# 20L rise and fall and rebirth - My journal.



## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

I have received new plants from the Man. and We have an official planted tank now. I've added he CO2 and the results are AMAZING! now my Java moss was semi pearling before but now EVERYTHING is pumping air into the water like you wouldn't belive. Seriously it looks like theres a air leak in my tank because I have bubbles comming up everywhere! It was actually an amazing site and was quite exciting to have a real visual cue that the plants are not only looking great but they are doing great as well. 

So let me share with you all the updated pics of the tank. And a pic of the worlds happyist betta.










Here you can also see the biggest of the ghost shrimp that are in the tank swimming around with the betta.

































Sorry for the crap quality. But you can kinda see my Moneywort pearling also!









*******************1 month passes.....***************
And here we are today. I have done some minor rearranging and added some stuff. Sadly my Betta died due to a BGA bout that I went thru half way thru the month. But I replaced him with a sweet Green Dwarf Pike.
Also replaced the 36w light with a 65w Coralife Aqualight.


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## yoink (Apr 21, 2005)

The tank looks great, much better with the more powerful light.

Nice piece too.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Watchya talkin bout willis?

:biggrin:


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

I don't see a bong


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

fresh_newby said:


> I don't see a bong


 How weird would that be to have a "tobbacco waterpipe" in my fish tank.  :fish1:


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

no that is what yoink made it sound like you had in the pic....ahhh nevermind.


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## organic sideburns (Dec 22, 2005)

Nice pics, looksgreat.

And yea what piece wer ya talking about yoink? 

lol my brother put and waterpipe (unused) in his 29 gal fishtank a while back.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

hahaha. Nahh there was one pic there with one of my pipes. that was hanging around for the intermissions between planting.


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## organic sideburns (Dec 22, 2005)

ohh, I see it now. on your bed, yea nice bowl!


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

huh? oh yeah that one too. lol


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Did my first trim. and a little movin around. 
Did some trimming. So hell why not time for an update.

Some pics of the tank



















































And some of the pike.


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## esarkipato (Jul 19, 2005)

OOOOhhhhhh, that crenicicla compressiceps is EXACTLY like the one I had. Sweet fish! They are funny, but I think mine went blind! As he got older, he would sense food in the tank, and stab at it, but always miss. Think he starved to death :icon_redf 

I really like your thread.....nice progression and sorry about the bad ECO. I see what you are doing with that peice of driftwood on the sand/gravel border....but I think it draws too much attention right now. I would move it slightly back, and point the skinny end towards the front of the tank. Then line the sand/soil interface with plants .... microsword or something.

Looks good 

I missed the tobacco waterpipe pic...awwwwww :icon_frow


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## the_noobinator (Jun 10, 2006)

i agree with esarki. it makes the front right of the tank look too "heavy".


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

thanks for the complements guys!
If you look closely at the original pics you will notice some cool things. 

If you look at the last pic before these new ones you will notice that the beach area was much larger. I actually moved it forward and added some more schultz. So that open area next to the wood is going to fill in partially with Microswords and partially with hairgrass. in addition to the crypts that are already there. Oh yeah and its hard to see and its not all in yet but there should hopefully fill in a part with some micranthemum umbrosum. I think I can keep it at ground level. not sure cause I've never grown it before.

I'm also planning on doing a little rearranging on the right side. I was actually already thinking about moving the log back some but t hen theres alot of plnts already in that area that I will have to rearrange. So I will have to do some major rescaping in that area. Always in the works. maybe that will be next weeks refinement.


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

I see that your brown substrate has mixed into the white sand area. Maybe you might want to do something about it? Because the tank has lost it's beauty this way. The piece of driftwood also looks out of place.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

yes. the beach is much harder to move over then one would hope. so some of the sand that was there got moved under the substrate. I will be attempting to vaccum the white sand from out of there.I just have to build a screen attachment for my vaccum so I don't suck up the substrate as well. 
I also did some more rescaping last night so the wood that was up front is now moved to the back. opens that area up much more. Also waiting for one more plant to arrive before Its done.


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## TheOtherGeoff (Feb 11, 2003)

hopefully your pike doesnt eat your cherry barbs and other small fish. the one i had like that eat anything it could get its mouth on, including fish


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

nahh he's a dwarf. He is too small to gobble up any of his tank mates. except probably the ghost shrimp that have gone missing. If he does wind up getting big enough to eat the fish... *shrug* I'm not all that attached.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)




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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

Ah,thats really beautiful now. A pity though that the area for the while sand is rather small.I'd love to see more of it.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

yeah. I felt I needed more planting area so I moved the "beach" over. It will look better once the forground plants fill in again.


