The Adventure Begins - UNS Rimless 20G Planted Tank

[mrsjoannh13]

Finally got around to putting this on YouTube so I could post the link. This is the paint mixer drill attachment agitating the sand. It made cleaning the sand go by really fast and my daughter had a great time with it. Sorry for the vertical video!

 

[Fish4dawin]

Well after a few weeks my spiderwood finally doesn’t float away to the surface. I had it pinned down with 2 marble rocks and it seemed to do the trick. I will post a picture of the tank soon.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

The day I've been waiting for.... PLANTING DAY! YAY! Most of my plants came in this past week and I've been soaking them in a bucket until the weekend rolled around and I had a few uninterrupted hours to work on it. Here are the photos below throughout the process. The stand is still not in so the tank is on a rolling cart for now. The stand should arrive on Thursday so I'm looking forward to giving this gorgeous tank a proper home in my study!

Plants: 3 amazon swords in the background (they are the tiniest plants I've ever seen - you probably won't notice them in the photos), 5 java ferns in front of the swords, 2 "Thor's Hammer" ferns on the side of the javas (because my daughter is obsessed with Thor), 2 scarlett temples on either side of the java ferns, moss and anubias nana petite on the spider wood. I tried to cover up any 'scratchy' parts of the wood with moss or the anubias as I plan to get a betta and don't want anything exposed that would damage his fins.

I have the Twinstar S600 light at 50% for 6 hours a day. I used Aquarium Co-op root tabs around the swords and scarlett temples and I am dosing half strength with Easy Green liquid fertilizer.

Overall the tank came out kind of like I envisioned. I am not 100% in love with the scarlett temples. They may or may not stay in the tank. We'll see how things start to fill in and what survives. These are my first plants so I'm sure I planted some things too deep or got super glue on the wrong parts of some plants. Definitely a learning experience.

The best part of this process is my daughter really enjoys helping me out. She's in one of the pictures (in her gymnastics leotard) helping get the wool off the plants for me.

The water has some tannins in it from the peat granules I use in my water container. My pH out of the tap is really high (about 8.3 - 8.4).

 

[Essjay]

I can't tell from the photos, but are the java ferns planted in the substrate or attached to those black stones?

 

[mrsjoannh13]

I can't tell from the photos, but are the java ferns planted in the substrate or attached to those black stones?

They are attached loosely to the stones - not in the substrate. The only things in the substrate are the amazon swords and the scarlett temples.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

After looking at the photos and staring at the tank WAY too much I definitely think I need more midground plants. I might go for more anubias like barteri or something to fill in the midground a bit. I think I am going to leave the foreground open since I plan to get corys and want them to have plenty of room to root around in the sand.

Any suggestions on next steps for the hardscape or plants are welcome! I am not able to get the fish until sometime late February so I have plenty of time to modify.

 

[eatyourpeas]

Looking good!

I do see a very strong horizontal line across the top of the plants, but of course it is too early to tell what they may want to do. The slight downward curve towards the center makes me want to see one of the sides higher than the other and break the symmetry a bit. Perhaps moving the Scarlet Temple on the left side either out or to the right near the other one. Just a thought. Please bear in mind, I like everything lopsided.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Looking good!

I do see a very strong horizontal line across the top of the plants, but of course it is too early to tell what they may want to do. The slight downward curve towards the center makes me want to see one of the sides higher than the other and break the symmetry a bit. Perhaps moving the Scarlet Temple on the left side either out or to the right near the other one. Just a thought. Please bear in mind, I like everything lopsided.

Yep, I was kind of going for a crown type of effect with all the java ferns mid-tank. It's really hard to tel what the actual shape is going to be since a lot of the plants arrived much smaller than I expected (I'm looking at you, 3" tall amazon swords!). Honestly, the scarlett temples aren't looking so hot after a few days soaking in a bucket. I think the lack of light stunted them a bit. Not sure they'll bounce back so they may be goners. We'll see how things grow in over the next couple of weeks. Appreciate the suggestions. I agree about the current horizontal line and symmetry but there are 3 tiny swords in the back that should grow in and get pretty massive. We'll see how it shapes up.

 

[eatyourpeas]

I would not touch it for at least a couple of weeks and see where they go. That is the fun of planted tanks, full of surprises! That stern talk to the Amazon Swords may scare them into a growth spurt.

It is going to be amazing!

 

[eatyourpeas]

you, 3-inchers...

 

[mcordelia]

Woah that is a really nice scape! I am excited to see how this develops!!! That's so fun that your daughter is involved! My son also loves to be involved with the fishtank, but so far it amounts to him trying to drink out of the dirty water bucket and banging his hands against the glass of the 125.... He is very excited about the fish though,his morning ritual after finishing his milk is "fish fish!" Aka, turn on the light in the aquarium. My husband is a champ and bleary-eyedly agrees at 630am each day haha. Rude wake up call for the snail....

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Woah that is a really nice scape! I am excited to see how this develops!!! That's so fun that your daughter is involved! My son also loves to be involved with the fishtank, but so far it amounts to him trying to drink out of the dirty water bucket and banging his hands against the glass of the 125.... He is very excited about the fish though,his morning ritual after finishing his milk is "fish fish!" Aka, turn on the light in the aquarium. My husband is a champ and bleary-eyedly agrees at 630am each day haha. Rude wake up call for the snail....

It has been so fun having my daughter involved. My husband is very supportive, but not hands-on involved (unless it's picking up heavy water buckets then he is literally hands on, lol). She is really learning and retaining a lot about cycling tanks, bacteria, how different fish need different conditions... it's been great.

I am checking out some midground anubias plants on Aquarium Co-Op so that will probably be next weekend's project! I do think around the spider wood towards the front needs to be filled in a tiny bit visually.

I'll post more pictures as I add more or as I see the plants growing in.

 

[mcordelia]

Have you considered crypts? I have two crypts in the 20g and they seem to be doing nicely. The leaves are smaller than anubias and one of them has a nice reddish tint to it.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Have you considered crypts? I have two crypts in the 20g and they seem to be doing nicely. The leaves are smaller than anubias and one of them has a nice reddish tint to it.

I've been watching for the cryptocorne flamingo to come back in stock. They seem pretty rare but I do love the coloring. Although I'm not sure I like the reddish / pinkish tint from the background plants. So I may stick to all green and get some crypts that are in stock. I'm noodling on it. I really love the look of the anubias plants so I might go with those. Sooooo many decisions, LOL. I just need a bigger tank, that's all there is to it!

 

[eatyourpeas]

I sense the beginnings of MTS!