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20g sorority NPT Journal

21K views 268 replies 15 participants last post by  BettaLover1313 
#1 ·
Hi, this journal is to help track the progress of my 20g NPT and hope that my little investment grows (literally!).

After planting my 20g tank the first time with flourite as the substrate, pool filter sand as the cap, flourish tabs, sub par marineland LED lighting, and plants from azgardens.com (got totally ripped off.. don't go there), it kind of just survived for about four months and didn't really do anything. I was even treating it with flourish root tabs, Prime, Stress-zyme, and Excel. My female betta, however, has been thriving ever since being in the tank. I had a decent amount of plant death including; all frogbit, all duck weed, all corkscrews, all razor sword, my ulvaceus bulb was doing great but is now nearly dead (I suspect it has to do with something it goes through seasonally), and my dear red tiger lotus bulb which is BARELY holding on for dear life at the moment. So all in all after all the plant death, new substrate (got rid of the flourite) it was at least an $80 lose not including the new plants, substrate etc.

So moving on, I've just moved to CO and my tank's base got pretty messed up in the move... so I took the opportunity to re-base it, re-organize it, and replant it. I've since got better lighting as well, (2x 6500k CFL's) and lamps with a decent par rating. Now for some pix-

I decided to go with Miracle grow organic potting mix this time becasue I've seen some seriously good result with it.

One thing I noticed when cleaning out the flourite.. I did not use nearly enough substrate. I had maybe 1.25" max. I made sure to give it ~2" this time with a 1" cap of pool filter sand (still have that 50lb bag of sand).


Heater, lights, sponge filter, plumbing, and some furniture installed. I rearranged the Colosseum to better suit the light-plant coverage. I also closed the valve to the air stone in the Colosseum. I think another problem I was having was too much surface movement/aeration going on.

So down to the plants.. this time I made a $50 order from http://www.shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com. I saw them suggested on here pretty strongly, saw the discount we get for being members, and read up that the owner loves being extremely generous with portions ordered. I can say from first hand experience, this place is awesome and she was extremely generous with my order. I paid over $120 from azgardens.com ($40 just to ship and @ the time, I lived in AZ. again, do not buy from them) and got maybe half as many plants.

She shipped the plants wrapped in pink fiberglass (not shown), sealed in plastic (I mean sealed not stapled), and finally wrapped in newspaper. These plants were not going to arrive DOE.

My water sprite.

My Giant Hygro.

My Alternanthera, I only ordered 2 bunches. :)

My razor sword.

My dwarf lily bulb which is seriously sprouting. Just an FYI, that bulb is HUGE, at least half the size of a baseball!

My red Tiger Lotus-not with this order, but I just wanted to show how deep the roots were before I pulled it (nearly 3"!). As you can see the leaves keep sprouting and dying, but I wanted to note the roots. This guy was expensive and I really want him to live :-( I'm not sure what to do with him.

I also got a Marimo moss driftwood piece. Its relatively small but a nice addition.


Other plants put into the tank that survived include an Ulvaceus bulb (barely making it), Java fern (strapped onto rocks/the little fake wood hidey hole), Moneywort, and some smaller species of Hygro.

So after five plus hours, I finally got the tank planted. I must say I'm satisfied with the results. I think I did a decent job with placement as well-



Thanks to Lilnaugrim, I made sure to plant my razor sword right this time among many other things she advised and helped me with.


Like I said I'm planning on making this tank a sorority... Right now its only got my single female betta and 7-8 Nerites left over (2-3 got lost in the move. They just blended in too good with the flourite :|). I however feel much more comfortable, once its established, about adding more females to it where as before I felt there was not nearly enough hiding spots. My girl is having the time of her life right now hiding all over the place and yes, she goes in and out and sometimes stays in that little log on the right side of the tank lol. One thing I really regret not doing was washing out the miracle grow before putting it in. I don't know why I didn't (I even did it with the flourite) but I'm suffering the consequences now from little sticks/dirt floating up to the surface every now and then. The water is also a bit murkier than before but I am doing daily/every two day water changes for a while. I'm sure the balance and bacteria has been disturbed and it needs to go through its cycle again. I'll also need to aerate/poke the soil a bit now because I've got a lot more substrate than last time.

