New 20 Long Setup... Now what?

[PatO]

Hi everyone,

I just setup a brand new 20 long with plants, lights, sponge filer, a Finnex Stingray light and the whole 9 yrds. from Aquarium Coop.  Everything is planted, turned on, and so far so. I am using ActivFlora substrate (I think that's it) It's black with small particles and very gritty. Anyway, I was planning to let the tank go for a few months to let plants establish, get some algae growth and generally just mature a bit before I add fish, and a clean up crew. STT you know? Anyway I checked my water parameters because there is a light haze in the water which I assumed was an ammonia bloom from the substrate beginning to leach. Ammonia is 0 and there are no nitrates (thank you Aquarium Co-op test strips) My question is should I add a few pumps of easy green or anything else, maybe even a few mL of ammonia to get things rolling in that tank. I'm guessing I might be getting ahead of myself here as I this is my first plated tank, but I just want to confirm my new plants don't need any supplements nutrients at this point being there are no fish in the tank.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[DaveO]

There are two things you need to do. First, use your EasyGreen and get the nitrate level up to 20 ppm. Second, you need to show us some photos of your new set up. It sounds awesome.

[RadMax8]

I have a very similar setup in my bedroom, I run 2 sponge filters and a HOB though. I love the tank, very low maintenance and looks great for how much work I put in it. 

Is the tank cycled? Do you have another tank you can borrow some filter media from that you can use to kick start the cycle? I’ve started 3 tanks using the ammonia method and it works pretty well. You can also use a Fritz product that is basically bacterial cultures. Also regarding ferts, I wouldn’t add them until you’re cycled, the appearance of nitrates helps confirm the second bacterial culture has taken off. Plus your plants will enjoy the ammonia. 

As far as livestock, feel free to start adding fish after the cycle is complete, but if you’re adding a cleanup crew let the tank mature for a few months so there’s something to cleanup!

Also, please add pics! It’s nice to compare and see how others imagine their tanks. Here’s an older picture of mine:

It’s actually way different now, but it’s lights out so I’ll update tomorrow 🙂

[sweetpoison]

On 4/3/2022 at 3:25 PM, PatO said:

Hi everyone,

I just setup a brand new 20 long with plants, lights, sponge filer, a Finnex Stingray light and the whole 9 yrds. from Aquarium Coop.  Everything is planted, turned on, and so far so. I am using ActivFlora substrate (I think that's it) It's black with small particles and very gritty. Anyway, I was planning to let the tank go for a few months to let plants establish, get some algae growth and generally just mature a bit before I add fish, and a clean up crew. STT you know? Anyway I checked my water parameters because there is a light haze in the water which I assumed was an ammonia bloom from the substrate beginning to leach. Ammonia is 0 and there are no nitrates (thank you Aquarium Co-op test strips) My question is should I add a few pumps of easy green or anything else, maybe even a few mL of ammonia to get things rolling in that tank. I'm guessing I might be getting ahead of myself here as I this is my first plated tank, but I just want to confirm my new plants don't need any supplements nutrients at this point being there are no fish in the tank.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Your set up sounds awesome!  But you know that saying, it’s all a lie without pictures♥️😂

[PatO]

Here is a picture of the tank. I figured out the haze is from the plants already beginning to melt. So, there is a question...how often should I change water at this stage. I don't want to too often as I think its going to be hard to keep nitrates up without fish in there. I do have some established media from another tank I can add to get the cycle going so no issues there.

Alot of the plants are beginning to melt / turn transparent. I'm 99% sure this is normal but if you guys can confirm I will feel alot better about it. Also I know the plants are not positioned that great. There are 20 plants in that little 20L tank and I had 45 minutes to plants them between my daughter's lacrosse game and then a soccer match right after.

I just have a single medium sponger powered by a nano usb filter. That should be enough filtration right. I think I am just going to add neons and a few small cories to the tank with a nerite snail and maybe a few ottos to follow later.

[DaveO]

Your tank looks great. I think it's off to a good start. You can snip off and remove the leaves as they melt to keep dead plant debris low. Change 20% of the water per week. I would add your snail now. He will just putt around and keep stuff cleaned up. Add a bit of substrate from another tank and start feeding this tank a bit of flake food once in awhile. When the nitrites come down to zero you can start to slowly add fish. Have fun😊.

[PatO]

Hi Everyone.

