# My 20g Planted Tank w/ Pictures



## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*Here are some updated pics of my tank. The Stargrass has finally grown to the top and everything looks more green.*


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## ellyabillion (Feb 20, 2010)

Looks great! Very lush.


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## AbadHabit (Sep 9, 2010)

Excellent tank. Love the uniformity of it.


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## intensejustin (Sep 8, 2010)

Looks awesome!


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## MediaHound (Jul 19, 2006)

Looks really beautiful. Freshwater tank of the month material for sure. 
Soon we'll have a tank of the month system setup here so I hope you look out for the announcement and enter. Everyone else, get your tanks ready, competition will be fierce


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*Thanks everyone! Yea, Ill be looking forward to that TOTM lol.*


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

That's really lovely.


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## littlefish (Aug 4, 2010)

Beautiful tank, especially the grass.


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## seventyfivegallonsofun (Sep 13, 2010)

Very nice!


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

The tank is beautiful. Your red tiger lotus look a lot different from mine. Your leaves (and stem) look a lot more thick and rigid, but some of them also look very green. Is that algae or just the angle of the shot?

How much does your pH change daily from time on to time off?

How often do you have to trim the grass and stargrass?

Can you do a zoomed in picture of the foreground plants around that rock? I want a better shot of the grasses, HC, glosso, and their roots in your substrate. Glosso never wanted to stay rooted in my flourite substrate (does not help that I had 2 large SAE).


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## RhumbaGirl (Aug 1, 2010)

wow really nice, I like the stargrass. Is it easy to care for and find in lfs's?? I don't have co2 on my tank just lights and flourish by seachem.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

Dmaaaaax said:


> The tank is beautiful. Your red tiger lotus look a lot different from mine. Your leaves (and stem) look a lot more thick and rigid, but some of them also look very green. Is that algae or just the angle of the shot?
> 
> How much does your pH change daily from time on to time off?
> 
> ...


*I need new batteries for my camera and will post a zoomed as soon as I can.

The green is fuzz or hair algae. I noticed once the leaves get old, it starts to happen. I usually trim it off, but I kept some this time to feed the otos, bristlenose and shrimps . I may have a different species of Red Tiger Lotus than yours, my leaves you are right, are thick and rigid.

My pH is 6.4 when lights and CO2 are on. At night with them off it is around 6.8 or 7.0 I believe. My pH is 7.6 right out of tap so I use 75% RO and 25% tap, which is why my water is 6.8 or 7.0 at night.

I trim the stargrass once a week. The stargrass I have to trim often is because the lower leaves that dont get light start to get very thin and die and all I see is stems. The fish end up swimming between them and it looks ugly. I completely restarted my stargrass and started to remove stems where it looks crowded. Allows more light penetration so the lower leaves dont die, also, I noticed the leaves are bigger when I do this. I trim the grass only when it grows too tall. 

My HC and grass I just stick them in the ground and they spread on its own. I dont have big fish so maybe thats why it stays rooted. I dont know how big the flourite peices are but the Eco-Complete's gravel size ranges from 1mm to 5mm. I think it helps with the rooting. *




RhumbaGirl said:


> wow really nice, I like the stargrass. Is it easy to care for and find in lfs's?? I don't have co2 on my tank just lights and flourish by seachem.


*The stargrass is really nice . I dont ever see them in my fish stores around me. Had to trade with my community for it. Its bright green and is really showy compared to the other dark green and plain green of other plants. The leaves are very very fragile, if I scrub my tank with that magnetic cleaner and accidently hit it, it breaks and ends up having black edges. The plant requires lots of light and good nutrient rich substrate. Reason why I know is because I gave my friend some clippings and his are basically not growing. He doesnt have as much light as I do so his stargrass are really leggy with tiny leaves. Same with what happens to my lower leaves that dont get light.

CO2 isnt needed because I grew it once with no CO2 and with topsoil, and it grew just as well. It actually grew better in topsoil than my Eco-Complete. The plant was larger and grew 2x as fast. *


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## jons4real (Sep 6, 2010)

Very nice! Love it!


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

Thanks for the reply.

Your pH is a lot like mine. I start with pH 7.0 and drop it down to about 6.2-6.4 each day.

I lowered my light because I was getting tired of the daily trimming but this limited me on some of the plants I could keep. I too trim my long stem plants before they get to thin at the bottom. Ocassionally I just remove the bottom half and replant the top "fuller" half of the plant. This works great if the plant has some roots shooting off.

You probably have 100s of shrimp that you don't even know about...lol. Do you ever find any in your filter when you clean it out? I used to find 4-5 every time I removed my Fluval for cleaning.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

.


