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10 gallon planted tank

5K views 32 replies 4 participants last post by  hotshotdevil32 
#1 ·
Hey guys. So I'm not new to ether saltwater or freshwater. currently I have a 72 gallon reef tank with 2 ocellaris clownfish and 5 green chromis. awhile back my brother won a couple of goldfish at a carnival and after my scoldings for so thoughtlessly accepting the responsibility of fish I promised him that I would help him with his tank.He went out the next day and bought all the basic equipment for a tropical fish tank. The fish died so after. most likely from the inevitable ammonia spike and their shadowy origins. I attempted to help my brother set-up a tank after that but my dad took over. in the end my brother wound up with a terribly overstocked tank (3 hi-fin tetras, 3 bleeding heart tetras, 3 serpa tetras, 1 pleco) and with artificial plants. my dad has finally eased off and me and my brother can change the tank to his liking. He would like to start by removing all current fish from the tank and adding a trio of endlers livebearers. I have heard that they don't eat their young, is this true? We figured we would do a south american biotope. are they are south american plants that would do well in a tank this size? we are willing to get some hi-quality lights but I don't know where to start looking. Also are there any south american shrimp?
 
#2 ·
Endlers do not eat their young, indeed. It can be a good thing, or a bad thing, ;).
What are your water parameters?
10 gallons is pretty small. A group of endlers with some pygmy corydoras (or one of the 2 dwarf corydoras species) would work well.
For plants, floaters are pretty vital to most amazon set ups. Water sprite, amazon frogbit, or salvinia are good starters. They will grow pretty fast so you may have to remove it quite often to allow some light to the bottom.
Some good plants include anarchis, Brazillian pennywort, cabomba. For the foreground some pygmy chain sword would be nice. These are found in our profiles at the top, with more care info. :)
IMO no amazon tank is complete without some nice driftwood. Malaysian driftwood from a pet shop is a good option. There's also manzanita, which will be easier to find in the states (I'm from Canada and can't get any :() It's more branchy, which can look like tree roots in a tank. You'll want smaller pieces so they don't take up too much water area for the fish. You'll want to boil it for a while. Unless you boil it repeatedly until the water stays clear, you'll get tannins in your water. This is part of the natural Amazon. It's tea coloured water. Whether you want it or not is just preference.
Sand is the best substrate (especially if you want corydoras). Just regular play sand from a hardware store will work.
 
#3 ·
I actually want the endlers to breed on their own so that my brother can watch them breed and grow and we can always sell the stock we don't need to a LFS. Honestly we don't have a test kit because the tetras have done just fine without it. Obviously as we upgrade the tank we will get a full test kit. I don't know if I want to add corys purely because I want to keep the bioload low so the plants can really flourish. I mean if the plants would still do well anyway I would add them cause they are so cute. We actually have a piece of arc-shaped driftwood in the tank so that is done. I know that they sell plant substrates that help to keep the plants growing well. can I just layer the sand on top of it? also what fixtures do you do on your tank?
 
#4 ·
I have pretty low tech set ups. I'm guessing a lot of my light is from the sun as well. I can't help you with choosing a bulb.
What sort of plant substrate are you looking at? Some aren't all that great really.
I have playsand only.. I supplement with Fluorish tablets for my root feeding plants.
Fish are actually natural fertilizers for plants. They produce the ammonia which the plants use up as a food source. So a lot of plants works well with a lot of fish. :D
 
#5 ·
I was looking at sachem flourite. I was going to get the flourish excel chemical in place of a yeast based co2 system... Would that be alright? So how many Corys would you reccomend for a tank since they area social fish?
 
#6 ·
I've heard fluorite isn't a good substrate for the price you pay.
I'd just go with playsand and fertilizers.
You need a balance of light, CO2 and fertilizers. Excess of any of these leads to algae blooms. Of course a perfect balance is near impossible and you will most likely have some algae.Unless you build a CO2 set up there's no need for heavy lighting or lots of ferts. You can still fertilize, just not too much. Fertilizers don't provide CO2. For lighting, you need around 6500-7000 Kelvin (much less than a saltwater reef).
I would probably do 6-7 of the small species, they need larger groups to be happy.
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#7 ·
Welcome to the forum! Any time you see a fish name highlighted like this goldfish, you can click on it to see our profile for the fish. If you are looking at a planted tank, I suggest you read the articles Byron wrote about keeping a planted tank (he's the pro around here). You'll find them at the top of the Freshwater Plants subforum. They will spell out the answers to a lot of your planted tank questions such as ferts, substrate, and lights.

