# 20 gallon - first planted tank



## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

This is my first attempt at a planted tank.. so its a bit unorganized sort of rushed into it and messed up. So now its sort of an experimental plant growing tank..

Tank: 
20 gallon glass
AquaClear 20 Powerfilter
DIY (yeast) CO2
2 26W @6500k CFL embedded into a crappy cannopy 
Fluval plant stratum
White marine sand

Plants:

Green Cabomba
Water Wisteria
flame moss
Red Ludwigia
Golden moneywort
Glosso
HC
Sunset Hygro
Banana plant
(one dark red plant i don't know the name of)

livestock :

3 Neon tetras
2 albino tetras
9 Cardinal tetras 
2 Chinese algae eaters
8 Amano shrimp
4? yellow horned snails










I will probably do a re design later, (take out the ugly piece of wood). I have to get better lighting, or at least distribute the light better through the tank.
Another problem is my pH, which is around 6.. i don't know how to get it up safely..

any advice or comments?

cheers


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

How does your PH drop to 6  is it from injecting too much CO2?


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## charlie1 (Dec 1, 2011)

Did you have another source check your PH, i`m surprised you are getting a PH of 6 even with the Fluval Stratum, i was under the impression Toronto water is hard.
What is your PH from the tap after it sits overnight ( not from the tank).
BTW what is Marine sand/ can you eloborate


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## rubadub (Sep 12, 2010)

im not suprized his ph is around 6
my ph is around 6 and i dont really try to lower it


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

Hey,

I'm using the API 5 in one stripis, and the ph is very light yellow, my thought on it were that the substrate wasnt buffering well, too much co2 - not enough light, or my strips are not accurate.. 

i ran out of strips today, did a few major re arranging, and dossed it with fertilizer plants are growing fast now..

the white sand experiment i would say was a failiure, it also clouds up the tank quite a bit. though the roots stay in better than in the fluval stratum, the fine sand permeates through the sand filling in all the cracks, making it hard for the roots to go through, next time i will not be using it, 

I have to go get some test strips, and when i get some money i shall go get a 24 in t5ho fixture from AI


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

charlie1 said:


> Did you have another source check your PH, i`m surprised you are getting a PH of 6 even with the Fluval Stratum, i was under the impression Toronto water is hard.
> What is your PH from the tap after it sits overnight ( not from the tank).
> BTW what is Marine sand/ can you eloborate


ph was 7 off the tap after sitting for awhile. but those test strips are not very precise.

the marine sand was just ph neutral fine white sand.. feels like beech sand


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

*Latest update*

I got a 4x 24 T5HO Oddesey lighting from AI. and some more plants. Now they are growing faster. Hopefully the Glosso can grow through the sand.. i doubt it can. I'm going to re do the landscape. Just have to figure out how to catch the shrimp and the chineese algae eater.

Lunar lights are awesome !


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## fly4awhiteguy (Dec 27, 2011)

Keep an eye out for algea, i have the same light on my 20g, and after a few weeks i had an algea outbreak from too much light.. Since then i have unplugged 1 bank of lights and just use 2 bulbs at a time algea is under control now and i still get plenty of plant growth.


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

i guess at first signs of algae ill turn off one set of lights..


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## fly4awhiteguy (Dec 27, 2011)

Well you never know.. Different tank conditions = different results.... Just a heads up.


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## fly4awhiteguy (Dec 27, 2011)

Your tank looks good. I am starting to put together some ideas, and in 2-3 weeks i think i may redo my tank with new plants and substrate. Looking though all these threads for ideas now


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

yea im planing on doing a major redesign next week anyways


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Nice new light. If you are not dosing any fertilizer you should think about it. Even with good light and co2 I don't think the plants will do well without the nutritions :S. 

Do you feed your Amano shrimps? I got 6 of them and 3 died and 1 went missing. I had visible aglea in my main tank so I didn't feed them anything for the first week and I found 3 of them dead one day. I now rescued two of them and put them into another tank. I feed them every a day now with shrimp food and they seem to be more active.


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

Yea, im using liquid fertilizer, but i might have to increase the dose. With this high light and amount of plants, my DIY CO2 system is not reliable, so i'm going to get my self a nice Fluval system on saturday. 

i have algae wafers that i drop once in awhile.. i haven't lost any shrimp yet. For awhile i thought they were dying, but learnt that they shed their skin, when growing.. i also have these tiny horned snails these are excellent tank cleaners.


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Maybe they just didn't like my water  I also had few cherries in the same tank and they were just fine. I'm kinda if they fed these guys with too much fish food and now they refuse to eat any algea.. poor shrimps so sad to see them die.


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