# 20 gallons re-scape



## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Flora:
- water wisteria
- willow-leaf hygro (sunset?)
- vallisneria
- java moss
- hornwort
- m. umbrosum

Fauna:
- ~30 Cardinal tetras
- ~50 (?) Cherry shrimps
- 1 guppy and 15+ guppy fries
- 2 SAE
- 3 Amano shrimps

Setup:
- 15W T8 light (1 tube, stock lighting from BA's), 13-14 hours a day
- DIY CO2 in a 2L soda bottle hooked up to a simple airstone. Lasts over 1 month.
- whisper 20-ex (also part of kit from BA)

(The "before" pic is actually from a month ago.)

My NO3 consistently measures ~20ppm with a 30% water change ever 1-2 weeks. My current challenge is to reduce frequency of water change all the while reducing my NO3 to < 5ppm.

Oh, can anyone also confirm if my willow-leaf hygro is indeed of the "sunset" variety? I noticed that the leaves get red as it nears the surface of the water.


----------



## george (Apr 11, 2009)

Aren't you keeping the lights too long? And aren't the amano going after your cherry?


----------



## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

george said:


> Aren't you keeping the lights too long? And aren't the amano going after your cherry?


Well, my WPG is low, so I try to keep the lights on longer. Actually, 13-14 hours is shorter. Before I bought a timer, I used to turn on the lights before I go to work, and turn it off before I went to bed. That translated to something around 16 hours of light, and I didn't have any problems that I could see.

I also notice that amanos aggressively go after any critter that looks sick/dying. I've seen them grab dying guppy fries, and I've seen once it eating a cherry that was still twitching.

Still, in over 6 months, I've only twice seen an amano eat a cherry, so it's not a very common occurrence. I'm more worried about the guppy eating my RCS, actually. That one is a known offender.


----------