About the livebearer biotope: while Endlers Livebearer are from South America, they aren't part of anl amazon biotope (soft water). They aren't even found in the Amazon River drainage. They come from northern Venezuela (most livebearers are Central American). Like most livebearers they are hard water fish. Plants will do just fine in this especially vallisneria. Some cories and plecos can live in this hard water, but you would have to research which ones specifically.
 
#8 ·
Yea, pygmies are pretty good in medium hard water, which is why I brought them up. The other dwarfs are slightly softer. Not sure about anything else. :D
I always figured live bearers were fine in soft water, but heck what do I know about live bearers? Besides that endlers are cool little dudes.
I say get your water tested for pH and hardness. Most pet shops do it for free. Then we can figure out the best plan of action.
And trust me, don't be upset if you have soft water, it gives you like 5000 more options fish wise. Just not the best for livebearers.
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#9 ·
Well I can't afford a big expensive compressed co2 system so is there another method of adding co2 to the system. I am assuming co2 coming from the bioload will not be enough. So I will have to check my water to see what it looks like. I have some dip sticks for my SW tank that may work for FW. Maybe if my water is hard it would be an awesome opportunity for a central american biotope. I don't know too much about the species from that region but I'm sure you guys would be willing to educate me a bit.
 
#10 ·
Gh- 30
Kh- 40
Ph- 6.5
I think this means I have soft water right? If so is there a way I can be something to harden the water my bro really has his heart set on endlers livebearers
 
#13 ·
If that is ppm (which is what I'm guessing) then you have extremely soft water. Normally this isn't really a bad thing as it opens up a whole host of SA soft-water fish including discus. However, since you are wanting livebearers this is bad thing. As Byron suggested you can use a calcareous substrate. I am currently doing this in my goldfish tank as my water is too soft for them. I'm using CaribSeas' Florida Crushed Coral mix (found in the saltwater section). It is sharp, so you won't be able to have any substrate fish over it. But it works wonders at raising the GH, KH, and pH.
 
#12 · (Edited)
It will help to have the answer to Olympia's last question, but I will assume for the moment the GH and KH are ppm, since the pH is slightly acidic.

Livebearers will not last in this water, and Endlers Livebearer [as someone mentioned, click the name for the profile with info] need mineral in their water. Fortunately there are simple ways to achieve this. Using a calcareous substrate is the best. Calcareous means the sand or gravel is made from rock having a high calcium/magnesium content. For a 10g tank with Endlers, I would select sand, CarribSea make one from crushed coral and aragonite that is good. However, I would not have any of the "dwarf" species of cory over this.

The enriched substrates like Flourite are in my view a waste of money. And substrate fish can have problems.

If you are intent on having fry, you should have 2 females to each male at minimum. So in a 10g maybe 2 or 3 males, and 6-7 females. But, you will have fry continually, and getting rid of them is not always easy. A store that says it will take them once, may not again unless there is a very ready market. And a couple hundred fry in a 10g will be disastrous in no time.

An authentic aquascape would be the sand, some chunks of bogwood (Malaysian Driftwood is good and readily available in many stores) and live plants, especially floating but some substrate-rooted plants too like Corkscrew Vallisneria which does so well in harder water.

Byron.
 
#17 ·
are there any floating plants that do well in hard water? I like amazon frogbit but I think that is out of the question
 
#16 · (Edited)
Could you have a layer of playsand over top for cories and still get the benefits?
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To be honest, I don't know. I have my crushed coral in a bag in the filter. This is an option, too. However I have to be very careful at water change time. It took me a few weeks of testing, but I've developed a system that lets me still do the large water changes required for a goldfish tank and not tip the pH or GH scales too much. I think for a beginner (the OP's younger brother) it will be much easier to just have the crushed coral as a substrate. You won't have to worry about making a "system" as much.

EDIT: If you don't want cories, then putting the crushed coral on the bottom will be just fine. Shrimp are a great choice, too. That is the substrate that I use and the one Byron is talking about (he recommended it to me). Glad to know you will have a place to put the fry. It's a shame I don't live closer or I might take some. I've been wanting a tank of livebearers for some time. The fixture depends on what you want. I just have the standard 10 gal hood with a 6500k bulb (not the light that comes with the tank). This will produce low-med lighting. More powerful lights could be used, but once you start getting stronger lights, you'll be looking at adding CO2 (high-tec). I'm a low-tec kinda person.
 
#15 ·
Those measurements are in ppm sorry :oops:. I didn't really want the corys in the first place so the sand should be fine but could I put a finer grain sand over the top of it for aesthetics? I was looking to add some shrimp to the tank so does anyone know of any shrimp species from central america? I would only start with two females and 1 male so I have some time before the fry become a problem. there are several people in the neighborhood with community tanks so I can get of some that way. If any of you live near NYC and want some endlers livebearers I would be happy to send some your way too.

