Aqueon 15 Gallon LED Column

I decided to try out these column style tanks since it has such a different appearance that can fit in tiny spots, but contain a lot of live and plants. I must say that these tanks do have a different type of challenge, from not only their style, but also what you can do with them. I figured that I'd document everything from me setting it up to what it looks like at a random interval. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to ask or let me know!

Tank has been taken down - this will be the journal from when it was up and running.

Detailed Information

Tank: Aqueon 15 Gallon Column (13.75 x 13.75 x 25")
Stand: Aqueon 15 Gallon Column Stand (specifically fits only this tank)
Filter: Aqueon 10 Gallon QuietFlow Filter HOB
Lighting: Stock (Aqueon 15 Gallon LED fixture)

Substrate: Generic Black Sand
Flora: Anubias Congesis (3x), Anubias Nana (5x)
Fauna: Dwarf Gourami (1x), Malaysian Trumpet Snails (?x)

Gallery

I honestly haven’t done much to this tank. Currently it’s growing good plant wise, and the snails have a massive population. I might start trying to sell these snails since maybe people charge an arm and a leg compared to giving them out for pennies on the dollar.

Quote from rkhlbj1897

how are those tanks setup wise? Like was the Gourami your original intention or was it a backup plan since other fish don’t like the horizontal space?

Ironically when I first started this up I wanted to do a bunch of Betta fry, but that didn’t work out due to the shipment place not having any (way before COVID). Then I went with a bunch of fathead minnows but over time they died off due to parasites (was trying to treat but I got them from a bad source overall). Lastly it was used as a grow out tank for CAEs (Chinese Algae Eaters) and then once that was done I just went with a lone Gourami. I may add in other fish or something else over time, but for now he appears pretty happy and content by himself.

I just added a new photo, really to show the coloration that the powdered blue dwarf gourami has and just how the few snails I got have basically taken over the tank when it gets dark.

Quote from NoFishBefore

Do you ever plan to sell off some of those snails or give them away? I could totally see you helping others since people want like $15 on eBay for like 10 snails.

I’ve thought about it, although I might honestly give them away to members on here if they pay for the postage stamp depending on how many they need.

Quote from Aquatime

I like the plant on driftwood look. Any issues with algae with it being so close to the window?

No big issues, I do have some nice growth of green algae on the leaves but nothing on the tank walls (due to the snails eating it all off), and no other type of algae growth (such as black/brown/red).

It’s like an endless supply of food for my snails that clean it up every day.

Ultimately, this tank is just an extremely weird height and size, and even for a Dwarf Gourami as and snail tank, it just gets way too dirty too fast that requires a ton of maintenance to clean (ex; draining a vast majority of the tank to reach down). I've decided to move on, and start breaking this tank down. Driftwood will be saved and migrated into the turtle tank once I get a bigger tank size (I've already put a piece into here to secure the basking dock more), snails will be fully moved into the turtle tank once I sift through the sand, plants will be moved into the turtle tank another tank I'm going to setup soon, and everything else will be sold (tank, sand, lights, filter, etc.).

For everyone else, it's a good tank, just really hard to keep up (especially by a window), and it's size really limits you to very specific set of fish (unless you go marine and make this a reef tank, although you'll need to buy a new DIY based hood and lighting system).