# Woopderson's 20g Long Neo Tank



## woopderson

Well, after much flip-flopping I finally decided to make the 20 long into a Neo tank. The AC30 is missing from the picture, but you get the idea of the placement. 

Here are the stats:

Hardware:
Ac30 with dual sponge intake
Whisper 20 pump
Dual sponge filter
20g long tank
Marineland heater
Evergrow d120 light

Plants:
Anubias nana petit
Java fern
Hydrocotyle sp japan
Marsilea Hirustata
Lobelia cardinalis
Staurogyne repens
Java moss - to be planted

Substrate: 17lbs bag of fluval shrimp stratum

Critters to go in:

Caridina babaulti
Horned Nerites or ramshorns

Yellow stripe neos, or blue dreams/blue diamonds


----------



## Bullet

I love that size tank 
Should be a great project - good luck 
Following along ...


----------



## bettaforu

nice tank....wish I had the room for a 20 long...for now I am stuck with 3 x
10 gallons.


----------



## woopderson

Thanks! More updates to come as the cycle continues. I have some seeded media that I will be tossing in there, so that should expedite the cycle. Hopefully the Fluval soil cycles faster than Amazonia.


----------



## bettaforu

I found my Fluval was cycled in less than a week. Ive used it in a lot of my shrimp tanks and actually prefer it to Amazonia. If I want low PH I use Shultz's Aquasoil from Holland Gardens, its clay that is inert and I layer some Peat Moss in between...my PH stays at 6.2 with this system and it lasts longer than Amazonia.


----------



## woopderson

Wow that is fast, I hope mine goes that quickly! When I have a place that has more space for tanks, I think giving that a go could be interesting.


----------



## deepblue3

Awesome tank! I love the 15 gallon and 20 gallon longs/short. Gives the shrimp alot of ground to explore


----------



## woopderson

Thanks! Ac30 is hooked up and has some heavily seeded media. That should expedite the cycle


----------



## woopderson

Cycle is progressing well! Dosed to 6ppm of ammonia yesterday, and today we are down to around 3-4ppm. The water has also cleared up nicely.


----------



## deepblue3

Hows the cycling? Did you decide which Shrimp your putting in?


----------



## woopderson

The ammonia is getting eaten up quite nicely. What is interesting is that the fluval substrate keeps pulling my tap water down to 6.4. A friend of mine has the same substrate in his tank. During the cycle the ph comes back up to 7-7.4. Very interesting stuff!

I find that this substrate is darker than amazonia. Really nice looking.

The plants seem to be showing some new growth.

I have tentatively chosen yellow neos to pair up with caridina babaulti.


----------



## hollowpoint

Yellow on black is going to look very sharp!


----------



## Tamtep

Very nice tank setup dude!! 

What type of neo u will keep in it?


----------



## woopderson

Yellow neos


----------



## raym

Can't wait to see the shrimp in their new home. Very nice set-up!


----------



## woopderson

Thanks Tamtep and Raym! My cycle is now complete. There is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. The Fluval substrate is buffering my tap pretty low, but I am using baking soda to bring it back up. 

I get my Yellow Neos on Thursday.  

Will post some pictures and updates then.


----------



## shrimp76

my yellows are in the same substrate and it buffers it to 6.5ph and they are constantly berried and young are doing well. there are 6 berried right now. cant wait for them to pop out.


----------



## woopderson

shrimp76 said:


> my yellows are in the same substrate and it buffers it to 6.5ph and they are constantly berried and young are doing well. there are 6 berried right now. cant wait for them to pop out.


Awesome, lookin forward to having a big colony. The baking soda brought the ph up to around 7.4, which is similar to where I am getting mine from. I get them tomorrow


----------



## raym

Don't forget the pictures!


----------



## woopderson

You know it!


----------



## woopderson

And the shrimp are in! Also picked up 5 caridina babaulti. I intend to put more in, but just got 5 for now. There is lots of nice plant growth in thr tank. 6 nerites in the tank, all are happy and doing invert related activities.


----------



## raym

Nice looking shrimp you have there! You may have to supply the nerites with additional feeding as they are hungry little buggers.


----------



## woopderson

Thanks 

How often/how much do you feed 'em?



raym said:


> Nice looking shrimp you have there! You may have to supply the nerites with additional feeding as they are hungry little buggers.


