20g L progression Journal

[SoveriegnR]

So a small update:

I finally finished fully stocking the tank. Part of me wants a focal fish, but I don't want a betta (i mean I do but not in this tank, not with these tetras and 2 filters lol) so idk.

The tank now has 12 Bloodfin tetras, 6 Peppered corys, and 4 nerite snails. Everyone is doing wonderful and despite my diatom outbreak after adding the initial first stock, the tank is growing in nicely! I have another filter on the way to add more water flow (cus a powerhead would be too much) because I want to get rid of this algae issue LOL the snails are doing an amazing job though cleaning up that nasty brown stuff haha.

I have some more dwarf chain sword carpet coming as well as a small bundle of another foreground plant to add some diversity in the carpeting, should get here saturday or early next week.

Lights are out for the day so I'll get a pic tomorrow to share, but for now I'm very happy with this tank. Last tank I set up years ago, I had to purchase fish from Petsmart and to keep it simple... it did not end well for the fish. Lots of deaths from sick fish and ich outbreaks (I firmly believe my tank parameters were perfect and unfortunately I just kept getting sick stock, which from a chain store shouldn't be shocking) but now I'm blessed with a LOCAL fish store <3 I haven't had a single death since introducing these fish about 2 weeks ago and since finishing the final stock last saturday (got the last 4 bloodfins and 2 more snails) everything has been smooth and an amazing experience.

 

[Delapool]

Sounding great! I guess it sounds like the diatoms should eventually go?

 

[SoveriegnR]

everything i've read about brown algae/diatoms says that it's quite popular in new aquariums and as parameters stabalize it goes away on it's own, it's usually due to high nitrates (even though my readings aren't above average, my plants are just starting to settle in so i imagine that for awhile they weren't really consuming nitrates to their full extent) or silica (but no test to really test for silica lol). My lights are ok, so the next thing i can think of is flow (a lot of algae growth usually manages to take hold due to not enough flow towards the lower level of the tank) so my hope is adding a 2nd filter will push the process along even faster.

 

[SoveriegnR]

The tank P:

 

[Barliman]

That's very pretty, and the bloodfins are a great choice.

 

[SoveriegnR]

Rescaped P:

 

[murph3400]

What kind of fish do you have in the tank?

 

[murph3400]

Substrate is ECO complete?

 

[murph3400]

Still up in the air about ECO or sand. Looking to have corys and pleco. Do not want to injure any fish. May do some of both

 

[SoveriegnR]

10 Bloodfin Tetras (the yoyo loach chased 2 of them around so much they jumped out a small gap in my tank and died on my floor while I was at work -_-)
6 Peppered Cories
1 yo-yo loach (his friend was an and was going to return him to store for a different one but he decided to off himself first...)
4 Nerite Snails
1 Paradise Gourami.

Substrate is eco complete yes, with some normal black sand in the center there. I used to have all eco complete but decided to add some sand for the loach and cories. Honestly I would keep them in as natural of substrate as possible (so sand). Only reason I went with eco complete initially was a) it's nutrient rich for my plants and cycle, and b) it is so light that I didn't think the cories would have issue sifting through it, and they don't, however, despite how light it is, it is a 'rough' gravel, so I wanted to provide them with an area in the tank that was nice and soft.

If you want to bank your substrate, i'd do half and half. use gravel for the banking (along side either large rocks or media bags to prevent gas build up from deep substrate) and then sand everywhere else P: