A River Of Sand And Cherry Blossom Garden

[Skry]

Back from Travel: With pictures of the tanks!
Sorry if these are rough.  I need to get my tripod out and tweak the settings on my Lumix.
 
(Beware Giant photos)
 
Initial tank setup (20g):

 
The 20g after a couple of months of growth and stocking:

 
Close-up of the Corys:

 
Blurry picture of the baby Neons: (One of these days I will finally get a DSLR)

 
And my Betta:

 
I've gotten a couple of Dwarf Gourami(Flame Red and Powder Blue) and a Green Lantern Platy.  I'm hoping to get to take some pictures tonight.
 
~Skry
 

 

[bluesword23516]

I have my betta in the exact same tank!
Both tanks look very nice.  

 

[Ch4rlie]

very nice

 

[Ninjouzata]

Beautiful tanks! Really love your betta

 

[fishmad135]

Love your tanks! Your Beta is gorgeous, never see any that pretty in the stores near me!
Did you manage to breed the neons!? 

 

[Skry]

Thank you, I couldn't resist that Betta when I saw him. 
 
The Neons were actually a happy accident.  I had transferred a plant from my main tank to my breeder a couple of days before I went on a trip (there were no fish in the breeder/quarantine tank at the time) when I got back, my son pointed and said "There are fish in there!" pointing at that tank.  Much to my surprise there were two very small neon fry already past their yolks in the tank.  Given their light-sensitivity I was quite surprised to find them alive and well.  They are now getting bigger every day in my side-hanging breeder box.  They are mostly on powdered flake foods now (though they were on boiled egg yolk for quite a while.  They have started to get their neon color, and their adult bodies are growing in.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

Lovely tanks. Well done. Love the crown tail Betta, very pretty. And those neons are sooooo cute x

 

[Skry]

Modifications Complete.
 
I have now altered the filtration of the 20g display tank.  The existing filter is still in use in the system (with all those lovely bacteria).  I have added a second 20gallong tank below the display tank with an overflow-siphon heading down, and a Fluval 306 pulling from the "sump" and pushing out into the display tank.  The sump will soon be heavily planted, adding substantial plant mass to the system.  Coupled with regular water changes I'm hoping to push my nitrates down to more natural levels (I'd love to get sub 5ppm on a regular basis).
 
All the fish are doing well.  I've got my black molly in with everyone else now.  The two baby Neons have the 5 gallon all to themselves now.
 
One of my handier friends is in town, so with a little luck and work we'll be engineering a new double-stand to show/provide easy access to both tanks.  I'll get pictures of that project up once we get going on it.
 
For now, here's the setup (still a bit messy from all the work and shifting of things).