----------



## raym

May be a couple algae wafers every other day. Could put in some blanched lettuce, spinach in there for them also. The tank is so clean already that the nerites won't have any algae to eat.


----------



## deepblue3

The tank looks great. I like the plants too


----------



## woopderson

Thank you all! Man, loving these Caridina Babaulti. Gonna get more for sure!


----------



## woopderson

And so I got some more!


----------



## Tamtep

Why did u you use active soil instead of Non active?

Well They will do fine and breed in PH 6.4 
But If below than that, females could drop eggs or simply won't get berried (speaking from my experiences).



woopderson said:


> Thanks Tamtep and Raym! My cycle is now complete. There is 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. The Fluval substrate is buffering my tap pretty low, but I am using baking soda to bring it back up.
> 
> I get my Yellow Neos on Thursday.
> 
> Will post some pictures and updates then.


----------



## woopderson

I didnt know that it would buffer as low as it did, as others are having success with it. Lesson learned, but baking soda is maintaining the ph. Spotted my first berried today!


----------



## raym

Shrimps look great! Congrats on the new berry. Can't wait to see some babies.


----------



## woopderson

Thanks, Raym! 

Here are a couple berried ladies.


----------



## razoredge

woopderson said:


> Thanks, Raym!
> 
> Here are a couple berried ladies.


Wow!! That didn't take long for them to get berried.


----------



## woopderson

Well, momma babaulti has released her babies, and they are running around. More are berried, as well as some neos with heavy loads! I added 4 thai micro crabs, and they are doing well. Shy little ones, they are!


----------



## woopderson

Time for an update!



The plants are growing wonderfully, and so are the shrimp! Sorry for the blurry first picture. You may spot a couple cherry juvies in there, those are the test tube babies I hatched! I need to rehome them soon.



There have been no signs of hydra since treating with No Planaria. I added three large fan shrimps, man are they cool! Also included some photos of plants: Hygro Pinnatiffida, Lobeilia Cardinalis, Alternanthera Renikii Mini, and some Anubias Nana Petite.



The first batch of baby yellows neos is growing up fast. The babaulti babies are slower, but all there.


----------



## Atom

Really cool  look at all those baby shrimp D:


----------



## deepblue3

Lovely tank, you did a great job


----------



## woopderson

Thanks!


----------



## alstare2000

Great photos and looks like plants are doing really well. May your shrimps have lots of babies


----------



## bettaforu

Very nice looking tank...wish mine looked that way!

Just for your info, if you leave those cherries and yellow rilis in this tank eventually your nice solid yellows will become dirty browns (wild type)

They will all cross and you will lose the intense color of the yellow.

Maybe that's not important to you, but if you are intending on keeping the
solid yellows, I would sell off the rest and concentrate on raising top quality
solid yellows, as there are very few of these now. Good yellows are hard
to find and there is a market for them.


----------



## woopderson

If you read my post i say they will be rehomed!


bettaforu said:


> Very nice looking tank...wish mine looked that way!
> 
> Just for your info, if you leave those cherries and yellow rilis in this tank eventually your nice solid yellows will become dirty browns (wild type)
> 
> They will all cross and you will lose the intense color of the yellow.
> 
> Maybe that's not important to you, but if you are intending on keeping the
> solid yellows, I would sell off the rest and concentrate on raising top quality
> solid yellows, as there are very few of these now. Good yellows are hard
> to find and there is a market for them.


----------



## bettaforu

Sorry didn't read all of the posts. Good idea.


----------



## raym

Coming along very nicely! Tanks look great and the shrimp are awesome. Well done!


----------



## woopderson

Thanks! 


raym said:


> Coming along very nicely! Tanks look great and the shrimp are awesome. Well done!


----------



## woopderson

Updated picture. There are a couple very small bucephalandra and a few shrimp friendly fish in there now. (Chili rasboras and dwarf cory cats, etc)


----------



## Bullet

Looks awesome 
A work of art !


----------



## woopderson

Bullet said:


> Looks awesome
> A work of art !


Thanks! I have yet to use any ferts, either. The fluval substrate is good stuff. I will begin adding mild doses when I remember.


----------



## souldct

Very nice tank! Makes me want to get back to the hobby again lol


----------



## woopderson

souldct said:


> Very nice tank! Makes me want to get back to the hobby again lol


Thanks! You should definitely do it!


----------