So pretty much that's where I'm at atm. I'm treating the water with prime since there is a lot going in and out daily, treating the water with excel every 1-2 days, and treating it with stresszyme every week for now. If any of you guys see any red flags with my NPT, things I should change, or any suggestions feel free to let me know.

~Stealthlead
 
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#30 ·
Wow, it seems like I'm either sitting around doing nothing or super busy! I finally got some really good work up here today and was out for a good 9 hours. Anyways, I have some very exciting news :-D First of all, I did a tank change today and found some weird semi clear spider web type of stuff at the bottom of my AQ. I did my best to vacuum it out, I can only imagine its some kind of algae or something that is forming around the plants. But what I also noticed was a SUPER huge leaf that belongs to my red tiger lotus bulb!!!!!!!!

I know its hard to see in that picture but my tiger lotus' leaves have never been over half an inch in size before dying. This leaf is like 3" long!!!! I think I have a good chance of my tiger lotus actually blooming which is one of my AQ dreams lol.

Anyways the news gets even better, I went to the AQ shop on my lunch and picked up four new young betta crown tails!!!!!!!!!!! They are all very healthy looking active and very playful -

^This girl looks a lot like Clarissa. I'm still debating on a lot of names :3

^This girl is really pretty and looks like she will crown very nicely!

^This girl is a bet peculiar, she is a few different shades of grey and has quite a spiky dorsel fin, lol.

Okay I was planning on picking up three blue crown tails and I had already ended up with three that were pretty diverse (who wants all the same right? I was starting to realize this lol). But then I saw this girl starring right at me. I instantly melted and had to have her as well!! D:

The guy at the AQ shop must have thought I was a pretty big tard for squeeing at this girl but I couldn't help it lol. She doesn't have lipstick but I love the red she has on her crowns and she is just so pretty. The picture doesn't do her much justice =p

I have two more older female betta's that were supposed to come in the mail today as well but they haven't yet and I'm a bit worried =\ but other than that its been a great day lol.
 
#31 ·
Babies!!! Oh that cambo girl is definitely beautiful! Normally I don't like cambo's but I'm starting to have more appreciation for them since I just got one in the mail today lol

The lotus looks great!!! I'm super glad the NPT thing is working out well for you ^_^

Also I think the first two pictures of your girls are the same picture....
 
#32 ·
Opps lol you're right, this is the second girl -

She's got a really dark body but these nice vibrant fins, its cool =]

Yeah seeing that tiger lotus made my day lmao!! I'm getting some awesome growth in the npt with only a few plant deaths. Those red plants are rooting out everywhere now!
 
#34 ·
Beautiful new bettas!
 
#35 ·
Thanks guys!!

More updates, been working my rear off but I still managed to do a tank change and all the individual cups for the grrls. First off I'll show some of the insane plant growth I'm getting (almost every plant is giving out roots from every direction!)-

That is showing my dwarf lily which has showed some incredible growth. I thought it would kind of have to die first and re-root itself.. yeah it just grew like crazy lol.

Also my two remaining females finally came in from Lilnaugrim who I'd like to thank =] The first one is Asteroth-



She is a totally calm and chill grrl. When I had to pick her up for her much needed water change, she literally let me pick her up and didn't struggle at all lol!! She is really pretty =)

This next grrl is a really pretty yellow/orangish Veil Tail (I think, I'm not the best at ID'ing lol). I'm thinking of calling her Apple Bloom-



She is quite feisty but is very friendly and always looks right at me when I take a look into her cup =p She has really cute beady black eyes as well.

