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Starting a journal on my 40 gallon breeder farm tank. I originally threw together a 20 gallon farm tank to hold cuttings from my first scape but found I was quickly running out of space for new plants and a quickly growing population of Neocaridina shrimp, not to mention, the tank had become overwhelmed with bladder snails (yes, I know they can be beneficial). I had plenty of space for the plants I already had but wanted more for future plants for upcoming scapes. I planned to also use the tank as a temp home for fish. The new tank completed cycling about 7/20/25 and I began transferring the following week. Setup details are as follows:
Tank: Imagitarium 40 Gallon Breeder (half-off Petco special)
Filter: Oase Biomaster Thermo 350 (Only because it was sitting unused at the time)
Light: Week Aqua M900
CO2: Yes, inline diffuser
Skimmer: Oase Crystalskim 350
Substrate: ADA Amazonia 2

I purchased a used tank around the beginning of March that was fully scaped with a few fish and shrimp. I tore down the scape and moved the shrimp to the 20 gallon farm. I thought all I had were a few Amanos which I moved to my main display tank and about 7 Yellow Golden Back Neocaridina. The yellows quickly began breeding but I ended up with a lot of wild offspring so one of the original must not have been a yellow. I now have about 100 shrimp but really don't want to use them in an aquascape as mixed wild, so I will start to rehome them to keep the population in check. I've also moved Painted Platys from my display scape to the farm, as they were breeding as much as bladder snails. There are about 15 in the farm tank now and 2 still in the display tank (I think they're both female). I'll be rehoming the Platys as well. I have no interest in being a fish breeder so no more Livebearers for me.

I wasn't sure about wasting space in the farm tank with hardscape but went ahead and put in a few pieces for now. I figured I could use it for epiphytes and hiding places for livestock. Eventually, I'll probably install some 3D printed grates for the epiphytes. Things are a little disorganized to start. I welcome ideas on farm tank organization.

This will be my 4th aquarium since taking up aquascaping, not quite a year ago (had been researching and studying for at least a year prior to that).

I've spent more than a month trying to decide what style to go with on this new 25 gallon tank and finally settled on a Brazilian style scape using dragon stone which honestly, doesn't seem that common for this style. Also not common, doing it in a 60cm size tank. It seems this style is better suited for larger tanks to get that sense of depth and layers. I've seen a few though including a couple of well ranked AGA competition tanks and one by Tommy at Green Aqua.

I'll be starting the hardscape layout this weekend and hope to get everything set into place and the tank filled to begin a dark start. As time progresses I'll post updates. To get started, here's what I have so far.

Equipment
Waterbox Clear Mini 25 with stand
Oase Biomaster II Thermo 250
Inkbird temp controller
GLA CO2 regulator and DIY Yugang CO2 reactor
Chihiros Doser
Chihiros WRGB II 45cm light

Substate
A base layer of bagged crushed lava rock
APT Start bacteria starter
APT Feast aquasoil
APT Jazz fertilizer caps

Hardscape
Dragon stone

I'm still thinking about the plant and livestock list.



Do you think this is enough rock for a 60cm tank?

Is anyone selling one?

Anyone ever tried to convert an immersed plant to emersed?
This is Echinodorus bleheri which was in my tank. I needed some space, so I removed it. Instead of throwing it away, I decided to try growing it emersed.
Any idea if this will work?

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Primecuts!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Hi everyone,

I am really inspired by some of the incredible tanks posted here and your AGA entries. I've decided to start working on my own Dutch scapes as I've had CO2 for a couple years and am now looking to really dial in my horticulture skills.

Unfortunately I am currently in a situation where I really can't fit a large tank into my house/lifestyle (3 little boys who put their hands on everything), so my largest tank is a 20g long that's safe in my office. It used to hold a nice low tech nature scape but I was ready for a change.

I decided to make this journal for me to log my progress and hopefully get some advice and recommendations.

First to get some attention, here is the tank as of today. I am excited as it's going quite well so far.


