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10g Planted Tank Journal

6K views 22 replies 10 participants last post by  Mr.Todd 
#1 ·
Well, I think it's about time to set up a tank journal for my ten gallon. I still have to get some pictures up on it though, but I'm home for Easter, and not with my tanks or a camera.

Well, yesterday my grandma slipped me some money forEaster, so I was able to get some new stuff for my tank. I logged on to the Foster/Smith website and got a 94 watt CF light, new CO2 canister, master test kid (I know that I should have probly gotten this a loooong time ago!), mounting brackets for the lights, and a strip light with a digital timer on it. I also ordered some plants which include: DHG, chain swords, and micro sords. Today I called my roommate (I'm home for Easter right now) and he said that my copy of Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants finally came in the mail! When I get home, I'm going to nerd out hard core on my 10g!
 
#4 ·
mr.bojangles said:
if not i suggest doing 4-5 german blue rams
it would look awesome
No more than just a pair of rams. More than 2 is asking for troubles. A 10 gallons is far too small to allow rams to establish their boundaries.
 
#5 ·
I do really like rams! I am going to put rams with the discus when I get the 75g up and going. This ten is mainly going to be a plant experiment as I have zero experience with anything over 0.7 watts per gallon. I'd rather mess up a ten gallon tank than a 75. As soon as I get the hang of this, I'm going to plant my 75 gallon tank and add a few discus, rams, and cardinal tetras.
 
#6 ·
hamdogg08 said:
I do really like rams! I am going to put rams with the discus when I get the 75g up and going. This ten is mainly going to be a plant experiment as I have zero experience with anything over 0.7 watts per gallon. I'd rather mess up a ten gallon tank than a 75. As soon as I get the hang of this, I'm going to plant my 75 gallon tank and add a few discus, rams, and cardinal tetras.
Nice plan.:thumbsup:
 
#8 ·
I'm running a Coralife quad tube Compact Fluorescent. It's 96 Watts and 6700K. It just came today actually, and I'm really excited. I set the timer to come on at 9:00 am, and go off at 10:00 pm with a siesta from 2-4 also. I read that algae has a harder time growing if you throw a siesta into the mix. Tomorrow the swords and DHG should be here. Whatever looks the best/survives will be the winner. The loser will just get thrown into my roommate's tank.
 
#9 ·
I've also been thinking a lot about what to stock the tank with as far as fish are concerned. I'd eventually like to get some riccia going in the tank, but fish are really just an afterthought. The plants are my main priority in this tank. Any suggestions?
 
#10 ·
OK, so I've done a pretty bad job at keeping up on this journal. Since I first set up the tank, and threw some plants in, I've had my hands full.

The first mistake that I made was putting a crappy filter on my tank. I had the filter die on me three times in the span of a week. After all that went down, the water got super cloudy, and algae took everything over. I got a few peppered cories to eat any extra food that went down to the bottom of the tank.

Since there was so much algae in the tank, I got a few otto's. They did did their best, but the algae grew faster than they could eat. To make matters worse, they only ate off of the glass and driftwood while the plants were succumbing to the onslaught of algae on their leaves.

A few days ago, I decided to spring for a better filter, and got the marineland biowheel for "aquariums up to 20 gallons." I cut open the filter cartridge and took out all the carbon, then turned it on. It took about two days for the new filter to clear up the water, and now the water's just shy of being crystal clear. Since I have the crappy top fin, I just decided to leave it on the tank.

OK, so the water's clear now, and the glass is OK. I see the ottos with full bellies, and there's still a little algae on the glass. I'm not too worried though because I think that an increase in water quality will lead to a decrease in algae. I tested to ammonia levels and they turned out to be zero, however I read that a lot of times with algae, the algae uses up the ammonia as fast as it's produced.

Yesterday, I got a male and 4 female guppies from my old 29 gallon that I gave to my girlfriend. Since I put them in there at about 11:00 last night, they've already eaten about 1/3 of the algae that was on the plants. Hopefully now some light will be able to actually reach the plants now and help them grow a bit.

Now the only problem is the algae on the substrate. The ottos don't seem to be too interested in eating off the ground. The guppies aren't interested either. The cories don't seem to have a taste for algae. Any suggestions? I was thinking that as soon as the algae elsewhere is eaten up, they're going to just give in and eat from the substrate.

Now that my problems are getting figured out, I'll be able to post a picture soon without being embarrassed!
Thanks for reading
-Dan
 
#11 ·
I finally got some pictures up! I also got some driftwood and java moss yesterday.

