Putting together a planted tank

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grgbulldog

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I've been wanting to do something new with my 20 gallon tank, so I've decided to try planting it. I needed lights so I built this setup as a solution. It will be painted black.
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It's a little tall, but it way better than spending a ton of money on an expensive fixture. The bulbs are 13w 6500k CFL's, and it will be mostly low tech low light with dirt.
 
Pvc stand turned out great man! Saltwater right?
 
JMO but you should've made a working model of a drilling rig....I attended an oilfield pump operators course and the campus has a small working drilling rig model inside a glass tank it was pretty sweet
 
Nah. Going fresh with live plants. Maybe harlequin raspboras.

Ok cool. I still have a few plants growing in my freshwater too. I had 3 harlequins until yesterday, one must have jumped out, found him on the floor last night, was sad.

can't wait for updates.
 
Looking good dude! What light?
 
3 23w 6500k cfls 4 inches over the surface in clamp lights. Tank is a 20l. So nice and shallow.

I have a 55 set up next to my TV couch awaiting scaping and water. I'm planning on planting it, too.
 
Make sure to post.
 
I will. Here are a couple of how this 20 has evolved.
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I forgot to mention, it is dirtied with miracle grow organic choice potting mix. It is capped with quickcrete pool filter sand, and I also have one of those fluval nano co2 things that uses 20g cartridges converted to run a diffuser. I only run co2 on my days off now that it's pretty balanced out. I think the frog bit has made a huge impact on the lack of excess nutrients. I've thrown so much out already.
 
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Looks nice :) Are you going to put fish in it or just keep pet plants?
 
There are rosy red minnows and otto cats in there right now. May get dwarf cichlids for it sometime.
 
I've cut the light period and quit providing co2. I've gotten a little algae. And the growth rate has definetly slowed a lot. I've started dosing flourish excel. This tank is all about the experiment. Eventually, I will get a new co2 diffuser and see how the co2 changes it again.
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