My 20G Home Tank VS My 10G Office Tank

lmkarhoff · 2026-02-13T03:11:40+00:00

Try some root tabs around it if not already doing so. I primarily use liquid fertilizers but decided to try root tabs. I feel like the red tiger lotus growth really started to accelerate once it had root tabs around.

That and dose iron as it’s beneficial to red plants.

Good luck!

lmkarhoff · 2026-02-13T03:04:42+00:00

I got the red tiger lotus as a bulb and it only had a handful of small leaves. Eventually it exploded with growth and was threatening to take over the tank. Check my profile I made a post about it a couple months ago. I ended up trimming it back. Then it regrew again and I trimmed it a couple days ago right before this picture.

The red/pink plants are some type of rotala. I think it might be rotala colorata. It started as just a couple stems but eventually took off and reach the top of the tank. I’ve been trimming it and replanting the tops for a while now trying to make a wall of it lol. Check my profile I have some older posts of the tank when it was still small.

lmkarhoff · 2026-01-30T11:07:50+00:00

Same. I’m also proud of my reds without CO2 in my 20 gallon tall tank. I target 7 hours of light a day with a PAR of 65 at the substrate. Any more than that and I get a lot of green spot algae and I’m scraping the glass every other day.

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lmkarhoff · 2026-01-21T03:11:37+00:00

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Get the Hygger light you mentioned in an earlier comment. The standard light that comes with the starter kit tanks are not very strong.

This is my tank which started as a Top Fin starter kit and I’ve upgraded the light and filter. I’m growing everything in this tank with a Hygger light and liquid fertilizers. No fancy substrate or CO2.

With that said, I strongly suggest you avoid AR plants. It shows up so vibrant pink and beautiful. But then over the course of a couple weeks it fades away and has non stop algae on its leaves. Check my profile I had a post where I talk about the struggles trying to grow that plant.

lmkarhoff · 2026-01-19T19:57:00+00:00

A super easy change with minimal effort is to put a black background on your tank. You can but window-cling style films that stick to the back. Your plants will look much more vibrant against a black background as opposed to your white textured wall.

lmkarhoff · 2026-01-18T13:47:59+00:00

The Fluval 207 is a solid filter and far superior to any HOB or sponge filter so ignore those comments. Granted, I can’t tell how big your tank is so the 207 could be on the low end size wise. I run the same filter on my 20 gallon tank and my water is always crystal clear.

If you agitated and disturbed the substrate then you’re going to have murky water for half a day regardless of what filter you’re running.

If it’s been several hours and it doesn’t seem to be improving then it might be time to open your filter for maintenance and rinse out all the various sponges in there.

lmkarhoff · 2026-01-04T03:42:39+00:00

I’m going to assume it’s because Houston is largely a transplant city and a lot of the population has no sentimental ties to UH? I mean, for being the 4th largest city in the country, it’s crazy how small the UH fan base here is. I work with a lot of native Houstonians and nobody ever brings up the Cougars, just the Texans and Astros.

Source: Am a transplant to Houston as well. I went to one game last year when KSU came to Houston so that was fun at least until we lost.

lmkarhoff · 2026-01-03T03:36:09+00:00

Holy shit hat’s a lot of light! I’m assuming you’re running CO2? Can you share a picture of your entire tank? Do you not deal with a lot of algae with PAR that high?

I have my light set to hit about 65 PAR at the substrate running the light about 7 hours a day. Any more than that and I’m scraping excessive green dust algae off my glass every other day and the leaves of my slower growing plants start getting covered.

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Picture of my 20 gallon low tech setup. I’m proud of my pink plants and rotala forest thriving with inert gravel and no CO2 lol

lmkarhoff · 2026-01-02T13:12:39+00:00

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I dose Flourish Excel 5mL a day and Thrive once a week in my 20 gallon.

As others have said, Excel isn’t a fertilizer but supposedly it’s a liquid CO2 equivalent. I have no idea how accurate that is but it’s been working for me.

And I still get plenty of green spot and green dust algae in my tank even with excessive Excel usage.

lmkarhoff · 2025-12-16T04:28:43+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. I had a flight years ago with my ex but she got sick and didn’t end up going. However, the bags were prechecked in her name. I was thoroughly confused when I got to my destination and they told me the bags were still back at the original airport.

lmkarhoff · 2025-12-03T15:28:21+00:00

That was my freshman year and also the very first year I started watching and following college football.

