Journal journal for 36g and 20l planted aquariums the beginning! the Cheap skape and The freebie

[artandsoul]

I feel i need to do a journal so I have a internet calendar on what's happened or Ill forget lol! This is now 4 months back into the planted tank world and I'm happy to be back yet lost on true aquascapingI I have a current 29g as a farm tank for future builds going. zrdr 4l co2 bought locally full setup for 40.00, 29g free. A 20long I just bought with metal stand, hygger decent new led light.new heater. few foam bubble filters, ar a nice dual air pump. some new stratum about 16lbs , tons of good food, etc etc and 6 live plants crypts, swords, anubis about 30 stems of rotundifolia 12" tall for 85,00 it was a decent deal with what is came with , I thought!
Original plans was a 29 and 20 long. Well 3 weeks forward to 3 days ago picked up a free 36 bow front with stand, foods.heater, some dragon stone, bubbler all working freeby deal of the year for sure! The tanks pretty clean, some light hard water stains lll razor blade off very clean. Did come with about 35lbs stratum and blk rocks mix.

I threw substrate in tank after light rinse. LOL it went to pitch blk even after 2 big filters with filter floss still blk water after 36 hours later its muck now the stratum is crap imo other than deeper substrate to cover up with build. I have no clue on any age of the stratum 2 months or 5 years no info was free on side of road literally. I decided today to dump the stratum its a dam mess! may strain the stratum with my several size buckets to strain out small materials away from the blk gravel and use it with eco!? Just got 2 20lb bags of eco complete for 55 shipped my 2005 go to, easy no breakdown and same cost as bulk gravel from pet stores in the end.
I Would do the blk blasting sand its cheaper but don't want all sand and in end as I still do some gravel clean monthly oops.. The eco complete last imo forever I have 20 year old eco now in tank. Yeah its inert but still whole rocks. I"Ill be posting many pics of the my dry scapes holy hell! And more as it goes. Its been 19 years since I've done a planted tank def not a newbie just don't remember as much as I did and things have changed any help appreciated for sure! Joe burr has been help sure thanks dutchscape god!

Posted few pics of old tanks 19 years ago when I didn't know what an aquascape was lol no co2 just dry ferts, metride 14 and power compacts it worked! algae was very null. Im calling my new tanks the cheap skape 20 and now 36g the freebie. I usually try to go cheapo as I can get Im not rich rather spend 30.00 on steaks at home than 30.00 on stems lol. I'm mr diy I only buy what I cant build usually.

 

[artandsoul]

heres the 36g bowfront freebie, put some lava rock rinsed to hell and back them used hydrogen peroxide on rocks to kill any buggers in laundry bags from dollar tree in tonight for some height, Has a long way to go! will post pics of the 20long dry wood pre rocks scape tom, undecided on what color rock and substrate i want to use still ugh. But the 36g def black rock substrate with sand in front 2-3" for sure maybe more the bowfront leaves a lot of room in front unlike square tanks.

 

[artandsoul]

plans so far as I already have them are the seaoura 659 led light 30-36", fluval ac 70, hygger 200 watt ceramic heater, zrdr 4l co2 diy citric acid baking soda setup working great for weeks. dry ferts PPS pro niloc g and gh booster 3x a week. my gh out the tap is 40ppm so far. eco complete substrate over 16lb stratum I already have will use under the eco complete. Its a start but pretty far to the end lol

 

[artandsoul]

After washing away the fluval stratmud literally! got around 35lbs of free clean blk rock. Put in tank with only 1 20lb bag of caribsea eco planted and 1 bag of lava rock in net bag on left side of tank. Looks like enough substrate may add more or more lava rock to bag if I feel I need it. Will probably end up changing it some I'm sure! over and over lol.
Added pic of my tiny plant farm 9-10 tiny 1-2" anubias petite, anubias barteri, dwarf vals, dwarf sags. alt reineckii, few crypts, some tiny needle leaf java fern in net still have to tie to wood or rocks. windelov java fern. red melon and amazon swords, hydro pinifolia , rotala rotundifolia, 2 red tiger lotus if the bulbs ever grow!?. Some mts and ramshorn snails, 3 otocinclus. 1 tiny 2.5" albino bristlenose pleco. 9 columbian tetras and 10 pristella tetras.. bought all tetras last month for 20.00 from local guy cheapo! Some plants will get sold off later not using many swords in tanks or that dam crinum that sticks to everything hence the octopus plant name people call it lol.
"Its time" to scape rocks and wood, maybe a week before I post on this tank again. Will post pics of dryscape on 20l tomorrow still not done yet needs more more more wood, wont be much room for plants but doing very light scape in end is the plans!? Gotta get the 36 done to transfer fish and plants to setup the 20l ugh its gonna be awhile!

 

[artandsoul]

Heres a pic of the 20l no where near done for sure has long way to go with some wood no rocks been dry scaping outside 2 weeks mainly waiting on wood to show up for a week. Might use the pea gravel way smaller than in pic for substrate its 7.00 for 50lb bag at tractor supply or the bag of caribsea eco and some bulk rocks from planted grow tank still undecided.
I used several drilled out buckets aka small 14" laundry baskets from dollar tree to get smaller pieces more usable as substrate drilled 1/2" then later 3/8" holes to get rid of large rocks. The pics is larger holes, went way smaller on next round of filtering out larger rocks worked great. 3 bags at 7.00 each got me about 120lbs of pea gravel small enough to use for sure!.
Also screened some lowes play sand out to possibly use in tank for cheapo sand, already had the 6.00 bag sitting around, when screened with dollar tree screen get rid of all real Sands just small tiny gravels left don't look bad for cheap..
The woods scape gonna get fatter bottom wood on right side and taller with rock scape and moved more left for sure for plant room. Will take me a few days to get rock in and glue wood to be over rocks for roots and gluing together rocks wood etc. Went with much larger wood on start but smaller stuff works better in 20l its a small tank. It takes way longer to scape than larger tank imo. Tanks .29 long 12 wide 14.5 tall its the newer 20 long so its taller than normal old 20l. It says online its 21.8 gallon, 12" deep is very hard to scape there is no depth its 12" lol yet I see some aga tanks 10g that are nuts! pencil to matchstick size wood is the key

 

[artandsoul]

the fluval ac70 is a joke imo great surface movement filter no flow to bottom unless water level is low! I figured it has power not really! ready to sell it off and get a monster canister filter to take its place on 36g. should have bought the 110 for the 36g maybe it has some real flow!? have the a 70o on 29g its meh for me want more flow to many dead zones without a mini power head on other side of tank.