20g x-tall Angel tank

[Ron]

Honestly only reason I was thinking neons Ron, is because I have the worst luck in the world with neons, for some reason I can't keep neons alive more than 3-4 months. So I figured by the time my little angels got big enough to fit a neon in its mouth the neons would already all be dead LOL. I'm cursed when it comes to neons for some reason

Gotcha 

Oh BTW I bought a pack of 10 Indian Almond Catappa Leaves off ebay last night. $5 for 10 with free shipping so gonna add them to the tank to give off some tannins and more amazon look to it.

Cool stuff. I haven't experimented with leaves, but is my recollection is right those leaves hold up really well. FWIW, you can also use oak leaves as well, but some species hold up better than others.

I did a quick google to double-check my recollection on oak leaves and found an article that might be worth sharing:
http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/leaves-for-aquaria-full-article.htm

[Steve]

I got to thinking today ( I know scary right?) I planned on doing some simple live plants like Anubias and java fern, but wondering if the 24" height might be a bit too deep for the standard little strip light to give off enough light to reach the live plants? Since this is an low cost build I don't want to have to upgrade on lighting at all. Maybe I should just pick up a few realistic looking silk plants instead? or would the strip light still be okay on the tall tank for some basic live plants?

[Ron]

I know that anubias have lower light requirements than many other plants. Not sure about java fern.

To combat the depth, is there any way you can put the plants up higher in the water column? Maybe attach anubias to the wood roots or build a shelf into the background?

[Steve]

I just got done sealing the background with the 2 part epoxy about an hour ago so won't be able to add anything like a shelf to it now. The idea of tying some anubias on the branches is a good one though I like that idea.

[Steve]

Background is siliconed into the tank now. Also picked up a couple more spiderwood branches to put on the bottom of the tank and then tie some plants to them. And picked up some various Anubias plants as well as some brwon/tan playsand which I think will mimic the Amazon bottom pretty nicely.

 
 

[Ron]

Why did you go with play sand over PFS?

(I've been battling with this lately - whether to get more PFS, try play sand, or go through the painstaking time of collecting natural sand.)

[Steve]

Color was the reason. PFS that I have found locally here in the Royal Oak metro area is white and I wanted brown/tan. The funny think about that though is it seems like the color of PFS varies by location, because I know some people on the West side that use PFS and it's a tan color.

[Steve]

Oh and if you go with playsand Ron, wash it REALLY well. I've had PFS before that really didn't even need washing at all. But this playsand I had to wash about 20 lbs of it for at least 30mins to get it where it was okay.

[Ron]

From what I've seen, there's typically two styles of PFS. One is a finer grain that is much more white and sometimes has dark flecks in it. Another is a larger grain and is tan in color. (There is also "Pool Filter Gravel" - I've never seen it in person, but from pictures it's grey gravel, not great).

I've always washed PFS and had great results. Today I took a peanut butter jar sample of sand from a creek near my house to see how it would look and how hard it would be to wash ... OMG, it'd take a lot of work to wash it clean. I'm guessing play sand would be similar. Really leaning towards PFS again.

[Steve]

Yeah the play sand is definitely something that takes some serious work to wash well. The stuff I got today is well worth it at $2.46 for 50lbs, but needs lots of washing that's for sure.  I have used fine grit and medium grit paver sand from Home Depot before which needed basically zero washing so if you like white sand try that sometime (the fine grit is whiter than the medium grit). The play sand is very tan, but needs a lot of washing for sure.

[Steve]

Tank is done and filled. I've had the filter running for the past week on an existing tank so it should be cycled and ready to put the angels in it with in a couple days I am expecting. After running for half the day with the wood and Indian Almond Catappa Leaves in it the PH is now steady at 6.6 which should be a very good level for the angels. I also like the tannic color the leaves give the water, very natural looking.

This was my first SA themed tank I have done, all my other have been Malawi themed, and for the first SA tank I am pretty pleased with the overall look of the tank. It's going to be nice having this tank right in the work shop where I spend so much of my time. Once the angels are in it I'll post a pic of them in their new home.

[Steve]

Tank is cycled and just finished moving over the fish to it. Currently it's home to three small angels, a cory cat that was not getting along with his tankmates, and a small brown BNP.
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[GrizzlysDad]

Looks great Steve

[mightieskeeper]

Very cool tank and the angels are awesome addition.   You could add more bns, some super reds would look good with them.

[Steve]

Thanks. Right now I have the three angels, a 4" green phantom pleco, two 2" bnp, two gold mollies and four Cory cats in it. I am amazed at just how fast the angels are growing I would say they seem to have almost doubled in size in the past two months. They are doing really well though, the Cories are fat as they can be now and the angels all three seems to get along very well so far. I'll post an undated pic of the angels soon as I get a chance.