Llj's 20g Journal

[lljdma06]

I stand corrected on the wood BTW, looks great now you've planted it up should have kept my big mouth shut!

Sam

I wasn't going to move it whether you liked it or not! That wood was heavy and my tetras already hated me for changing the aquascape on them once. Besides, I already have a nice scratch on the glass for fiddling with the wood too much.

Thanks for the comments, they are appreciated.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Little update. Had Greenwater and regular green algae. Nothing fancy or overly disgusting. Did a blackout and actually reduced my ferts a tad, and it's actually much better. I still have some, but it's managable and it gives the tank a nice, lived-in look. Growth is very good and the moss has taken off! I can't even see the metal anchors anymore! I no longer kill moss!

I'm going to let the fish do their job for a while and only dose trace and iron for a while. CO2 is great, over 30ppm, but the growth is not super fast. This is kind of a wierd tank and doesn't do what I expect it to do. The tank also has a relatively high fish volume, so dosing more nutrients may not be as pressing. The next purchase will be either otos or I'll consider special ordering that flagfish I keep raving about and let them do some work on my algae. The lotus is under control and my glosso is beginning to carpet and is growing nicely.

Thanks for reading,

llj

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Hi llj -- it's been a while!

Very pretty tank -- I like the tetras, too.

That's a crypt in the front on the right side, right? Was it always that color it did it turn dark? I bought several recently and they turned from pale green to dark olive.

 

[lljdma06]

Hi llj -- it's been a while!

Very pretty tank -- I like the tetras, too.

That's a crypt in the front on the right side, right? Was it always that color it did it turn dark? I bought several recently and they turned from pale green to dark olive.

Yes, that is a crypt in the front, a red wendtii. It was dark when I purchased it, but it has since become purplish under the leaves. I have others that are not so reddish.

I like the Serpae tetras as well. Since then, I've added 5 Corydoras aeneus to the mix and I'm quite pleased. They school very well and are constantly moving about all levels of the tank, exploring. Thanks for the compliment.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Finally I have pictures. Not too shabby. Going to do an evening photo-shoot tonight, so I'll post the best of those tomorrow. But here's the tank now.

Greenwater is almost gone and I'm going to try something new with the lighting. Most of the day, it'll be at 1.4WPG and then for 3-4 hours in the afternoon, I'll connect the second tube to put it at 2.8WPG. Hopefully, the glosso will still carpet with the light burst, but the rest of the growth won't be quite so crazy and it may help with the algae, though I finally think that's under control. It has been about a month already. The plan is to add a second school of corydoras (a different species), a different species of Characin (love to add marbled hatchets for the surface but will settle for what's available), and end it with either a trio of flag fish, or a single ram of some type (don't want cichlids breeding), or a trio of otos. Decisions, decisions. Never had algae-eating fish in any of my other tanks, so I don't know if it's necessary. It may end up being too overstocked with fish to effectively dose using EI. The tank may do much better with minimal dosing (Just Flourish and adding CO2). If I start seeing BGA, then I'll know to start dosing Nitrates and Potassium.

Enough jabbering and thinking aloud, here's the picture.

I pruned a lot, but it was pretty crazy. I, and the tetras, also like the open spaces for swimming.

As always, thanks for looking,

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Nice Llj really like the red on either side, middle bit you've cut back hard I can see!

 

[lljdma06]

Nice Llj really like the red on either side, middle bit you've cut back hard I can see!

Thanks Sam. You're always there with a complement. My ludwigia is not recovering from the blackout like I expected and my glosso is not as happy in this tank as it is in the 8g. One of my tetras is missing half a dorsal fin! Nippy little buggers, in goes the Melafix for a week to prevent infection. May try adding some more fast-growers, especially Cabomba, we'll see. Typical new tank stuff. Will buy some new fish today too. Perhaps my tetras are bored and need new buddies to play with. Sorry for the random post.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

Had a saga with the new black neons I purchased, lost all but two. Didn't know that the LFS received stock that day. Fish are always twitchy when you by them right from being delivered. The rest are fine and I checked my water, nothing wrong with it.

