Fishenthusiast's 30 Gallon Planted Odyssey

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fishenthusiast

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With the planning phase coming closer and closer to an end, my low light tank rescape will commence around 2 months from now. Over the next two months, I'll be selling off 95% of my plants from the current high-tech build, plus the T5 HO fixture. Yep, I'm converting over to the LED dark side! My tank will have plenty of Cryptocoryne and Anubias, plus some other interesting, but easy, plants! I'm aiming to create a natural scape with no stem plants. I'll be having fish that come from slower moving waters, so the flow rate will be medium (6x per hour...no powerhead...The Honey Gourami will appreciate this). Overall, I'm aiming for a very peaceful, and quiet setting. Here's an outline on what equipment/plants I expect to use:

Filtration and water movement: Eheim 2213 canister filter and the Eheim Skim350.

Water change schedule: Once weekly ~30%

Ferts: PPS-Pro dosed twice a week, plenty of root tabs

CO2: GLA GRO CO2 System with Ista Max Mix reactor (15 ppm to 30 ppm).

Light fixture: Finnex Planted+ 24/7 dimmed and not on 24/7 mode; although, I'd like to use the night light on it.

Fish/inverts: Harlequin Rasboras, Gold Honey Dwarf Gourami, Kuhli Loaches, Ghost Shrimp?, Panda Garra possibly, another type of fish that is TBA.

PLANTS!! (Subject to change): Anubias sp. 'Coffeefolia', Anubias Nana 'Gold', Anubias Nana, Anubias nana 'petite', Anubias 'Round leaf', Crypt wendtii 'Florida Sunset', Crypt wendtii 'Bronze', Crypt wendtii 'Green Gecko', Crypt balansae, Crypt nurii 'Rosen Maiden', Crypt Metallic Affinis Red, Crypt pontederiifolia, Crypt parva, Crypt wendtii 'Mi Oya', Ozelot Sword, Corkscrew Val, Crinum calamistratum, Dwarf Sag, Marsilea minuta, Windelov Java Fern, and a type of floating plant.

I'm looking forward to this easy and lush build!


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I think you've chosen a good selection of plants that will still give your tank variations in color
I really like crypts and have them in most of my tanks. I forgot what panda garra is so off to Google!

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Sounds pretty maintenance free there! All the luxuries of having plants and not having to trim them or do daily fert doses. Looks like you are all set.


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Fishenthusiast's 30 Gallon Low-Light Tank

Sounds pretty maintenance free there! All the luxuries of having plants and not having to trim them or do daily fert doses. Looks like you are all set.


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I also forgot to mention that I'll be using strictly spiderwood. I'm going to try to find a very branchy piece for the right side of tank (it will have Anubias on it).

I'm looking forward to trying shrimp in this tank. Which type of shrimp would be the hardiest for my hard water? RCS, Amano, or Ghost?


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I really like the look of spider wood! I have hard water and do the simple RCS. I have had luck with ghosts in the past but not Amano.

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RCS it is then! Would any of the fish that I listed give them any trouble? My Dwarf Honey Gourami are pretty timid (I believe I have a male-female pair), and I couldn't see the Harlequins doing anything to hurt them. I'm concerned that the Panda Garra might (they might not be ideal for this setup anyway...they need a lot of flow/water oxygenation).


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RCS it is then! Would any of the fish that I listed give them any trouble? My Dwarf Honey Gourami are pretty timid (I believe I have a male-female pair), and I couldn't see the Harlequins doing anything to hurt them. I'm concerned that the Panda Garra might (they might not be ideal for this setup anyway...they need a lot of flow/water oxygenation).

The only fish I'm not sure about is the panda garra, otherwise I don't think you'd have trouble, at least not with adult shrimp. It's a good-sized tank with lots of plants though so you still could end up with a growing colony!
 
Fishenthusiast's 30 Gallon Low-Light Tank

The only fish I'm not sure about is the panda garra, otherwise I don't think you'd have trouble, at least not with adult shrimp. It's a good-sized tank with lots of plants though so you still could end up with a growing colony!


Okay, I think it'd be best to keep them out of the stock plan then. So...

6 Kuhli Loaches
Red Cherry Shrimp
10 Harlequin Rasboras
2 Gold Dwarf Honey Gourami
8-10 Threadfin Rainbowfish

How does that sound? I have one Threadfin in the tank currently, and I miss having the big group. Their fin flicking rituals are fun to watch!



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Okay, I think it'd be best to keep them out of the stock plan then. So...

6 Kuhli Loaches
Red Cherry Shrimp
10 Harlequin Rasboras
2 Gold Dwarf Honey Gourami
8-10 Threadfin Rainbowfish

How does that sound? I have one Threadfin in the tank currently, and I miss having the big group. Their fin flicking rituals are fun to watch!
That sounds really nice....definitely looking forward to pics!
 
That sounds really nice....definitely looking forward to pics!


I hope that you're a patient person! I'll be starting this build in November. In the meantime, I'll be posting pics of scape plans and of new goodies (driftwood, etc.), and I'll be updating.


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I hope that you're a patient person! I'll be starting this build in November. In the meantime, I'll be posting pics of scape plans and of new goodies (driftwood, etc.), and I'll be updating.

Those types of pics are good too, I find it interesting to watch a build!
 
PLANTS!! (Subject to change): Anubias sp. 'Coffeefolia', Anubias Nana 'Gold', Anubias Nana, Anubias nana 'petite', Anubias 'Round leaf', Crypt wendtii 'Florida Sunset', Crypt wendtii 'Bronze', Crypt wendtii 'Green Gecko', Crypt balansae, Crypt nurii 'Rosen Maiden', Crypt Metallic Affinis Red, Crypt pontederiifolia, Crypt parva, Crypt wendtii 'Mi Oya', Ozelot Sword, Corkscrew Val, Crinum calamistratum, Dwarf Sag, Marsilea minuta, Windelov Java Fern, and a type of floating plant.

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I'm taking Crinum calamistratum off the list. I think that it'd get too big for this tank.


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I'm taking Crinum calamistratum off the list. I think that it'd get too big for this tank.


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That's funny you mention this plant because I blindly bought one yesterday. It is quite large and I had a case of sticker shock when I got home and went over my receipt. I'm interested to see how it does. I have it in my highest light 20g long which isn't big enough even now but I need to clean out the dwarf water lettuce and some other things before I can out it in my 55g.

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That's funny you mention this plant because I blindly bought one yesterday. It is quite large and I had a case of sticker shock when I got home and went over my receipt. I'm interested to see how it does. I have it in my highest light 20g long which isn't big enough even now but I need to clean out the dwarf water lettuce and some other things before I can out it in my 55g.

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I had a small one in my current high-tech setup a couple months ago and it was a BBA magnet. I think they do better with lower light. I don't want to get too big of plants so that my tank will appear to be larger than it actually is. The RCS should help with that, along with the smaller Crypts and Anubias'.


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Okay, so I've had yet another weird loach experience. To my surprise, I woke up to one of my Kuhli Loaches stuck in my powerhead!


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