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Hello everyone! I am new to this site, but not to fishkeeping. I have kept fish on and off for the better part of 15 years and while I\'m confident that I know what I\'m doing, I\'m venturing into uncharted waters and always appreciate some help and advice along the way.

The background of my current project is this: Several (2-3) months ago, the last fish in my 20g long tank finally died after almost 4 years. (Not bad for a glowlite tetra) That particular tank has been running for about a year and a half. I have an AquaClear 300 (now called the AC-70), regular black gravel, some pieces of driftwood and black/gray slate. The tank has some plants still living in it... an unknown mid/background grassy type plant I cannot name, some java ferns and green ludwigia.

The new plan is replace the gravel with a proper substrate. Probably original Flourite as PetSmart is having a sale on it. I\'m planning to stock cardinal tetras and a pair of blue rams once everything is ready to go. I bought some wisteria and sagittaria recently and have had a DIY CO2 running for about a week now. The plants seem to be doing quite well and are growing and looking healthy.

I have, however, unintentionally started another cycle of my tank. Before I bought the new plants and did the CO2, I did several gravel vacuums (don\'t like my gravel to be overly dirty if I\'m going to put it somewhere else) and it looks like I killed off much of my colony even though I didn\'t touch the filter.

So anyways, making a long story short (too late!) I just wanted to know if there will be any unexpected issues from changing the substrate over?

I\'d also like to give my best shot at something that resembles a South American biotope as I\'ve never really done that before. I know cardinals and blue rams are not together in the wild, but that\'s something I\'m willing to live with. Mostly I\'d like to know some hardy plants I could get that won\'t outgrow a 20 long tank. Some kind of rosette swords maybe? Plants aren\'t really my specialty.

Anyways, that\'s good enough for now. Love the site BTW. It\'s already been very useful.

Hi Phoenix!

You'll find you'll get a mini-cycle with the change of substrate almost every time. The filter you have is great, but the gravel has far more space for housing beneficial bacteria and switching that over will cause you to lose a lot of your colony. That being said, if there are no fish involved yet, it shouldn't be a big problem. Providing the readings aren't too high the pre-seeded filter and plants should take care of it.

3 things that might be helpful to know:

Do you have ammonia/nitrite/nitrate test kits, and if so, what are the readings?

What type and wttage of lighting do you have?

Are you running an airstone after lights out?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks for the reply Callatya.

You are correct, there are no fish involved yet. I can afford to be patient with this. I do have the full gambit of test kits: the 3 nitrogens, pH, hardness, and phosphate. Ammonia was down to about 1ppm today (2-3 a couple days ago). No nitrites and about 15ppm for my nitrates.

Over my glass top I actually run 2 hoods. One is a twin bulb fixture with 2 20w bulbs, one is a 6500k Life-Glo, the other is either the Power-Glo or Aqua-Glo, and a second hood with a 15w Life-Glow... so a total of 2.75wpg when all of them are running (which for now they all are on a 12hr timed cycle 10a-10p)

I am not running an airstone since 1) I don't have room for another timer as I'm almost never home when these things require a changeover and 2) my filter provides a high amount of surface agitation that I didn't feel like I needed one.

Well, I've got an update on my 100% re-scape. I salvaged the plants and as much good bacteria as my filter can hold and completely emptied the tank. PetSmart actually had a few bags of Flourite available so I snatched one up. Getting paid tomorrow so I'll probably grab the second one. Slight tangent: the second bag at the store has a pretty shoddy looking bag so the manager told me she'd give me about 25% off when I come back. Gotta love Flourite for a dollar a pound. :lol:

So anyways, I actually put in quite a bit of time thinking about how I want this to look. It's a driftwood heavy tank with several "caves" (more like "swim-ways" ) and interesting areas of open gravel and plants. Looking through the side of the tank I'm amazed at how much open space there still is. It certainly doesn't look like it from the front. I have a piece of driftwood that looks great but is attached to a piece of slate to keep it waterlogged. I also wanted this piece tipped on its side otherwise it wouldn't fit in a 20L. I solved that problem by arranging it to form a little cave area with another piece of driftwood that almost butts seamlessly against it. With a little gray/black slate that I have the wood stays submerged and the cave remains stable.

I was (still sort of are) shooting for an amazon biotype, but due to the fact that the species I wanted to keep in there do not exist together in the wild, I'm going to make a slight geographical anachronism and do a slight hybrid of the two. I've currently got completely non-South American plants and would need to trade out, but for now they'll do. Saggitaria (of some kind), java fern and java fern lace, red ludwigia, and wisteria.


[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/42586675@N06/sets/72157622461828515/detail/?deleted=4011748869]Here[/url] is the link to all of the photos I have uploaded to Flikr. Tell me what you think so far. I'm especially curious to know what your opinions on the driftwood and slate setup are.

I like the "shelving" you created with the slate on the driftwood. That's neat!

How many gallons is that tank? It looks big!

Lovin' the wood, it's my absolute favorite thing to aquascape with.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Thanks guys. The tank is actually relatively small all things considered. Its only a 20g long tank. 30"x12"x12". I like it because it gives more surface area than a normal 20g tank, is longer and gives the fish more room to swim at all levels. I actually find that you can stock more fish in a 20 long vs. a 20 tall.

The slate started out as being more of a necessity than anything else. It's a mixed review whether or not people like it. I'm inclined to leave it there as I like the small caves it creates, but I think I'll let the fish decide that when I get it fully stocked.

The main piece of driftwood is really awesome to work with. The pictures don't really do justice to its personality, (yes, driftwood has personality) but maybe these pictures can help it along. Only the smallest of fish would be able to do this, but there are two small tubular openings running down the barrel that join together at the front. I had some fun with an airstone once upon a time.

PhoenixFirewall
You certainly have some interesting pieces of DW there as they age they will look a lot better especially if you can tie some Anubias nana to them, to give them a more natural and softer look.

I am still open about the slate on top of the DW at the moment it looks out of place or as a after thought.

In my 5ft tank I have made caves using DW only one big piece had a large rock sitting on a piece of DW for years until the DW could stay there its self to make the roof.

Substrate what are you using and how deep is it? Live plants like/prefer a good deep substrate. I personally prefer 80-100mm 3-4ins 1-3mm natural river gravel that is the depth in my 45lt heavily planted cardinal & CRS tank. The crypt are growing like mad no Co2.

Can you post a some full view photos when the water clears up please. Then I will be see it a lot better.


Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith


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That is cool! But yeah, I think the slate "caves" on the driftwood is pretty neat!

Thanks keithgh. I use Flourite substrate. Currently it is about 1-2" deep sloping upwards towards the back. I just picked up another bag today. The bag it comes in was damaged so the store manager let me have it for half price. I'm afraid it will be quite cloudy for a while as I didn't rinse off the first batch of substrate good enough. Oh well. I could always add more slate to the tank as I mostly like the slate already in the tank, but I don't want the tank to be too cluttered or to have a bunch of stuff look out of place.

As for the plants, I'll be getting more as time goes on and the tank establishes itself. I'm going for an Amazon biotope though and I don't think anubias would be appropriate. Can anyone recommend a good plant that would attach to driftwood that comes from South America?