# Finally set up my 12 gallon tank!



## excal88 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hello! Like the title says, finally got my 12 gallon set up with its driftwood, rock, 2 anubis plants, and a couple of anachris! A mix of some gravel *seeding purpose* and sand *majority* makes up the substrate, and I have 3 plastic plants for seeding material as well. Right now my tank just tore through 4-5ppm of ammonia in a day, so just waiting for nitrites, at 4-5 ppm, to finish up getting eaten. Nitrates are between 10-20 ppm. 

Plan to get 5 neon tetras, 3 panda corys, 3 peppered corys, and 1 bamboo shrimp! At least thats the plan. Haha. Also not too sure if there's any snails or not on the anachris, as I bought it from petsmart where they kept em with snails. If so woohoo, free snail! *Mystery snails were the ones that they kept* 

Here's a pic of the set up


----------



## iamgray (Jul 16, 2010)

Very pretty! Can't wait to see it with fish in it!


----------



## ElectricBlueJackDempsey (Aug 4, 2010)

Looking good, but all those bubbles are necessary. The filter outtake is enough to keep the water aerated


----------



## excal88 (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks you guys  And once I get fishies I'll post up pics  and I kinda like the bubbles. I can turn em down though via a valve, but so far in my other tank my corys enjoy playing in the bubbler  

And I'll have to say. Don't know if its the addition of the plants, or if my bacteria are just super hungry, but I just went 4/5ppm down to 1 ppm in under 8 hours. Good stuff! Loving the plants and their look


----------



## AbbeysDad (Mar 28, 2011)

ElectricBlueJackDempsey said:


> Looking good, but all those bubbles are necessary. The filter outtake is enough to keep the water aerated


There's nothing wrong with additional aeration in a tank to provide a highly oxygenated environment, create additional circulation, and expel gases as bubbles break the surface. Unless a tank is also heavily planted with living plants, not all filter returns, unless they're above the water line creating a waterfall, will provide much aeration. A bubble wall can also add interest and the fish seem to love it!
Having 'said' the above, too much of a good thing can be bad and many bubble walls might better be throttled back to produce the best results.

Nice tank!


----------



## gmyers0203 (Apr 7, 2011)

Looks great!


----------



## Romad (Jun 28, 2009)

Nice job :thumbsup:


----------



## excal88 (Apr 4, 2011)

Sorry for the bump, but here's my final product, save for the fish. ALMOST DONE CYCLING. Added a few more bunches of anacharis, and a java fern thats kinda anchored to my lava rock. 


































And here is a pic of my 5 gallon thats going under the fish-in cycle. Added 3 bunches of anacharis to help speed it up. Depending on how things go, once the 12 gallon tank finishes cycling I'll probably convert this tank to a quarantine/hospital tank. I might keep the anacharis in though to help deal with ammonia levels if it is a quarantine tank; if I need to add medication and lose the plants, it won't be that big of a loss as the total for all the bundles is a few bucks, unless its not recommended to keep anything in the quarantine tank.










And yes that is squidward's house from sponge bob square pants.


----------



## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

Lava rock and cory's loaches,plecos, are not a good fit. Fishes can scrape their belly's on the rough texture of the lava rock and infections can be a result.
Would look for smooth river stones.
Tank looks very nice.


----------



## excal88 (Apr 4, 2011)

Hm. As long as the rock is nice and smooth? I saw some rocks sold at petco that were a lot smoother than the lava rock. But I'm using the lava rock cause it has all these nooks and crannys where I can anchor in my java fern and hopefully it'll take root. I'll look into another alternative.

*edit*

just did a quick search on rock decorations. Read up on some horror stories on cory cats getting stuck in the holes and what not. Will remove and replace as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow with a smooth rock, or maybe some drift wood. Thanks for the warning 1077!


----------



## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

excal88 said:


> Hm. As long as the rock is nice and smooth? I saw some rocks sold at petco that were a lot smoother than the lava rock. But I'm using the lava rock cause it has all these nooks and crannys where I can anchor in my java fern and hopefully it'll take root. I'll look into another alternative.
> 
> *edit*
> 
> just did a quick search on rock decorations. Read up on some horror stories on cory cats getting stuck in the holes and what not. Will remove and replace as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow with a smooth rock, or maybe some drift wood. Thanks for the warning 1077!


With those mentioned fish wood would be preferable for several reasons. Nice aquascape.


----------



## excal88 (Apr 4, 2011)

Yea, I decided on a second piece of drift wood. Just need to find a piece small enough. Might cut one in half if I find something that I like, but is a little too big.


----------



## excal88 (Apr 4, 2011)

After going to petsmart to look around, and seeing how they had a plant sale, I finally finished re-organizing my tank. This is it! No more changes! Lava rock is gone, has been replaced with 2 small pieces of drift wood. Added 2 more anubis plants! And it is true on what people say; once you go live plants, you can't go back. All my plastic plants are now gone gone gone!


----------



## Boredomb (Feb 21, 2011)

Very nice looking tank!


----------



## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Yes, indeed, nice job. Byron.


----------

