# Two 20 longs



## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I am setting up two 20 long tanks today, later in the afternoon.
I got one of the black rod iron stands and since I don't want black in my house, I painted it beige, so it blends in with the lighter wood that I have in my house.
The top tank will have AS in it and is mainly a holding tank right now as I am doing a 75 gallon project now also. the bottom tank (the stand I bought is to house two tanks either 20 long or 29 gallon, one on top of the other) will, or is still set up with a thin layer of Peat moss, then some Laterite and then about 2 -3 inches of SMS charcoal. This is the begining layout, I did the work tonight but the tank is still cloudy. It is relaly planted in groups for holding and testing the plants before I put them in the big tank, then I will go back and plant this scape at a later date.
I just had nowhere to put the plants I am buying for my 75 gallon, and had all this manzanita and had to get a tank going to hold plants, so I got a little crazy with this one and did not get to the top tank today, that will be finished tomorrow and I hope to have clear shots of this one by then.

Oh and I had to anchor the wood down with some strategicaly placed rocks, they will be there for a couple of weeks and look out of place, but oh well.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Can't wait to see how this one turns out! I like the look of the twisted wood.


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## PAINKILLER1009 (Jan 3, 2007)

I would diffently get a background on the bottom tank. There is that outlet behind the tank, sticking out like a swore thumb. I like the slop you have in it though.


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## K20A2 (Aug 12, 2006)

This looks like it would make a kickass home for some dwarf cichlids. What are your fish plans?


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

some updates
I haven't done a background yet, can still see the plug, huge eye sore 
The rocks are to keep the wood down and will be moved in a week or two once it is logged.
Still not planted complete and many of the plants are just planted in groups for holding purposes, they will end up in another tank. or in no tank If I don't end up liking them, I got some plants that I have never kept before, the photos looked cool, but I will decide when I figure out if I can grow them for one and If I like them as good at the photos that prompted me to buy them.
I seeded the front right with HC and plan to cover the rock border on the right around the sand with something. There is a Nymphae Rubra bulb in the back left corner, that will stay and probably look really cool when it fills in.
Later on, I will probably use some Mosses, Riccia, or Fissidens on the branches, we will see.
I am pretty happy with the sand, it got messy when filling, and I had to use tweezers to get the last of it after blowing it away.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Yes K2OA2 it is for Apisto Cacatoides, three females and a male or two, they already spawned in the community that they were in. I ran out of room for the three females which were seperated in a holding tank waiting to get something like this set up. I got in some Hongsloi's and had to put the females in with the male in a 29 community. One week, two at most I thought, but within 7 days all three females had broods. Most all are gone due to being in a community tank and not having a prefilter on the intake, and not being able to feed them really well, but they are in colors now and when I get them in this week, I am sure they will take off.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

some updated pics, got the rocks out that were weighing down the wood.
Sorry again for the crappy pics, it is a digital camcorder that I am using.
Our 3.nothing MP camera that was about 4 years old, died out on us recently, so all photos are very poor quality. But what a nice excuse to get a camera right. Call my wife and tell here I need a really nice SLR - 555 2585 Thanks

Still not scaped with plants, they were sort of tossed in and I am still aquiring some that I want for in here and some will be going out, I didn't have anywhere to put them when I set this up, so holding for a while, but I have a holding tank now, so out they go.

Some of the plants are starting to take off nicely, most of the die off is gone, and I was getting it out daily, so not too many problems so far, algae wise and water quality is good.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

since I don't have very much space left for photos and not enough time to go thru them, this is a link to another site where updated pics are.

Thanks for looking, suggestions welcomed.

http://aape.naturalaquariums.com/forum/index.php?topic=1229.0


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Well I did not update this on this forum in a while, and I have some pics so what the heck.

I pretty much went a totally different direction with this from what it was at first.

I played with a few different things and settled on this and it has matured into a pretty neat little tank IMO

This was after a trim but a while back so it still has not filled in completly.
After these shots and after I do maint tonight, If I get it clean and looking good, I will post some more pics, if not then I will do it after the weekend.


























here are my new favorite fish.
FLAG FISH










And my FAVORITE PLANT right behind that larger fish on the right. Hemigraphis Traiain(sp?)










