May 6, 2008

I never planned on getting into the planted aquarium hobby. Truth be told, my son young Mickey got a cheap little plastic aquarium for Christmas a few years ago, and I was stuck supporting it. Needless to say we over stocked it, and had to buy a bigger one to fix that, but we over stocked that too. So we bought a 20 gallon tank. And I had a great idea… “Hey Mickey, if we put some plants in there, they’ll soak up all the amonia, and we can put in even more fish!”

Boy was I a chump. It didn’t work out like I planned, needless to say. But I did discover diatomic green water, and Internet forums where I could ask stupid questions. I could have done without the green water, but discovering aquarium plant forums was a wonderful thing!

The tank wasn’t much of an aquascape. But by the end of the year it was healthy and growing very well. So I entered it in that Aquatic Gardeners Association (AGA) 2005 Aquascaping Contest. It wasn’t a competitive tank, but it was fun to enter and be judged.

Technical Info

Plants
Alternanthera reineckii, Blyxa japonica, Cabomba caroliniana, Cladophora aegagropila, Cryptocoryne balansae, Cryptocoryne blassii, Eleochari sparvulus, Glossostigma elatinoides, Lilaeopsis novaezelandiae, Ludwigia repens, Microsorium pteropus, Riccia fluitans, Vallisneria spiralis, Straight Vallisneria, Vesicularia dubyana, Vesicularia fasciculata

Fish/Animals
Botia striata (Zebra Loach) 2, Crossocheilus siamensis (Siamese Algae Eater) 3, Hemigrammus rhodostomus (True Rummynose Tetra) 3, Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (Cichlid, BlueRam) 3, Otocinclus vittatus (Oto Cat) 2, Paracheirodon axelrodi (Cardinal Tetra) 12, Caridina japonica (Marsh Shrimp) 6

Decorative Materials
Single driftwood piece in corner, obscured by java fern and moss.

Background
none

Lighting
1 x 65watt PC for 12 hours, additional 1 x 65 watt added for 3 mid photo-period “noon” hours

Filtration
Eheim Ecco 2230

Additional Info
Flourite substrate, pressurized CO2, all water treatment in-line (heater, CO2 diffuser, CO2 sampling, fert injection, UV, filtration)

At any rate, I’m still a bit attached to this tank. My son Mickey helped me get it going, it’s where I started learning about planted tanks, and I had a ton of fun with it.