# Help start a 20g



## western (Jul 24, 2010)

so i have decided to get an aquarium , i have read a lot of info but its time i put theory to practice, i think i am ready. Where i am stuck is what to purchase. So many options!

My goal is to have a low maintenance tank, i am willing to spend a little more/settle for less(looks wise/less fishes) to achieve it. Besides feeding, and changing water i dont want to be more attached/involved.

I dont want to have to worry about water temperature, i live in a condo and the temp is set 22 - 23 degrees year round. And where i will place the tank (den) there is a very stable temperature, there is no windows or anything to affect the temp of the room.

Looks wise the tank ideally will be minimalistic. Black gravel, with large showpiece(river rock/log etc), and a few plants.

And what selection of fishes/plants/shrimps/snails/rocks should i purchase, so confused, and please be specific in quantity and type of fish.

Thank you for your responses in advance, i attached a few photos that appeal to me.

http://img33.imageshack.us/i/dsc01619n.jpg/
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj28/Liswara/My Aquascape Journal/2ndScape1stday.jpg
http://www.ithinknot.us/images-phase_1/Living/Decorations/FishTank.JPG
http://media.photobucket.com/image/river rocks fish tank/dustint_78/Cave.jpg
http://www.petadvice.com.au/images/goldfishtank1.jpg


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Judging from your pictures, you would rather have a tank with nicer aquascape than nicer fish. One of my favourite designs which emphasizes this is called iwagumi. It is pretty much a rock tank with few fish that don't take away from the aquascape.

http://www.aquascapingworld.com/magazine/Magazine/Iwagumi-Style.html

The maintainence for this type of tank looks quite difficult, I've never had one myself so I can't really comment on it. But what type of fish people generally use for this design is either neon tetras or cardinal tetras. A low light plant that I like is called Sagittaria subulata, it looks like grass. A few types of popular plants that you'd probably enjoy are java fern or amazon sword plants.
I saw someone selling a moss tree of this forum a while back (Looks like http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...tures/files/2/1/2/2007-contest10_original.jpg.) If you let it grow out a little bit so the moss drips down, then it'd look like a willow tree, those trees that always grow near rivers. 
You might also want to look at a few aquascapers, my personal favourite is Takashi Amano. His tanks looks too high maintence for you but you might be able to get a few ideas from his designs.

If you decide to get plants, then shrimp come almost naturally. They definitely help with algae on the tank. The easiest to take care of is the red cherry shrimp (http://www.kralici.cz/ryby/content/files/neocaridina heteropoda.jpg). I don't like to recommend having both genders of these in a planted tank for anyone who isn't serious about keeping shrimp as they literally take over the tank and are a pain to remove. There's something that is more difficult that you might want, but you'll probably want to try to keep some red cherries first as practice. The Crystal Red Shrimp (you'll find a lot of nice ones on these forums, if you do get these I recommend buying from jamesren, I've heard a lot of good things about him) is my favourite type of shrimp. They have various grades which all looks pretty different, I personally think the S-grade crystal red shrimp looks the best (http://www.planetinverts.com/crs4.jpg), they have a red and white body and the tail has little dots on each little tail-fin thingy. It almost looks like someone painted these shrimp. There's also the bee shrimp, which looks exactly like the crystal red shrimp but has black where the crystal red has red.
The main problem with getting shrimp though, is that your fish might eat them. But if you have lots of hiding places and plants, then they should be fine.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Remove the end brackets in Joees post on those images an they'll show I was wondering for a moment why they arn't loading thinking it was hotlink disabled but noticed the ' ) ' at the end of the post.  

On a 20gal for low maintance with plants you could go with 2 x 9W CFL bulbs which would give you just under 1WPG (0.9WPG by the math) so low light plants can grow and with low light means less of the algae growth from brighter lights.

If you need them a little brighter then swap them with 2 x 13W bulbs for 1.3WPG.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

AquaNeko said:


> Remove the end brackets in Joees post on those images an they'll show I was wondering for a moment why they arn't loading thinking it was hotlink disabled but noticed the ' ) ' at the end of the post.


Thanks, I didn't notice it before.

EDIT:

There is also a plant called an anubias which grows pretty slow, it's low light an low maintenance.


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## western (Jul 24, 2010)

thx joeee

anyone recommend low maintenance fishes that inhabit well with cherry shrimp. plan to go to menagerie tomorrow.


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## george (Apr 11, 2009)

Usually livebeares. Except my platies because they would eat my fingers if they would have the chance.

But it is recomended to keep shrimps in their own tank.


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## Joeee (Apr 3, 2010)

Anything will eat shrimp, with the exception of otocinclus (a small type of algae eater). Platies and guppies will try to eat baby shrimp if they can't eat the adults.

Shrimp are more sensitive to ammonia than fish, so if you do get shrimp, get it after your tank is fully cycled.

EDIT:

If you have the cash to spare, you can get some orange dwarf crayfish. They look pretty interesting, I think jamesren was selling some for $25 each a while back?


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