Llj's 20g Journal

[Themuleous]

Hey Llj,

Sorry I dont get to this sooner but Ive been away again with work, dam and blast! I'll make it point form to keep it short I've got 1 and a half pages of new posts to read!

i) those fish sound quality, what colour are they? Dont think Ive ever seen them over here.

ii) Water changes every 2-4 months my arse! Id never let my tank sit for that long. Ive got absolutely no proof, but I attribute almost all the algae-free nature of my two 'fish' fish tanks to regular, large water changes. I do 25% every week, although this has dropped to every 2 weeks now as we've got a major water shortage over here.

iii) I dont think there is a thrid point, but it seemed necessary to have more than two somehow.

Really looking forward to seeing this baby in achtion Llj

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

The American-Flag fish is hard to describe. This image is courtesy of Florida Fisheries.

http/floridafisheries.com/images/fish-pic/jor-flo.jpg

You can see why I'm so interested in this sucker. It's native to FL and the SE United States and males are like little jewels. I've heard conflicting reports about it's care. Most say it's adaptable, some say it's a brackish fish, others say it's a sub-tropical to coldwater fish, while others say it's tropical. My guess is that the first is correct, it's bloody adaptable and will do well as long as the water is clean. It's an unsung little fish that seems like an interesting addition to some of my tanks for algae control.

As far as Water changes are concerned, I'll think I'll do smaller weekly changes and see where that takes me regarding tank maintenance.

Thanks for your confidence Sam, I hope it turns out well.

llj

 

[lljdma06]

I have a question about lighting for this tank. I have two choices.

Choice A: A standard T8 fixture with space for 2 15W bulbs. This will give me 1.5 WPG for the tank.

Choice B: 1 28W T5 Coralife fixture with 2 14W T5 bulbs. This will give me 1.4 WPG. The 10g doesn't need this fixture since it'll be a non-planted hospital tank, so I've got an extra one of these floating around.

Both fixtures will be fitted with 6700K bulbs, both fixtures are 24" long. What do you think will give me better lighting? It's a 20g high, so I'm assuming it's perhaps a little shorter than my 15g high. I know the tank is 24 inches long, and 12 inches wide. Don't quite remember the depth, however. Silly me, don't know my own tank dimensions. Bad fish keeper! Still planning on basically anubias, cryptocorynes, egeria najas, hardy stem-plants, etc arranged in a pretty aquascape. Substrate's still laterite mixed with whatever I can find. Still plan on injecting a weak DIY CO2 and a very light dosing regimen for algae prevention. So this is low-tech rather than the "El Natural" approach. Almost a hybrid between low-tech and high-tech, with elements of both.

So what lighting scenario would you use?

Cheers!

llj
PS. Thought I'd sneak in one more question before I signed-off. Tank will probably be up and running before I'm back online, so please answer.

 

[Themuleous]

I have to ask -> does it matter? If the both lights give you about the same WGP then whats the difference? If you have the T5's lying about use them save spending money on new kit

Safe journey back

Sam

 

[lljdma06]

I have to ask -> does it matter? If the both lights give you about the same WGP then whats the difference? If you have the T5's lying about use them save spending money on new kit

Safe journey back

Sam

I was always under the impression that T5s had more penetrating power than T8s. I just wanted to confirm this speculation, hence the question. I know there's not much difference between 1.4 and 1.5 but the tank is not a shallow one. Too many big words for 5am, need more coffee.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Oh right not sure about that sorry you may be right though. 5am! Pulling an all-nighter hey? Think even coffee might be loosing its power at that time in the morning! GO TO BED!

 

[lljdma06]

Oh right not sure about that sorry you may be right though. 5am! Pulling an all-nighter hey? Think even coffee might be loosing its power at that time in the morning! GO TO BED!

I went to bed last night, just didn't sleep well. Have to go to church. Hope somebody answers the question before I go offline, but I'm leaning towards the t5s. If they're more efficient, it won't matter if it's a little less. I hear WPG sucks anyways.