Thanks for the earlier feedback on this one. I think I am ready to order fish for the tank. Here is what I was thinking for stocking. I will probably get all of the fish from Aqua Huna as my LFS somehow is at least 2-3X more expensive. Again the tank is a 20L. 20 neons, 6 pygmy cories, 2 nerites and 10 cherry shrimp. My quantities are based on the packs Aqua Huna sells the fish in. I'd ideally like more cories but I think that might be overdoing it. Plus I would like a small chance that the cherry shrimp can have some babies survive to keep their numbers going. I doubt that would be possible with more cories. I am not interested in selling shrimp. I just want the shrimp is repopulate over time if possible. Thoughts?

Tank seems to be doing fine. Really not much has changed over the last 2 weeks. My tiger lotus bulb has not sprouted which I was concerned about, but its not mushy so i think it's ok, and I think I see something beginning to pop out of it just barely. The other one I am worried about is the pearl weed in the back. Its not completely rotted but it does not look great. Still some green though. I'm hoping the shrimp can help clean up some of the dead plant material to help the tank out.

[sweetpoison]

Your tank is beautiful!   I have a 20 long as well!

[PatO]

On 4/19/2022 at 12:14 PM, sweetpoison said:

Your tank is beautiful!   I have a 20 long as well!

Thank you. its my first planted tank ever so I am learning a lot. One good thing about me with this process is that I am not a knee jerk reaction guy so I am ok with things taking week or even months to change over time.

[DaveO]

Your plan for stocking sounds good.  I think you would be fine to increase the corys up to 10 or 12. The shrimp I would hold off on until the  plants are thriving and growing well. My guess is two or three more months. After that I see no reason the shrimp won't do very well.

[Patrick_G]

Does Aquahuna have green neon tetras? They’re smaller and might work better in the 20 long with the 6 pygmy corydoras.  Also, make sure your cycle is complete, I noticed the tank was started 16 days ago. That’s can be long enough to do a fishless cycle but sometimes it can take longer. 

[PatO]

On 4/19/2022 at 1:04 PM, Patrick_G said:

Does Aquahuna have green neon tetras? They’re smaller and might work better in the 20 long with the 6 pygmy corydoras.  Also, make sure your cycle is complete, I noticed the tank was started 16 days ago. That’s can be long enough to do a fishless cycle but sometimes it can take longer. 

They do indeed but I'm not sure I want anything smaller than a neon. I was actually thinking I might want to add cardinals to the tank.

The cycle is nearing completion. I have cycled media (about 10 bio balls)from my 180 gallon tank in the tank and they are making short work of ammonia. The second stage of the cycle is not yet completed but I think we will get there in the next 2-3 days. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/3/2022 at 3:25 PM, PatO said:

My question is should I add a few pumps of easy green or anything else, maybe even a few mL of ammonia to get things rolling in that tank. I'm guessing I might be getting ahead of myself here as I this is my first plated tank, but I just want to confirm my new plants don't need any supplements nutrients at this point being there are no fish in the tank.

It depends on which plants.  Substrate has the resources you need of course.  I would also say, check out if you need any hardscape, wood, rocks, etc.

The tank looks good.  I think it's just a matter of how you see it progress and what you feel like doing. You might want to tweak plant locations on first trim, might want to push a plant a certain direction, use rocks to block off some regions, you might want to have something in there that the species you're looking at would use for cover, etc. 

It's a process, but it looks awesome.

Edited April 19, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/19/2022 at 8:58 AM, PatO said:

Again the tank is a 20L. 20 neons, 6 pygmy cories, 2 nerites and 10 cherry shrimp. My quantities are based on the packs Aqua Huna sells the fish in. I'd ideally like more cories but I think that might be overdoing it. Plus I would like a small chance that the cherry shrimp can have some babies survive to keep their numbers going. I doubt that would be possible with more cories.

I would start with 10 neons, probably wait on shrimp to see how the snails and all that do.  I'm weird I guess, I prefer to run shrimp only or snails only.  I can see the shrimp just booming in that tank and hitting it hard.

Maybe amanos?  I don't think the corys will do much to control the shrimp population. Others can please confirm or deny this.

Edited April 19, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Patrick_G]

On 4/19/2022 at 11:52 AM, PatO said:

The cycle is nearing completion. I have cycled media (about 10 bio balls)from my 180 gallon tank in the tank and they are making short work of ammonia. The second stage of the cycle is not yet completed but I think we will get there in the next 2-3 days

Ah-ha! That’s the way to do it. 😀