In other news after doing my tank change last night, I noticed Clarissa was acting lethargic, staying only at the surface and constantly gasping for air. I quickly checked the NH3 ppm and it was already at nearly 1.5ppm right after the tank change o_O I quickly scooped her out and put her into some fresh water back in her bowl. She's been sulking a bit and mad at me ever since I put her in there, but at least she's safe-


So basically I have this big aquarium that has nothing but snails in it and all my girls in a ton of cups on my Luna wine cooler-

I'm waiting for the NH3 to go down before I put Clarissa in but so far all the grrl's are looking very healthy and of course still a bit shocked which is understandable. I've been refilling there cups with water and treating them each with a drop or two of prime every day and they seem to be doing great.
 
#36 ·
My ammonia levels are still ridiculously high.. all the time, even after water changes, consistently being from .5-1.5ppm. I think it must be the decomposition of some of the plants since it is still relatively new to getting planted, some are dying off, and some are getting some insane growth. I think it is specifically my Rotala looking plant (I can't remember exactly what it is) which is half dying, and half flourishing presumably from the re-planting. I'm thinking of pulling my girl out again just to be safe.
 
#37 ·
Oh yay!! I'm so glad they made it safe! Yeah Asteroth was always a really chill girl lol, except for when she wiggled out of my hand, oh well! And that's a really cute name for the yellow girl! Love it :-D And yes both are female VT girls, Asteroth long finned and yellow girl is just normal with a tad bit of black pineappling on her sides.

As for the ammonia, yeah it's most likely just the plants dying off and all that jazz. As I've said before, NPT's are a pain in the butt to work with at first but after everything settles it's a breeze! So just keep on with water changes and hope it settles soon!
 
#39 ·
The two new girls have been really warming up, of course they seem to be sick of there little containers (I would be too) but they are so excited every time I come over to them, especially Apple Bloom lol :p Asteroth's fin is healing really well and they are both eating a TON of food, they are literally scarfing it down in seconds lol. The other three girls are still a bit scared and hesitant to eat but are starting to warm up. When I feed the cambo girl she attacks the food, its really cute lol. I've really got to think up some good names :s

I did a serious water change and tank clean last night. I discovered a bunch of rotting plant hidden in a patch of moneywort, the red plants and the dwarf lily. I siphoned out probably an entire cup of rotting/decaying plant and clipped off a lot of dead plant (still have a ton of more growth than death, everything is rooting). I think a lot of this might have been responsible for the NH3 level. I got the new water in, let it sit for a few hours, did another test and this time I compared it with tap water. My judgement has been a bit off with the coloring and it looks like I have no NH3 at the moment.
 
#40 ·
That's great about the tank! Was it the Alternanthera that died? Mine just died, stupid plant lol. I really like the way it looks though so that was unfortunate.

Yeah they're little piggies they are! I'm glad they settled in very quickly, and Asteroth's tail is healing still :-D They're all young so their fin regeneration period is super quick!
 
#41 ·
Are you kidding!? That Alternanthera is growing faster than the US debt! None of that stuff has died and all of it is rooting out from all directions, I love that stuff. The dead plants were in between a few clusters, and the moss log, specifically this one (old picture)-

And its that tallest plant that has thinner looking leaves, its the only plant name I can't remember. Some of it died off because it was in the AQ before I rescaped it, but a lot of it is growing back. I just had to move the plants around to find piles of dead leaves hiding in a few areas, and this time I wasn't afraid to siphon up the weird cobweb stuff on the bottom either.

Haha little piggies xD!! I always feed them first and before I'm even done feeding all the other girls they've already gobbled up there meal, I'm like :shock:Apple Bloom always freaks out when I picked her up and jumped out of my hand for a second too, lmao so did Tessa which is what I'm calling my Bluish/Purple Ct girl :-D I'm getting a lot better at picking them up though.
 
#42 ·
Oh is it the Water Sprite or the Water Wisteria?

Yeah my Alternan. didn't like the current apparently :-/ died immediately in my 33 which is just weird....no clue.

