Finally, after 3 months. My tank (20 gal long) planted tank.

[AdobeOtoCat]

With all the months of saving money and help from the very awesome members at BCA. My first planted tank is finally completed. I would like to thank the following members to make this possible, Mykiss, neoh, jobber, wsl, and marko. It saved me a lot of time and money when I'm in school with a pt job.

Pat, the mountain fan & amano I got from you survived through 4 days of 90F with 14 tbsps of salt in my 20 gal long. I got ich from not soaking plants i got from king eds in malachite green prior to planting (my own fault). Just something I wanted to say, they are jacked.

the 14 cherries are hiding, and the cardinals are eating a lot .

Tank Specs:
20 Gal long Framed from Aqueon
heater: Forgot the name and brand...but it is metal, lights up green when it reaches the optimal temp.
ADA amazonia I with powersand M (penac p,w, tourmaline, bacter 100, clear super)
Fluval 106
Vertex Illumulix Dolce Sole 24"
Coral life lighting with 6700K bulb and Actinic 30" [the led alone was enough but I wanted the spectrum at 6700K for optimal growth with control of yellow hue with the illumilux, it also looks a lot nicer] getting HOT5 would be overkill.
Red Sea CO2 Paintball setup - Canister (20oz) (Do!Aqua bubble counter and music glass)
Drop Checker (Glass CO2 Indicator) from amazon.com I use the fluval chemical indicator and it works extremely well. (too much hassle to make a 4dkh or or whatever solution). Also, adding tank water to the stock chemical is stupid. So don't follow the instructions with glass co2 indicator solutions, you have to use the proper 4dkh distilled water.

Fauna:
16 Cardinal Tetras
2 Oto Cats
4 amano Shrimps
1 Mountain Fan shrimp
12 Cherry Shrimps...Two got sucked in the intake...One I saved when I saw it still lingering between the crevices of the intake, it lived when I freed it. After this incident, I did a mod.

drilled holes with a foam. Took away the stock ball check valve




Flora:
Anubas Nana petite
Anubas (normal one)
Dwarf Hairgrass
Micranthemum unbrosum
Pogostemon stellata
Java Moss
The rest I just picked them up from king eds so I don't know their names :S.

Water Parameters:
DKH and GH are set perfectly for cardinals. (Soft) I don't know the exact numbers but the results of the kit indicates ideal soft water.
Ph. 6.5
Temperature: 78F
The others are very ideal for a cycled tank so I won't include them.

evolution





some side shots




My water is still a bit murky. Will take more pics when it clears . Hope my HG carpets soon
(Jan 31 2012).

[crazy72]

Very nice! Lucky cardinals, these.

[jobber604]

Right on Oscar for starting up a tank journal. Like the placement of the stones and plants.
You spend some good time thinking and planning the 'scape. Make sure to keep the updates and pictures coming as the tank evolves.

[2wheelsx2]

Nice setup. I really like how you increase the sense of depth by sloping the soil dramatically at the back. It's something a lot of aquascapers (including myself) don't think about, but makes a huge difference.

I like the Vertex. Where did you get it? J&L? I've been wanting one for a while....

2 things:
- I would add a forked piece of wood in the scape to break it up a bit and the Anubias can be tied to that. Either way, I would get the rhizome of the Anubias out of the substrate.
- if you need some replacement cherry shrimp, let me know...jobber can give you the lowdown on that.

[AdobeOtoCat]

Thank you guys for the comments and feedbacks . I got the illumilux at aquariumswest. It is pretty awesome in regards to its performance and effects. I need to hit up charle's place for some branchy wood, I was stumped to decide on adding a manzanita wood. Saw a really nice piece at rogers aquatics but wanted to see what charles got in his collection. I need more shrimps, heard I need to get atleast 20 if I wanted to see them.

Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk

[2wheelsx2]

I believe Charles mainly has Mopani, whereas Rogers and April's carry Manzanita.

[AdobeOtoCat]

I'm heading to Rogers tomorrow, hopefully that piece I wanted is still there. I might take out my existing bogwood or driftwood that is currently in there and switch over to all Manzanita. Not sure if you guys can tell that I have two pieces of driftwood in my tank already...

[Atom]

Looks fantastic. I like the placement of the rocks and how they are buried in the substrate. Probably a stupid question, but did you just grab them from outside?

[AdobeOtoCat]

Not at all a stupid question. I spent three days thinking on whether or not to grab rocks from a park or get nice ones from a LFS. I decided to head to central park to find the rocks. I didn't want rocks found near residential areas because of the chance to get "non-natural" rocks that may emit harmful pollutants/chemicals/ions you name it. Better to be safe than sorry.

[2wheelsx2]

I'm heading to Rogers tomorrow, hopefully that piece I wanted is still there. I might take out my existing bogwood or driftwood that is currently in there and switch over to all Manzanita. Not sure if you guys can tell that I have two pieces of driftwood in my tank already...

I looked again and saw the wood in the back. Going all manzy is something I've done, but not everyone likes it.