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## Y0uH0 (Dec 19, 2005)

I see,i'll be looking forward to when things fill in. Would love to see the end product of such a nice tank=)


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Thanks Derrick! I will def keep this journal updated.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

New updates.


So. Been a while. and here we are today. New plants, retuned scaping, horrible failure and success. 
All have been terms that could have been applied to this tank since the last update.
After I finally got everything setup well. I noticed the water one day get a little cloudy. I thought. humm strange, and let it go. the next day I could see the tank was getting a tint of green. I knew what was happening. So kicked down the light and turned off bank 2. back down to 3wpg. added some ferts and hoped for the best. 
Couple days later and this is what I had.









This is after a waterchange.

So. I think to myself. what do to..... 
Well obviously I've been lucky to get this much from my tank with my setup. No CO2 ****ty DIY setup. Lots of plants and way too much light. Yes.. It was a timebomb. 
And it blew. 

So now faced with a need for a decision I made two. 
1st was to get a UV filter and take care of the issue at hand. So I did so. In addition to the addition of the UV I turned the lights out for a couple days and closed up the room. 
And in a couple days I had this.








Crystal clear. nicest the water has ever been. I'm sold on UV's. 
But now altho this took care of the immediate need. I knew this was only a temp bandaid. So in comes decision #2. I started looking for parts. found some for cheap. slapped it toghether and now today I finally have it complete. Finally I am fininshing off this tank with pressurized CO2. If only I knew I could slap something like this toghether so easily before. ahh well.. 







































the pike


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)




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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Its matured.  

Here are some updated pics of the tank. 












































And a much needed clean up crew









Already Hard at work. hopefully they are all there tomorrow.


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## Jdinh04 (Mar 15, 2004)

Tank is looking good, what's that red plant on the right?


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## brianemone (Feb 2, 2006)

Nice tank, I love the brightness of your reds and how they breakup the greenness


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## TheOtherGeoff (Feb 11, 2003)

Jdinh04 said:


> Tank is looking good, what's that red plant on the right?


yeah really. that stuff is crazy bright


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

Looks like L glandulosa~


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

There are two reds in the tank. The reineckii 'rosaefolia' Is the really bright fuscha stuff. And the more true red/blood red now on the far right but the not most right. is what I also belive to be ludwigia glandulosa as F-N suggests.


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## fish_lover0591 (Nov 11, 2006)

any updates ?


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Yeah there are some updated. I've run into an issue with the glandiosa. It grows like wild. and once it hit the air out of the water it sheds all its lower leaves. So all those beautifull blood red stems fell apart. The rosefollia also a tall grower has outgrown the height of this tank. And I'm currently over growing with Zosterfolia. So in the next week or maybe this weekend I will be pulling all of that. I am replacing these stems with smaller reds and oranges. 
LUDWIG INCLINATA
and 
ROTALA ROTUND

So here are the last pics of this tank that I will be posting until I get my new plants. These pics are from 01/15/07 the tank has has similar amount of growth since and I've done a couple trimmings.
Before trimming









What I got from it









And after.









The tank is pretty much back into the pretrim look.


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## blueguppygirl (Oct 30, 2006)

Very nice looking tank! (and the glass piece isn't bad either,lol)


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

Grrr.. I got my new plants that I had been waiting on. And the dude sent me the wrong stuff!! ARGH!!! I thought I had some rare ludwigia on its way and I wound up getting some freaking bolbits. Not to mention they were starting to melt because the dude shipped them on the friday before the holliday.

So... no more update for now. Aside from that I ripped out most of the H. zosterfolia because I got tired of having to clip it all the time to keep it from blocking the light to everything else.


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

I'll take your Bolbitis...
It doesn't really melt. Keep the rhizome. You have to trim the leaves off when you get a new Bobitis plant anyway.....
I can send you some Ludwigia


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

fresh_newby said:


> I'll take your Bolbitis...
> It doesn't really melt. Keep the rhizome. You have to trim the leaves off when you get a new Bobitis plant anyway.....
> I can send you some Ludwigia


I'm not totally sure if it's bolbits or not was just a short guess. But it is browning from the stem up. I wouldn't wanna even try sending it as it wouldn't be worth the effort. Let me see if I can get the stuff to bounce back first. 
the Ludwigia I was getting was LUDWIG INCLINATA, If you have some of that then yeah we can work something out. 
the seller that sent me all this junk wound up refunding both my orders (one that haden't even shipped yet) so I'm out some CRYPT BALANSAE, the ludwig, and 3 glass diffusers. What really annoyed me is the dude shipps in a first class envelope. Yes ships plants in an envelope. Its a bubble pack. but none the less all these plants were flattened when I received them. 

