (the large swords are going behind the DW on the right):

Tyr, the male GBR:

Vidar, the clown pleco:

The neons and Tyr chillaxin' together:

Tyr not very happy with his reflection:

 

[ValRasbora]

I like it!! Good luck with the female GBR, hopefully you'll get a nice healthy one.

I saw some at my lfs the other day- they were amazing! The colors so vibrant, they looked very healthy. I read somewhere that having a higher temp. will make their colors more vibrant.. Worth a try!!

 

[bassbonediva]

My heater is kind of "meh" (got it used with my 46gal bowfront back in October), so the highest it'll go is 79F. Tyr colored up nicely once I put the neons in there, but he still gets a little stressed when I come near the tank. I can see him right now from where I sit on the couch and he has no black stress bars and his coloring is just beautiful.

I'm getting the female GBR from the same place I got Tyr (if they have any females), so she should be good. I like the LFS I got Tyr and Caius (my angelfish) from, but they are a bit expensive on some thing (their panda cories are $6 each...the other LFS has them for $2).

 

[ValRasbora]

my lfs is like that as well... some things are very cheap and some are over priced. Mine just moved so now it's like 25 mins away & the prices have spiked. It's still a pretty great place... better than the chain store...

oh and in your 18g tall there's a DG... what is that? lol

 

[riseabovethesun]

I love the setup! I really like sand in the tanks, the color is always so great.

 

[jamiejay09]

Bass once again youve made me jelous of your stunning design's! Wow is all i can say i wish you the best of luck with the female GBR. good job!

 

[bassbonediva]

DG=Dwarf Gourami

Thanks, guys! I went hunting through my stash of driftwood and wasn't sure if the one in there would fit, but I got it to fit and I love the way it looks. I really can't wait until I get the rest of the plants.

 

[ValRasbora]

aaaaaah.
I knew it'd be something obvious.

Loving the dw!

 

[Newman]

very nice .

 

[bassbonediva]

Got my girly-ram last night! Literally got to the LFS two minutes before they closed and had just enough money to buy their one and only female GBR. She and Tyr are getting along great so far! He displayed for her when I added her (after drip acclimating her for 1.5 hours) and then followed her around like a puppy dog. Now he's kind of guarding her from the neons. It's so cute! Her name is Zroya (Slavonic goddess of war...Tyr is named after the Germanic god of war).