My 20g high journal!!

[chris127]

I bought a 20 gallon high about 2 months ago. its since then been cycling and i finally added fish on may 15th!
Fish added included:
2 Red serpae tetras
2 Red eye tetras
2 Tiger barbs
1 Albino cory cat

Here is a picture circa May 20th

The gravel looked to bright and big and since then upgraded to this

about 6 hours ago the the dust has settled a little bit more and the fish have gotten their color back

Piece of Cypress driftwood. found it myself!

What i plan to soon get:
Some Anubias, Java Fern, Crypts to replace the anacharis weeds.
1 red serpae, 1 tiger barb, and 2 pepper cory cats

I'll update pictures when i get the new stuff!

 

[Zagz]

Looks great! Can't wait to see what it looks like as you get the new stuff added.

 

[chris127]

thanks! and neither can i. i love taking trips to the LFS but i hate having to pull my wallet out lol

 

[Karackle]

Hey it's looking good! I have a 20gH tank also, what lights are you running on yours? I love the piece of driftwood you have in there. I think now that it's nice out I might go searching for a couple more pieces to add to my tank. I like your substrate color. What is the plant in the front left of your tank with the paper-thin looking leaves? it's quite lovely!

 

[chris127]

thanks! my set up is low tech, just the stock 15W light (8000K). my substrate is estes river rock. and the plant in the front is a nuphar japonicum. its flourishing under low light, which is sweet. but i don't think you'll find it in any stores(ive never seen it before), i got it off ebay.

 

[chris127]

the waters started to clear up and the serpae got their color back!

 

[Karackle]

Looking good! Yeah, mine's low tech as well with just the stock 15w lights. Glad to know i'm not the only "crazy" going with such low light I'm glad to hear your japonicum is flourishing, it's quite a stunning plant!

 

[chris127]

i cant afford to buy the super ballasts lol! not having to trim the plants every week is an advantage to low light. how much do dose your tank with ferts?

 

[Karackle]

I usually dose Flourish excel and comprehensive once a week according to the directions on the bottle...sometimes i forget and it's more like every 10 days though. I try to remember to dose Excel twice a week. But my tank is such a jungle when I forget that i'm not too concerned lol.

 

[chris127]

i dose mine with Florapride once a week.

CHARRGE!
they wanna fight the camera? LOL

 

[Karackle]

hahahaha, cool shot!

 

[chris127]

got what i planned on getting today

additions include:
2 pepper cory cats
1 tiger barb
1 serpae tetra
2 ghost shrimp that got caught in the net. yay freebies!

2 bunches of wistera
1 huge java fern
1 cryptocryne

i hope i didnt over load!! lol

1st pic is acclimating 2nd is the finished product and 3rd, Oscar Mayer feels left out.

 

[chris127]

the cory cats are already too big for my tank my friend is gonna put them in his 55gal. i wish there were dwarf cories!

 

[Karackle]

There are dwarf cories! And pygmy cories Corydoras pygmaeus (sp?) and hastatus I hear stay quite small! I had some pygmy cories in my 5g tank, unfortunately when the tank had problems they didn't make it. But i've been thinking about trying them again once I get the tank stable again. Or I might try them in my 20g instead once I get the pH situation sorted out in that tank. We'll have to see Other than the pygmies i've never had any cories though, so you could wait for someone else to weigh in on whether there are any small enough for a 20, but that's what I've heard and the pygmies i had were tiny. Good luck!

 

[chris127]

really? all of the 4 pet stores i went to only had green, peppered, and albino. lame huh? i guess ill start my search for the pygmies

 

[kribbman]

Im curious about your heater, Is that an "all Glass" 100 watt?
I think I have the same one, It came with my tank. Heres the thing from what I can see in your Pics, it seems to be completely submerged. I leave mine out up to the point where the plastic begins. I figure they are water resistant, but im kind of reluctant to submerge mine completely...

Nice tank by the way I like that pic from the side.

 

[chris127]

thanks! yeah mines an all-glass that came with the tank. its 100% safe if you fully submerge it. i was scared at first too, but then i kept seeing it underwater in other tanks so i finally tried it.

 

[Karackle]

Hahaha yeah, the small ones are certainly harder to find! I gave up and went with Otos in my 5g, and then happened upon the pygmies at a different pet store farther away that i'd wandered into to pick up some dog biscuits because I was doing other errands in the area. Of course I wandered into the fish area and saw the little guys! I was so excited! I was of course devastated when I lost them, but the tank is nearly stable again, so pretty soon i think i shall be the momma of some pygmy cories again

 

[Purrbox]

There are dwarf cories! And pygmy cories Corydoras pygmaeus (sp?) and hastatus I hear stay quite small!

There are actually three dwarf varieties that max out around 1" when full grown. Corydoras Pygmaeus, Corydoras Habrosus, and Corydoras Hastatus. All are much more active than their larger cousins. There are a few more varieties that max out at about 1.5", but they aren't as common and I don't know their names off hand. Generally most LFS aren't going to have these in stock, but many can special order them if you ask.

 

[chris127]

so i went to the lfs yesterday to ask them if they had any pygmy/dwarf cories. they said no and the smallest amount they could order was 50. then i said that i would definitely take home 4, but they said they would have trouble selling the rest and there isnt enough tank space right now bummer. maybe when they free up some space