cardinals- would they produce enough ammonia?

[cocoa_pleco]

I cant find a proper lid for my toads in my 20g long, and theyre getting too close to escaping. i have a proper fitting lid for a 10g, so i want to move them making the 20g long free. Im gonna go to aquagiant tomorrow and get a T-5 light for the long tank and heavily plant it with fluorite and a CO2 system. would 10 cardinal tetras produce enough ammonia for the plants?

[cocoa_pleco]

my plan is to make a tank like this 20g long

[cocoa_pleco]

and, finally, my equipment would be-

50W T-5
standard 25W fluorescent
aquaclear 300
200W heater
fluorite and mixed larger gravel
CO2 system

aquagiant has some cool bark colored and shaped foamy stuff for the back of the tank that i want to try too

[troy]

That's one cool tank you want yours to look like.

[Lady Hobbs]

Cardinals will look very cool in this tank. And I think 10 will be plenty.

[cocoa_pleco]

That's one cool tank you want yours to look like.


that guy has the craziest 20g long ive seen in my life!

[zackish]

I would HIGHLY suggest looking into the eco-complete "planted aquarium" substrate. It is much cleaner and usually only a few dollars more for a 20 lb bag. I think a 20g long is about the same as my 30g regular and I bought 2 20lb bags and have almost 3 inches of substrate. They were like $27 a bag at my LFS. And make sure if you do buy the eco-complete don't wash it just pour it in the tank straight outta the package as is. If you get the flourite you will be doing a lot of washing...and the more the better.

[Chrona]

+1 on Eco

10 cardinals won't produce enough nitrates+ phosphates (you don't want ammonia ;p) with CO2 and 50 watts of T-5. You will need to dose dry ferts (nitrates, phosphates, potassium)