Fix This Tank

[Thinair421]

OK, so heres a picture of my tank.
[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
I know it is 20H. I have black medium gravel for my floor (no other substrates). The fish that I have in there:

3 Black Mollies
3 Goldflake Mollies
2 Balloon Mollies
2 Two-Bar Platys
2 Golden Gouramis
1 Rosy Barb
1 Long-Finned Zebra Danio
1 Medium Pleco
1 Large (5") Synodontis ocellifer Catfish
1 Angelfish

(I know my tank is overstocked probably, but we can all thank my girlfriend for that one!)

Furthermore, I have a black plastic hood with an 18" 15w Flora-Gro bulb, and a AquaClear 30 (150 watts) heater. Also, there are several plants, 95% of which are non-aquatic (screw pet stores, I'm buying internet style now) and will soon die, 3 pieces of driftwood (2 large & 1 small), and 2 rigid holey rocks.

What I really want to know is what i need to do to make this tank a successful planted aquarium. I'm curious about my lighting, substrates, and some good plants that look amazing but are sort of beginner plants. I don't care if the plants are low or high light, but I want to be able to both in my tank if I ever wanted to (if possible). I am willing to upgrade a pretty decent amount of my stuff (not the actual tank though), so get me started if you could. Please tell me where I can purchase this stuff too, and if you have an idea write how much it's going to cost. Thanks a bunch guys. Peace.

-Butters-

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

[Lady Hobbs]

Your link doesn't work unless we register.


3 Black Mollies
3 Goldflake Mollies
2 Balloon Mollies
2 Two-Bar Platys
2 Golden Gouramis
1 Rosy Barb Belongs in schools
1 Long-Finned Zebra Danio Belongs in schools
1 Medium Pleco Pleco's can get 18 inches
1 Large (5") Synodontis ocellifer Catfish Size: Up to 19 inches
1 Angelfish Does not belong in this tank. Will get too large.

First of all, you have 17 fish in a 20 gallon tank. WAYYYYYY too many. And all the wrong ones.

You should get rid of all the fish I remarked on, stick with the mollies if that's what you like. Just those alone are more than enough for a 20 gallon.

Planting your tank will only make your tank more crowded.

Please tell your gf to stop buying your fish!!!!!!!!!!!! Or buy you a 500 gallon tank.

[crackatinny]

If you want help, you would do much better to upload the pic of your tank here.
The majority of members are not going to join a forum just to see pics of your tank.

[Kuli_Loach]

I agree with hobbs, WAY over stocked, what filtration do you have on that thing?

[themusician]

Ditto on not being able to see your picture, but here are my thoughts...

Stocking: Yes, definitely overstocked, but that's been said.

Filtration: I use an Aquaclear 50 on my 20H tank. The 30 is a little light. You can never have too much filtration.

Substrate: I also have black gravel, but I have a layer of flourite underneath it. If you want live plants to thrive, having a plant substrate is a good thing to do. If you don't want to try putting in a new substrate in an established tank, you might be able to get away with lots of fertilizers and root tabs in the gravel, but I've never tried it, so I don't know. (if you like the black gravel look, eco-complete is a very good substrate to use)

Lighting: If you don't mind upgrading, I suggest the Coralife 1x65w freshwater fixture. It costs about $60 and you can get it from Big Als or even Amazon. That should give you enough light to grow most plants.

If you upgrade your lighting, you will also need to add CO2. Try the Hagen Natural System CO2 kit with the ladder diffuser.

Plants: If you upgrade your lighting and substrate, you can grow just about anything. In my tank I have wisteria, anubias, cryptocoryne, red ludwigia, java fern, and an amazon sword. I only recently discovered it was an amazon sword and will probably outgrow my tank, but all the other plants look nice in a 20H. I also want to get some ground cover of some sort. If you really want to get into this, I would suggest picking up the Mini Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants by Peter Hiscock. I found it very helpful.

(you can also find tons of information online, but I just really like being able to hold the book in my hands...)

I'm not really sure how much it cost to make my tank a planted tank because I started everything all at once, so the cost of the plant equipment sort of blended into the cost of all the other stuff I had to buy for my tank. But approximate costs are $30 for the substrate, $60 for the light, $20 for the CO2, and the sky's the limit for fertilizers depending on what you buy.

[themusician]

Oh, and one more thing...have you been salting your tanks for the mollies or are they doing okay in completely freshwater? I ask because I originally had mollies in my tank and I had to return them because they weren't doing well without salt and I couldn't salt my tank because of the plants. Live plants really don't like salt all that much.

[crackatinny]

Oh, and one more thing...have you been salting your tanks for the mollies or are they doing okay in completely freshwater? I ask because I originally had mollies in my tank and I had to return them because they weren't doing well without salt and I couldn't salt my tank because of the plants. Live plants really don't like salt all that much.

The guy has a pleco and a catfish in the tank, so salt would not be a good idea.

[themusician]

Sorry, I didn't really pay close attention to the other inhabitants of the tank. I wasn't actually suggesting that he add salt but was just trying to say that salt and plants don't mix very well.

[crackatinny]

No worries:thumb: , I just have a habit of every time salt is mentioned, warning about use with skinned fish or bottom feeders.

[markbob]

Check out Arizona aquatic garden for plants when you get to that point. They have individual plants and plant packages. I bought a pkg and got 31 plants for 45 bucks. That after shipping.

[Thinair421]

Alright guys, thanks a ton for the help. I'm gonna go out and see what I can do about some lighting and substrate today, but I'm not too concerned with the plants until i get it all setup. BTW, heres the link to the picture of my tank.

][Only Registered Users Can See Links.] ([Only Registered Users Can See Links.)