# 20 gallon No Gravel tank.



## alyssabentley

So, I had this idea for a "no gravel" tank. ..And I started it in the planted section because I intend to put plants in, but then was informed of the "tank build section" so I'm restarting my thread here.

So, I had been wanting a 20 gallon long for probably three years, and had simply never bothered to get one for one reason or another. Don't ask me WHY I wanted that particular size tank, I just did. Something about it looking like a miniature 55 kind of intrigues me. Anyway, so I dug up my old 37 gallon tank, rinsed the dust off it, and posted it on Craigslist saying I wanted to trade it with anyone who had a 20 Long. It was a long shot, I thought, but then some nice young gentleman came along with one and hauled away the 37. So, now I have it set up on the pass-through in my kitchen. Well, "set up" is a rough way of saying it's sitting there with dechlorinated water in it, and a betta for interest. 

My plan is to set up a moss carpet, and have either rocks or drift wood or both set up with java fern tied to it. No gravel, just a clean look. I have NEVER made a moss carpet before, but I've read about it, and you never win if you don't try. This is what I've done so far: 










This is it, with water. The intake and out take you see on the end there are just to remind me where I kinda want them. They're not hooked up to anything, I need new hoses for my fluval 205. 










I've got another tank that houses three fish who seem to do nothing but kill any plants that aren't Java Moss. Thus, I have fistfuls of java moss that I sometimes try to control by tying it down, but there's just so much... I cleaned up a section of the tank pulling out two cups worth of the moss. No worries. There's more than enough to hide all three of my other fish. lol. 










This is some moss spread out on the cut plastic mesh stuff. I didn't want to crowd it too thickly, but at the same time, I didn't want it to be too sparse. 










What do you know? It sank on its own!










This one did not sink on its own, so I stuck a pot on it. The bare section in on the left end of the tank is where the rocks/driftwood will go. I don't have any of the other equipment I will need at the moment. That will come later. Hopefully that moss will grow. I wanted it in sections like that so I could lift one and take it to like, the bath tub and give it a haircut once in a while, to trim the moss back as it grows and try to keep it from killing the stuff that's in the mesh and rotting free and blowing about the tank. I know I can't prevent it from happening all together, but I might as well try. 

It's not gonna be a Takashi Amano setup, but it might be cool. 

let me know what you think.


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## cutlass79500

pretty cool hope it works


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## majerah1

Wasnt sure if this was the plastic mesh you meant,but it does indeed sink on its own,which can be helpful.Just be sure no fish can get stuck under it.


Looks like a nice start,cant wait to see it grown in.


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## Summer

neat, can't wait to see some progress reports!


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## alyssabentley

It'll be a while. 5-8 days until the equipment arrives. Then I gotta let that settle in.

I already know I'm going to get some Oto Cats - probably 5, in case one or two don't make the acclimation process, and then maybe 10..? maybe 12 smaller tetras of some sort. I really like the cardinals, neons and black neons. ... Though my favorite fish store often has white cloud mountain minnows, and I am a bit interested in them, I don't think they would be compatible with otos, since they have different temperature requirements. I'm not certain on a centerpiece fish. I know the betta likes it in there, but when the tetras get in, he is going to get nipped to pieces I suspect. ... so he'll probably go back into his three gallon bowl. I'm interested in getting a gourami. I have had... mixed results with gouramis in the past, mostly out of ignorance in stocking which I hope I have more or less cured at this point. >.> I really want to try a chocolate gourami, but I hear they are quite delicate, which makes me nervous. I could just get a "sunset gourami"... 

I'm just musing...


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## alyssabentley

Quick update: 

So an impending inspection of my apartment prompted me to consider breaking down my 29 gallon tank and selling Big Pleco, my angel and my green severum (who were all way too big and crowded in there anyway...) So... I did. And now I've got an empty, and totally gross looking 29 gallon acrylic tank on my living room floor... 

The Fluval 205 I wanted to hook up to the 20L tank apparently is busted. I suspect the impeller is rusted or bent. It makes a horrible noise when I try to turn it on and prime it, and it doesn't get suction. It had been sitting dry for about four years so probably something happened at some point in the several times I moved in those years... so I finally gave up and threw it away. But - since I broke down the 29 gallon, I just moved the Whisper HOB over to the 20L and plugged it in. I had a brand new 30" twin bulb light fixture coming, which showed up last Friday, along with a shiny new heater for this tank. --I don't believe in re-using heaters. An old, malfunctioning heater cooked my mated angelfish pair overnight one night, and I'll never take that chance again. 

More on the light - it's got a 10K white bulb and a "plant grow bulb" (whatever that means) and is sold as a T-5 HO lamp. at only 75 bucks, I figured I couldn't really go wrong with it. It showed up at my place in perfect condition and is sitting on legs over my tank. 

So - since I tore down my other tank, that meant I was free to use the driftwood covered in java moss in my new tank. I filled it up, and even though the grid is not filled in with a java carpet, I think the tank looks pretty good. 










I also picked up a snail. I think snails are neat creatures. I am adding 1 drop of calcium additive to the water, daily, for the snail's health. It's a marine product... and I would add crushed coral to the filter, but the filter is pretty densely packed with media as it is, and I'm afraid if I pack it in willy-nilly, it will just make a mess when I do the occasional filter cleaning. 










I got a dozen Green Neon Tetras, who refuse to be photographed as anything but streaks of greenish blue, and three Otos. Since I used an established filter and aquarium decor, my cycle happened super fast. I MIGHT, in the future, and after I have paid off the money I spent on getting this tank up and running, consider getting some red cherry shrimp... but only after the Betta goes back into his Betta home. RCS are too expensive to be Betta snacks/victims.


