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Sounds cool, Good luck with everything. Keep us posted!

"I am a believer in punctuality, though it makes me very lonely" EV Lucas

sirbooks,

Sounds like a fun new project for you .

I cannot advise you too much on sand and your fish options, but I have the 40W over a 20G long as well. Take a peek at [link=My Log]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Aquascaping/63901_3.html?200512290816" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link] if you have some time. You can grow way more than just the basic low light plants.

Also, driftwood is always good . It would be a perfect base for the hardy plants you would like to add, the Fern and the Anubias (btw, Nana would be better suited size-wise).

Hope this helps a little in your decision makings,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I'm not sure yet if I'll go with ferts at all, and I won't use CO2. Would ferts and no CO2 still boost the health of plants and scare off algae, or would CO2 be necessary? This tank will be fish-focused, but it would be neat to have a plant aquascape that isn't oogly like my other one. Also, sand is allegedly not good for the roots of many plants. That's why I was mainly looking at the tough ones.

None of the nearby shops have Queen arabesque plecos in right now. I want to get this tank set up fairly quickly, so I dunno how long I'll wait to stock it. I may just turn to the Internet for fish, sites like [link=http://LiveAquaria.com]http://LiveAquaria.com" style="COLOR: #808080[/link] and [link=http://Fish2u.com]http://Fish2u.com" style="COLOR: #808080[/link] look like the likely suspects. Any comments on these sites, or on any others that you folks have had experiences with? Thanks again.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

sirbooks,

I never bought fish online (yet), so I cannot help you with this.

Adding CO2 to your tank is absolutely not required. Adding ferts (and Flourish Excel as a carbon source) would still help your plants health and growth. But, unlike high tech tanks, you only need to add once, maybe twice a week.

Algae, in general, should be much less of an issue in such a tank as it is in a high tech tank. You know, the higher the risk the greater the fall .

Not having heard too many good things about growing plants in sand is one reason I suggested the driftwood (that you indicated you might or might not add) as you can tie fern, anubias, and moss nicely onto it.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I hear that string is the way to go with driftwood-based plants, because it'll rot away after a couple of months. If I find some that I like, then I think I may go with the wood after all.

For fertilizers, would Flourish work? Is it best used in concert with Flourish Excel? I can get both from the shop.

Hopefully the algae won't bother me, it isn't a real problem in my current tank. I have some short green fur, green spot algae, and some black brush stuff. None of these is very prolific though. Unlike the snails.

Last edited by sirbooks at 29-Dec-2005 10:21

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I am not so sure if Flourish by itself would work, but the Flourish line (Nitrate, Phosphate, Potassium, Iron, Flourish, Trace, and Excel) will for sure work.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I have a site suggestion for your Queen Arabesque Pleco:

http://www.exoticfinds.net/plecos.html

They have the best looking, hard to find plecos and Blue is great to work with...just ask Cup of Lifenoodles. I bought my scribble pleco (supposed to be L-129 turned out to be L-318) from there. Excellent experience. I highly recommend!!





Last edited by crazyred at 29-Dec-2005 10:42

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

You can tie the Anubias onto Driftwood with fishing line.

Try to breed some type of "hard to findCorydoras.


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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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I scored a new tank today after months of asking for assent on the folks' part. I went out and bought a twenty gallon long, but nothing else. I'll probably pick up the rest of the supplies at work over the next day or two since I get a discount. I'm psyched about the whole deal, but not firm on what I plan to do. So far I'm thinking about breeding something and working along the lines of this:

Penguin filter
Fluorescent strip light with two bulbs totalling forty watts
Typical heater, maybe a Stealth
White sand substrate
Hardy plants like Java fern and Anubias barteri
Driftwood?
Cycling product, either Stability or Bio-spira

That's the tentative plan. I'm looking at mainly catfish for breeding (though I may try some of the Apistogrammas I saw today, A. macmasteri) and specifically Corydoras or a small pleco species. Hypancistrus plecos like L260 were tops on the latter list, and all I know about the cories is that I don't want super-common ones. I'm open to any suggestions about the tank, nothing is set in stone.

Continual updates to follow, hopefully this log doesn't get lost in General Freshwater. Thanks in advance for any help.

Last edited by sirbooks at 28-Dec-2005 15:56

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Well you have to be patient & wait a bit more to get the Corydoras that you want. I got some true Julii last wednesday & i waited more than a year to find them. I only got 4, as the others where already sold, but at least i have 4 & quite happy with them.



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http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Yeah, I'll have less than an inch of sand in there. Not sure whether I'll go with any powerheads or pumps of any kind, but there's the filter output to deal with. I might position something underneath it that diffuses the flow with the aim of disturbing the sand bed less.


Last edited by sirbooks at 31-Dec-2005 18:41

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Hi Sirbooks,

I think a thin (1-2cm) layer of sand is the way to go with corys especially for breeding. Add some driftwoods and/or rocks with java moss (tied with sewing thread), anubias, and/or java fern and you won't really need the ferts. The only potential issue with the sand as pp mentioned is the potential for the HOB filter to displace the sand. My solution to this is to put a piece of driftwood and anubias underneath the outflow so that it deflects the current from reaching the bottom and messing with the sand. As far as washing sand, I just do it the way you wash gravel - run water through it until it's mostly clear. Oh, and if you're going to breed the corys, I'd suggest putting a sponge prefilter on the HOB intake they're in breeding mood so that none of the frys would get sucked up.

Have fun choosing corys! I think in a 20g two big schools of habrosus and hastatus would be awesome.

-P

Yep, that's about what I've been planning so far. I still need to get a sponge cover for the filter, but I have plenty of time to do that.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Now we're getting somewhere! The fish that interest me off the bat are Corydoras davidsandsi, C. similis, C. sp. "Mazaruni", and C-35, an Aspidoras. The similis and davidsandsi are the most likely choices, and I think I'm going to end up with the similis. They're reputedly easy to breed (like the davidsandsi) and are pretty nifty fish. I will also order a new, recently-published book at a fairly low cost.

Now that I know the type of fish I'll be keeping, I suppose I can start setting up the tank.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Considering the white sand, green plants, and possible driftwood, what color background would look best- blue or black? I'm not much for color matching.

I'm going to try All Oddball Aquatics now, and see what they have available for the cory cats.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Picked up the stand, but I'm still waiting for a reply from FryBabies. I'll probably run out of patience in the next couple of days and try another source.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

All right then, I'll keep that in mind as a future option. Can't hurt to be able to buy the stuff.

The stand might come in tomorrow but Thursday is more probable. Once it gets here and I decide on the fish, I'll start the setup. I like Anubias and may buy some smaller types of these plants, probably some Java fern, and maybe I'll try a moss for the first time. I will have to keep my eye out for some driftwood that looks nice, we don't have any good stuff at work.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I've never had a problem with crushing regular pellets and feeding them to fry, but if you feel more reassured with BBS, go for it. Personally, it's too much of a hassle to raise live cultures (after feeding ram fry, I don't think I ever want to go back to breeding cichlids ), and the frozen stuff costs too much.

Has anyone tried frozen baby brine shrimp? If I do decide on Corydoras, I was looking at this San Francisco Bay Brand product for quick and dirty fry feedings. It's easier than a culture, so it's worth asking.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I've never had issues with frozen BBS.

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Cake or death?