My Newly Planted 20uk Gallon........

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guppy_man

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Nothing special, but looks ok i think, i need a few more plants for it to build up the back.

I'm running 2 internal filters..... fluval 2+, and Uni UV filter, Im going to take the fluval out soon though. I have a 15w arcardia tube which hopefully i will upgrade VERY soon. I've had a DIY Co2 mixture and also a Nutrafin mixture running for 3 days now, i havent counted the bpm so not sure what it gives out.

I have a few lowlight plants in there, Anubis nana, hornwart, vallis , java moss, amazon swords and another that i can't remember the name of :unsure: I dose the tank once a week with Nutrafin plant grow, which is not that great, so ill soon change the liquid food (any ideas?).

So here it is any suggestions on changing it around?

full tank
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moss
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plants
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moss on rock
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young german blue ram
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german blue and anubis
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koi angel pair
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Cheers for that aaron, ill deffinetley look out for those next time i go to maidenhead aquatics.

I may try and install another tube into the hood to try and help plant growth and hopefully vary the plants i can add.
 
you wont find them at maiden head stores. not the ones that i goto any way.

you'll need to order online from someone like aqaua essentials.

tropica plant nutrition + (npk) is the one i would opt for.

you might want to establish your co2 levels, too low and you'l end up with algae issues especialy when fertin with tpn+, it's pretty strong stuff.

your tank looks promising, like aaron said, some more plants should help you out witt any future algae issues. Hygrophila polysperma is brill in helping to get a settled tank.fast grower and can withstand anything you throw at it.

flourish excel is another adative to have to hand, when trying to battle little outbreaks of algae. it's not a fertalizer it's a source of carbon, dont get flourish and flourish excel mixed up, there 2 different things.

:good:

keep it up

mark
 
looks like a good start to me! i use tropica plant nutrition and i havnt got any complaints with it! since i've been using it the plants are all a much nicer shade of green/red and the growth on some of them is amazing!
 
From what I see you have 2 Angels, 1 Ram, and either a Cherry Barb or Platy. From the technical point of view your aquarium is overstocked. You won't notice in the water quality because that is the benefits of plants. Plants keep the water clean and free of ammonia. Angelfish get to 6" and Rams get to 3". I feel that since you are aquascaping, your tank will lose some aesthetical value. I have learned over time that plants are usually the stars of the tank and fish serve as accents. To many fish in a tank will detract from the aquarium as a whole.

I would DEFINITELY plan on upgrading your lighting soon. In my experience, Amazon Swords and Vallis do not like low light. As for CO2 I just use Flourish Excel. I don't run an airstone in my 55 gallon so I get plenty of carbon two my plants.
 
From what I see you have 2 Angels, 1 Ram, and either a Cherry Barb or Platy. From the technical point of view your aquarium is overstocked. You won't notice in the water quality because that is the benefits of plants. Plants keep the water clean and free of ammonia. Angelfish get to 6" and Rams get to 3". I feel that since you are aquascaping, your tank will lose some aesthetical value. I have learned over time that plants are usually the stars of the tank and fish serve as accents. To many fish in a tank will detract from the aquarium as a whole.

I would DEFINITELY plan on upgrading your lighting soon. In my experience, Amazon Swords and Vallis do not like low light. As for CO2 I just use Flourish Excel. I don't run an airstone in my 55 gallon so I get plenty of carbon two my plants.

Amazons and Vals are low light plants. The tank left on my signature had both, flourishing under 0.6WPG.

You are probably like me and are building an aesthetically pleasing planted tank for you to keep your fish in rather than putting fish in to complement a scape so I wouldn't worry too much. There are scapers that build around their fish as well as scapers that change the fish with each scape. I have had the same fish in the last 3 scapes and will continue to do it that way and so should you if you wish.

Plants are equally the stars of the tank as the fish with one exception. The effect of the plant is visual and it is the way the differn plants create the whole scape. It is something the artist can control. The fish are totally seperate in that they are not controllable. They have differeing personalities and habits and you can interact with them.

I have had over 2" per gallon in my 33USG and they don't detract from the scape!! They interact, react and add to the scape.

More plants, follow the bottle instructions on TPN+ change the yeast mix in your Nutrafin weekly and you should be OK. Don't get carried away with the light though. Aim for 20-30W of T8 or less with T5/CF/PC.

p.s. Love the young Ram. You should find her a husband and then she will bloom.

Andy
 
Cheers andy.... I like the idea of both alot of plants and alot of fish, i think that because i have left the right side alittle bare it makes the viewer not just concentrate on the fish but also the plants. My angels like to hang there also.

I'm deffinetley going to get more plants in the week.... what plants do you think i should go for considering my lighting and ferts?...foreground-mid ground-background?

Atm i have the crappy nutrafin ladder which i can't stand, so earlier today i ordered a ceramic glass diffuser which looks alot more pleaseing and also should do a better job of dispursing the CO2.

Whats the highest wattage i can get for a tube thats 18" long, 1" width.... atm i think i have 15w, which does not give off too much light. Or do you think i should try and install another tube?

Ye i like the young ram too, i did buy a m+f, but the male got stuck behind the CRAPPY CO2 ladder :angry: What i may do is take my bolivian ram to maidenhead acuatics and see if i can swap and get a male german blue ram. The bolivian is starting to chase my angels which i don't like. even though the ram is stunning :look:
 
The angels are probably hanging on the right side of the tank because there is more space vertically. lol They will grow to big really for your tank. They are more suited to the taller 20" tanks once they grow up.

