# 20 Gallon Long Jungal (56k)



## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

And some of the Residents: Farlowella, Dwarf Chain Loach, & Halfbeak


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## msnikkistar (Mar 23, 2010)

What kind of camera do you use? Those colors are so vibrant!


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## Pri (Oct 20, 2010)

Nice tank. roud:


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## DANIELSON (Jul 15, 2010)

Awesome tank!! I like the large combo of different fish that looks awesome.


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## tetrabettaguy97 (Oct 3, 2010)

While this tank looks phenomonal, it is extremely overstocked. According to your stats, you have 35 fish in there. And some of them look to be far beyond one inch long. You may want to consider cutting back on the bio load both for you and your fish.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

msnikkistar the camera is a Canon Rebel XS, taken with a tripod. msnikkistar, Pri, DANIELSON, & tetra thanks for the compliments. Regarding the bio load I'm not at all concerned. I have a variety of bottom, mid, & top dwelling fish. I also consider my tank to be on the heavier planted side which I believe helps minimalize the bioload & I maintain water changes. I look at the inch per gallon rule more as a guideline and from there you can tweak it.


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## Xalyx (Sep 26, 2010)

Do you really have all of this in a 20G? Wow I better stock up my 55G nice and good.


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## Cardinal Tetra (Feb 26, 2006)

Very nice tank indeed. I love the wide variety of fish particularly the hatchets which I feel are very underrepresented these days. I would get some but I have no cover on my tank and I'm afraid they'll carpet surf...


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## Cuchulainn (Nov 2, 2010)

Tank looks great! The Celebes halfbeaks breed for U at all? There a great looking fish, love em in big schools too


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Cardinal, Cuchulainn Thanks! The original plan was to go with Marble Hatchets, but due to lack of stock I went with the Silvers. I would have to agree you don't see them all that often in tanks and they are a unique looking fish. The Celebes have not bred for me. They are fairly new, sort of an impulse buy because I had never seen them before. I've thought about getting a couple more. The two that I have now seem to stay on opposite ends of the tank.

Snapped a couple more pictures: The first being one of the plants that I'm unaware of what it is, any ideas? It used to be more red before moving into my tank. The second being of my Nymphaea micrantha, I thought it was interesting how it was propagating, anyone seen them multiply this way before?


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

I think the plant might be ludwigia arcuata.


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## Tsartetra (Oct 20, 2003)

Nice to see someone else who favors Farlowella! Some of the best algae eaters, they just need veggie treats each week because they do not recognize prepared foods as food... Fascinating fish! Most other fish do not even realize they are there, IME.


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## kharma (Sep 20, 2010)

Mind showing your diy reactor and hood? I am in the midst of setting up a 20l as well(coming from a 10  )
Great looking tank!


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## F22 (Sep 21, 2008)

tank looks ill dude, i dig it.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Problemman I think you may be right I "googled" ludwigia arcuata and it looked similiar. 

Tsartera I love having the Farlowella in the tank, It's a unique addition and very peaceful. I've read that they like driftwood and a piece should be kept in the tank for them, although I never really notice mine on it. Usually find it hanging out on the Vals or on a rock.

F22 thanks much man! I appreciate it!

Kharma here are some pictures of the DIY hood:







/IMG] 








Basically all I did was buy a 5 piece vanity from Lowes. I think it was around $20.00 but worth it because it was easier to buy it already all wired and mounted together than having to do it myself. I then had to seperate the designer front plate (which became garbage) off of the hardware hidden behind it. The first second semi shows the hardware hidden behind a 1/4" piece of wood which I used to hide it. The computer fans are also wired into the hood. A bit overkill but I was worried about excessive heat. I definately think the fans contribute to a quicker loss of tank water. The hood is a bit more detailed but if you would like measurements and more in depth details I will be happy to provide you with them. Just let me know. The vanity is similiar to this one: 









In regards to the reactor this was my original design:







G]

But due to a leak I had to tear it apart to fix it and changed the design more to this:








Just at the end of the long outflow there is a hose barb that the tubing from the spray bar attach's to. This was just a modified drawing I had for when I want to hard plumb the reactor into a bulkhead fitting for my new tank. Also I experimented with bending pvc tubing while heating it to create more gentle flowing "U" turns rather than using 90 degree fittings which I think affect flow rate considerably.

