# Planted 10 Gallon Tank



## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Well this is my first some what succesful attempt at a planted tank. Ive putsed around with plants before but never had good growth that i was proud of. But this tank has changed that. Ive finally got it some what balanced out so their is little algae in this tank now. Its not aquascaped at the moment just some plants growing and if they are growing im happy. Im still looking for driftwood or rocks, just something to pull the tank together some. I also may remove the water sprite and wisteria once the tanks growth is more established. So any suggestions are definately apreciated.

Specs :
10 Gallon Glass Standard
AquaClear Mini Power Filter
Whisper 50 watt heater
2x13 watt AH Supply Kit 
10 Pounds of Shultz Aquatic Plant Soil

Plants: 
Rotala Indica
Ludwig Repens
Bacopa ?
Green Wendtii crypt
Caboma ?
Water Sprite
Water Wisteria
Jungle Val










.dc


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

Good looking tank! Keep us updated with lots of pictures! I am starting a ten gallon at the moment. Hopefully I can get it looking good too


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## United21Soccer (Mar 15, 2004)

If you are looking for some rocks, i've found out that just getting some out of a local river works good after you clean them. And the best part is, they're free! Also, a nice piece of driftwood can be found at some Petsmarts. I know the one near me does. 

Good luck on your tank!


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## nonamethefish (Feb 25, 2004)

Excellent start! However, the tank will be too small for the angels eventually. If you don't have a bigger tank to move them to(where they will grow into stunning showpieces) then I'd reccomend looking for something else.


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## Daemonfly (Mar 21, 2004)

Doesn't _look_ like a 10g :lol: seems bigger 

Are you planning any kind of foreground plant?


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

Looks like you're off to a good start! 

My recommendations:

Let the crypts get a little larger.

Try to get bushier bunches of stem plants by cutting off the tops and replanting the tops next to the rooted portions. 

Take out the val... it will get too large for your tank eventually.

A foreground plant... Marsilea quadrifolia, Java moss are good options.

Carlos


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## able_ranui (Feb 26, 2004)

Looks pretty nice. The Jungle Val will get much too big for your tank and it will try to overtake the tank. Good driftwood can be found on ebay, rocks try your own backyard  . I live on an old floodplain so rocks are easy to come by, just go pick the fields. I can't driftwood or rocks from the river where its close to us though  , oil spill up stream of us a few years ago. Lots of rivers around though. Post another picture when it fills in more.


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Alright, first off the angels are or were in here to treat their nipped fins when i bought them. Once i get my 45 gallon planted some more and its estabished ill move the angelfish to that tank.

A foreground plant, i dont have any ideas for one now but maybe ill order one when it gets a little warmer. tsunami, i did a google search for Marsilea quadrifolia and it looks like its a floating fern or somesort called water shamrock. Maybe its not what you meant? 

The val will be moved to the 45g once plant growth gets a little better in the tank. The val hasnt been growing much anyways. And for the crypts, they are growing in well and should look nice once they get more 'bushy'. As for the rotala indica, its not doing very well in the tank and seems to be just hanging in there along as the ludwig. So these plants may be implemented for something else later on.

So when the tank fills in some ill update with some more pics.

.dc


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Updated Picture -










Ive redid the tank, took out a few plants and put a pair of kribs in the tank. The angels went into my 45g Tall tank.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

.depthc


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

I'm definitely not a fan of the pots. I would try obtaining some wood with crevices. 

As for the plants, they do seem like they need a bit of a pick me up. At this point, I would worry more about getting healthy growth out of the plants you have rather than aquascaping/repositioning plants throughout the tank.

I don't see any mention of using CO2 in your original post. Are you using it?

Carlos


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

The clay pots were put in the tank along with the Kribs to provide a cave if they decide to spawn. So they are temporary until i find a more natural looking cave for the kribs.

As for C02, i just started injected it once again. I cut it off a week or two ago to just experiment and see how the tank did with out it. And BGA took over so i just redid the tank and started injecting again so hopefully ill get some decent growth out of the plants. 

As for fertalizing i dont add anything but Seachem Nitrogen to get my N03 levels up. But ive noticed most of the plants dont have that bright green contrast to them so im assuming it may be a nutrient deficiency, Iron i believe? 

So any tips on getting optimum plant growth and turning this into a successful planted tank are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

.depthc


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

I dose all my tanks with Flourish, KNO3, and Fleet type enemas. Its cheap and it works. I dont have my dosing ammounts with me here at work but if you like I can post them later tonight. Be sure to keep us updated on how the tank is doing and post lots of pics!


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

You should be adding Flourish, at least. 1 mLx4 times a week.

Fleet enema can do the trick for PO4, or Mono Potassium Phosphate from:

www.gregwatson.com

I'd recommend getting a phosphate test kit before dosing this nutrient. Personally, I've always liked Seachem's test kit for phosphate. You'll want levels around ~1ppm for now.

Keep the CO2 up. Refresh it weekly.

That's pretty much it. 

Carlos


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Alright well i ride things out this week and see how things go. Next week ill start with a w/c, new c02 batch, and start dosing Florish. I plan on starting up a journal once again to keep an idea of what works. Thanks a bunch for all the advice and ill be sure to update often.

.depthc


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Update time :

Well its been a while since ive updated so here is a quick update.

Ive actually got the plants to grow. Hippee!!

I started to add 1 mL of Seachem Nitrogen and Iron each week along with a waterchange and a new C02 batch. So im starting to see some nice growth out of the water wisteria and hydrocallia(incorrect spelling). But the limnophilia in the left corner still hasnt really shown great growth that i want, but then again ive never really had this plant grow nicely.

