20g long tropical community tank journal - a light at the end of the tunnel

[Ponyoryx]

I'm in a rigorous residency program and will be taking a boards exam in September. I'm currently working about 60 hours a week and studying in my free time. Come July, I will be studying 7 days a week. I need to have little nuggets along the way to keep me going, so I've decided that a little reward each day I'm studying is to research my future build - a 20g long that I want to be a planted tropical community tank. I am planning on putting everything together this fall once I get settled in my new home and job as a congratulations gift to myself. I've never planned a tank this complex, so I would love any advice along the way. I figured the best thing to do would be start with the stocking and plan the substrate, plants, decor and parameters around the creatures?

I am just dying to get my hands on some panda cories and CPDs. I also really want to try to keep a robust and reproductive shrimp colony. I bought a few for my heavily planted fantail 40g figuring there were plenty of hiding places, but damn can those two hunt...huge mistake.  I think I have one lone wolf (shrimp) remaining...

The attached picture is a general idea of how I want to stock this tank. I'm not 100% certain about the compatibility of these species or how many of each to keep, but I think I've covered all levels of the aquarium. I could give or take the cardinal tetras, but I've heard great things about them. Once I decide my stocking plan, my future journal entries will be deciding other factors like substrate, plants, decor, stand, etc. 

 

[Jennifer V]

I'm right there with you as far as planning my next tank, which will also be a 20 long. I'm planning for panda cories, maybe pygmy  cories, shrimp and snails, so I'm excited to see how your journey goes. I'll probably learn a lot about what I should and shouldn't do. Thank you for starting this! 

[Ponyoryx]

On 2/21/2022 at 10:04 PM, Jennifer V said:

I'm right there with you as far as planning my next tank, which will also be a 20 long. I'm planning for panda cories, maybe pygmy  cories, shrimp and snails, so I'm excited to see how your journey goes. I'll probably learn a lot about what I should and shouldn't do. Thank you for starting this! 

oh exciting! I'm glad we're in it together. I can't physically start it until October at the earliest, so it's going to be quite the journey lol, but I am looking forward to the planning. I also have to get through a move with my 40 gallon goldfish tank...

[Jennifer V]

ORD 😊

Same! Mine is a long way off too but sometimes the planning is just as fun. 

[Ponyoryx]

Well I think I got a little ahead of myself, because it occurred to me that I really need to plan the move for my 40gal before I get to into planning the 20gal. Cart before the horse, as they like to say. Any advice is welcome.  I'll be moving in July and driving a UHaul 10 hours (Massachusetts to Maryland).

Here's my basic plan as of now

• Fish: two goldfish, handful of ramshorns and possibly a few shrimp. Place all in home depot bucket with the lid. Drill hole in lid for USB air bubbler in a sponge filter
• Plants:
  • Hanging plants roots wrapped in wet paper towel and in ziplock, but leaves exposed and placed in cardboard box
    • there may be a safer way...
  • Aquatic plants wrapped in wet paper towel in a ziplock and placed in a box
• Substrate: I'll filter out the sand and chuck it, but I'll save the flourite black and the pumice in ziplocks. I'll keep them for cycling the future build.
• Driftwood/sponges/etc: water tight container for sponges and items i plan on keeping in the tank to maintain the bacteria

For the rescape, I want to keep it simple. I don't have the best luck growing plants with these two goldies. The jungle val  and rotala (species??) did ok, but with a healthy amount of hair algae. The hanging plants are also veryyyy slow growing. The big leaves were from their previous lives in a pot. In this scape, I put root tabs below the flourite black and capped all with sand. I occasionally dosed the water column. I eventually gave up on the water dosing. All that to say, in the rescape I am going to get a bag of aquasoil and put it in netted bags (MD style), as well a few bags with the cycled pumice and fluorite black, and try to grow some of the following plants:

• Tiger lotus, rotala, crypts, amazon sword, Hornwort

I love getting inspiration for future scapes, so if anyone has pictures of their favorite scape, please share! 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Ponyoryx

[Patrick_G]

I’m torn between two opinions on this. On the one hand I love a triangular shaped nature style scape, but on the other hand I like a very minimalist scape for goldfish. 

Triangle scape pic from aquasabi 

Clean, simple goldie tank

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Patrick_G

[Ponyoryx]

On 2/23/2022 at 12:26 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’m torn between two opinions on this. On the one hand I love a triangular shaped nature style scape, but on the other hand I like a very minimalist scape for goldfish. 

Triangle scape pic from aquasabi 

Clean, simple goldie tank

 

I agree, I really like the triangle and I think it will work well with the val! I am definitely going to grow it dense like it is in their current tank. They love to dive into it and wriggle around in there. I'll definitely save that scape idea! Also easy because I really only need to put aqua soil on one side of the tank.

I really want to try a large java fern in the center of a piece of wood like that, but I'm worried it's going to die and a huge hunk gets expensive...

[PineSong]

On 2/23/2022 at 2:36 PM, Ponyoryx said:

I really want to try a large java fern in the center of a piece of wood like that, but I'm worried it's going to die and a huge hunk gets expensive...

Your moving plan sounds well thought out. I moved a few states away with goldfish and platies in 5 gallon buckets. I did not have an airstone while driving but did put one in overnight--along with a heater because it was snowing and cold. The fish did well. The struggle was getting the tank into the new house and set up while moving was going on all around us. Also, the water in the new city was very different than what I'd been used to and I really struggled to learn how to keep the parameters okay although I'd gotten it down to an "autopilot" level in my old city. 

[Ponyoryx]

On 2/23/2022 at 10:38 PM, PineSong said:

Your moving plan sounds well thought out. I moved a few states away with goldfish and platies in 5 gallon buckets. I did not have an airstone while driving but did put one in overnight--along with a heater because it was snowing and cold. The fish did well. The struggle was getting the tank into the new house and set up while moving was going on all around us. Also, the water in the new city was very different than what I'd been used to and I really struggled to learn how to keep the parameters okay although I'd gotten it down to an "autopilot" level in my old city. 

Oh good point about the water. I forgot to bring that up. My partner is already in MD and we know the water is harder since we have our betta tank there (betta tax attached). I am worried about that transition. The betta handled it fine. I will drop acclimate the snails, but hopefully the fish won't need that? Any thoughts?

And yes I totally feel you. Stress of moving is horrible, plus I need to start studying ASAP. I won't have any tinker time! It's going to be set and up go.

[PineSong]

I don't recall whether I acclimated per se but I am sure I put the whole bucket of the old water in with the new--so 10g of buckets into a 55. My goldfish were okay with the transition but I kept those goldfish in the new city for about seven years and just never got my parameters back to where I didn't have to check water all the time and do water changes due to numbers instead of just ho-hum, it's Saturday, maybe I will change some water and scrape some algae even though my water is fine...

Keep in mind, this was a loong time ago before I had the internet for asking others about fixing my water, and my tank had no plants other than when I would buy them a hunk of elodea or something for them to immediately devour.

[Ponyoryx]

haha! I'm totally in the camp of ho hum it's saturday...how bad is the mulm and maybe the plants would enjoy some fresh water 😂

[1moretank]

@Ponyoryx When I moved my fish 4 states away from very soft to fairly hard water, I bought 20 5 gallon buckets and lids at the new place.  I had someone fill all of them and set them where the tanks were going to    Then I put a bunch of my old tank water in 5 gallon buckets and drove it with everything else to the new place.  I set up tanks, filled to about 1/3 with old water and mixed in the new water.  Out of 6-7 tanks full of fish, I lost no fish on arrival, and only 1-2 older fish in the following months.

Good luck with your move.