# show me your 20 gallon long!



## mjryan2176 (Nov 11, 2014)

Mine is not the most beautiful, but since no one else replied yet I will share.. I love the footprint of the 20 long tanks as well. I think my tank does have a very nice stock list that I got from this forum.

Fish
1 Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami
1 pair of Bolivian Rams
6 Pristella Tetras

Plants
Water wisteria
Pygmy chain sword
Dwarf Saggitaria
Frogbit 

I chose plants that do well in low to medium light and so far its paying off. Also no algae to speak of yet besides a few diatoms. I think the dirt really helps.



The substrate is MGOCPM capped with black diamond blasting sand. The light is a Coralife T5 NO. 



This is the tank from the start to right now. It has been about 5 weeks. I added driftwood and trimmed the saggitaria leaves that were long. I also dose excel every other day. The sagg is really sending runners now and is filling in nicely. I think its simple, maybe to simple for some, but I like it. The fish are doing great. The first picture is the most recent looking from the side.


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## pseudomonas (Jan 4, 2015)

Looks really nice. Your plants look lovely- I have to say I'm kind of left wanting more on the hardscape, you know? Some more driftwood would probably really complete the scape.


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## mesohorny (Nov 13, 2014)

here's mine; been up for a week now. moving things over from my 27 cube, which I am breaking down in order to move onto a DIY stand and add CO2. seeded the filter with biomedia from the canister on the 27c, and moving the fauna over incrementally. all seems to be going well. assorted Crypt sp, broad leaf Ludwigia, and a red tiger lotus. a work in progress. will be an Apisto tank.


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## Raymond S. (Dec 29, 2012)

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/yourtanks.php?do=homepage&cat=3&order=None&pages=1
Try that link. If it's not on 20g when you get there just look on the left and clic on 
11-20 gallon tanks and only those in that size will be there.
There likely will be several for you to look at and get "scaping" ideas from.


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## Ssid (Jul 1, 2013)

This is mine. Still a newbie at this. MGOPS under a pool filter sand cap. Massive piece of driftwood with xmas moss, java moss, Java fern, anubias nana and nana petite. Foreground is DHG,with some parva. Front mid ground is S. Repens and crypt wendtii- green n tropica. Background is crypt balansae, spiralis, ludwigia species, some cabomba, hygro species. Peace lily in the Red Sea nano HOB and in the books of the driftwood. Creatures are RCS, Yellow neos, a few red rilli's, snails- pond, rams horn, assasins, a few white clouds, neons, h.rasboras, thread fun rainbows. Lighting is 2x 28 W T5's (Home Depot), 1x current satellite led strip. Filters are 2x Red Sea nanos and 1x toms mini canister- have a Hagen canister 150 to add. Pressurized co2 with a custom dual stage victor regulator, ideal needle, fluval bubble counter and a fluval ceramic diffuser feeding into the input of the canister. Running a heater within for now- will install an inline heater on my Hagen canister soon. Fertilization is seachem additives-micros and macros.

Cheers,
Sid


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## Ssid (Jul 1, 2013)

Sorry, didn't realize this was the low tech page. My bad.


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## screamble (Jun 28, 2014)

Ill play along is this game,

Don't FREAK OUT people because you see Goldfish in a 20L. It's their holding tank until the 55 cycles. 

And the plants are thrown in randomly awaiting to go in new 55gal tank.

I still prefer this tank over my 55 and I don't know why.

It's a very simple tank going to have some java moss on wood on right. With 2 swords in the back two corners that is it. Unless I dive into Co2 more. Then its on like donkey kong and who knows what will be in this tank


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## Zoidborg (Jan 29, 2014)

Mines not looking so great at the moment but you can find a lot More info and pics in my signature.

It's full of plants guppies, tetras and cherry shrimps.










I don't use co2 but I do use Seachem Excel, the substrate is fluval plant stratum and pool filter sand.


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## k38 (Nov 9, 2014)

Zoidborg, what's your dosage with Excel?

Bill


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## sharko (Apr 20, 2014)




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## mjryan2176 (Nov 11, 2014)

pseudomonas said:


> Looks really nice. Your plants look lovely- I have to say I'm kind of left wanting more on the hardscape, you know? Some more driftwood would probably really complete the scape.


Yeah I agree. I just need to get my hands on more. Its so cold here now, but come spring I'll be looking for more. I'm not paying for it I know that lol.


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## biotex3 (Oct 1, 2014)

My low tech 20g shrimp tank


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## Zoidborg (Jan 29, 2014)

k38 said:


> Zoidborg, what's your dosage with Excel?
> 
> Bill


I dose 2ml every day but Saturday (pwc day) Flourish 1.7ml on Sundays.

When Im in the mood to spend money I also dose according to the Seachem Dosing Chart (iron, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace)


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## knm<>< (Mar 18, 2010)

Here's my 20L riparium. It is still developing. In fact, most of the riparium plants were planted yesterday and today.









Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk


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## pseudomonas (Jan 4, 2015)

Zoidborg said:


> Mines not looking so great at the moment but you can find a lot More info and pics in my signature.
> 
> It's full of plants guppies, tetras and cherry shrimps.
> 
> ...