I will post pictures tomorrow night of the actual reactor and pvc sizing.


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## celine (Nov 19, 2010)

wow, that's really nice! i love all the plants and fish variation! but...i'm a bit concerned about the bettas. a male and female shouldn't be kept together. i'm also worried about how well they get along with their tankmates, but since you said it's an older tank i'd assume its been fine since they've been left in there. other than that, very nice!


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## kharma (Sep 20, 2010)

Nice man! What are you using for your substrate?


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Thanks Celine! The Bettas do fine together the Male chases the Female from time to time but she doesn't seem to care at all. Most of the time she ingnores him going about checking out everything within the tank. 

Kharma the substrate is a majority of Eco-complete black capped with brown flourite. Personal preference, I just think the brown looked more natural.

Also Here are some shots of the reactor. I apologize for the bad angle but its tight moving things around behind the aquarium. Looking forward to the future when I build an actual stand meant for the tank.


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## kharma (Sep 20, 2010)

Man i love your tank. Even with all the different plants you made it look awesome.


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## justari (Feb 10, 2008)

Tank looks awesome. I'm diggin that Nymphea Micrantha!:icon_wink


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

I love the selection of fish you have! They are diverse and complement each other very well. It may be overstocked, but the fish all look healthy and well cared for.

Some people can pull off overstocked tanks, others... not so much.

I'm seriously considering getting a farlowella. I'm still in the midst of redoing my tank, though, and I want the plants to firmly establish themselves before adding more fish.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Justari Thanks! I love the Nymphea Micrantha I got from you! it adds such a unique look. I'm thinking of trying to train it to stay shorter due to it being up front or will have to do some re-arranging in the tank to place it a little farther back. Have you experimented with it at all? Possibly if I switch all light bulbs to 15 watters it will add more light which in turn will make it stay short. Can't wait to get the smaller propagating plants off of it! Each leaf is showing those little propagations on them, quite the multiplier it is!

Captivate thanks very much! Yeah the fish do fine, no casualties in a long time. I would definately encourage you getting a farlowella. Depending on your tank size get one that "fits" it well. The one I bought is about 4-5 inches long so he blends in nicely. I've noticed they seem to be slow growers, it's size hasn't seemed to change since I purchased it.

Little bit of an update: Was noticing the last week or so that my flow has significantly been getting weaker, and since I havent changed the media since buying the filter (4 months or so). I decided to pull my system apart, a bit of a pain. I think the next time I pull it apart I'll install some ball valves right before the filter intake/outake to make life easier. So I replaced two out of the three trays of filter media with pillow stuffing floss "stuff", a cheap alternative. With bits of the old media mixed in to help re-establish the beneficial bacteria colonies. Should have seen the old media it was so gunked up was like mud. Put it all back together and the flow is much better! the plants/water are actually moving at the other end of the tank, and pearling seems to have increased!


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Good to hear! I have that same lilly and it hadn't grown much prob cuz I keep moving it....dumb me lol


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Yeah I placed mine and have left it alone for about two weeks and its been doing great. Curious if anyone experiences their lily leafs melting? Not sure what causes it? but it mainly seems to be the ones that are more mature/closer to the surface.


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Mine do that and its only 3 inches lol


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## Captivate05 (Feb 23, 2010)

Heh, my lily bit it when I started dosing EI. Still not sure why, it just completely melted away when all the other plants bloomed. I've been thinking about trying my hand at another one, but I'm just not finding the spot in my aquascape for it yet...

My tank is a 29g (so same foot print as yours), and I have plenty of driftwood in there. There's even a cave the driftwood formed, and I put indian almond leaves in it, so maybe a farlowella will like it. The ones at my LFS were about four inches long, and looked really cool. But plants first, fish second...


