liberator's first 20g display tank all diy

[liberator123]

i have my first ever 20 gallon long tank and am planning on putting it in my living room as a display tank. keep in mind this is my first bigger sized tank (ive had 2.5, 5, and 10). the aquarium stand, light fixture, and canister filter will all be built myself. the stand is done and i spent about $75 on it (it just needs wood paint finish)
substrate: ada aquasoil amazonia powder. i ordered these and should be coming by next week
filter: diy canister filter using 1 1/2 feet x 4 inch pvc pipe. im having issues figuring out if i should use a power head for the intake, or a utility pump for the out take. any insight of this is appreciated.
plants: all of the plants im using is coming from my other three tanks.
stargrass
blyxia japonica
ludwigia repens
dwarf baby tears
dwarf four leaf clovers
micro swords
riccia
anchor moss
java moss
anubias
java ferns
theres more but i may not even use all. i know for sure i want a riccia carpet and anchor moss on driftwood tree.
also using driftwood (shaped into trees) and rocks. ill include pics later
fish: the main reason why i got a bigger tank was to give the fish i already have a better bigger home. atm i have 2 platy, 2 guppy (they just had fry... alot of them, not sure what to do with em lol), 2 f. julii cory, and 2 oto. i also have a betta, but im going to test out if he can safely live in the community. i also want to try a schooling fish like neon tetras.
end tank im thinking: 4 cory, 4 otto, 3 platy, 3 guppy, 5-8 neon tetra, and maybe betta. also a nerite snail.
im still figuring out my aquascape, as i want to do nature type with a nice background in the back.

 

[Old Scales]

Awesome stand! Great DIY work! I'm following. OS.

 

[mandoborg]

Man your on the right track !!! That's going to be a nice set-up !! One thing that's funny, I sweated what i was going to use for a background, now, my plants are so big you can't even see the background !! It was great for the first few months, now it's irrelevant !!

Good luck and post more pictures as you go........

Jim

 

[liberator123]

i just bought the things needed to build my (sorta) canopy/light fixture, and my canister filter. about 50 bucks total!
will be using LED, t5ho, and cfl combo. i will have timers that switches the light from night, sunrise, daytime, and sunset. ill explain how im doing this in later posts (when its actually done)
the external pump for the filter will be a Cobalt aquatics in-line E-X-T 800 pump. it says its 210 gph at 3.6 feet, so i guess this is good?
EDIT* i dont know why, but attached image wont show up...

 

[liberator123]

Update*
-my half canopy's skeletal part is done, it just needs the lights installation.
-the canister filter is almost done, im just waiting for the pump i ordered to come in the mail.
progress is kind of slow because of waiting for things ive ordered in the mail and i have work almost 7 days a week lol.

 

[liberator123]

Alright! time to get started on scaping. My ada aquasoil powder type have arrived and ive gathered all the plants I will be using. note that im probably not using it all, and the rest will be going into another tank.
note... aquasoil crumbles easily, and when handling it when its wet, my hands get muddy. Fluorite or eco complete did not do this. I was not expecting this at all, but i hope everything turns out fine.

The aquascape idea layout I am thinking of is sort of like an island layout, where the plants, stones, and driftwood trees are located in the center, while the outer parts have nothing. This gives cory cats optimal space to swim around. This will be a totally experimental aquascape as I am a total novice at this. I also wanted to try a riccia as the middle foreground plant, so I attached a bunch of small rock slates with riccia using sewing thread. the side foreground plants will be four leaf clovers and micro swords. This is possible to do because it is a 20 gallon long tank.

 

[Old Scales]

Awesome build thread. I love the lots of pictures. Tank, stand and canopy really look classy. I'll be following with interest. Go man Go! OS.

 

[liberator123]

finally after a whole nights work... the layout it complete! im not too thrilled about the center stone, but it was what i had...
no lighting yet and the filter there was just to get rid of debris and stuff thats making the tank cloudy. hopefully ill be able to install the lighting and filtration within the next few days.

sorry for bad quality pic, its quite cloudy atm

 

[liberator123]

FINALLY can get started on finalizing my canister filter! although, the rubber end parts I had to replace for male/female/cap pvc because it just didnt work out. Little more expenses, but its okay as long as it works...

I decided to use seachem products because I like seachem.... so seachem matrix is my media. Ill be adding seachem purigen too. I was lucky to find fluval sponge about 4-4.5 inches wide, perfect fit for the 4 inch PVC pipe. Ill be using chemical (carbon) filtration too because I want the tank to clear up as it is still cloudy.

