# Diving into the deep end - My 10 gallon tank



## Joey S (Sep 11, 2010)

Hey guys first time poster and off and on again fish hobbyist.

Well over the past 10 years I've kept many different kinds of fish and use to have multiple tanks, but I've always been too chicken to try and make a densely planted tank. A few years ago I moved home and sold all my fish and gave my fish tanks away to family and friends. Now I'm living with my girlfriend and she had an old 10 gallon tank sitting around and being bored one day decided to set it up and get a little tank running.

I first set it up with the intention of having a nice community tank going, with fake plants, some driftwood with anubias and java moss attached. I fishless cycled the tank and stocked it with a Bolivian Ram and six Rummynose Tetras. The current substrate is inert white sand.

Now I want to convert it into a heavily planted tank and am looking for some advice. All this is new to me but I've been researching plants, lighting, fertilisers, CO2 and substrates. So I thought I'd post what I have in mind of doing.

Firstly I've prdered an upgrade to my current filter system I've been running. I've been using an old AquaClear mini HOB filter and I've ordered an Eheim 2211 canister filter. I've also ordered ADA Amazonia Aqua Soil. Now one of my first problems is should I remove the sand and use only the plant substrate, mix the substrate with the sand or layer the substrate under the sand (or vice versa)?

I'm also looking to upgrade my lighting from a single 15w fluoro tube to compact fluorescents. I can pick up a 2x 26w compact set-up very cheaply online. I'll be able to run only one 26w bulb if needed, but I was wondering if running 52w on a standard 10 gallon tank would be overkill. It seems quite excessive.

From what I've read it seems if you're going to be running high lighting you'll need to use fertilisers and probably run CO2 aswell to promote strong plant growth and hold back algal blooms/outbreaks. So I'm planning on making a DIY CO2 system using a 2ltr coke bottle and was thinking I should buy a CO2 diffuser to go with it. Also I've been looking at making my own PPS-pro fertiliser mix because the price of bottle ferts are ridiculous and at least this way I know what I'm giving my plants. Is this a good thing to do for a first timer and what test kits should I buy?

Also finally what plants would everyone suggest I buy? My local fish stores are terrible plant wise, so I'll be buying my plants online. I was thinking of using Lilaeopsis brasiliensis and Hairgrass as ground cover/foreground plants. Attaching another Anubias nana and some Java Fern to my two pieces of driftwood, and using Ambulia as one of the background plants. What other plants can I use considering its a 10 gallon and space is limited?

I plan on posting pictures later on what my tank looks like now and I'm planning on keeping up to date pictures in this thread as my tank progresses.


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## Joey S (Sep 11, 2010)

Here are pictures on how the tank looks now. The driftwood on the right is new and is still leeching tannins into the tank.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Joey S,

First of all, welcome to APC! It sounds like you are off to a good start. If it were me I would use just the ADA Aquasoil. Load the tank with plants, good ones are available in the For Sale or Trade sub-forum if your LFS don't stock much. Stay away from the "Big Box" (Petco / Petsmart / Etc.) a lot of their plants are for terrariums. I usually start with a short photoperiod until I have completed the nitrogen cycle or I get algae outbreaks. Your light sounds like it will be fine, 6700K bulbs are a good place to start. I used DIY CO2 on a 45 gallon (2 ea 2 liter bottles) and had great plant growth until I was sure I wanted to get deeper into the hobby, then I got pressured CO2 with most of the componets off of Craigslist.

Start a thread or do a "search" and see what people suggest as good starter plants! Hope this helps!


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## Joey S (Sep 11, 2010)

Yeah I've learnt the risk of buying "aquarium plants" from pet stores before. I'm going to research all my plants before buying any to make sure I'll be able to meet their needs. 

I live in Australia and I'm fairly sure I'm going to use an online store called AquaGreen and I've come up with a list of plants I might buy from there in a few weeks once I have all my equipment I need.

Considering how much space my driftwood take up, I think I'll use mostly background stem plants along the back of the tank. The plants along the back of the tank I'm planning on using are:

Limnophila brownii
Myriophyllum muricatum
Rotala rotundifolia
Hygrophila polysperma

I was also thinking of planting some Vallisneria erecta on the left hand boarder of the tank. It sounds like an interesting species of Val to manage as it apparently grows only to the height of the tank and no longer. Would mean less trimming needed.

I was also thinking a crypt of some sort would look nice between the two pieces of driftwood. Maybe Cryptocoryne wendtii. I was also thinking some dwarf chain sword (Echinodorus tenellus and hairgrass would work well as foreground and ground cover plants.


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## Joey S (Sep 11, 2010)

The amazonia substrate arrived earlier today and I've spent the last few hours moving the fish out of the tank into an esky, draining the tank, removing the sand, adding the new substrate and then mixing the sand into it. Only problem is I didn't drain the tank completely (was about an inch deep water) and it unsettled the substrate and released heaps and heaps of dust.

After filling the tank back up and doing another 50% water change then adding the fish and driftwood it looks like this.










Got to love how they store the instruction manual inside the bag of substrate in a plastic bag, where it sits at the very bottom. Only to discover it after adding the substrate where it says to not disturb the substrate as it'll release dust/dirt that is stored within the gravel.

Going to have to push the planted driftwood into the substrate later, some leave after on the surface of the tank.

Hope this muck settles soon.

UPDATE: A few hours later and its cleared up a lot. Still milky and can't see the back of the tank. But at least I can see the fish. I've also dug the driftwood into the substrate a little which unsettled the dust again. Going to be a major pain adding the fake plants tomorrow. I'll take some picture tomorrow to show how its going.


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## virgo888 (Jun 25, 2009)

add some seachem purigen media and it will clear up even faster.


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