# 20G Freshwater planted community tank and setup...



## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Just wanted to share the current state of my tank and setup.

Setup
1. Aqueon 20G High
2. Aquaclear 30 (foam, purigen, crushed coral, biocubes)
3. Aqueon 150W heater
4. Aqueon clear plastic cover
5. Fluorescent lighting cover (from my old Walmart tank).
6. LED lighting with 9 LEDS (5 Cool White, 2 Neutral White, and 2 Royal Blue), dimmable driver Mean Well ELN-60-48D, 1/4"x18" drilled heatsink.
7. Eco-complete substrate

Contents
1. 3 Black Skirt Tetras
2. 2 Neon Tetras
3. 1 Dwarf Parrotfish (IPU name, but I think it's sort of dwarf chichlid)
4. 5 Serpae Tetras (I think).
5. 3 nerite snails.

6. Annubias var. Nana
7. Annubias barteri var. bateri
8. Java Fern
9. Christmas moss
10. Some sort of hairgrass
11. unknown plant that seems to grow.
12. Limnophila sessiliflora
13. Cryptocoryn cordata

14. Zebra Rock
15. Malaysian driftwood
16. Mopani wood

Lighting duration: 10 hours.

Pics:
Tank pic during cycling stage









Tank after cycling and with fish added.
The white stuff you see on the substrate foreground is crushed coral that I accidentally dropped in there while cleaning the filter.









The unknown plant.
This pic is from the new growth that I clipped off the original plant and replanted. The original plant had reached the top of the tank.









Lighting Cover.
Standard lighting cover you get from any tank kit. However, the fluorescent fixture has been removed for the LED.









Inside Light Cover.
Removed the fluorescent fixture (held in by screws) and replaced with LED.









LEDs when on.









NOTES:
First off, I don't know what kind of look I'm aiming for.

As you can see from the tank during cycling and tank after cycling that the sessiflora had grown quite a bit. That is an understatement. It had grown so much that most of it had reached the top of the tank within a week and I had to cut the tops off and replant along the rear of the tank. 
The unknown plant had also reached the top and I also cut the tops off and replanted around the original plant. This plant is very strange. The Eco-complete has a problem holding this plant down and the dwarf parrotfish had lifted it a couple of times. What I noticed is that this plant doesn't grow any roots?
Hairgrass seems to not do much although I see new blades coming up but slow. That dwarf parrotfish had ripped up a couple of bunches so I had to replant them.
Christmas moss hasn't grown much. 
Java fern has recently started to extend it's rhizomes.

Currently, I'm still trying to figure out a proper dosing regime for ferts. Initially, I was all over the map trying to use up my existing ferts. I would dose Big Als general purpose plant supplement weekly along with Seachem flourish comprehensive weekly, and excel daily. that didn't work out too well, the crypts started showing signs of deficiency (yellowing of leaves) and different types of algae started growing on the mopani wood, the sessiflora, and the unknown plant. I've recently changed to seachem's dosing regime (found on the internet) using excel, comprehensive and NPK. Also, I have a feeling the lighting is too high so I've backed it off slightly for the time being. Hopefully, the algae will subside and the nerites finish off what's left on the leaves.

Comments welcome.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

very nice setup! I'm about to set up a 20 G tank as well


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

Thanks. Please post some pics when you get it done... I like looking at other people's tanks LOL.


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## nigerian prince (Mar 8, 2013)

i never even knew you could put led's into a tube fixture, interesting


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## ckl (Sep 9, 2013)

nigerian prince said:


> i never even knew you could put led's into a tube fixture, interesting


Me too. It's just the housing for the actual tube fixture. I took all the guts that pertain to fluorescent lighting out, and put the LED hardware in there instead... which is just the heatsink and LED's. All the other stuff, the driver and dimming hardware are located behind the tank.


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