Another update: I finished my light fixture! well almost, I still need to cover the top wiring and paint it.

I decided not to do LED yet (maybe upgrade in future), as I didnt want to spend more money. So, I just used whatever I had at this moment, which was a workhorse2 ballast for a t5ho 24 inch true lumen flora pink, a t8 ballast, which I got from dissecting an old light fixture, which is used to series 2 f10t8 tubes (10 watt each). And then in the sides I added a normal light bulb socket and attached 2 9 watt 5000k cfl bulbs 5 bucks from homedepot. In the morning, the right side (east) cfl bulb will turn on. Then day time the t5ho and t8 bulbs turn on. Then evening time, the left side (west) cfl bulb will only be on. Night time will have nothing on.

Is this too bright? or just enough for med/high light? considering this is a low tank 20g long. (only 12 inches high, and the light fixture is right on top of tank)

Close up shot of my aquascape. (theres a stargrass that uprooted at the top lol, woops)

 

[Sk3lly]

Looking very nice. Maybe some AR mini down front?? I love that plant lol

 

[Alan79]

The tank looks good liberator. I'll watch your filter build with interest too.

 

[liberator123]

Looking very nice. Maybe some AR mini down front?? I love that plant lol

I Just looked up that plant. And yes! I agree that would look nice up in the front maybe next to the stargrass. It would give it a nice mix of red and green overall to my tank! Thanks, I will look for some online if anyone sells it.

 

[GreenLily]

Wow, Lib! This looks awesome! I really like your theme for the tank. The stand looks so nice and I like the strain you used on it.

 

[Sk3lly]

I Just looked up that plant. And yes! I agree that would look nice up in the front maybe next to the stargrass. It would give it a nice mix of red and green overall to my tank! Thanks, I will look for some online if anyone sells it.

Yea it stays nice and short and it colours up so nice

 

[liberator123]

my canister filter is done guys! By the way, the idea behind this canister filter I got from uarujoey (HOW TO: DIY Canister Filter - YouTube)

First lava rock in the bottom layer.

Then my matrix media filter. I used a bath sponge thing and opened it up to make the bag.

Then the activated carbon.

Purigen, which I rejuvenated.

2 sponges.

And filter floss

And how it looks like when closed with pump attached.

The intake, which has holes drilled in.

It works!. I was worried my pump was not strong enough, but its good!

 

[Sk3lly]

Very impressed!

 

[pelphrey]

Saw that video on the DIY cannister not long ago. Was curious about it. Looks great!

 

[liberator123]

Bad news and good news.
Bad news is that the canister filter started leaking. it was not the correct type of male adapter end cap (it did not have a gasket). Also, i should have never tried to do this without using a bulkhead because the water seal o ring gasket is needed for anti leakage. IN ADDITION, never again will I use the cheapest silicone glue for this kind of project because they just don't work! I shouldn't of skimped out on that (I tried to save as much money as possible...).
The good news is, I found something in my local home depot that is way better than the end cap (female and male adapter) that uarujoey in his video said to use. Its called Test plugs. They look like this:

They are used to test leakages and pressures of pipes. When tightened, they are completely water sealed. They are easily removable, so I can access inside the canister. And theres no need to use silicone glue/pvc sealant!
They are about double the price compared to the end caps (2.50 vs 5), but honestly its worth it as you won't need to worry about sealing and leakages.

 

[liberator123]

Update*
So its about a month since i first started this project and the plants are really starting to grow! the riccia is already on its way in filling the rocks for the carpet!

There are some new plants too (its a small plant that I forgot the name of...) Also, i got the AR mini, but they only gave me one small cut off of AR mini... So im going to have to wait till it grows and cut off the runners to plant to the other side. I think ive made a mistake on where I placed the AR mini, so I might move it (more to the left). As you can see my fish is already in the tank.

So far there is guppys (a bunch now since my female got fry), 2 platys, 2 cory, 2 otto. The betta never worked out because he just never calmed down and kept chasing everything that swims! He will be housed in my 5.5 gallon.
My plan is to have: 3 male platys, 3 guppy (i might have to give away all my female guppy if my fish doesn't control their population...), 4 cory, 4 oto, 9 cardinal (or neon?) tetras, a blue dwarf gourami, and a german ram (idk which yet).
Question: Can dwarf gouramis and german rams be single in the tank? or do they do better with a pair? Should I get pairs?
And is 9 cardinal tetras ok? more or less?

 

[Old Scales]

Lib, I love your scape. The Riccia next to the rock is very nice looking. Also the moss trees are cool. WTG! OS.