Here's my tank:
The bubble wall-I have this set up to turn on at the same time that the light turns off. I read that having too much CO2 at night can lead to the fish being killed off.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361386098/0

Micro Swords-I cut the runners apart a few weeks ago, and hopefully they will from individual plants that will in turn send their own runners out and carpet the bottom well.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361405568/1

Lighting Unit- coralife 96 watt CF
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361396782/3

Java moss on driftwood-I got both the driftwood and the java moss yesterday. The moss is pretty nappy looking right now, but hopefully it will spread out and completely cover the driftwood. From what I've read, I'll have more than I need in a month or two.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361416302/4

Guppies- Here are three of my five guppies. Three females got a bad case or the preggers, and the other two are too small to mate. I'm waiting to see little fry swimming in and around the java moss any day now.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361381538/5

Chain Sword-I wasn't too fond of the chain sword when I first got it, but it's turning out to be a great midground plant for this tank. It's double in size in the last 3 weeks or so.
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361381760/6

The Tank-This is just a shot of the entire tank itself. All that I have left to do is plant something behind the driftwood, and let everything just fill in. I have all the plants where I want them for right now; they're just kinda sparse looking right now. Also, you can see in the back of the tank a topfin filter that I initially purchased, then the bio-wheel filter that I ended up getting a few weeks later since the topfin sucked so much! :x
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/great_white_kenyan/album/576460762400197298/photo/294928804361416793/7
 
#12 ·
Update: I picked up two different kinds of bacopia today for the background. You can still see the heater and CO2 difuser, so I'm going to get one more plant to block it. I'll take a picture of it once it starts growing.

p.s. I fixed the problem with the pictures, so you should be able to view them now.
 
#13 ·
I finally got some pictures up! I also got some driftwood and java moss yesterday.

Here's my tank:
The bubble wall-I have this set up to turn on at the same time that the light turns off. I read that having too much CO2 at night can lead to the fish being killed off.

Micro Swords-I cut the runners apart a few weeks ago, and hopefully they will from individual plants that will in turn send their own runners out and carpet the bottom well.

Lighting Unit- coralife 96 watt CF

Java moss on driftwood-I got both the driftwood and the java moss yesterday. The moss is pretty nappy looking right now, but hopefully it will spread out and completely cover the driftwood. From what I've read, I'll have more than I need in a month or two.

Guppies- Here are three of my five guppies. Three females got a bad case or the preggers, and the other two are too small to mate. I'm waiting to see little fry swimming in and around the java moss any day now.

Chain Sword-I wasn't too fond of the chain sword when I first got it, but it's turning out to be a great midground plant for this tank. It's double in size in the last 3 weeks or so.

The Tank-This is just a shot of the entire tank itself. All that I have left to do is plant something behind the driftwood, and let everything just fill in. I have all the plants where I want them for right now; they're just kinda sparse looking right now. Also, you can see in the back of the tank a topfin filter that I initially purchased, then the bio-wheel filter that I ended up getting a few weeks later since the topfin sucked so much!
 
#15 ·
Cool tank.....

Actually, you have it almost backwards, and want to correct you. It's not the CO2 that kills the fish at night. The reason for the bubble wand at night, is that if the plants start to grow in fairly heavy, plants use O2 at night, and can suffocate the fish if too much O2 is stripped from the water. So the bubble wand simply maintains the O2 levels at proper levels for the fish. It's not needed during the day, as the plants use CO2 during the day and give off O2.
 
#18 ·
Lonewolfblue said:
Cool tank.....

Actually, you have it almost backwards, and want to correct you. It's not the CO2 that kills the fish at night. The reason for the bubble wand at night, is that if the plants start to grow in fairly heavy, plants use O2 at night, and can suffocate the fish if too much O2 is stripped from the water. So the bubble wand simply maintains the O2 levels at proper levels for the fish. It's not needed during the day, as the plants use CO2 during the day and give off O2.
Doesnt the O2 Pump pump Co2 too?
 
#21 ·
Yeah, it's kind of a challenge though. I have algae problems right now. Can algae be a result of too much fertilization? I was also thinking that there may be too much light (96 watts @ 9:00-200;2:00-4:00siesta;4:00-10:00) My guppies at it when they first got in there, but then I started feeding them more, and the spoiled babies decided that they're too good for algae now-lol
 
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