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## RhumbaGirl (Aug 1, 2010)

wow thanks for the info on the stargrass. I'll try to keep my eye out for some and give it a try.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

Dmaaaaax said:


> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> Your pH is a lot like mine. I start with pH 7.0 and drop it down to about 6.2-6.4 each day.
> 
> ...


*I ended doing that once to my Stargrass. The bottom half was basically bare while the top half was full of leaves. I had to chop off the bottom half and replant the "fuller" half. From then I learned I had to trim my Stargrass frequently. 

When I used a filter I would find 4-5 shrimps too when I dump it out . I put them in a shot glass during my cleaning and I would pour them back into the tank. Sometimes I get the urge to just uproot all my plants and remove all the hard scape just to see exactly how much shrimp I got. lol..

Also pertaining to my fuzz algae. I asked another expert on a different forum that actually attended Tom Barr's presentation where he speaks about the plant's photoperiod and here is what she says. It might be good info everyone too.*

*Hi NursePlaty,

First of all that is a very nice looking tank; your plant growth looks very good. Let me start by saying that I don't think I ever get rid of all my algae issues, but I do try to minimize their existence in my tanks.

It sounds like your CO2 is in good shape.

I would increase changes to least 33%. Try to do them twice a week until you get your algae issues under control and then try just once a week. Algae, being a lesser evolved plant, has more trouble adjusting to changing water conditions than more highly evolved plants. Extra water changes can weaken or kill some algae. Dosing Seachem Excel at 2X the Daily Dosage has algacide properties which I have found to be effective on the filament type algae as well as BBA.

I use the API Nitrate Test Kit as well. I also had problems with "0" nitrates when I tested. Long story short, I wasn't shaking Bottle #2 for the required time before adding the drops. Once I followed the instructions, I found I had all sorts of nitrates! You may want to re-check. Let me know what you find!

Clado is not a lower algae and probably will not be effected by water changes. What I found was if I removed as much manually as I could before siphoning for my water changes, and then siphoned out as much as possible with the water removal, I started to make some headway against it. It took a couple of months with 2X weekly water changes/manual removal/ siphon removal but eventually it was gone.

As for lighting; Tom Barr gave a presentation at GSAS last Tuesday where he discussed "Light Limited; CO2 Enriched" aquariums and how to use light to regulate plant growth and minimize algae growth. GSAS members can download videos from our video library so last night I downloaded and reviewed the video of Tom Barr. As a result, I am rethinking my use of light. I posed a question to Tom during the Q&A about light intensity (WPG/PAR) verses light duration (photoperiod). What he said was if we have high light intensity we need to decrease our photoperiods. He suggested that we try decreasing our light incrementally until plant health (not necessarily growth) is effected. Obviously with less light we will have less plant growth, but plant health may not be effected.

I have decided to reduce my light by 30 minutes a day then wait a week and see what happens to the plants. If the plants are still growing well (although maybe slower) well then I will reduce by another 30 minutes per day, wait a week, and check again. Obviously with less light I will need less nutrients and may actually be able to reduce water changes. Hopefully I will see less algae as well!

Why not try to cut back your light? You may find you save on maintenance (especially on stem plants), electricity, and reduce your algae issues.*

*Tom Barr made a good point with the plant growing well although it is slower to reduce algae problems. My light was currently running at 7hr/day. I reduced it to 6. Maybe will need 5. Remember that my 20g is only 12" tall and at 3.45 wpg. It might make sense to lower it to 5hr/day. *


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

That Tom....lol

I went the other route and just lowered my wpg output so that I could enjoy my tank more throughout the day. I think the algae you are seeing is only on the older established leaves that are proably starting to die and make room for new leaves. As they die they begin to leak nutrients back into the water and this can promote algae growth on those leaves only. One other way to tell if your plants are getting enough light is they will start to close up (like they do at night) but during the day. This basically means they got what they needed for the day. Of course not all plants do this, but perhaps your Stargrass?

If you dose with Excel, I found that for algae problems, use a syringe or dropper and dose directly on the leaf. This gets the "algaecide" effect of the Excel right on the spot without overdosing your tank. You can also try a small drop of Hydrogen peroxide. This will turn the algae red and is often used with BBA.

So what is your nitrates at by the time you do a water change?


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*Yea both my stargrass and lotus close up during the night. And yes it is only the older leaves that get the algae. I used to be a nursing student so I have many syringes with needles. I used this to spot treat algae but I realized there was so much algae and they just kept coming back. I wouldnt want to keep dosing Excel to rid the algae, I'd rather prevent it from ever occuring. 