For cheapness I would just go to Pets at home and buy 3 Tropica potted plants for £9 or whatever the deal price is. Tropica is the brandname of the fert people are suggesting above Topica Plant Nutrition +. It is quite important you buy the potted rather than the rubbish in the terracotta pots. Tropica are in black plastic pots and you get loads of good quality for your money.

They will have a label much like you get pushed into the soil of a potted garden plant to tell you what light they like, how tall they grow etc but as a guideline you should go for Ludwigia species, Hygropylia species, Rotal Species (but not macrandra) Cryptocorynes etc. Get them home and seperate them carefully. 3 pots will be able to be spread over the whole substrate and create a decent planted tank that you can eventually move some out to sell and replace to get more variety in there.

I hope the ceramic diffusor works for you. every week take it out, put some bleach on the disc for 5 mins then rinse under the tap, then put bleach on the disc for 5 mins again and rinse. Then put a little water and a little dechlor on the disc for 10 minutes and it should stay clean and perform well. I tend to take the sucker off the wall of the tank and stick the diffusor on the tiles in the kitchen for each 5/10 minute spell. lol. be careful when removing replacing it. hold the pipe and not the bowl or the joint or it will break especially with the smaller ones.

The highest wattage light you can get for T8 (1") for a 18" long fixture is 15W. I would just get an Arcadia Freshwater (known in P@H as Classic daylight or something similar. has a green box) and get an 18W Arcadia reflector. tube should be £11ish and the reflector £5ish. Don't get more light until you know it doesn't work or you want to have a faster growing tank!!!.

Personally I would get rid of the blue ram and get another male bolivian. Blues are not as hardy as bolivians and they dont have the character either of the bolivians. The reason the bolivian male was attacking the Angels was that you shouldn't really have the angels in with other Cichlids in a tank that size. You have some decisions to make. The angels will grow too tall for the tank you have. You have 3 species of Cichlids in the same tank. Therefore you either need a taller tank for the angels or a larger tank to keep all of them or find a new home for the angels and decide on blues or bolivians.

These are what I would choose:
oldmfandnewf.jpg

This is my dominant male and female with the 'beta' female in the background. I have 2 male and 2 female bolivians in my 33USG and yes they bicker and chase every now and again but that is what they do. They have a pecking order which they try to maintain and they have territories which they defend especially when spawning which they do monthly (before plecs and cardinal tetras sneak in for feeds.) It is good to see this behaviour rather than 1 of this and 1 of that. Try to keep shoals of fish and you se much more natural behaviour from them. My tank is about the lower limit for 2 pairs. yours would fit 1 pair but you may find they pair up and spwan for you. I also have 4 pitbull plecs who play together etc. they are great and only 3inches fully grown. then I have 3 Otos who follow each other aroud the tank and 20 Cardinal Tetras that schoal around the tank together. It all works because of the plants, rocks and wood. They give territory markers to the bolivians. the pitbuls like the wood to munch on. The cardinals like to swim though the plants and the Otos keep the plants clean. The pitbulls enjoy cleaning up the bloodworm that the Rams and Tetras leave etc. Everyone in there compliment each other because the tetras and rams provide a lot of entertainment. the pitbulls do too but they are also scavengers and clean up any left overs as well as munch the wood and glass clean. Otos are the least visible inthe tank but keep the leaves and glass clean too.

And no they don't take away from the effect of the tank. Most of the pics I take of my tank for my journals you can't realy see the fish (look at sig pics) and these are not picked out because of that. I take a few pictures and the one that has the best focus gets the nod.

Good luck
Andy
 
I don't want to get rid of my angels, ive had them for about 3 years, and i love their colouration. I was looking for a tall 40-50 gallon yesterday in the adtrader,ebay, and a few shops. Best price i saw just for a tank was £70 no heater/filter/light/hood. not sure if ill get it yet, may wait for a better deal.

Anyway what i came on here to say is that my nano diffuser has arrived, i connected it to the tubing and changed over the CO2. this was half an hour ago no bubbles yet?

Before i connected the diffuser, i blew into the diffuser to see how easy it would be for the bubbles to get throug, I couldn't blow through it atall, is there something wrong with it or am i just stupid or something :blush:

any help would be great.

O and im off to maidenhead aquatics to get some plants/ferts ect.
 
You cant blow through a diffuser, it is meant to be solid as a lot of pressure is needed to force the bubbles through to make them as small as possible.
 
Today bought 3 types of plants... Samolus floribundus, Ophiopogon kyoto, and microsorium pteropus, 3 for £10. anyone had any experiences with them?

I have split them so i now have 2 of each plant. My diffuser is also working well, and wasnt sure if i wanted to pay for the tropica plant nutrition, so bought nutrafin plant gro (different to what i did used to use). O and i got 2 free Oto's aswell, they were in the same tank as the plants and they were stuck to the samolus floribundes :shifty: they are only around 2 cm's.

My better camera has run out of batteries so had to use my phone, Here's a few pics........

Ophiopogon kyoto front/ Microsorium pteropus back.
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1 of the samolus floribundes cuttings.
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Ophiopogon kyoto
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1 of the Oto's
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Diffuser/ bubbles don't show on the pic.
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tank
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tank1
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tank flash
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I think it looks ALOT better than what it did in the first pic i posted. what do you think?
 

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