Been working on getting my 26 Bowfront going for a few weeks. It is going to be a community tank with some live plants. This is my first time with live plants and I didin't set it up substrate for the plants. In the near future I hope to get a larger tank. At that point I will probably move the crypt and amazons to that tank and put some Java ferns and other plants that don't rely on the substarte. I also think I make take a shot at a small tank for some shrimp. Never had seen anything but ghost shrimp before and the new-to-me, colorful shrimp are intriguing.

Here is the tank right after starting it up:


A couple weeks ago I threw in some White Cloud Mountain Minnnows to move along the cycling and the plants. This week everything had stabilized so I went out and got a Clown Pleco, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories and 2 Leopard Cories.


Forgot how entertaining cories are. Always moving, the random darting to the surfaces and the general feeding frenzies. The pleco I thinking is going to be a good fish. He started out hiding but has quickly worked to moving out where I can see him regularly. The tank is right next to my desk and he will come out with me sitting there, in the light of day. He doesn't dart right back when I get up either.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails

Good looking tank. Is that like 7" of gravel? Could have gotten away with probably 2-3", but like I said, looks good.

Yeah i agree with jr, less substrate also equals more water.

It is about 5" at the corners and 3" in the front, with the UGF depth subtracted. It looks deeper due to the magnification of the bowed glass. The fish food containers there are less than 3" tall, for reference.

I used to always run UGF and the biological filtering they provided for the tank did tons for water quality. I used to run a few 29 gallons which I rarely had to do water changes on. Basically between the UGF and a good number of scavangers the tank can nearly support itself, much like heavily planted tanks. Originally I hadn't planned on planting the tank, so I went this way for added filtration.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails

Time for an update:

My crypt and anubias are growing fast. The Anubias is throwing out a new leaf weekly and the crypt has trippled in size. I recently rescaped the tank and added a red tiger lotus, two java ferns, and a bunch of rotala.



I'm battling some cloudiness to the water. I have a canister filter on order and added the rotala to hopefully pull some nutrients out of the water to help combat the cloudy water and algea. I am doing a weekly 20% water change and dosing Floursh at the same time.

Here are some shots of the Tiger Lotus since I got it. It sat at the post office for a week due to an unexpected work trip. I planted it and then the next day trimmed all but a couple leafs. The last shot is a week after it was added to the tank.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails

love that weiner dog

That's Murphy. He always gets in the way when I'm working on something. Anytime I'm doing more than feeding the fish, he stands up on the side of the tank to see what I'm doing. If I get the camera out, he does his best to get in the shot. When I'm working on the house or a car, he likes to drag off my tools.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails

he looks to be one of the greatest dogs ever

So still battling some algae, but the Otos and Nerites seem to be winning. My Rotala is starting to throw off a bunch of little chutes from the main stems, so I am guessing it is happy. The Red Tiger Lotus, Anubias and Crypt are really happy.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails

Wow! I love the plants, they seem so happy!

very nice.

omg you're dachshund is amazing. cool tank too

Have fun with gravel vac'ing that thing!! holy crap!

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75 Gallon Freshwater
29 Gallon Freshwater
20 Gallon Freshwater

So less than a month into adding my Tiger Lotus it has taken over it's corner of the tank. I didn't think it would get this big, otherwise I would have placed it in the back. Added a German Blue Ram male yesterday, he is only about an inch long.

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26 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Aquaclear 50, UGF, Inert Substrate with Root Tabs
Anubias Nana, Cryptocoryne, Amazon Swords, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Ferns
7 White Cloud Mountain Minnows, 2 Leopard Cories, 2 Peppered Cories, 2 Bronze Cories, 2 Skunk Cories, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 1 Male German Blue Ram, 1 Clown Pleco, 3 Otos, 2 Nerite Snails
2.5 Gallon Aqueon Bowfront:
Peat and Inert Substrate
Anubias Nana, Rotala, Red Tiger Lotus
George the Betta, 3 Nerite Snails