My ammonia nitrite and nitrate are always 0ppm. So after a water change it would probably still be 0ppm. I even bought a new set of nitrate bottles to re-test my nitrate because it caught me offguard that my tank started to maintain a 0ppm nitrate ever since 2 months ago. So I retested and I got the same results. I also shake every bottle. My plants must be just having a buffet on my nitrates. 

I believe my algae problems are either light or nutrient imbalance because I sometimes forget to dose my micro and macro every other day. I also only do small water changes 10% weekly. So I am starting to do 30%-40% to reset my system similar to EI dosing. Also because I read from that other moderator in the other forum that lower lifeform algaes cant adapt to a changing water condition like the more complex plants do. I need to get a phosphate liquid tester. *


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

My guess is that it is 100% due to you having no nitrates. The "fuzz" algae you mentioned, I'm guessing is Cladophora or green beard algae which grows when nitrates are too low. You need to overstock your tank!....come on get more fish!! LOL Nerite snail should also be ablt to eat those types of algae, and I'm surprised that the bristlenose doesn't.

I don't have that problem since I have 6 Discus and feed them live worms. My nitrates are always at 10-15ppm. The only algae I ocassionally get is BG algae. This seems to only pop up in the corners of the tank or on some stems that were recently cut an leaking nutrients.

The large 50% EI weekly changes is to reset your nutrient levels that should be on the high end (mostly phosphates and nitrates). If you are still on the low end, I would keep with the smaller changes and just add more nitrates or fish.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*LOL feel free to ship me some discus!! . I do believe it is my 0ppm nitrates contributing to my problems too. Someone has told be before but at the time I was still unsure. My bristlenose is still a hatchling sort of. My friend gave him to me when he was as small as a tadpole. He is now 1.5" big, about as big as my otos. If I stock my tank with more fish, I'm afraid my CRS and RCS will eaten. I'm already paranoid with my 10 neon tetras lol. I would need to get more fish that stay small. I wanted the Green Neon Tetras. I always see them in the AGA Aquascape Contests and they look very very blue and flashy. I know..I know.. green neons but they look blue? I actually saw some at a special fish store and they are very bright and shimmer both green and blue. I hear they stay smaller than common neons. But they are quite expensive T_T

Some of the aquascapes I see in the contests, they have very small amounts of fish in big tanks. I think they dose with NO3, KNO3 or CaNO3. I was planning to order some dry ferts from GLA and just double dose on the NO3 to keep my nitrogen levels up. Or I just need something that doesnt harm shrimps, but has a large bioload. Like mystery or apple snails or something. But then I'm picky and I am not fond of godzilla snails. *


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

You probably only need KNO3 for dry fert. This will supply nitrate and potassium which is also, usually limiting in most tanks. Check out Rex Grigg for competitive prices. However if you decide to overstock some, I think you will enjoy watching a larger school of ~30-40 neons in your tank. The more you add the better they will school. 

Just to get you in the mood I thought I would post this (come on, you know you want more...LOL):








(see the amano and 1 baby red cherry?)


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*To be honest.... I would have a myocardial infarction I had that many cardinals swimming around my shrimps!! Plus they reach 2"!!! But I will do a school of green tetras though. They have blue stripes, from the head to tail with no red and reach a maximum of 1". Ill buy a small amount of them over time until I get around 30 of them.*


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## Big Dog (May 17, 2010)

Very nice picturs.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Beautiful tank with just one problem....need more fish.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Dmaaaaax - that your tank/neons? A lot more than 30-40 pictured.


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

I have ~30 cardinals in my 75g tank along with Discus...but no, that is not my tank. I wish I could take pictures like that!

That is one of Tom Barr's tanks. I was trying to wet Nurse Platy's appetite to add more fish by showing her that the amano and cherry shrimp in the photo above seemed to be fine with all those tetras.


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## HookMeUp (Sep 27, 2010)

so what happen to your lotus plant with all the algae now? I would think its very difficult for you to get rid of it. because im having trouble getting rid of those algae on my plants also


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## Dmaaaaax (Nov 20, 2008)

Typically in a well set up healthy tank, algae will only grow on leaves that are dying because those leaves begin to leak minerals back into the water. Most people just cut those leaves off, to stimulate new growth, while adjusting their lighting or nutrients to minimize the chance of that particular algae from popping up again.

The key is to find and ID the algae, figure out your defiency or excess, remove the algae, and adjust your tank. Then fine tune.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*Yep, I just trim it. Find the cause, adjust my tank, and see if it happens agian. I lowered my photoperiod from 7 to 5 1/2 for about half a week now. There is still the same hair algae on one of my lotus leaves, but I cant remember if it from before the adjustment or after. So, I'm still working on it . *


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