K, so my fishless cycle is almost done so we started adding all the wood, rocks and plants today. This is the first picture with the Mopani, Malaysian drift wood and Manzanita wood root. We also put Dragon stone and Lava rock in. (bear with me - can't figure out how to load the actual image to the thread, haha):

Aquarium Gallery - 20g Tank Build



And here it is with some plants added. I took 2 hair grass plants and split them to make 4. I also took 2 corkscrew Vals and split them to make 3 bunches and added some hygro difformis. When the 10g animals get moved over to this tank, giant hygro will be going in the back right corner, dwarf hygro will be going to the left of the giant at the back. 2 moss balls will be at the front-ish. An amazon sword will go some where mid-right and my java fern will go mid-left. Here it is with just the corkscrew vals, hair grass and hygro difformis:

Aquarium Gallery - 20g Tank Build (2)

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

the tank is looking awesome

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"Just Keep Swimming Just Keep Swimming Swimming Swimming"

Looks great!Cannot wait to see the whole thing with the fish.I know you are excited too!

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

IMO fishless cycles suck. 3 small tetras in a 20 gallon with some weekly water changes will cycle a tank and not put a lot of stress on the fish.

^ except I don't want tetras.... and I don't want to get a bunch of fish just to cycle the tank with and then be stuck with them after the cycle...... and I don't want to use good fish that I want, because they end up being stressed.

*And thanks Bev for adding the photos!!! (stupid dial up! can't watch the 'how to video' lol.)

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

Here is the finished product: 8 weeks of hard work and angst!!! You can see 3 of the Gouramis in the pic as well as a Cardinal. The giant floating ball at the top is one of the Moss Balls. I rinsed it out before moving it and it's still floating. The other one sank, and this one should in a day or two. (The white bag in the bottom left corner is some seed material still in the tank. Didn't want to take it all out at once, to prevent the tank from going through a mini-cycle.) Everyone's been in for 24hours now, and the ammonia is between 0ppm and .10 ppm. Hopefully, it stays low and gets taken care of by the filter. Just doing 1 small feeding a day for the first while, to prevent a build up of ammonia.

For plants: 1 giant hygro (now split into 2 or 3), 1 Dwarf Hygro (now split into 3 or 4), 1 Hygro Difformis, 2 Amazon Swords, 1 Java Fern, 2 Marimo Moss Balls, bunch of floating Hornwort, 4 large bunches of Mayaca Fluviatilis, 2 bunches of Hair Grass (now split into 4), 2 Corkscrew Vals.

For animals: 4 Fire Honey Gouramis (1 male, 3 females), 2 male African Dwarf Frogs, 3 Oto Cats, 2 Black Crystal Shrimp, 3 Zebra Nerite snails, 3 Chili Rasboras (tiny fish!), 2 Cardinal Tetras. (We used to have 5 Chilis and 7 Cardinals, but they died a while before the transfer to the new tank and we don't want to get a bunch more of them or the tank will be over stocked - just in case you wondered why they didn't have proper schooling numbers - they are doing fantastic. The Chilis hang out together all the time and the Cardinals swim together and chase each other.)

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981