# 20 long tank journal



## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Hey everyone after a long break I've decided to come back to this hobby. At first this tank was gonna be a 20 long reef tank but things change. When I decided to set the tank up I decided to get a convict, and from there an idea of a biotope came alive.

After extensive reading (more like obsession lol) there's only two types of fish from Quatemala which I could keep. The convict cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) and the Serpae tetra (Hyphessobrycon eques) both of which inhabit fast flowing rivers. Knowing convicts plants are out of the picture. Which prompted me to go with a river theme.

Currently the tank has an aqueon 20 HoB filter, maxi jet 400 powerhead and shop lights, which I have modified to be 36 inches long rather than the normal 48 inches equipped with 2x 4700k cool white 25watt t8 bulbs. For Substrate I am using play sand that painfully took long to clean. I've kept it simple with just rocks and some driftwood.

The Current Livestock are:
2 Convict Cichlid
5 Serpae tetra 
2 Jewel cichlid (soon to be removed)

Futur plans are to add more Serpae's to make the total 10

Here's some pictures 




































































































Thanks for looking 
Best regards,
Errol

P.S Planning to set up more biotope tanks ( planning to keep to the 15 gallon - 20g long tanks)


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking good Earl. It's nice to see you back in the hobby.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

thanks stuart, its good to be back


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## jay_leask (Apr 22, 2010)

cool little set up there very nice


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## Vman (Jan 20, 2011)

Simple,clean and surprising choice of fish. Fresh look and nice for a change.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

*20g long tank jouranl*

Thanks for the input guys 

A little update. The other day a member came to pick up the jewels, and catching them made a big mess. That gave me a reason to rescape so I did, I also added 6 kribensis juvies till I finish my 15 gallon SA tank. Also a little neat change i made a small little frame for my lighting and added a pair of "arms" for the frame to sit on 

Changed the future plans, Serpaes will be at 8 max, and adding a school of white cloud mountain minnows.

Heres some pics.

Zoomed out full tank shot showing new lighting set up










Full tank shot again










Some of the kribs










Side shot










The "arm"










Lights










Some cool shots


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

Nice looking setup, I like how simple it is!


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## snow (Apr 21, 2010)

Looking good so far. Nice and clean.


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## fisherman (Apr 22, 2010)

nice, i got a 20 gallon long also, ill post up pics soon since i got a good camera finaly.. after you get some plants your tank is set!!


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## Luke78 (Apr 24, 2010)

Errol , nice to see you back in the hobby.Both scapes were great,clean,simple,and nicely laidout.If i had to pick from the two,i would choose the more current one you have.Good to see more biotopes being made,you will realize soon enough what the fish's true behaviour is like when they feel more at "home".Question for you,why the kribs? soon enough they will multiply in your setup or become food for the others.You considering any plants in the near future? i would stick to some floating ones and call it a day.Any others and your running around to accomodate them too.nothing wrong,but finding the same plant species from your local could be testing at times.More reading and home work to do! Thanks for sharing,and keep the updates coming.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

fisherman said:


> nice, i got a 20 gallon long also, ill post up pics soon since i got a good camera finaly.. after you get some plants your tank is set!!


Sweet! I would definately check it out, I love 20g long set ups next to 40g breeders 



Luke78 said:


> Errol , nice to see you back in the hobby.Both scapes were great,clean,simple,and nicely laidout.If i had to pick from the two,i would choose the more current one you have.Good to see more biotopes being made,you will realize soon enough what the fish's true behaviour is like when they feel more at "home".Question for you,why the kribs? soon enough they will multiply in your setup or become food for the others.You considering any plants in the near future? i would stick to some floating ones and call it a day.Any others and your running around to accomodate them too.nothing wrong,but finding the same plant species from your local could be testing at times.More reading and home work to do! Thanks for sharing,and keep the updates coming.