Added more stem plants like I said I would, but not cabomba. Added some bacopa and H. difformis and some replacement ludwigia. Tank looks pretty good. Will probably remove glosso at the bottom as it's not taking off like it did in the 8g. The tank is too tall and the light isn't intense enough (old bulbs). I will perhaps try again, but the bare look at the foreground may be easier to clean. Any extra glosso will go to the 8g and I'll leave a few tufts here and there in the 20g, it looks pretty next to the wood as a stem plant, but not as a lawn cover.

Here's a picture of the 20g. It's a little fuller than it used to be. Still sucks though.

Comments are always welcome. Thanks for looking.

llj

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Here's a picture of the 20g. It's a little fuller than it used to be. Still sucks though.

Comments are always welcome. Thanks for looking.

llj

It hardly sucks -- it looks great! I especially like the lillies. If you wanted to get another color in there you could try one of the green types. I find that if I keep the green lily in the shade of the red one, the leaves of the green one stay a pretty shade of salmon. Mine only turn green in direct light. Not that your tank needs improving - as I said above, it really looks great.

I have black neons, too. I've had them for a year and they still twitch. They remind of that character that hated Inspector Clouseau in the OLD Pink Panther movies.

 

[Themuleous]

Hell yeh it doesn't suck! It's great, think the better picture quality helps. The reds are amazing! What light you got over this? Was gonna try and get some red into my main tank but only have 1WPG at the mo, not sure if it'll be enough?

This tank is really coming along

Think you're right about the glosso its not really serving any function where it is and would look better either no glosso or something else that makes more of an impact.

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

Hell yeh it doesn't suck! It's great, think the better picture quality helps. The reds are amazing! What light you got over this? Was gonna try and get some red into my main tank but only have 1WPG at the mo, not sure if it'll be enough?

This tank is really coming along

Think you're right about the glosso its not really serving any function where it is and would look better either no glosso or something else that makes more of an impact.

Sam

Sam, I have 2, 28W Coralife compact flourescent fixtures over a glass cover. This gives me 2.8WPG. The tank sits for about 3-4 hours with 1.4WPG, then the second fixture comes on for about 5 hours for a burst of light, and then I just have 1 fixture for the rest of the day. So most of the time, the tank is running at 1.4WPG. Growth is a little slower, and that is probably why the glosso isn't taking off. The nano has 3WPG for 10 hours so the glosso grows well. Thinking about adding some small cryptocorynes to replace the glosso and give it a more "woodsy" feeling. Or, I may get a fresh batch of glosso and plant it like a stem plant instead of a lawncover. In the nano, it needs to be short, but this tank is a 20g high, glosso can afford to be taller. Or, again, I'll try the bare gravel look and see where that goes.

Still struggling with hazy water in both tanks. I tried the blackout and it sort of worked, but it mostly just weakened my plants enough that I had to buy more ludwigia. My CO2 is over 30ppm. I want to add more Nitrogen and Potassium, but everytime I do so and start a regimen, the water really gets hazy and green. It does better when I change the water and don't add nutrients, but I'm getting pretty sick of doing daily water changes, though my fish love it. I know that I need more nutrients and stop the water changes, but it seems that when I add more, it gets worse. The 20g is better than the nano. That one really sucks. I'm hoping that this'll all work itself out, but I have no patience. At least there's no BGA, that would really make me mad!

Any suggestions would be helpful, however, I understand that there is no magical cure, especially with my CO2 at the level that it is.

Thanks for saying my tank doesn't suck, Sam and SB. You just get frustrated when things aren't working well like they should.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

You just get frustrated when things aren't working well like they should.

Very, very much so! Thats why I'm ripping my nano apart, just isn't work!

 

[JArtiles305]

Very nice, I really like the look so far.

 

[lljdma06]

Very nice, I really like the look so far.

Was wondering where you were. Hello!

Well, of course, when I'm bothered by my tank, nothing makes me more better than to buy things for it. Came home Wednesday with 2 black neons, 1 oto (still alive, Yeah!), several cryptocorynes and one Pennywort. I relaly don't think I can cram anymore plants in this one.

 

[JArtiles305]

Very nice, I really like the look so far.

Was wondering where you were. Hello!

Been really busy lately. Rearranged my tank though and added some fish after a few died.

I'll update my journal this or next week.

Again, nice tank I like your style.