20 gallon planted tank project

[Jshroom86]

Hey everyone I am venturing off the trail for a little bit, I have to wait for my light funds to reach that magical amount so i can buy my new reef light lol. IN the meantime my girlfriend (sarah) wants to do a planted tank so ill be tracking this build also. Let me know if anyone has experience with this and thier succes. I would like to stay away from the CO2 fertilization for now (till my reef is done lol) But i have a dual 24" t5 so which bulbs would be best? Also I am running a aquaclear 50 and a 200 watt heater hope this isnt to much i just had this stuff laying around and its all pretty new lol. Does anyone have experience with carpet like ground coverings. If so what is the best one to get. thanks for all your input

[jeremyreef]

No experience with this but I will be tagging along with the t5s maybe just do ge 6500k daylights, or a 6500k and a aqua blue for max par.

[hdelectraglide]

sounds cool tagging along

[mayhem_audio]

your co2 have you seen those yeast powered systems

[satch12]

Ive tried planted tanks a few times with varying successe, since you are using an aquaclear, make sure that your water level is as high as it can be so it is barely breaking the surface of the water. If it breaks it a lot you will lose a ton of CO2 and the plants wont do as well. The plants will make up the difference for the O2. The t5s will be great for a planted tank and you could keep some pretty cool plants with those. As stated above I would stick in the range of 6500 to 10000K for best results, really 6500 would be ideal but it makes for a very ugly display IMO but if you threw in a 10k it would help with that. As far as the yeast systems I have never personally used one but have read quite a bit about them and have seen many people make a DIY one with great successe, but since its only a 20gal tank I wouldn't worry about it. As long as you keep the water level high you should be ok. Also when you are buying plants make sure to look for plant snails they are tiny pest and reproduce faster than rabbits and can really destroy a tank pretty quickly, that goes for just about any snail though. Hope this helps and good luck, keep us posted.

[Jshroom86]

Okay as of now I have about 30lbs of tahitan moon black sand (caribsea live sand) and 2 large rocks plants are 5 wysteria and 2 green myrio still workin on pics ill get some up soon

[ghurlag]

I'm considering planting my son's 30g goldfish tank. I have done a little research on what does and doesn't work with them. Good news is that I shouldn't have to worry about nutrient shortage

Lighting-wise, I haven't decided what route to take just yet...

Where are those pics? (asks the guy who is the worst about posting them )

[Jshroom86]

sounds good I promise ill have pics up soon guys lol I have been absolutly slammed at school. I also switched everything from my 29 gallon salt into the 40 breeder so ill post up some of that to on my other thread. Gold fish really need alot of space, such as a pond, but, if thats what you like then go for it. something orange and really pretty are lyretail swords their one of my fav freshwater fish there are lots of very pretty fish that youll miss if you just window shop at petsmart and jacks. Austraillian rainbows or congo tetras are always pretty to. Also I am going to start selling my plants that I am growing out fairly cheap I may even set up a 55 for live plant selling just depends on how much money ill have to throw at it. let me know how your build is going and ill hopefully post up pics this week lol

[ghurlag]

The goldfish are my son's... Long story there that I won't bore anyone with... So I am making the best of the situation...

As far as other freshwater fish, for the sake of discussion, freshwater was my forte for many years. In fact, the Australian Rainbows you mentioned? I had a breeding pair for a few years. . I also kept a pair of silver dollars for 10 years (some of the first fish I ever got). My last tank was a 75 gallon with a piranha that lived to be 11 years old. I was almost out of the aquarium hobby altogether after that, bur here I am now!

As soon as we get a house where I can put in a garden pond, they are moving outside, and I'll set up a planted tank with some of my preferred freshwater species, but that's a way down the road