Duhh I'm dumb. I didn't mean bolbits I ment bacopia. But actually looking at what he actully sells I'm pretty sure its actually Lobelia cardinalis. either way its not teh amzing red stuff I ordered.
What I ordered.









What I received


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## fresh_lynny (Mar 9, 2006)

Yep that is Lobelia cardinalis for sure.
I have some C balansae and I have the inclinata as well, but the var cuba, which I find to be more interesting because of the yello and pink combo along with the veining.....I can maybe help out....what did you pay the other dude?

this is a decent representation of the var cuba http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...etails.php?id=81&category=genus&spec=Ludwigia


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

It was just a couple bucks. the shipping was free. I guess thats why he skimps so much on the shipping. 

humm. they do have quite a different leaf structure. lemme get back to ya.


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## smole (May 23, 2006)

thanks black sunshine very pretty 20 gallon. What do you use for your pressurized co2 setup: regulator, counter,diffusion?


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## chrisoneal (Jan 31, 2007)

is that pike aggresive tords other fish like mollys neon tetras, and guppies. I want to get one now seeing urs.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

smole said:


> thanks black sunshine very pretty 20 gallon. What do you use for your pressurized co2 setup: regulator, counter,diffusion?


I use a JBJ/azoo/milwaukee regulator with bubble counter built in. it has a needle valve to regulate. diffusion I have going to a glass nano diffuser (to keep the dispursion radius small) and then have the intakes from my two mini cannisters taking up and dispensing the CO2 rich water to the tank. 




chrisoneal said:


> is that pike aggresive tords other fish like mollys neon tetras, and guppies. I want to get one now seeing urs.


Well sadly durring the great Seattle black out of 06. My tank dropped to 50some degrees. The pike was not able to take this cold and wound up dieing. 
Previous to this he was not aggressive towards any of his tank mates. altho I found that keeping ghost shrimp was a futile practice. (still is tho amanos do fine.) I'm sure if he ever got to a decent size he would probably gobble up whoever he can. but that specific pike has a very small beak like mouth and dosen't seem too aggressive. he was also a dwarf so would not get to large size anyhow.
If given the chance I would totally get another one. Awesome personality. and fun to watch feeding. I would feed him tiny chopped up raw shrimp.


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## silver7621 (Mar 16, 2007)

nice looking tank any new updates


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

I've done some tuning to the scape along with a major japonica trim and the removal of my stargrass. 
Heres a shot after the trim/pull and when the new plants in the rear left were added. Its rotala rotun. so hopefuly will all take on a nice yellowish orange 
color.

















In the front I moved alot of japonica out because it was so dense that the plants were all sitting about an inch off th substrate. Their roots had filled in the substrate so much there was no where for them to go but up. 
All the green that is floating in the 75 gallon here is what was pulled from the 20 gal. 










I moved the front back and filled it in with hairgrass to get a better lawn. 
as you can see one of the crypts sent a runner out about 6 in from the mother plant and now a 3rd crypt bush is starting. The crypts are about due for a thinning.
Since this shot the back has filled in and bushed up some. And a couple fish and shrimp were added. I got ahold of some tiger shrimp.









I will get some more shots once the tank turns on and after my baby wakes up. the tank is in his room.

After I trimed and was shipping off some of the japonica I came across a interesting discovery. I had never heard it mentioned so was shocked to see. that a couple of my Japonica had flowered. I was not aware that they even did. I figure it has to be because they were floating and at the surface that encouraged the plant to flower.


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## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

NIce journal/ beautiful tank BlSun - first time I've checked it out. 

Yeah, Blyxa japonica and aubertii have those little flowers. On APC plantfinder, they say when those white flowers develop (which never open for me) that indicates a slight excess of PO4 above 2.ppm or something like that. Its been a while since I read that, but I thought that it was a cool indicator of water quality for PO4. You could read about that over at APC.


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

I will have to check it out. I really like the plant. But when it gets goin it really goes.


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## Inzeos (Sep 10, 2004)

Any updates?


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