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*Update:* Did some trimming, ended up cutting all the Vals so they only touch the waters surface instead of laying on top of the water and blocking the light. Gave the Dwarf Hair Grass a haircut, snipped some of the stems from the dwarf lillies. Ended up completely ripping out all of the Hemianthus micranthemoides from the lower right hand side of the tank. I have some Downoi on the way and need a place to put it, also the propagations from the Nymphaea micrantha need a place to go so thats suitable for now. I'm very happy about how the Nymphaea micrantha is growing, so far I've seperated two of the new growths and there are many more forming as well. I Contemplated trimming my Limnophila Aromatica due to it being close to the surface but think I will wait. It's looking a bit leggy and want to make sure it takes off well. Been trying to have the Limnophila Aromatica grow in thicker and bushier any advice on this would be awesome.

Also changed my lighting, I realized that since adding pressurized Co2 to this tank I've left the lighting the same; 3-10w cfls & 2-15w cfls. So I changed out the 3-10w bulbs so now all my lights consist of 15 watters. Then decided that I wanted to add a reflector to the inside of the hood, and WOW I could visably see it get brighter when I held it over the lighs so I shaped a piece of sheet metal to ark over the bulbs and screwed it to the hood. So here is and updated tank shot.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*UPDATE:* Ended up doing a bit of a trim today. The Limnophila Aromatica was beginning to bend on the waters surface plus the bottom was looking bare so I chopped it halfway up the stem and planted the tops in front of the old stems. I still do not think I'm having the best luck with this plant, its surviving but does not seem to be thriving like I hoped it would. Hope my lighting change from the previous update will change this over time...well see. Decided that the "dwarf":icon_roll lilly located in the front left was in need of a trim, it's leafs where reaching the surface and I want to train it to stay short for the foreground, ended up cutting most of its leaves off to do so.:icon_surp

NEW PLANTS ARRIVED!:icon_mrgr Ive been wanting to buy Downoi for a while, was questioning if I was up to par to grow it, but decided to buy some from another member: skewlboy. They where four rooted crowns and look awesome! I received them on Monday and so far appear to be hanging in there:










Changed my filter intake as well. Have thought that it has been to low in the tank considering it's touching the substrate. Since I cant remove any parts to make it go higher I grabbed some pruning shears put a firm grip on the tubing and began turning the shears until it cut through the pipe. This raised the intake screen about 3 inches which I think will help catch particles floating in the water more efficiently than being on the substrate.

I also am doing a bit of an expirement. I recently purchased some empty "00" gelatin capsules and wanted to be able to add nutrients more directly to the roots. I decided to fill some of the capsules with this stuff called RootBlast & some others with straight potash. I do not know the exact nutrients in the Rootblast off the top of my head but I will post that later just for reference. So I went about filling these capsules, then pushed them into the substrate. We will see what happens.

As promised here are the nutrient % for RootBlast:
Total Nitrogen (N)......................2.00%
2.00% Nitrate Nitrogen
Available Phosphate (P2O5).........1.00%
Soluble Potash (K2O)..................2.00%
Calcium (Ca).............................13.8%
Magnesium (Mg).........................7.50%
0.97% Water Soluble Magnesium (Mg)
Sulfur (S).................................1.88%
1.88% Combined Sulfur (S)
Boron (B)..................................0.02%
Copper (Cu)..............................0.05%
Iron (Fe)...................................2.47%
0.01% Water Soluble Iron (Fe)
Manganese (Mn)........................0.12%
0.00% Water Soluble Manganese (Mn)
Zinc (Zn)..................................0.15%










So after all that heres the updated tank...Also the marimo tree moss floated off of it from the Co2 bubbles clinging to it. 





























































Thanks for looking! hope you enjoyed!


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Wow your tank looks sick! I love it even more with every update!


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*UPDATE:* Well its been about a month since I've posted an update for this tank. Didn't expect to go this long between updates but I've just been busy. Regarding changes there really have not been many. I took the reflector off of the inside of the hood because I think the change in bulbs and the addition of that was tooo much light & the plants seemed to be growing more spot algae on their leafs than normal. Ive been keeping up with fertilizer dosing an glass scraping. I figure I'm do to give the plants another trim...it's really beginning to look jungal like. Oh yes the big floating plant mass in the upper right of the tank is a big ole matt of glosso that I purchased about a month ago, Its been doing great just floating. But has hindered some of the plants below it so I'm looking forward to getting it out of here. I purchased it for my new cube that should be finished within the next week.