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## alyssabentley

Only five days after installing the light, and I'm seeing growth in the moss carpet! 










My additives are... fish poop, about 1/4 tsp of flourish excel, and a drop (literally) of liquid calcium per day. - though the calcium is not for the moss, but rather for my snail. 

I may take a daily photo from here on out, but I'll not post daily about it. ;-) Maybe I'll make a video.


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## Bee

This looks fantastic! I can't wait to see it all grown in!


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## xteenagedirtbag

looking amazing so far!


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## Summer

lookin really cool!


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## majerah1

Good deal!I bet this is going to be lovely when done.


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## alyssabentley

The moss carpet has started to show a bit more, but most of my java moss on the driftwood is now coated in green algae.  I'm considering taking out the 10K bulb and just running the "plant grow" bulb. I am combating it now by only running the lights when I am home, as I am fully aware that running the lights all day (as I had been doing) is what is causing the algae growth. Bad me! Bad! 

I ordered some red cherry shrimp from the shrimp farm and that shipment should get here sometime in the early days of December - I had to request that he try to get them to deliver it on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday so I can be home to receive them. I've been curious about shrimp for years, but always had angelfish who would eat mystery snails, otos, neons, other tetras, bettas, and once ate the eyes and tentacles off a Bristlenose Pleco... pretty sure the shrimp would have just been a nice snack for them.


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## Rob72

thats gonna look really cool when you get it done, cant wait to see more of the progress of it, cool idea


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## alyssabentley

Got off my lazy butt and took a couple update photos: 











This is the side I look at when I'm making breakfast or tea.


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## alyssabentley

Did a really big water change today - about 75%. I discovered that the java moss grids get fish poop through the holes and just sorta hide it underneath. I didn't want to tear the whole thing apart, so I just tapped the grids and the stuff flew up and I sucked it out. I also managed to knock most of the green algae off the moss, which totally surprised me. 

Removed the betta. He's back in a 2 gallon. Now the tetras swim all over the tank, which is pretty cool. The otos seem more at ease as well. I've got red cherry shrimp coming next week. Hopefully this all goes really well, and looks amazing.


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## alyssabentley

Another look at the carpet as it eeeever so slowly grows in: 










I'm seeing quite a bit of algae, so I'm now dosing a whole cap full of excel, where I WAS doing about half. At least it's not black beard algae... The exciting part is that not only is all my moss tipped in white, but all my java ferns have fresh young leaves growing with the transparent tips! I've NEVER been able to get java fern to do anything other than sit idle in a tank before. This time I must be doing something right. AND I've got one tiny piece of _anubias petite nana _ that was barely surviving with two little tiny leaves and was attached to a piece of driftwood in a betta tank. I popped that piece of drift wood in this 20 gallon a week ago, and I checked today and there are FOUR leaves! woo! 

Plus, now I have 30 red cherry shrimp: 










They're like little exploring aliens with the cool way they swim about the tank using their tiny little back feet! ... though, since they're red cherry shrimp of varying degrees of redness (one, I've noticed, is nearly clear...), I'm already thinking about getting a little ten gallon and stuffing it with moss and confiscating the reddest ones out of this tank and trying to breed redder shrimp. Is that wrong? I used to breed angelfish. Why do I like breeding aquaria so much? To be fair, these photos were taken two minutes after I put them in my tank, and most have colored up considerably in just a day. 

... here's another cool shot of the shrimp exploring some moss!


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## xteenagedirtbag

this looks like its going to be great


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## nhwoj

man, i'm dying to know how this tank is going - please post an update!


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## alyssabentley

Ask and ye shall receive! 

So, it's still not a "carpet" well... maybe a really old, raggedy carpet that's been beat up by an undisciplined cat... But after looking back at the old photos, I think it's coming along pretty well. 










(sorry for the algae on the glass in these photos. I've seen my shrimp eating the algae, and I am loath to remove it...)

And here's a happy lady shrimp! 










As you can see, she is just FULL of eggs! I like watching her slowly move about the tank. She stays in the denser moss and shuffles her eggs around with her swimmer feet. 










A shot of the tank from the kitchen...










And one from the living room!










It is quite nice being able to go all around the tank to see what's happening in it. I am seeing a lot of growth on each of my java ferns. Although the windelov variety is being drowned out by the java moss... At some point next year, I'll probably trim some of the old growth of the ferns off, since the old growth came with some unattractive brown spots on it.  

That's it for now! I am hoping to have an actual carpet by June of 2012. lol. If not, I found another technique of making a moss "wall" that would probably produce the carpeted look more quickly, but might be a bit messy.


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## jrman83

Surprised it hasn't already grown in. Java usually grows pretty fast. Cardinals will love that environment.


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## alyssabentley

Yes, not sure why it's growing slowly, but stuff tends to grow rather slowly for me, so I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. I'm trying to balance the amount of light so the tank isn't crowded with algae but the plants still have adequate light. Unfortunately, my work schedule often has me staying rather late... I suppose it would be most prudent of me to get a timer, so that I could have my lights on at night when I am home and so I can see the tank. 

However, no cardinals - I suspect cardinals would be the death of my shrimplets, since they're so big. Sticking with the green neons. I feel good that the fish are smaller than the shrimp.


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## nhwoj

hm - maybe the carpet is growing slower because the driftwood/java fern/java moss scape is hogging the light? idk. but still looks great, and i bet the shrimp love it!


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## cheshire319

This is a really cool idea! I love all the progress shots. Have any new ones?


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