20G Ecosystem dirted offshoot from 40G thread

MattW3344 said:

Looks great! I love how well the hardscape and plants work together

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Thanks. It has been a challenge to work in the small space and still get the plants I want in there. I really like the hardscape, but want a bit more open area. It was always intended to be a 40G breeder project, so I had to be really careful with plant selection (and fish). Inevitably, the crypts are going to close in the middle a fair bit, but the rest of the stuff is basically at a maintainable size with pruning.

I have been slowly wearing my better half down with the idea of the 40G breeder, but we really have to figure out if we are going to move (nearby) or not, so it is kind of on hold. They are half off at Petco though, so I may just pick one up .

There are a few things I would do differently in that case. I would go a little more heavy on the actual soil and a little lighter on the sand. I think I am 1" creek mud, and 1 1/2" sand. I would probably go 3/4" creekside loam, and 3/4" creek mud, mix all that together with 1/2" sand, then cap with 1/2" clean sand. It just takes the stuff like monte carlo a bit of effort to hit paydirt.

I would generally keep the same layout though. Just get the 40 up and going and slowly steal the stuff from the 20. My big regret though is they are now making the 40G breeders with tempered bottom, so no drill/no sump. I may just build a DIY 40 with holes and overflow to 20G long underneath. I really like the refugium effect for critters, but for now just have a 'wild' bucket that I get WC and topoff water from. It works well enough.

Small tragedy a few days ago. I couldn't find the 2 female honey gouramis while sitting and watching at dinner and through process of elimination, discovered both in the HOB filter along with 2 otos and about 4 shrimp. The two honeys did not make it, and one oto was dead. The other oto and shrimp were fine and swimming in the 1/2" of water at the bottom of the filter.

I have a seachem tidal 35 and can't really understand why they suddenly got in there after all this time, but I have added a bit of sponge as a prefilter.

Current tankmates are
1 male honey gourami
4 otos
4 neons
12 merah rasboras
4 amano shrimp
a plethora of red cherry shrimp

I put in an order to Flip for some more merahs, a few more neons and a couple of otos since there was enough to justify an order. I have had excellent luck with them. Oh yeah, some red-racer nerites too. They just look super cool and really triggered the order when I saw the email ad.

In other news, I did buy a 40G breeder since they were half-off. Going to slowly pick up the necessary parts to do the original 40G breeder display with 20G long sump/fuge. I will be drilling the back for an overflow box. The intent is to keep the same basic layout, fish and plants, just with more space and maybe some pink flamingo crypts and a group of pygmy corys. Once that happens, I will start another thread.

Some recent pics. Not much to report. Lots of shrimp.


Same area but shrimp at dinner time.



The only interesting thing is the Amanos love the Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini' so it's pretty much gone. I try and keep them extra fed with shrimp food an wafers, and that slowed it down a bit, but after googling some, they just seem to love that particular plant. All of the other plants are doing great IMO.

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It’s growing in really well

I had mini reineckii a while back that didn’t last long either. I had 3 amanos in that tank. I would have never suspected they saw it as an expensive snack.

Looking great! I love the stepped rock formation. And that is a seriously cool looking nerite (?) snail.

WhistlingBadger said:

Looking great! I love the stepped rock formation. And that is a seriously cool looking nerite (?) snail.

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Thanks. They were sold as 'red racer' nerites at flip Aquatics. I purchased 3 but got an extra. They aren't the cheapest, but definitely have some cool markings.

They are Vittina waigiensis. I have one and I agree, they are one of the prettier nerites.

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Just an update. Everything is filled in pretty well, but I am not liking spacing. I convinced the wife to go ahead with a 64 gal (48x 18 x 17). I have been collecting some components and will be getting the tank from glasscages since they are near enough for a pickup. I just don't trust the Aqueon bigger tanks looking at the reviews. I wound up returning the 40g breeder even though I got it on the half price deal.

This will be along the lines of the original 40g with sump plan, just 64g instead of 40g. There will be a back corner overflow on one end and return to the other end split to create minor flow. I plan on more or less replicating the current general layout, just with lots more space -- Wood on one end, small rock w/small wood near the 2/3 mark at the other end, and big rock on other end. I will use the same wood for sure but might get some different rocks (whole creek to chose from).

I will start a build thread in a few weeks.