A fish update: One of the three SAE's escaped from the tank and was found dried up..it was to late. So I purchased a new one to replace him with. The one I replaced him with was a bit ratty looking. I sort of enjoy buying the scragly looking fish, hoping I can revive them once added to my tank. And within a week the SAE's color looks more vibrant & its fins have healed as well. Also I purchased a new fish I believe it to be a horse face loach. I will add a photo below, If someone thinks otherwise let me knowroud:. I had no plans of purchasing it but I was just scanning the pet stores tanks and saw it so IMPULSE BUY, it was mine! 

So here are the updated photos:


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Good healthy! And horse face loaches are cool!


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

Talk about something to aspire to! I'm another on of the 20L "New Years" gang and I can only hope my tank turns out half as nice as this one!


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Awesome 20gallon long tank. Is that Glosso being grown on the upper top right?


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Yeah Jagged thats a big matt of it. I just took it out on Friday and moved it to my new cube, hoping it will transition fine there for me. Will probably leave some floating too just in case and its kinda neat that way. Betta thanks! I appreciate the kind words. Good luck with your 20G long, they are definately a well dimensioned tank...well behind the 40G breeder of course. Just don't give up even if everything goes wrong, trial and error has been the best learning experience.


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## Jaggedfury (Sep 11, 2010)

Awesome, I just haven't seen Glosso float like that in a huge bunch.. had to ask about it. Caught my attention. lol. 20gallon long tanks are my favorite tanks also. My signature is 20gallon long ;D


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

I know I admire your tank! I love the openess of it. I need to change my ways to work towards that look.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*UPDATE: *Did a bit of a trim about four days ago. I ended up trimming the swords, dwarf hairgrass, and L. Aromatica moving some of the stems to the new cube. Also took most of the mass of floating glosso out of the tank, unfortunately I did not plant it in time in the cube and most of it melted. I'm glad the glosso is gone from the surface though, It was really affecting my varigated lilly reducing it to 3 stems and the Blyxa was beginning to look very leggy. So is a updated tank shot and some randoms:






























Thanks for Lookin!


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Looks so much more open without the glosso!


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## .Mko. (Sep 23, 2010)

great growth. soo healthy =) loving the strands of grass here and there. really feeling the jungle aspect of things.


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Do you still have the pantal? How is it doing?


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## Betta Maniac (Dec 3, 2010)

I'm with you on the glosso. Like the tank better w/o it.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Pantal? not sure what you mean?


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

I thought you had ludwigua pantal in there


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Nope, none of that just ludwigia arcuata I believe. How about the lily? you wanna wait on that?


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

Pmed


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## SpankyMR2 (Nov 11, 2010)

Your tank is gorgeous. I want to get a 20 gallon long for my crs/cbs's. Very inspiring.
Patti


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

Gorgeous tank! What is the red stem plant in this picture?:


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

That's what I thought was pantal! What is it!


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Hey Az sorry for the late reply that is just Limnophila Aromatica. Thanks Spanky I appreciate it. Thinking about changing this tank around soon getting tired of how cluttered it becomes when it grows out. will see though.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Whoa its been a while since I updated this tank.....

*UPDATED:* Well lets see...the tank fell into a bit of neglect. The reason being this tank is at my mothers house and I don't always have time to go over there. So whats new with the tank? It certainely was overgrown and looked awful. The Co2 tank ran out about 7-10 days ago so algae is sort of everywhere. And the biggest change is that I had a mass die off about two weeks ago. Brother called me while I was at my apartment at night and informed me that most of my fish where dead:icon_mad:. I'm assuming it was due to an ammonia spike because I had not done a water change in who knows how long. I lost 3 SAE's, 3 dwarf chain loaches, 4 hatchets, 6 cardinals, 2 halfbeaks, 1 farlowella, & 1 guppie. So whats remaining is: 3 ottos, 2 bettas, 7 white clouds, & 1 horse face loach. Today I had a free day, so a mass hacking/cleaning was in order. Started with the canister filter it was pretty much not even pushing water it was so clogged, some replaced filter floss and its pumping as good as new. Then I perceded to pull out/trim plants that had algae on them. Scraped the glass. I tore out the whole carpet of M. Quadrifolia it didn't stay low like I expected and began to creep everywhere. I think I will try a carpet of micro-sword although it seems a slow grower or E. tenellus. As of now I'm happy with the progress It's not where I want it but I didn't want to go to nuts on it in one day. I've stuck some plants back in the gravel in random spots just so they weren't floating and will plan on a better rescape in days to come. 