Yeah just try not to pick them up ALL the time since you are taking off a bit of their slime coat but only for a moment should be fine. You can alternate picking them up and pouring them into a net over a bucket and them putting them in the new water. :)
 
#43 · (Edited)
Water Wisteria!! That's what it is. It wasn't bought with the package I currently have and wasn't doing so well when I put it in. Its got tons of new growth now but that and a few other plants like some of the water sprite has died. I'm sorry to hear about you're Alternanthera :( Its a really pretty plant, I love them. I've got almost no current in my tank.. just the one air stone in the filter, and I'm debating taking that out too. I feel confident I could try frogbit out again.

I just pick them up for a few seconds on daily water changes but I can start netting them. I figured I'm messing with there slime coat a little bit, so I was actually wondering that myself.

Also I just noticed my Red Tiger Lotus literally great another few inch's over night.. one of the leaves is now about an inch from the surface :shock: This growth is almost scaring me, it went from a germinated bulb with 2 less than half inch dying leaves to an insanely huge flourishing plant with 3"+ leaves now. Its growing even faster and bigger than the Red Dwarf Lily!!! The substrate really was the problem, this Miracle Grow mix is literally growing miracles lol. I'm so ecstatic because my $10 plant isn't dying lol!!
 
#44 ·
lol well I'm glad your Miracle Grow is giving you miracles!! That's always an important thing XD
 
#46 ·
I believe he's got the 9 Watt 6,500K CFL's in the two clamp lights, could be wrong though lol
 
#48 ·
So I've just noticed that my female CT #3 is nearly identical to Tessa in coloration, size, and I think they might be from the same family. CT #3 has a bit darker body so I think Teressa is a fitting name for her especially to compliment my first girl :p now all that's left is the grey girl...
 
#49 ·
Oh that's right, and you switched down to 5,000K right? sorry >.<

Oh I just looked at your signature and I love that all your snails are named Gary! haha, that made my day XD
 
#50 ·
I haven't changed the lighting at all since I got CFL's o_O they are dual 6,500k 13 watt CFL bulbs in lamps with decent PAR rating from Lowes. The lighting was part of the problem versus back when I was using Marineland LED's, but ultimately the substrate was the problem because I had the CFL lighting even when I was using flourite for at least a month.

I can't figure out what to name the grey girl! She is a bit of a loner and looks different from everyone. She reminds me of... me! In other news the Tiger Lotus is still growing. An entire leaf grew out of the tank as of last night.
 
#52 ·
Loving this! Subscribed! :D I just wanted to let you know that I have the same Colosseum, and it's now COVERED in algae, and the paint chips off every once in a while. I'd keep an eye out for floating chips if I were you, just to be safe :)
 
#53 ·
Thanks!! =) I got the Colosseum for $15 off of CL. I drilled a few holes in the top so water can more easily pass through. Its been in service for what I estimate over a year and I've never had any paint chipping problems. I'll keep an eye out though!

All of my girls are eating normally and looking very healthy, but most are getting very bored being in the little Tupperware containers. It kills me to see them in there but its for they're own good. One girl is the exception though; every time I walk over, Apple Bloom is ecstatic to see me and stares straight at me the entire time and follows me. Its so cute!!

My NH3 level has been at zero for the last two days! My tank floor is getting pretty grimy though. The dwarf lily and Tiger Lotus are now taking over my tank. Just to give you guys an idea, the Tiger Lotus' biggest leaf is now 6" long (Not a typo xD)! I'll get pictures soon!
 
#54 ·
My NH3 levels are zero for the third day in a row! Misreading the coloration of the test tubes was the main problem for me but once I started comparing it to new water it became a lot easier to tell. I'm going to start acclimating the girls to the AQ water now.
 
#55 ·
woohoo!!! Apple is so adorable! She used to do that to me too ^_^ Asteroth just didn't give a care! And Derpy Fins is awesome! lol Does she have yellow eyes too? Because that would just be the best! :-D

Glad your NH3 is still reading zero! That's a good thing!!!
 
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