Well here's the picture. Please feel free to offer up tips and criticism.










.depthc


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

hmm...no pic?


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Alright fixed it. I had it uploaded at angelfire and i guess my bandwidth was exceeded so i just uploaded it to my personal gallery here at APC so im sure it will work now. 

.depthc


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

Keep up the progress, depthc! Keep trying to improve plant health.

You may want to increase your additions of Nitrate and Iron a little --why not try doubling or even tripling the amount you have now? I think that will continue to improve plant growth, as it seems that the plants look a little starved.

You may want to look into phosphate additions in the future --or even just keep more fish in that tank/feed more heavily to increase your nitrate and phosphate levels for the plants. It shouldn't be too troublesome at your lighting levels --which leads me to another comment, perhaps you should not rely so heavily on stem plants and try aquascaping with lower light plants like Anubias barteri v nana, Java Fern, moss, and crypts?

The plant in the left corner seems to be Cabomba caroliniana and not Limnophila sessiliflora.

Carlos


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Thanks a lot for the comments i truely do appreciate it.

In a couple days ill be adding 5 white clouds, 5 corys, and 1 wrestling halfbeak because im renovating a old ten gallon. So that bioload should help the plants out quite a bit.

As for uping my nutrients wouldnt the increased N03 harm the fish? I havent tested the levels i just guess that 1 mL is enough since its recommended on the bottle for 40g a mL. But ill give it a try.

The reason i rely on stem plants is for quick uptake of nutrients. A day after i added the mL of iron and N03, prior to a waterchange, blue green algae grew pretty quickly in little patches. Are there any suggestions to erradicate this BGA? Ive had this stuff for over a year now in various tanks of mine and have never found a good way to get rid of it. I know dosing maracide can kill it but that doesnt stop it from growing back.

So heres a updated picture showing growth from 2 days, mostly BGA :










.depthc


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Hi depthc,

I think you need to dose fully and regularly in order to get rid of the blue-green algae, as has been suggested previously. It looks like you are gradually developing a proper maintenance and nutrient addition system and that will help immensely.

I am going to figure out some amounts for you, and the others can comment on what I say. I consider your tank a bit closer to a low light tank than a high light one. I have a similar tank right now (20 gal). For low light tanks I am dosing 50% of what I dose in my higher light tanks. That would be 5 ppm NO3, about .25 ppm Fe, and .5 ppm PO4, all twice per week. Thats right, you need the PO4 in order to have a complete system. Keep up with the CO2. Thoroughly remove the algae BEFORE the water change. You can siphon most of it off of the gravel. It will also tend to ball up with the gravel and not lift into the siphon. You can remove these by hand.

Do the first nutrient addition AFTER the water change.

The water change has two functions. First it removes a lot of the algae from the cleaning. Second, it tends to limit the maximum amount of nutrients in the water. For example one 50% weekly water change will mathematically keep your NO3 additions to less than 20 ppm.

Make sure to do the weekly water change and change at least 50% of the water.

Use 2 ml of Flourish twice per week
Use 3 ml of Flourish Nitrogen twice per week
Use 4 ml of Flourish Phosphorous twice per week (Yes, go get some Flourish P)

There is enough K (potassium) is these products so you shouldn't add any.

Keep up with the CO2. It may take a while but be patient. Your conscientious maintenance will pay off.

None of this stuff is toxic to plants. Nitrite is bad and so is ammonia, but NO3, Iron, traces, PO4, and potassium will not harm any fish.

I would also add a few more fast growing plants.

Steve Pituch


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Nice, i love how you put that all together spituch. Thank you very much.

Well it seems ill have to put in an order at Big Als for some Seachem Phosphorus and some more Flourish. 

Now you dont say i should continue adding Fe, should i just stop adding this to my tank all together?

And also, you recommend adding some more fast growing plants. Any recommendations? Ive got all the fast growing stem plants i can think of, watersprite, wisteria, and anarchis. 

Once again thank you.

.depthc


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

just cram in those fast growers...then slowly replace them with a scape you want. If you plan on hardscaping, then do that and plant all the fast growers around it. This way when you remove them, the scape can be built without messing up things.



Keep up the good work


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

The Flourish has the Iron.

You would do much better if you have to go mail order to purchase some stuff from Greg Watson.

Buy:

1 pound KH2PO4
1 pound KNO3
1 pound CSM +B (traces + Iron)

Also get the spoons

It is probably cheaper than the Flourish Phosphorous and will last one or two years.

go to : http://www.gregwatson.com/

Steve Pituch


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Okay, well im pretty sure ive got the plants where i want them now and i will let everything grow in from here. Ive added some hair grass so ill see how that fairs in this tank while i perfect my plant growth. 

And it looks like i will soon be putting a order with greg watson for those chemicals. Ill be getting a pound of each : KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM+B Plantex, and those measuring spoons. Now a quick question since ive never dosed dry ferts. How much of the powder is equal to 1mL and how should i go about dosing? Putting the chemicals in a cup w/ some water and mix them up then dump the water in? Thanks again.

Also here is a updated picture, ive added fish and pruned a few of the plants. The hydrocallia stuff is really growing well, it gets up the the surface and grows to look like lilly pads somewhat.

.depthc


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

The ml to spoon conversion is a tricky question since different sources of the same chemical have different densities. APC will have a calculator to do all this for you. In the meantime, please go to my site where I have put all the relationships and calculations. I can help you with it when your chemicals arrive.

Go to: http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Chemicals/chemicals.html

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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