Byron- is this the sand you are talking about? Florida Crushed Coral for Aquariums
also what kind of fixture would you reccomend for a 10 gallon tank?
 
#18 ·
Most plants, especially these days are pretty adaptable. A hard water central America biotope is pretty plant free I think? I'm thinking it's the faster flowing waters. I'm no biotope expert though.
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#19 ·
what about some of these guys?
Aquarium Plants for Hard Water | eHow.com
I don't want to include no plants lol. it would make the tank look pretty lifeless.
Most plants, especially these days are pretty adaptable. A hard water central America biotope is pretty plant free I think? I'm thinking it's the faster flowing waters. I'm no biotope expert though.
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#20 ·
Haven't heard of the first one. The Val was mentioned. They tend to be high light. The egeria is a good amazon native too. Are you willing to order plants online? If so you have a lot of options. If not I'd scour the fish stores, write down all the plants they carry and research them.
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#21 ·
As long as they don't charge me an arm and a leg for shipping I have no problem ordering plants from online. I do plan on getting a pretty nice lighting system so that shouldn't present a problem.
 
#22 · (Edited)
Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum) can be left to float and does very well in hard water. It will also create a refuge for fry in its needles. They also do a great job at removing ammonia and nitrate. On top of fish profiles, we also have a few plant profiles. Click on the shaded name to read more.
 
#26 ·
Here is an example of a central american tank that is beautiful to me!
Aquarius - Store Specialized in Aquarium Supply
This would be my ideal aquarium!
That is a neat looking aquarium! If you scroll down on that page a bit, it lists the names of the plants there (with a link to see a picture). I think the foreground plant is dwarf sagittaria. You should be able to look up some of those names in our profile. I don't think anything in that list is too hard to acquire. You could easily make that the blueprint for your tank.

Planted Aquariums Central This is a great place to buy plants online. The shipping is pretty good and the plants arrive in great condition.
 
#25 ·
Left foreground of the CA tank, the small plants look like Sagittaria subulata. I think the leaves are a bit too "solid" for Helanthium tenellum.
 
#27 ·
So I think I will do alot of eel grass in the background and some Dwarf Sagittaria in the foreground. So once again ARE THERE ANY CENTRAL AMERICAN SHRIMP? it seems like that and a few other questions I have that I will iron out in other threads so I should be able to get all the details sorted out within the week and start assembling it once finals are over.
 
#28 ·
I tried doing a google search for it, but I couldn't find anything. I was wondering about that because I would like to set up a livebearer biotope one day. Personally, I'll probably just throw in shrimp anyway. I've never been a huge fan of true biotope tanks (despite my educational background in biology and ecology). If the params are good, I'll throw just about anything together.
 
#29 ·
I gotcha I'm mean I might just throw some ghost shrimp in there but I figure if I did all this other background research I would at least try to find one first
 
#30 ·
Nope.. Almost all shrimp in the trade are from Asia, as this is where the shrimp hobby originates.
There are many Amazonian freshwater shrimp. But shrimp are kinda eh. A lot of hobby shrimp aren't described by science (even fish) and it can be hard to keep track of species. I've seen some beautiful in-described species found in Amazon pools by shrimpists, but in reality this just isn't practical for anyone but the most experienced shrimpists.
If you want some ideas:
Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp
I was able to find this guy, Amazon glass shrimp, which you could "replicate" with his close cousin the American glass shrimp (aka common feeder shrimp that usually cost like 30 cents each) Note that they will eat any fry they can catch, thought I doubt they will dent your numbers:
Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp

Or, you could do amano shrimp, unrelated but similar to the Amazonian one. Doubt they'd catch any fish fry.
Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp

Both of these are a tad bit easier to deal with if you want to stick to something more native looking.
 
#31 ·
So there is aren't any internet sites that sell amazon glass shrimp with any frequency? How much of a dent would the shrimp put in the fry. I mean I would be happy if only one or two survived per batch to keep the popullation low
 
#32 ·
Nope, they're rare. The site pretty much has em up for looking. I wouldn't consider it, rare inverts can run you a pretty penny if you manage to find them.
A ghost shrimp will probably catch fry once in a blue moon. They will eat weaker ones that sink to the bottom though.
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#33 ·
alright so I think I will throw like 5 glass shrimp in their to have some movement on the bottom. Do shrimp have any special care requirements? will they be alright on the argonite sand?
 
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