This is my 20gal long. I've had it set up for about 6 months. I'm really happy with the plants, but I'm wondering at what point are they taking up too much space for my fish?? I've got a HOB filter and I use a foam pad in it for the biologic filtration. And keep it heated around 75deg F.
Stock:
1 male dwarf gourami
7 brilliant rasboras
4 long finned corys
Shrimp and some bladder snails that I don't keep track of, but just let do their thing
My gourami can be a bit of a bully to my corys when it comes to feeding time, but otherwise everyone seems content.
Only thing about this tank that has seemed strange to me, is that the nitrates seem to always be around 10ppm or even more. I've been doing 5-7gal water changes about every week. My previous 20gal had way fewer plants, and no soil. I hardly ever changed that water!
This tank is sand capped soil for the plants and wonder if it's the soil. But at 6 months, I feel like it should have leached whatever nitrates from it by now? Am I just over stocked?
Any input is welcome 🤗
Posted by ProfessorKrandal
4 Comments
Too much plants (doesn’t really exist) means:
– so dense that the lower plants are dying bc light can’t reach
– fish *literally* can’t move
EDIT: my wording was weird lol
This looks great! Wdym to many plants? The back is still visible! Lol
You’re good, great looking tank! I have a 20 gallon long planted MUCH heavier than this, with a Betta, Rasboras, small Corydoras, Otocinclus, a variety of snails, and Endlers. The Endlers have finally started reproducing, so I will have to change things at some point, but for now the babies hang out in the heavier vegetation near the surface, the Otos on the glass, the Corys near the substrate, adult Endlers and Rasboras mostly in the middle, and Betta and snails cruise all over wherever they want! Since they are spread out in the different layers, it works great and the heavy vegetation works great for each layer! Also the heavy vegetation has meant I have NO problems with nitrates, etc! Bonus!!😃
This is the appropriate amount of plants. Almost any fish would feel secure in this environment
I know people like to say “you cannot have too many plants” but that isn’t accurate and it depends on what fish you have.
Fast growing plants can fill every square inch of an aquarium and make it so fish cannot swim.
And some fish do not care for denser plantings, my Pseudomugil luminatus for instance won’t swim in areas that are too dense.