20 long tank journal

[er201]

Hey everyone after a long break I've decided to come back to this hobby. At first this tank was gonna be a 20 long reef tank but things change. When I decided to set the tank up I decided to get a convict, and from there an idea of a biotope came alive.

After extensive reading (more like obsession lol) there's only two types of fish from Quatemala which I could keep. The convict cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) and the Serpae tetra (Hyphessobrycon eques) both of which inhabit fast flowing rivers. Knowing convicts plants are out of the picture. Which prompted me to go with a river theme.

Currently the tank has an aqueon 20 HoB filter, maxi jet 400 powerhead and shop lights, which I have modified to be 36 inches long rather than the normal 48 inches equipped with 2x 4700k cool white 25watt t8 bulbs. For Substrate I am using play sand that painfully took long to clean. I've kept it simple with just rocks and some driftwood.

The Current Livestock are:
2 Convict Cichlid
5 Serpae tetra
2 Jewel cichlid (soon to be removed)

Futur plans are to add more Serpae's to make the total 10

Here's some pictures























Thanks for looking
Best regards,
Errol

P.S Planning to set up more biotope tanks ( planning to keep to the 15 gallon - 20g long tanks)

[CRS Fan]

Looking good Earl. It's nice to see you back in the hobby.

Best Regards,

Stuart

[er201]

thanks stuart, its good to be back

[jay_leask]

cool little set up there very nice

[Vman]

Simple,clean and surprising choice of fish. Fresh look and nice for a change.

[er201]

Thanks for the input guys

A little update. The other day a member came to pick up the jewels, and catching them made a big mess. That gave me a reason to rescape so I did, I also added 6 kribensis juvies till I finish my 15 gallon SA tank. Also a little neat change i made a small little frame for my lighting and added a pair of "arms" for the frame to sit on

Changed the future plans, Serpaes will be at 8 max, and adding a school of white cloud mountain minnows.

Heres some pics.

Zoomed out full tank shot showing new lighting set up



Full tank shot again



Some of the kribs



Side shot



The "arm"



Lights



Some cool shots

[rich16]

Nice looking setup, I like how simple it is!

[snow]

Looking good so far. Nice and clean.

[fisherman]

nice, i got a 20 gallon long also, ill post up pics soon since i got a good camera finaly.. after you get some plants your tank is set!!

[Luke78]

Errol , nice to see you back in the hobby.Both scapes were great,clean,simple,and nicely laidout.If i had to pick from the two,i would choose the more current one you have.Good to see more biotopes being made,you will realize soon enough what the fish's true behaviour is like when they feel more at "home".Question for you,why the kribs? soon enough they will multiply in your setup or become food for the others.You considering any plants in the near future? i would stick to some floating ones and call it a day.Any others and your running around to accomodate them too.nothing wrong,but finding the same plant species from your local could be testing at times.More reading and home work to do! Thanks for sharing,and keep the updates coming.