So enough babbling here are the before and after photos of the tank, here is the before. (apologies for the glare, there are giant windows in the dining room)









And here is the after:









Also planning on moving the crypts farther back. They stayed short for a while in the front so I did not mind them but then they took off. Any issues with moving mature crypts? thought I had read somewhere that they can be tricky to move once established?

Well thanks for looking everyone! I will post another update when I do some more work on the tank!


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## problemman (Aug 19, 2005)

I think its time for you to upgrade to a 29 lol for some more height


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*UPDATE:* Well I finally decided to just tear the tank apart. Spent several hours today ripping plants out and sucking tons of fish emulsion from the first inch of substrate, and constantly adding new water...Then I went down near the river and grabbed a bunch of rocks to play around with and did an entire rescape so here is where it was at around 4pm on March 17th still a bit cloudy. I will get a better shot soon with no glare so you can get a better visualization. Also I left it with a good chunk of plants still floating. I hope to have time to get those planted in the next day or two. So here is the newly scaped 20G:









So I have Sag, Red crypt, green crypt, dwarf tiger lily, & java fern behind the rocks as of now. Might add some limnophila aromatica behind the rocks as well since I have it. And I'm thinking some E. tenellus in the front with pops of blyxa between the rocks. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for Looking! Look forward to updating!


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## .Mko. (Sep 23, 2010)

wow looks great haha love the dense crypts. can we see a shot without glare? =)


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*UPDATE:* Did a tiny bit of work on the tank...well just planted some stems of Blyxa and E. tenellus in the front of the rocks. I still have a bunch of floating stuff that I'm not to sure what I want to do with right now:icon_conf. Most likely will plant it behind the rocks. Alrighty .Mko. here is a couple of photos with no glare:




































And here is a photo of the Moon. Tomorrow It's supposed to be the closest (a.k.a. biggest) to earth in 19 years thought I would get a photo of it just incase its cloudy tomorrow night.









Thanks for looking! Look forward to updating!


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

Just Conceptualizing here but wondering peoples thoughts/opinions on doing this: adding a white sandy beach in front of the rocks? is it a pain to maintain and keep up with? Here is a simple little draft of what it kinda might look like.


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## shortsboy (Feb 6, 2011)

The sand looks great in a tank, but it's an absolute nightmare to maintain. Anytime anything gets moved you get dirt/substrate showing up, and anytime a fish poops you see it. 

Love the new scape btw.


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## Chafire (Jan 6, 2010)

*UPDATE:* Well its been about two weeks. whats been happening....Tanks kind of been going through a recouperation state as of now. Its had a bunch of brown like slime covering some plants (I think Diatomes) also been getting a good amount of hair algae on the leafs of the crypts so been cutting them off when it gets really bad. I think though that it's beginning to get better. Been doing several water changes a week. Lets see with equipment I've upped the bps, moved mini aquarium pump so it sprays from the opposite side the tank which the spraybar is on, also placed the heater behind the spraybar hoping that it will heat the water better this way. Oh yeah my nymphaea micrantha (varigated lily) is recouping and I'm siked about that. I have one still in this tank and one doing much better in my 12G cube. 

Oh yeah almost forgot to mention that I bought a bunch of blyxa japonica from Holy Samosa and have kinda gone for a grassy/rock look with crypts/lilys/& sag in the background.

So here is the tank as of April 2, 2011








and the Nymphaea Micrantha with some dreaded algae next to it.







http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/m...icture6927-varigated-lily-still-alive-yes.jpg

Thanks for looking! Will update soon!

still contemplating the sand look in the front:icon_conf....who knows....


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## Holy Samosa (Nov 3, 2009)

Looks great!! Give the Blyxa a couple of months and you won't see those rocks anymore. ;-)


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