Would you believe that your journal thread is tucked neatly in my "inspiration folder"?

Since you're here, mind if I pick your brain? I'm waffling between the finnex stingray and planted+ for my 20 long. I can find PAR data on the two fixtures but nothing for such a shallow tank. I feel like the planted+ offers me more flexibility down the line should I go nuts and want the highest high tech fancy CO2 EI dosing ferts etc etc. But right now the limit of attention I think I'm willing to invest is like DIY CO2, dosing flourish occasionally, and weekly 30% water changes. I see that you have the planted+, is it pretty high light in your tank and how is the algae without CO2 (looks good in the picture, but who knows)? I'd love to hear your experience with that light in this size tank.


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## Zoidborg (Jan 29, 2014)

I'm in your Inspiration folder? Wow thanks!

The planted+ is pretty high par in the shallow 20long probably medium medium high light. I trim every month a large amount of the foliage that goes in the trash. 

My 20long is pretty shallow, my water line is right at the bottom of the black rim and adding 2-3 inches of substrate makes my water column 8 inches deep, with the Finnex 2" above the water line the PAR values are higher than the 12" estimates that Finnex gives us. I love the planted+ i hhagen a 30", 12" and the clip light, I'll also be getting the 16" soon for my 5.5 gallon

I personally do not want to do co2 in this tank as I feel that will complicate growth even further than it already is. I chose to do a modified Seachem dosing chart liquid fert schedule that is working well for me at the moment. In the last 3 months I moved from daily dosing to a twice weekly schedule. Every other week is a Seachem dosing schedule, iron/phosphorus/nitrogen/potassium/trace with once a week flourish and every day being an Excel dose. I'm sure there's a cheaper way but I find Seachem pretty cheap at my LFS. http://www.seachem.com/support/PlantDoseChart.pdf









The algae is another issue, my aquarium is quite "green" it doesn't show in some of my pictures but the driftwood, Anubias and rear/side glass is covered in it. However the shrimps, snails and Otos love it so im not doing anything with the algae.


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## pseudomonas (Jan 4, 2015)

Zoidborg said:


> I'm in your Inspiration folder? Wow thanks!


Yep, I love your scape and that it's the same size as my tank really helps me in deciding what I can fit!

I've done more research and I think I may actually go with the Satellite Plus rather than a finnex fixture. It may be around the same PAR as the stingray but it has a lot of features I really like like being dimmable, moonlights, etc. With the stingray I felt like I would have been getting (and paying for, of course) a really bare bones fixture which isn't necessarily what I wanted.

I just wish the ramp timer was fully compatible with the fixture. Unfortunately the plus pro is not in the budget, either.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

You can built your own ramp timer to give you full control of the Sat+ lights relatively easily, for around $50. They're great lights, once you have a way to harness their flexibility. And the Sat+ is great for 20 Long tanks, since they're dimmable, and not overly-bright to begin with.

That dosing schedule is crazy, Zoidberg! I'd go back to daily dosing and automate it with a dosing pump for sure.


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## mesohorny (Nov 13, 2014)

i have the Sat+ on mine and, so far, it seems well suited for the planted low tech 20 long. all of the plants are newly moved into the tank and haven't quite responded yet--though that may be resultant of the pH and GKH spike I've experienced from a couple of 'bad' bags of Eco-Complete--but i'd be happy to check back in as time marches on. I can tell you now that it makes the tank look beautiful, though you may not be convinced from the crappy cell phone pic above.


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## Zoidborg (Jan 29, 2014)

Kman I wouldn't know the first thing about automation in dosing lol. The every other week schedule only takes me 5 minutes a day, hardly a crazy schedule, at least at the moment. I may go high tech and automate later on once I get a 5th tank larger than 20g, but that won't happen till I move to a bigger place.

Pseudo I can't wait to see how your tank comes along once you post it. Good luck with the satellite plus.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

Zoidborg said:


> Kman I wouldn't know the first thing about automation in dosing lol. The every other week schedule only takes me 5 minutes a day, hardly a crazy schedule, at least at the moment. I may go high tech and automate later on once I get a 5th tank larger than 20g, but that won't happen till I move to a bigger place.
> 
> Pseudo I can't wait to see how your tank comes along once you post it. Good luck with the satellite plus.


Oh, it's not that it's too difficult, it's that I'm terrible at remembering things that don't happen every day. I can do EI ferts because I feed the fish daily, and dose ferts at the same time, every day. Of course, I'm lazy, so I'm looking to automate that as well, LOL.

The Current controller is very easy to build, though, and well worth while. Find the iAqua Lite thread. It's currently set up forthe Ecoxotic E-Series, but someone in that thread will definitely be posting the instructions to make it work for the Sat+ lights, too, since it's a simple change.


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## pseudomonas (Jan 4, 2015)

mesohorny said:


> i have the Sat+ on mine and, so far, it seems well suited for the planted low tech 20 long. all of the plants are newly moved into the tank and haven't quite responded yet--though that may be resultant of the pH and GKH spike I've experienced from a couple of 'bad' bags of Eco-Complete--but i'd be happy to check back in as time marches on. I can tell you now that it makes the tank look beautiful, though you may not be convinced from the crappy cell phone pic above.


