hey guys so i have a new tank for my room at the commune as theres no way i'd be able to be alone without my fish for a year. unfortunately i cant bring my current setup from home cos it would damage the layout and its too big. so my plan is a 20litre heavily planted with a betta and some shrimp. my plantings will be HC, HM, hairgrass and moss. i'm toying with using terrestrial plants as a filter so theres one less plug for me but a heater is non optional, and probably a light. so the idea is to start on it next week when i get my pocket money. i have the tank and its sitting on my desk looking very empty and i have so seriously control my impulse to just go out and buy a fish to go in it lol. i'v foung some gravel thats crushed up tigers eyes that i love so i'll be getting that and have like a grey stone mountain in the middle that i'll be building myself. so all this starts on monday and i'll cycle the tank, definately! sigh but its so depressing looking at the empty tank, what do you guys think of a tank without a lid? i havent bought a lid yet and am wondeing if i can get away with it?
well pics will follow soon and i'm hoping to find a doubletail or halfmoon, preferably green or a cellofane. right now though i'm keeping my distance from the store that will have the double and halfmoon bettas in stock as if i see one i like i wont be able to resist taking it home lol.
if i do get a proper filter i want it to be an internal one thats small and inconspicuous but will have to see what i can find and afford. student buget need i say more? ;-)
hmmm no one ever comments on my post cant think why. anyway pocket money arrived today and i have an aquarium club meeting on saturday where i'm hoping to brainstorm ideas for my natural filter idea, i'm thinking of using clover as its a nitrogen fixing plant, some terrestrial mosses and some primitive ferns in either round drip trays or in a long thin rectangular one. hopefully by next week i'll know if i need to get a traditional filter or a small pond pump.
at the moment i'm almost obsessing over it as i miss my dog so much, first week back at varsity and away from her so i'm trying to keep my mind offitand the logical place for it to be is in my new setup. soon as its going i'll post pics.
I noticed that when there aren't any pictures people seem to comment less. Your plans sound lovely and I hope to see some pictures once it's set up. Are you going to add CO2 to your tank? HC is difficult to grow and does best with CO2. If you want the plants to filter your tank Oldfishlady recommends fast growing plants for your tank. Maybe instead of terrestrial plants you could add floating plants (they are good at filtering water). But then you run into lighting problems cause the floating plants may block out the light that the HC needs. So I don't know, lol.
Tank without a lid is ok, as long as you keep the water an inch or two down from the rim.
Sounds like you'll get lots of good advice from your aquarium meeting. Make sure to update with news on what you plan on doing and pictures. I'll be watching
hey guys so i finally got the tank setup, it was driving me mad having an empty tank lying around lol. so i kinda chickened out on the natural filter thing and managed to find a small internal canister which is my prefered filter. i have got a section of my rock scape thats above water so i will be putting terristral mosses on there and using airline hose to lead the water to there so it runs down the top thus redusing the current, i hope. the filter i got seems to be missing some pieces and i suppose i should tank it back but i dont think the had another one of the same one and i like it as its quiet and small so i'm winging a diy thing with my tube of marine silicone and will see what happens.
i am dosing with excel and ferts and want to bomb it a bit to kickstart the growth as i'm using small cuttings from one of my other tanks. but this might change if i get antsy about getting my new fish in there lol. anyway forgot my camera at home on sunday so pics will follow next week sometime.
well absolem arrived home today and he's a beautiful turqoisy blue green delta tail. i was going to wait for a halfmoon but then i went to the lfs with a friend and they had a couple of interesting ones a lovely very tiny green crowntail with a black head and a few who looked like absolem. in the end after a long walk about looking at other fish and plants i settled on him as i dont have the right ph for crowntails though i was seriously tempted. absolem is very shy and tends to hide in his mountain alot but i think that'll change once he gets used to me. he has 6 white cloud minnows as tank mates and thats all thats going in bar a few shrimp possibly. my gravel is to coarse and sharp for cories or khulis unfortunately. i have finished the plantings and just have to add the moss but forgot to buy super glue today so will have to do it tomorrow. i'm trying to figure out how to get pics from my fone onto my laptop but not having much success, forgot my camera in the entrance hall wall unit again, knew i was forgetting something when i left. i finished the waterfall as well today.
From the math I've done 20 litres is equal to 5.28 gallons.
So you're keeping 6 white clouds, 1 betta, and some shrimp in a 5 gallon? That sounds like too much to me. I'd consider moving the white clouds or your betta to a different tank.
That's just me though. If you've managed to keep your levels under control with this kind of setup before then I guess it's worked for you. =] From what I've read though the white clouds get to be 1.5 inches so the 6 of them alone already overstocks the tank a tad if you're going by the gallon per inch rule or 3.4 liters per 2.5 cm rule.
What plants are you putting in your tank other than the HC and the hairgrass? Also what is crushed tiger's eye?
BTW this isn't an attack I'm legit just curious. =]
No worries, first off i plan to do weekly to bi weekly water changes, and the waterfal i mentioned the water from my filter outlet runs through a smal bed of marsh type plants which wil also help wit filtering. I'v gt bacopa and anubias as wel as 2 different types of mos, spikey n weeping i think. And finaly tigers eye is a type of semi precious stone like jasper or amethyst, jst theyve crushed it into fine gravel wich i prefer. T tank is right next to my bed so i'l be keeping a close eye on it.
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