20 gallon potted planter aquarium

[wilkyb]

hey everybody

I've been making posts here & there on the general forum about this new aquarium I've put together. I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to this aquarium and it's progress. I'll be updating photos, keeping journals, among other things here.

Here's a breakdown of my setup:

-20 gallon plastic planter pot from Home Depot
-construction site clear-crush 1/8" gravel (seems to be keeping the water nice & hard)
-20 gallon air pump hooked into an upside-down glass beer bottle with 2 small holes at the top filled with filter media & an intake sponge, effectively filtering ammonias, oxygenating the water, and circulating the water
-20 gallon submersed water pump mounted on top a small clay ornament, also buried in the gravel (to reduce death by suction); the out-take of this pump travels through a pipe which exits the waters surface and falls back into the aquarium from ~2.5 inches
-100W TopFin heater; I also have a 100W EHEIM heater but the TopFin 100w takes up a bit less space / less noticeable
-DIY co2 rig using 2 soda bottles, baking soda & citric acid
-A 3 piece LED light with 5 different light settings; timers that I've not bothered to mess with yet
-A big hunk of driftwood, anubias plants, a couple egeria densa, and a few pieces of floating green cabomba, or maybe hornwort
-Plant growth additive, 5-in-1 test strips (pH,KH,GH, NO-2, NO-3), an ammonia test kit, and some de-chlorinator in case I need to quickly balance the aquarium with fresh water due to an ammonia spike or something
-3 guppies currently while in cycle; one male and two fry who are yet to be gendered; I'll be adding 2 more males and 5 females, and I'll also add two otocinclus to help clean up

I plan on bringin' this baby outside in the springtime to the front veranda or the deck in the backyard; I'll put wire mesh overtop and place a weight on it to keep out the riff-raff at night time

Edited January 20, 2021 by wilkyb

[wilkyb]

stealing this first reply for future updates

[OceanTruth]

Glass beer bottle filter?!?!?! That alone ups the cool factor 100 fold. :)

[wilkyb]

1 minute ago, OceanTruth said:

Glass beer bottle filter?!?!?! That alone ups the cool factor 100 fold. 🙂

It took a couple tries to drill the holes in the top lol but I wanted it to be glass because it looks & handles better than a plastic bottle IMO! Worth the effort!

[wilkyb]

I've removed the sub pump & filter as it was sucking up the shrimp & smaller fish. The beer bottle bubble filter on it's own circulates the water adequately and has no risk of sucking up fish through the intake.

Added to the aquarium are 9 guppy fry who are now close to being adult. The females have not yet given birth to any guppy fry of their own. I've also added cherry shrimp & two dwarf crayfish.

For plants, hanging off the side is devil's Ivy. So long as the leaf of the ivy is not submerged in the water then they won't die. I've slipped them through a crevasse in the driftwood so they stay in place. There is some Java moss across the top of the water in order to create space between guppies who might get nippy, as well as floating carpet grass.

It's a little bit messy now. I will be working on it more before bringing it outside for the summer. I will be using this potted planter as a test to see what potential damage the wildlife may do to it. I may build a metal grid locking piece that goes over the top if it is such a problem

Edited March 7, 2021 by wilkyb

[OceanTruth]

It’s progressing nicely! Really does look like a mini pond. I’m sure you’ll have more guppies than you can handle in no time.