No, I really like your tank. I notice that the light is not placed straight across the tank. Is there a reason? I was going to go with the 20-35" or whatever model of the sat plus but it kind of looks like your light doesn't fit?

Bump:


Zoidborg said:


> Pseudo I can't wait to see how your tank comes along once you post it. Good luck with the satellite plus.


Thanks, I think I'm going to do a tank journal. Might have to dig out ye olde DSLR camera as well, my new cell phone doesn't take great pictures. 

Now if only I can figure out where to put it in my house!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Mines been through a lot in 6 months.
April 14th: 



April 16th:


April 23rd:


May 8th:


June 6th: 


June 15-23: 



June 30: 


July 6th:



Julyy 28:


Oct 3rd:



Oct 21: 


1/1/15:



I've actually gotten rid of the plants on the left (except the ivy) and have some new ones...I need to get an up to date photo... right now the underwater plants are just hanging there.. not sure what I want to do with them but I'll be taking the driftwood out for a 40g breeder project soon.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

pseudomonas said:


> No, I really like your tank. I notice that the light is not placed straight across the tank. Is there a reason? I was going to go with the 20-35" or whatever model of the sat plus but it kind of looks like your light doesn't fit?


The 24-36" Sat+ should fit nicely on a 20 Long (30" long). There would be 3" of unlit space on each side of the light, at the ends of the tank.

Although if you have an HOB filter on the end, it may interfere with the hanging arms, unless you raise the light.


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## pseudomonas (Jan 4, 2015)

kman said:


> The Current controller is very easy to build, though, and well worth while. Find the iAqua Lite thread. It's currently set up forthe Ecoxotic E-Series, but someone in that thread will definitely be posting the instructions to make it work for the Sat+ lights, too, since it's a simple change.


Here it is: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=783426&highlight=iaqua+lite

Definitely going to keep an eye on that- I'm sure they'll have codes for the sat plus soon and it looks like a really easy project.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

pseudomonas said:


> Here it is: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=783426&highlight=iaqua+lite
> 
> Definitely going to keep an eye on that- I'm sure they'll have codes for the sat plus soon and it looks like a really easy project.


I built mine from the original Sat+ controller thread. Not too tough but there was some soldering involved. The newer version is much easier to assemble and the code is considerably more advanced. If I wasn't building the big daddy controller (the full iAqua, not the Lite, totally over the top!), I'd definitely consider one.

Swapping in the Sat+ codes for the E-Series codes shouldn't be too tough.


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## mesohorny (Nov 13, 2014)

kman said:


> The 24-36" Sat+ should fit nicely on a 20 Long (30" long). There would be 3" of unlit space on each side of the light, at the ends of the tank.
> 
> Although if you have an HOB filter on the end, it may interfere with the hanging arms, unless you raise the light.


yes, it's only that way because of the HOB. I actually cut a piece of glass to cover the entire top, save for just enough to accommodate the HOB, this past weekend. the Sat+ now rets on the glass top, across dead center. it's meh; might just get a versa top like normal people and move the HOB to the back center .. especially since the 3/32 glass scares the bejeezuz out of me; every time I handle it I think it's going to shatter and i'll end up with shards in my retinas.


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## kman (Dec 11, 2013)

mesohorny said:


> yes, it's only that way because of the HOB. I actually cut a piece of glass to cover the entire top, save for just enough to accommodate the HOB, this past weekend. the Sat+ now rets on the glass top, across dead center. it's meh; might just get a versa top like normal people and move the HOB to the back center .. especially since the 3/32 glass scares the bejeezuz out of me; every time I handle it I think it's going to shatter and i'll end up with shards in my retinas.


Maybe time to invest in a canister. 

Also, I'd go to a glass shop and get a decently-thick piece of tempered glass made for a cover, with nicely sanded edges.


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## Zoidborg (Jan 29, 2014)

A canister with a spray bar on a 20long is the way to go Id suggest going with EHEIM or fluval you can fashion a custom spraybar like I did I go easy and use eheim stock Spraybar which is great.

I have a versatop on my 20 long but I never liked it as there was so much crud on it after awhile it would block the light. I built a window screen and bird netting cover that works well at the moment. (The one from bulkreefsupply) 
Half screen half versatop keeps evaporation in my room to a controllable level. Plus I can feed the fishies without removing the top and those jumpers have nowhere to go hehe. (Who knew tetras were skittish)


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## mesohorny (Nov 13, 2014)

kman said:


> Maybe time to invest in a canister.
> 
> Also, I'd go to a glass shop and get a decently-thick piece of tempered glass made for a cover, with nicely sanded edges.


I cheaped out in the dumbest way possible and opted for the most expensive HOB I could find ... but the convenience of it and that it so well oxygenates the water was the real reason I went that route. here it is slightly more cleaned up:

Bump: i'll upgrade to a canister next time I see the Fluval 206 on sale


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## HDBenson (Jan 26, 2015)

Same Tank with several set-ups over the last five years.

Most recent:


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