I'm definately keeping the current set up for a long time , and yes its nice to see more biotopes being created each day. As for plants I am playing around with this idea of hanging a box on the side sorta like a refugium for an external riparium kind of thing 

The kribs are actually temporary, next month I'm planning on setting up a 15g of their own. And i'll probably give 4 away once a pair is made, then the fries will become food (not trying to cruel, but in the wild they do end up being food sometimes) or given away, I honestly dont tend to keep the offsprings from breeding pairs that form; It's just nice seeing nature do its magic


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## Ursus sapien (Apr 21, 2010)

nice. welcome back.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Ursus sapien said:


> nice. welcome back.


Thanks! =]

Well here's another update. I know I know, updates are coming in soo soon >.>. Anyways, so I took a trip down to fraser aquarium (totally wasn't impressed with their tanks) and bought 10 white cloud mountain minnows from them since king eds seemed to be out .

As soon as I put them in the tank, I dont know why but... well... lets just say it was a nightmare. All of my current stock started chasing them, even the serpaes! and taking nibbles out of the minnows . This caused me to knock everything down again to try and salvage the remaining minnows which caused this.


























Lights out:


















10 Gallon for the minnows/sneak peak for upcoming biotope:


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Just a quick update before class:

The tank is now heading into a planted tank direction after some nagging from friends. I'm planning on getting some more plants.

Alot of java fern
Sunset hygro
staurogyne repens
Suggestions for other plants are welcomed 

Here are some pics 

























Here is the future aquascaping plan. Just basically moving plants and adding them in.


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## fisherman (Apr 22, 2010)

nice cant wait to see it when complete


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

I liked the rock+driftwood set up better tbh. Simple, easy, and beautiful.

On a side note: I didn't know harlequin rasboras were CA..


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## shelby67 (Jun 19, 2011)

Why you getting rid of ur jewel? I'm looking for a male for my 2.5" female...


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Just a quick update:

Saturday I went around town and picked up some more fish and today I was pretty much sick as a dog so I couldn't go around pick up more. So I ended up working on the tank some more and played around with ideas.

The tank now has 5 Angels adding more when i get the chance to get some, 9 Harlequin Rasboras, 3 Congo Tetra. Tomorrow If i feel better I'll be picking up 6 cories and 1 more type of schooling fish.

My equipment got a little revamped. Added a second filter (First one has nothing but a boat load of ceramic rings, Second has water polishing media; Fine sponge activated carbon and more sponges) and a diy moonlight (L.e.d night light attached to my diy frame) along with 2 more 6700k bulbs, And diy Co2.

As for plants, I still haven't had the time to pick up staurogyne repens, red tiger lotus, or the sunset hygro. They will fill in the gaps in the pictures once I get the chance to pick em up.

Well here are some pics.

Tank shots:


































equipment changes:


















Moon light shot:


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

BelieveInBlue said:


> I liked the rock+driftwood set up better tbh. Simple, easy, and beautiful.
> 
> On a side note: I didn't know harlequin rasboras were CA..


Ya it was but naggy friends who spend alot of time hanging out in my house kept complaining at how its sooo plain and boring. I`m gonna be setting up a 15g on the bottom with a same concept once I get more funding 



shelby67 said:


> Why you getting rid of ur jewel? I'm looking for a male for my 2.5" female...


Oh I got rid of them because they`re insane, super agressive and kept fighting my convicts. Island pets has a ton if you know what you`re looking for it shouldn`t be hard to get a male, you should go give them a visit


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice looking tank. Personally I liked the earlier look of it too with the wood going sideways. That would've looked nice with plants...gives me an idea lol thanks for the inspiration. Judging the many changes you've made over a couple weeks I'm sure we'll be seeing more in the weeks to come lol I have to say it's fun changing things around till you get everything where you want it. Great job thus far!


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Wait I thought this was a 20L? That's a lot of fish for a 20g isn't it? Especially the angels.... Or did I miss something and this is like a 55?


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

BelieveInBlue said:


> Wait I thought this was a 20L? That's a lot of fish for a 20g isn't it? Especially the angels.... Or did I miss something and this is like a 55?


