Scott P.

If they turn out to be a problem I have sharp scissors.

I am going to find out. LOL

Plants in the tank so far. 3 Amazon Swords. About 20ish S repens. 4 Bacopa caroliniana. 2 Green Crytocoryne Wendti. ! Red Crytocoryne Wendti. 1 Bronze Crytocoryne. 1 Red Flame Sword. 1 Red Melon Sword. 1 Tiger Lotus bulb. Also the Frogbit mentioned in the first post. Also at the moment there is no heater. The tank stays at 77-78 degrees. I keep it a bit warm in the house.

It's been awhile since I had a tank set up so I decided a few months ago that it was time to jump back in. Tank is a 20 gallon that I set up the first week of July. This was after months of reading and studying on the internet. I have had fair luck in the past but I wanted to be better at it. As stated tank is a 20g. Filtration is a Seachem Tidal 55 HOB and a slow moving under gravel with one lift tube. About 3 inches gravel over the UGF. Lighting is a Fluval Aquasky. I'm not a big fan of trying to rush things but this time I did use some ammonia starter. Used Fritz Fishless fuel. Followed the directions and dosed it up to 2 PPM ammonia. About a week later I started ghost feeding the tank so it would have a steady supply of waste. It wasn't much. A week or so after I set it up i planted most of the plants on the right side. About a week later I planted the left side. Of course along with the plants came at least one snail. I figured that was coming. No problem. I have been checking water every other day. About a week or so ago the ammonia went away and I started showing a bit of nitrite. Nice, I see progress here. I tested on Friday and it looked like nitrites were going down but was hard to tell. So this morning I check again and ammonia still at 0, and good news, nitrites are also a zero. Nitrates showing about 20-25 ppm. Nitrates did get up to around 40 ppm the other day, likely due to me getting heavy handed with the ferts. I did a small water change to bring it back down. Backed off the ferts also. The last plants I added were the frogbit. At first I let it just go where it wanted but last night it got stuck in a corner without much light. That's when I made a small fence to keep it under the lights. I don't know how much light frogbit requires but if someone wants to chime in on that feel free to do so. Any way it looks like the tank is coming along nicely. I'm going to give it another few days to a week, do a partial water change and add a few fish. Now lets see if I can add a picture without making a fool of myself.

I agree. I see so many videos saying tds should be x number. I really don't see where any tds reading tells me much of anything. So I have 280 tds? That doesn't come close to telling me anything other than I have somethings in my water.

Greetings mate.

Greetings Good looking tank.

Your tank looks great.

Welcome

They say 48 hours but if it were me I would double that just to make sure. That's a lot of water. Take your time. Good luck with it.

Really nice tank, welcome.

Welcome back to the hobby.

Watch a lot of the people listed plus a bunch that didn't make the list. Ben Ochart and Dr Kevin Novak, also Mass Aquariums. Can't remember them all. I spend way too much time watching youtube.

Have you thought about somehow attaching it to the back of the tank? If you could come up with a way to keep it against the rear glass it might work. Just thinking out loud. Do you still have one from the cider making?

I have yet to try pothos in a tank but I have grown it as a potted plant. I don't think they require much light. Most of mine grew like weeds with just ambient light.

I got my first tank at WT Grant.

I'm old also. I set up my first tank in 1970. I was grown. Trouble is I can't remember what stores put fish in back then. I can remember the store but the container? Nope, I forgot that tidbit of info decades ago.

I have never used scarlet temple but I would remove the rubber band for sure.

I also have the Fluval Aquasky. Mine is on a fresh 20 g setup that I am getting ready. I am only running mine at 85% at the moment. Been gradually turning it up a tick every few days. Don't ask me why I'm doing this because I have no valid reason. LOL I love the light though. I will post my settings when I decide where I am going to leave it. So far my plants are showing growth, so that's a good sign.

The tank is looking good. I have no idea who ate the roots from you floating plants.

I like the way you think. I'm into RC stuff so you got my attention with the aquarium submarine. I want one.

The ladies are just playing hard to get.

I would put 5-6 Amazon Swords in the corners and back. A tank that big can hold a lot of plants. As far as your tiger lotus goes. I've got one that I have had for about a week. It adds a new leaf almost everyday.

Your tank looks nice. Needs a few larger plants to take up some of that space.

If it were me I would re-seal all of it. It would be bad to go to the trouble of a partial seal and end up with a water leak. Good luck with it.