EDIT: Going with the T5s. Did a bit of googling this morning, the 29th, and it seems T5s win. Tank will look really smart too, as the fixture is super tiny.

Can't wait to set this puppy up and running!

 

[lljdma06]

Funny how things change. You carefully plan something and it all goes to pot when you come to the actual situation and you have to improvise.

The 20g is setup, but it's not low-tech at all. It's another EI tank actually. But since I only have the 8g and this one running, it should be a piece of cake. It has 2.8WPG and the substrate consists of laterite mixed with this really fine-grain gravel. Yes, I found some. It's almost like sand. Pretty neat stuff. Made by Top-Fin. The tank is home to mostly recovering plants from the move right now. The lotus and anubias were in very poor shape. It was too hot in the SUV and I lost a lot of plants. My rotala and crypts also look pretty scrawny. The good news is that they are already showing signs of improved health. I also added some Ludwigia repens to the mix to stabilze things, but I need another stem plant for the background.

I'll post pictures as soon as I finish with my tank photo-shoot scheduled tomorrow.

Great to be back, missed everybody!

llj

 

[Graeme Edwards]

I think with the low tech tank water changes (2-3 month) its to allow the DOC "decomposed organic carbon" to build up so that the plants use this as a carbon scorce, hence the fact that you dont add Co2 to low tech tanks, so if you were to do 50% water changes you are efectively starving them of much needed carbon.
This links to the low stocking rate that low tech tanks have, the key with low tech is lots of plants phew fish and an organic/soil type substrate for collinisation of bacteria to turn dead leaves and fishy poo into "DOC" for the plants and here we get the full cycle.

See what i did there, thats my understand in very basic turms.

Graeme.

 

[lljdma06]

I received you package FKNM, and the moss was beautiful. I put it in the tank, but haven't really decided it's final position, so the picture below is senza moss.

This tank is still in the new stages. Water's a bit cloudy, darn leaching wood, but that'll be fixed as soon as I start EI water changes. Due for one on Saturday. It also needs something green for the back, a nice airy plant, but right now, I'm primarily concerned with getting the plants from IL back to speed. The glosso is sparse, but it's leftovers from the nano, and it may stay or go, I haven't decided yet. I like the lotus and ludwigia, a nice combination, and I like the ludwigia behind the wood.



Photo quality is not great, sorry. I have 5 serpae tetras in there now and I like the look. I'll probably stick with those, another tetra species, a trio of platies, and a small bottom-dweller of some type. Cyprinids don't look so good in South FL, the tetras look much better. Enough rambling. Sorry.

llj

 

[Themuleous]

Looks good Llj obviously needs to fill out a bit

One thing, that wood, just wondering how it'd look positioned differently? I only say this as at the moment its very much just flat though the middle of the tank and wondering if having it off centre might look bettter? Have you tried it elsewhere? Just a thought

Sam

 

[simonbrown403]

It looks good now it should look even better whan it fills out, do you intend to cover all the wood in anbias or is your new moss getting a look in?

Simon

 

[lljdma06]

Hasn't been a week yet, but I received my shipment from Aquariumplants.com and rearranged both my tanks, switching a lot of plants over.

Here is a full tank shot.

One of my Serpae tetras.

I attached moss to the wood, rather easy since mopani has so many crags and fissures. The lotus is under-exposed and looks pretty bare, but there are actually quite a few leaves. The plants are growing pretty well.
It'll do for now, until I get sick of the arrangement, but I'd rather leave things alone to grow for a spell before I do any tweaking.

Thank you for looking,

llj

 

[ey2006]

Nice tank! Keep up the good work! Can't wait to see the grass/plant at the front to grow

 

[Themuleous]

That looks quality Llj! I actually don't think it really need to fill out much either. Well, it'll look great when it does but I really like it as it is, once the glosso has take hold that'll help along the front.

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

Sam