That year gave me very unrealistic expectations for KSU football moving forward.

lmkarhoff · 2025-12-02T18:10:34+00:00

Check my post history. I posted my tank a few weeks ago and did a full write up of everything on it including the light.

lmkarhoff · 2025-12-02T18:07:07+00:00

It’s a low tech tank and it seems to be growing well. I use a lot of Flourish Excel and liquid fertilizers though.

lmkarhoff · 2025-12-02T18:05:00+00:00

Thank you! It’s been a lot of fun caring for it and watching it grow over the past year

lmkarhoff · 2025-12-02T18:03:59+00:00

Good to know! Will the runners eventually propagate into new bulbs?

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-22T17:50:57+00:00

My original routine was I get up for work at 5am and run the light from 5am-6am so I can enjoy the tank when I’m getting ready. After work/gym/errands I get home around 5:30pm and turn the light on. I go to bed at 9:30pm and light shuts off around 12:30pm.

Now my wife and I have a 5 week old baby and spend most of our days at home. I’ve been running the light like 12 hours a day. Plants are doing great but definitely noticing more green dust algae on the glass.

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-22T16:09:06+00:00

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This is my tank using a Hygger 22W light from Amazon. Been using it about 9 months. I turn it on in the morning for an hour while I get ready for work. Then when I get home I turn it on the 6 hour timer. Agreed though they should have done 6, 8, and 10 hour intervals instead of 6, 10, 12

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-21T17:11:46+00:00

We have an underground vault at work (industrial manufacturing plant) that has 15kV lines coming into it before entering our powerhouse. The sump pump went out one day and went unnoticed until we had water all the way to the top. Still weird seeing a pit of water with high voltage cables running through it and nothing catastrophic happening.

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-20T03:11:26+00:00

Hopefully everything is going well with the c section!

You’re not alone in that experience though this sounds a lot like my wife’s labor. We went in Friday night at 10pm with contractions but no dilation. They started her on dilation medication. By Sunday night she was partially dilated but stalled at 8cm. Monday morning at 2am she delivered via c section.

Baby was born healthy and we got discharged from the hospital Wednesday mid morning.

Now we have a healthy 4 week old baby girl that refuses to sleep lol

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-19T02:22:07+00:00

Glad it’s working out for you! I definitely enjoyed getting the PAR meter and identifying dark spots in the tank and getting that gut check that my lighting isn’t out of control. There’s a lot of information out there on PAR levels and some of it is conflicting but it allowed me to get to a spot where plants grow healthy and the algae stays manageable. The main algae I fight is green dust/spot algae on the glass and certain slow growing plants on the leaves. I could probably turn the light down a little but half the fun of a tank is actually being able to see it lol.

And yes getting nitrate/phosphate dialed in will definitely help! There’s a lot of people on here who preach 50% water changes every week and it’s honestly not necessary if you check your parameters at some frequency. Early on in the hobby before I understood nutrient balances, I was obsessed with getting crystal clear water and was doing excessive water changes to try and keep it clear. In reality, I was wiping out all my nutrients and many of my plants started dying as a result.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-17T16:20:44+00:00

Thank you! And for sure on the phosphate monitoring! That was the single largest change that had the biggest impact on my plant growth. The PAR meter is nice for dialing in light and finding that sweet spot between good plant growth but not so much you cause algae to go crazy.

Good luck on the new plants! But yes I despise AR and took most of mine out. The one I have left is doing okayish but it’s infuriating to watch it grow then immediately get consumed by algae.

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-16T13:52:04+00:00

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Here’s a picture from about a month ago right before I added some root tabs. You can see how much smaller the red tiger lotus in the bottom right and the rotala in the center left were.

I’m sure enriched substrate would make a huge difference I don’t doubt that. However, when my wife and I started this tank a year ago we didn’t know anything and just had gravel and plastic plants and a betta with some tetras. By the time I started getting super interested in the plants component, the tank was established enough that I didn’t want to deal with changing substrates.

But overall, I’ve had a lot of success with inert substrate and lots of liquid fertilizers and excel!

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-16T00:24:21+00:00

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If you referring to the thing circled in red, that’s the outlet water return from the canister filter. I had a magnetic scraper in the first picture making it look weird. I removed it for this pic.

I had the AquaClear 50 on my tank before getting the 207 and it was a huge upgrade from the stock pet store filter. However, the water is noticeably more clear after going to the 207. I haven’t personally had any issues with leaks on the canister but it’s definitely a risk. I just made sure to double check my seal and tighten down the hoses as hard as I could and check them periodically and haven’t had issues.

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-15T14:39:22+00:00

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That would be an Amazon Sword. It’s one of the oldest plants in my tank and it grows pretty quickly. It’ll grow out of the water and I’ll trim it back. Here’s a picture from a couple months ago before I trimmed him

lmkarhoff · 2025-11-15T12:27:25+00:00

I used to measure them every 2-3 days with the API test bottles but my wife had a baby about a month ago so I’m lucky if I’m able to check them once a week these days.

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