# 20 gallon planted tank journal



## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

Finally decided to start a journal for my first planted tank. Ive learned alot along the way and have been battling thread algae (clado?) That was going crazy in my tank. I ended up dosing the tank with a ton of h202 and excel and it seems to have knocked alot of it back.

I dose daily with the full seachem lineup.

*FERTS*

Flourish comprehensive : 2 ml 
Flourish Excel: 5 - 10 ml
Flourish Iron: 3 ml 
Flourish pottasium: 5 ml
Flourish phosphorous: 5 ml
Flourish Nitrogen: 5 ml
Flourish root tabs: 5

*FILTRATION*

Colbalt Aquatics EXT canister filter 
Aquatech 20 - 40 HOB filter (currently seeding colbalt)

*LIGHTING*

3 X Sunblaster T5HO 24" 24 watts 6400k - 72 watts total
2 X Phillips 23 watts 6500k - 46 watts total
= 118 watts = 5.9 WPG

*PLANTS*

TO BE UPDATED

*FISH*

9 X Platy
3 X swordtails
1 X black molly
1 X BN Pleco
2 X SAE (siamese algae eater)
17 X Amano / Yamato Shrimp (never see more than 3 at a time)

*CO2*

Aqua inspiration 5 pound CO2 tank & regulator with solenoid.
Fluval diffuser (inline soon)
Roughly 1.5 to 2 bubbles per second during light cycle.

FTS


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## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

Pulled some of the floating plants out and placed them in a bucket.

Cleaned the glass of gsa and did a 2.5 gallon water change. 
Removed 1 t5 light because the floating plants were taking all the light up anyway.

Anyways if someone could tell me if my fert schedule is good. Its proving to be pretty expensive at 5ml doses.










75% of the plants in this tank came from JimmyJam off this forum. Thanks a ton.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Looks very nice, but I don't see a drop checker. If you don't have one, I recommend one, it will help you fine tune the co2 to balance things more.


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## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

Thanks for the comment and I purchased one from AI the other day... not to sure how to set it up and for starters he forget to package the suction cup with it. So i need to make another trip to pick one up but thats no big deal as I need to pick up some more things anyways.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

just need 4dkh reference solution and ph test solution


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## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

Little update before lights out. Got two new plants today Utricularia Graminifolia and an unknown plant i forgot to take the name down for.


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## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

Plant clippings from a month or so ago









And here's a small video of my Emersed setup

Emmersed aquatic plant setup:


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## greg (Apr 29, 2012)

Nice looking tank.

That's a lot of light. Probably a good thing you removed one. Will make the tank much easier to manage.



scrogathon said:


> Anyways if someone could tell me if my fert schedule is good. Its proving to be pretty expensive at 5ml doses.


Regarding fertilizers, why not make your own macro? Will save you a ton of cash. You can cut out potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen purchases, which are the big ones. Buy potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate at a local hydroponics store and look up the Estimative Index for a guide on how to mix your own or just dose the dry powders. For $10 - $15 you will get enough to last you for years.

Also why the Excel - just to help cut down on algae? - I would try to reduce this over time.


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## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

I turned out the two 23 watt cfls today and I would definitely like to make my own fert mix, I was at the hydroponics store yesterday picking up rockwool cubes and net pots for an Emersed "eb and flow" setup I came up with. Should have asked about the fertilizer then. Thanks for the tip. 
I had been using a lot of excel to try and knock out the string algae but I'm sure it's from too much light. I currently still dose 4-5 ml excel daily but probably will stop using so much see how it turns out, I'm sure the shrimp hate me.
I've got a ton of trimming to do on this tank today, my supporting stem plants grow a foot a week lol

Sent from my LG-D803 using Tapatalk


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## scrogathon (Jan 7, 2014)

Little update before trimming and I plan to buy a Lily pipe and inline co2 diffuser to help clean up the look a bit.

Also indecisive on pulling the dwarf hairgrass in front and let the HC Cuba and glosso take over.

Stopped dosing phosphorus and nitrogen and I think it made the algae worse but who knows maybe it will change in a few days.

I picked up a ton of dry ferts and have started using that instead of seachem.










I'd love to do a rescape on this tank but the inhabitants are so happy in there I would hate to tear there home apart. Although the amanos have turned my rock mountain into a bunch of caves.


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