LJ's 20 long dirted... future blackwater tank???

Hey ya'll, I just wanted to throw up a couple pics of my dirted 20 long.  I have it along a window to utilize sunlight.  The only fish are baby Australian Rainbows from hitchhiking eggs.  The tank itself is overgrown with plants that I will be selling at the SWAP next month.  But the coolest thing with the tank that I wanted to show is the Green Temple that is growing out of the tank and busting with little purple flowers:
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They're darn easy to propagate too,  just cut off one of the side branches and stick it in the dirt.  All of that Green Temple came from one originally

Nicely done; looks great!

awesome...a little claustrophobic maybe...but still awesome!

I have a sword growing out of the tank...im thinking of running the emersed end into a pot of dirt and seeing if that node will put down roots before I cut it off...all the nodes underwater have roots just hanging in the open water...

Thanks all!

nick_76 wrote:awesome...a little claustrophobic maybe...but still awesome!

Lol, yeah, maybe a bit tight for swimming space, but most of it will be trimmed out for the SWAP...  and the babies are almost big enough to go in my 75 gal with the other rainbows

id be interested in some, but im doing aquatic clear cutting....oing from a jungle in the tank to emphasis on open swimming space.... not sure how long thatll last till I try a different direction

Looking forward to getting some new plants at the SWAP from you guys & gals!

WOOoooow! The Green Temple is impressive, totally dig that purple flower LJ.

Nice work, I might have to put some of that in my Paludarium that I've been working on.

@nick_76:  The dense jungle in the tank is actually from other plants.  The green temple just goes straight up in my tank, so doesn't take much space.  It would get much bushier down there though if I trimmed it frequently, like I did in my 75 gallon

@Cory:  I assume you already have some Green Temple (Hygrophila Corymbosa for those who don't know) at your store or somewhere.  But if you don't I can bring some next time I'm at your store

Update on my 20 long.  I trimmed down most of the Green Temple as the flowers were dying off for the season, the Brazilian Pennywort is spreading like wildfire.  Sold off the water wisteria amazon sword too.  Baby rainbows have been moved to my 75 gal, and added a few cherry shrimp:

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I changed up the lighting as well.  At the last swap I acquired a homemade LED fixture that anderson_pr made:

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Its pretty dang cool

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it provides just the right amount of light I'm looking for in the tank.   My plan is to turn this into a black water tank (with a reddish hue) and start a large RCS colony.  The tricky part will be adding the right amount of tannins in the tank (with wood, almond leaves, maybe peat moss in the filters) without lowering the PH too much and making it too acidic to hurt the shrimp.  I know cherry shrimp are really tolerant to different conditions, but I wanna try to keep them at their prefered parameters

Thoughts?

Thoughts? Here's mine...

1. Seeing pictures of that LED when Anderson built it did it no justice. That's straight awesome. You have it mounted on the ceiling and its still beaming down enough light to grow your plants? The illumination of the tank looks really cool!

2. When I did a black water biotope I "cheated" and used  a neat product called BLACK WATER EXTRACT by TETRA. I liked it! I am not suggesting to use it instead of but it may help to reach that distinct black water shade your looking for . Its made from all the stuff you listed above that your adding. Its just in a concentrated form.

Dude, those plants are looking beast!

fishNAbowl wrote:Thoughts? Here's mine...

1. Seeing pictures of that LED when Anderson built it did it no justice. That's straight awesome. You have it mounted on the ceiling and its still beaming down enough light to grow your plants? The illumination of the tank looks really cool!

2. When I did a black water biotope I "cheated" and used  a neat product called BLACK WATER EXTRACT by TETRA. I liked it! I am not suggesting to use it instead of but it may help to reach that distinct black water shade your looking for . Its made from all the stuff you listed above that your adding. Its just in a concentrated form.

I know, the LED fixture is pretty boss... I will admit however that the tank is against the window, so the plants get a good amount of sunlight as well (with no algae problems!!! crazy!!!)

Hmmmm, Black Water Extract?  I'll look into that, I def wanna add a bunch of almond leaves, I think the cherry shrimp would enjoy that

L.J.
Look in the "for sale" area I have organic "oak leaves" that would be great for a black water set-ups. This sounds like a fun project too!

Looking good, LJ! boy, you sure just tossed that Amazon Sword away, especially when that Amazon Sword should have gone to me. *ahem* *ahem* BILLHN! *AHEM* . . .  

@Livebearer: you might be a little too far for me to make it worth it for the oak leaves, but I'll think about it

@Poke: Lol... it was part of a trade for the light

uh huh. so that's what kids are calling it these days eh? ;-)

Yes Poke... Light = drugs... You got me, lol

Alder cones will definitely give you that black-water look, just be careful (as with anything that leaches large amounts of tannins) that your cycle can handle the extra ammonia. Given that you're dirted, it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the advise, I'll look into alder cones. As for the ammonia, yeah not too worried about it since it's dirted, but I might get some floating plants in there to help