Nope that is in fact a 20 long, I`m trading those angels in for smaller ones as soon as they get too big, the tank isn`t crowded as it seems also. Plus having two filters 1 having a boat load of ceramic rings and one with polisher allows the tank to handle alot of bioload


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Just a quick update with some pictures:

Got 4 angelfish and added 6 pepper cories and 5 scissor tail rasboras. In total I have 31 fishes in this tank.

Finally picked up some s.repens and my tiger lotus which was huuuuuuuuuuuge by the way. Also just finished adding up the numbers I've spent on this set up, and total comes to around $561 (holy cow that's alot of money).

Oh and ya still no sunset hygro, got rained on hard today and had to go home to change twice and by the time I was supposed to go pick them up I was already passed out (lol).

Here's some pics hehe, who doesn't like pics eh? Should call this the ever so changing 20g long picture journal.

Full tank shot:










Angle.










Some of the fish that aren't hiding.


















The side thats 100% done.










Close up of the planted section.










One of the cories I got from charles today, they're absolutely massive!


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

The angels look gigantic in your tank


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Momobobo said:


> The angels look gigantic in your tank


I know! They're definately bigger than I thought. Oh well time to make room for a 40-75g tank


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## Sanctum38 (Oct 2, 2011)

Oops, wasnt paying attention.

NICE tank btw


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

well quick update,

Just finished moving everything around in my room after finding out I need to make room for another person. So I also had to rescape to fit the section of the room.

Here's some pics.


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## misdem (Jul 30, 2011)

oh wow, the rescape looks outstanding and very fitting. feels like the branches are coming out of the wall!


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## Emily (May 4, 2010)

That looks awesome! Love how you have designed it


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## Jamit (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice tank setup. And that red lotus is a very nice centrepiece. Bravo..


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Thanks for the compliments 

Well This wasn`t part of the plan but............

The tank gets hit by the afternoon sun around 3-4 till sundown and well i guess more lighting for the plants 

Here are some shots i took today


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Few days ago I found some new pieces of rocks that i've been looking for. I now have all the pieces where I want them, only missing a few plants. I'm contemplating on doing a carpet or not, feed backs on why or why not would be nice a list of low light carpet plants would be nice as well.

The tank only has 10 harlequin rasboras (4 gave to a friend, and other 2 went missing. I'm guessing they were the smaller ones and probably got hunted by this huge golden wonder killi I got) 3 congo tetras, a leopard pleco, and 6 pepper cories.

As far as plant goes, there's staurogyne repens, cabomba caroliniana, Nymphaea zenkeri, Hygrophila difformis, Mato Grosso,Microsorium pteropus, Rotala Magenta ( I think, not sure), Alternanthera reineckii 'Roseafolia'. And 1 unkown plant 1 I forgot the name of (some sort of stargrass? from stuart). Looking to still add some Sunset Hygro and Dwarf Hairgrass, possibly another smaller red lotus.

Full tank shot:



















Left and Right close up:


















Unknown plant ( back left, stem with little pinkish/green leaves)










Oh and the fish I took out are all chilling in a 10g holding tank:










EDIT: Sorry bout the bad quality pics, someone has been tampering with my camera.


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

Oh I really like this change, tank looks awesome


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Surprised not to see pygmy cories in this tank. They'd love this setup. those peppered cories look huge in that tank . That extra sunlight may cause some unwanted algae/diatoms.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Actually this tank got teared down as of tonight. Had to move it and make room for my 44. Good suggestions though, Ill keep em in mind


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Haha. Great upgrade to the 44 gallon.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

a 75g long is also on the way for some altums


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

That's a sweet size tank. I'd go bigger with a 125 gallon - long, if I had the room and space.


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## er201 (Apr 21, 2010)

Definately, except Its on a second floor bedroom hehe, Also Its just about the same lenght as my headboard


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Nice to sleep with the tank.
75 gallon is a nice tank. Nice pick up.


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