Though I do really like the Flag fish and plan to have them in almost all of my tanks because of their love of hair algae and that they keep the tank very clean, they are not my fav fish, but one of them.
I do have the passion for Apistos and there is one female Cacatoides and a trio of young unsexes Mcmasteri in there. I hope there is a male and 2 females, I picked one that was much larger and two that were much smaller then the bunch, but they are wild caught and no telling if they are from the same batch or not, but a friend got 20 of them from the ACA from Apisto Dave Soures and if I end up with all males or all females he will make me a swap so I am not stuck.
There is also an albino bristlenose pleco and a few ammano shrimp in this tank. I plan to add more ammanos and maybe a few snails for a while, but when the mcmasteri grow up, if I have a trio, I will let them have this tank for a while, and or share it with a trio of hongsloi, and the female cacatoides will go back to a tank with her kind.

Thanks for looking, any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


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## mikenas102 (Feb 8, 2006)

Man I love the dimensions of the 20L. I have to have one. How long did it take you to get the manzanita to sink on its own? Also, have you noticed any agression from the Flag Fish?


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

no aggression at all.
I think it was about 2 weeks before I took the rocks off.
They are thicker pieces, the thin twiggy ones sink in a few days to a week, but some of the bigger pieces can take up to a month.

Yes, I really like the 20longs and you can light them really well for under $100


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Really love this. That piece of wood is so dynamic IMHO and the curve and twist just really suits the tank's proportions. I also think you should take the caption on the picture over the tank as it's title!


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

ed seeley said:


> I also think you should take the caption on the picture over the tank as it's title!


I AM UNIQUE, 
good catch, I think I will use it and I will have to give credit for the name to my 8 year old daughter Bridey and you.

Thanks Ed!!


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## arowanaman (Jun 14, 2006)

LOL I liked the picture above the tank also.


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

Well, since you like the photo sooooo much. I better post the whole thing.]

This was a school art project that Bridey made for me and of course it was FISH ART

Here is her wonderful masterpiece.










I have two other wonderful daughters, Madilyn is 5 and just started kindergarten.
She gets the Picotope shrimp tank for her class room

Bridey gets the 10 gallon guppy tank that I put in her 2nd grade classroom last year, we took it home for the summer and it is going back to her new 3rd grade classroom this year. Last year, it was just one of the AGA goldfish starter sets, the 10 gallon, the hood and light, filter, net, sack of fish food, aquarium salt, water safe stuff, and whatever else.
Well, we just got some multi colored gravel and some plastic plants for it last year.
This year when I did Madilyn's shrimp tank, here -http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/aquascaping/43524-picotope-shrimp-tank-new-scape-my.html 
I felt it would be wrong to send her guppy tank back bare, so I miked in some schultz aquatic soil, and did a small rock border in the front, some white sand and tied some moss to a rock with some narrow leaf java fern in back of it, tied some moss to some manzanita twigs and made a "little tree" and planted some downoi, some jave ferns and some anubias nana petite and some ambulia. sparaticaly, this needs to be somewhat low manit for the classroom. I have had to cut back some of the ambulia and it may get to be too much in the end and be removed, but it is sort of there to suck some nutrients while everything takes off. 
This tank is WAY overgrown with guppys right now. When it came back for the summer, there was a female Beta in the tank and she must have ate all the babys, we took her out and in about 3 months, this tank is jam packed. We are off to the pet store to trade some in this coming week

Here is a quick pic of her class tank.
It is not a master scape by anymeans, just something thrown together really quick, but the kids will love it I think. Also, these are quick photos I took right now of a dirty tank. We are out the door for an overnight road trip to Hungtington Beach in about 10 minutes. My wife is doind the Avon Breast Cancer Charity walk this weekend, so another weekend away from home for me, this is about 12 in a row and I won't be getting to my 75 gallon tank this weekend like I promised myself.
Mark my words, it will happen next weekend, Sat the 22nd. I will be starting a build thread and I It is not up on the 23rd, I invite all of you to bad mouth me relentlessly, over and over until I do.

Enough with my rant, here are the poor quality pictures.


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## ed seeley (Dec 1, 2006)

Thanks! 

I teach 10 and 11 year olds and have a tank in my classroom and one in the school entrance! It's great that you're putting tanks in for the kids. I've just bought a group of Blockheads (_Steatocranus casuarius_) to go in our class tank and hopefully breed! The kids choice, kinda!


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