Photo of tank on Oct 22nd (prior to some new tissue cultures and a few plant transfers from my other tank)


Now my equipment list:

Tank: 20 gallon long rimmed tank from Petco

Filter: Fluval 207 canister filter (used on FB marketplace for 40 bucks)

Lighting: 2x GE Ultra Bright LED flood lights, 2700K warm white, 2200 lumen each ($16 total and then I made some seriously redneck pendant light fixtures to hang them from random old lamps I had)

CO2: Pressurized cylinder, Co2 Art dual stage regulator (used for $50), DIY Yugang horizontal reactor sized for ~1.2 point drop

In-tank heater set to about 75F

Substrate: Fluval Biostratum bought with 40% off sale at Petco. I know this stuff isn't great but it's ok so far. I may eventually add root tabs.

All in all, this tank is very thrifty.

Water: RO/DI remineralized to 6 dGH

Weekly Fertilization schedule:
NO3: 18ppm
PO4: 4.8 ppm
K: 24 ppm
Fe: 0.4 ppm with Miller Microplex for traces
50% water change

Dosed as 4 doses but double dosing on water change day for stability. I have also been doing an extra dry dosing of 9 ppm phosphate until the aquasoil stops eating that.

Both tanks contain a lot of bucephalandra stems I have recently melted by feeding my caridina tanks with mulberry leaves. I have no idea what the heck happened but all buces melted in those tanks heavily over 3 days with every other plant + shrimp being fine. Don't wanna risk the plants dying so I'm throwing them back into high tech for a few months to recover.

Set Up:
Both tanks uses heavy co2 misting
Horticulture LED lights (dimmed, so probably 25-30 watts?)
Will steadily increase light weekly if I see no issues, max is 40 watts.
Dual sponge filters. (Air bubbles help prevent co2 gassing, also seems to really help stabilize tank, so less algae)
1 Internal filter with an atomizer for misting.

Regime:
All tanks get a 30-50% water change, twice per week.
Micros dosed daily (unless I forget, which happens fairly often.)
Macros Front Loaded and only in new incoming water.

6 Gallon bucket water change:
~350tds (Using seachem equilibrium remineralizer)
~22ppm KNO3, using KNO3 + KH2PO4
~40-50 ppm Potassium due to remineralizer
~4-5GH

Buce Lottery Colors
Lots of buces, various names, collected over the years. A lot of them were ultra rare and I cannot buy them anymore. Most of the ultra rare I probably accidentally killed from trying to grow them in a "no filter, no co2" style tank. Either way, not much color in low tech, will see what lottery colors we pull once they get going with better colors in higher lights + co2.

Both tanks are planted tightly front to back with bucephalandra. Kinda hard to see it all with moss blocking the way, but my view will be your view.

Random Mosses
Some mosses I've collected as well, honestly I grow a lot of them free floating so they kinda look the same. We will find out how they look after I attach them to something.

15 Gallon, very aged sand + pebble tank.

20 Gallon long, aged aquasoil I pulled from an existing caridina tank.


Wanted to take some macro shots, but does anyone know how to take an angle show on the glass without distortion? I have a DSLR long tube lens that works under water but color rendition is really bad.

Why so much moss?
Mostly to help stabilize the tank and to reduce light bleed. Less surface for algae to grow.

I am the proud new owner of a pair of Laetacara (probably L.dorsigera). About 2" TL currently. They don't seem to be common in the hobby. Does anyone else have any ? Or experience of keeping them ?

Apparently we are supposed to discuss nutrients? NUTRIENT TUNNEL VISION....
I think the audience gets to ask questions, though you can do the same here any day ha.

I wasn’t sure if this or the equipment forum was the best place to post this.i have an120U coming from my LFS and will be building the stand for it along with some built in cabinets for my living room.
I was hoping someone with a UNS 120U could post some photos of the interior of the stand? Or a 150U would also work.

I just want to get an idea for the support and bracing on the inside of the cabinet. I’ve built a stand before but nothing holding that much water lol