Sfgiants415's 20 Long Blue Velvet Neo Tank

[Sfgiants415]

Hey guys. I've never really posted any of my tanks before so this will be my first. It's a 20 gallon long that houses only blue velvet neos. The tank was started a couple weeks ago.

I cycled the tank in a couple days thanks to a seeded sponge filter I purchased from angels plus. They give you a seeded sponge filter and all you have to do is stick it into your tank.

This time around, I stuffed the sponge filter into my canister filter and made sure the water passed straight through the sponge filter. It worked like a charm. They day I got it, I raised the ammonia to 2 ppm and a couple days later, ammonia and nitrites were at 0 and my nitrates were at 20 ppm. Couldn't have gone any better. I highly recommend them.

Equipment

I have an odyssea t5 light fixture being held by some arms I bought from Lowes. The canister filter is an eheim 2213 rated for 55 gallon tanks but I might upgrade to a 2215 and put this filter in my spare 10 gallon. You can never go to big!

I also have a black background to bring out the colors of the plants and shrimp.

Flora - In each of my tanks, I always have at least one crinum calamistratum. Easily my favorite plant for years. It always seems to be the centerpiece plant in all my tanks.

I kept the rest simple with various crypts, Christmas moss, lace java fern and some anubias. All of these plants were just trimmings from my other tanks. The brown java moss was in a tank I cleaned out 2 MONTHS AGO. I couldn't believe it was still alive! I'm sure it'll green up soon. That stuff is impossible to kill.

For the hardscape, I have some rocks that I personally collected years ago that I brought over from my 20 high. I have cholla wood for the shrimp and some manzanita branches I ripped from a dried manzanita tree in Santa Cruz lol

Well I guess that's it, time for some pics!

 

[Fresh2o]

Nice setup. Tank looks much bigger than it is. What substrate are you using? I like the feeding tray. I might try that so that less food gets into the substrate.

 

[Sfgiants415]

Nice setup. Tank looks much bigger than it is. What substrate are you using? I like the feeding tray. I might try that so that less food gets into the substrate.

Yeah the tray helps a ton with avoiding unwanted pests.

The substrate is a mix between black Diamond blasting sand and petco sand. It's what I had leftover from other tanks.

 

[Fresh2o]

Yeah the tray helps a ton with avoiding unwanted pests.

The substrate is a mix between black Diamond blasting sand and petco sand. It's what I had leftover from other tanks.

Nice idea. I may have to try something similar. Silly question...do you remove the tray or dish to add food or do you keep the tray or dish in the tank and add food to it? I really don't like sticking my hands in the tank when I don't need to. I was thinking of taking a pipe (1/2" PVC) and lowering it into the tank and dropping the food into the tube. It will sink into the tray. Am I over thinking this?
Yes, I thought that looked like Petco sand.

 

[Sfgiants415]

Nice idea. I may have to try something similar. Silly question...do you remove the tray or dish to add food or do you keep the tray or dish in the tank and add food to it? I really don't like sticking my hands in the tank when I don't need to. I was thinking of taking a pipe (1/2" PVC) and lowering it into the tank and dropping the food into the tube. It will sink into the tray. Am I over thinking this?
Yes, I thought that looked like Petco sand.

I understand your concern. I remove the tray with my hands because I remove the food after 2 or 3 hours. I just wash my hands without soap. After that, I get a gravel cleaner and pick up the remaining bits on the gravel. It probably isn't necessary but I can't stand having scuds. I can kill off planaria and hydra with my dogs dewormer but scuds never dissappear.

Since you don't like putting your hands in there too much, maybe you can leave the tray in there, drop food with a pvc like you said, and suck it up with a gravel cleaner?

 

[Fresh2o]

I understand your concern. I remove the tray with my hands because I remove the food after 2 or 3 hours. I just wash my hands without soap. After that, I get a gravel cleaner and pick up the remaining bits on the gravel. It probably isn't necessary but I can't stand having scuds. I can kill off planaria and hydra with my dogs dewormer but scuds never dissappear.

Since you don't like putting your hands in there too much, maybe you can leave the tray in there, drop food with a pvc like you said, and suck it up with a gravel cleaner?

Sounds like a plan. What would work nice for a tray is a Petri dish. I work at a lab so maybe I could obtain one. I've got PVC in various sizes lying around. Need to get a gravel vac (my other tank is planted and I don't vacuum it). Thanks.