# 10 GAllon VERY Low Tech



## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

So this tank has been remodeled several times, and moved to three places around the house, and finally to where its at now, the front living room....okay anyways before i show the tank, i have a description of my tank, this tank has zero ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph is at about 7.0, low phosphates, i havent done a water change since March i think! there no heater,and yet everything in this tank is flawless, except for the fact that its not aquascaped! All the fish seem as healthy as possible, no fish casualty since last fall i think( and that was because the lights went out)!

This 10 gallon is overstocked with lots of guppies, a betta, pond snails, cherry and amano shrimp, a crab! and a firebelly newt!...ugh...
I would also like to mention that ive had rummynose, cardinals, angelfish, vampire shrimp, cyprichromis leptosoma and red eye tetras in there but these were moved to my 55 gallon eventually all very healthy and active,(NOTE: they werent all in the ten gallon at the same time!)
All the plants ive put in there have grown well too, but i soon remove them to add them to my 55gallon. A little algae is present but nothing big except on the back of the tank.

Okay, so anyways, i wonder, since this tank is over 2 years old, is this tank established?? i mean the water is CRYSTAL CLEAR, and it just seems like im looking at a river out there in nature, all perfect and no maintenance, and ive havent done anything, imean anything all! even if a plant is rotting in there i leave it and it just melts in there and no effect on any of the lifestock or signs of stress, all the shrimp are breeding, guppies breeding, betta looking more colorful then when i bought it, is this tank capable of going on byitself without worries?? except for, of course, evaporation...

Sorry for saying alot
But heres the pics, again the tank is not aquascaped:




































Ill add more pics if anyone wants more???


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## Veloth (Jun 25, 2008)

It does look like a cut away section of a river. Nice looking setup. I would say the tank is very established.


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

Your tank has a lot of micro organisms to use up ammonia and nitrates from rotting organic matter. Whatever nitrates and ammonia isn't used up by denitrifying bacteria is used up by algae. The water flowing in the river is constantly replenished but the water in a 10 gallon tank is a stagnant pool, a very small amount of water loaded with waste - that's why water changes are recommended but not obliged.


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## 1987 (Jan 14, 2007)

Everyone has an opinon, but this is why I allways use water from a old tank when starting a new. It just helps everything progess alot faster and smoother. Looks great!


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Great to hear from someone who enjoys their tank so much.

Love the pic of the newt with a hat!


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## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

dwalstad said:


> Great to hear from someone who enjoys their tank so much.
> 
> Love the pic of the newt with a hat!


thanks! i do love this tank alot, and lol that newt is alot of trouble, he escapes from the tank now and then overnights, sometimes i find him in the middle of the hallwayin the morning, and one time when i got back from school, in my cats water bowl!



CrispinoRamos said:


> Your tank has a lot of micro organisms to use up ammonia and nitrates from rotting organic matter. Whatever nitrates and ammonia isn't used up by denitrifying bacteria is used up by algae. The water flowing in the river is constantly replenished but the water in a 10 gallon tank is a stagnant pool, a very small amount of water loaded with waste - that's why water changes are recommended but not obliged.


thanks i totally agree with that story, wish the water would automatically replenish itself though...huh...but i do make PWCs in my 55gal everyday, trying to make that my designed tank


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Crispino Ramos said:


> The water flowing in the river is constantly replenished but the water in a 10 gallon tank is a stagnant pool, a very small amount of water loaded with waste - that's why water changes are recommended but not obliged.


In an NPT, bacteria recycle fish waste into plant nutrients. Plant uptake of nutrients purifies the aquarium without water changes. This requires that the tank have truly good plant growth and that the hobbyists occasionally prunes excess plant growth (to stimulate new plant growth).


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## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

well that explanation makes sense too....since the plants do grow like crazy mainly the moss though, also i found this in my tank, anyone know what this is?









*and i know this is off topic but have any of ya seen this video, i just cant believe it for myself, amazing, its huge!!




*


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## hamsterman (Sep 19, 2006)

looks like a freshwater limpet


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## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

weird a limpet?! never heard of those

just found another thing in my tank, this one i know what it is, a bloodworm, about 2" long!I saw it when i uprooted my vall nana to rescape my tank and once i got a good look at the valls root system i saw a really red worm wrapped around in the roots BUT the thing is i have never put any live bloodworms in my aquarium before, only blackworms, how did this guy get in there???


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Probably came with the soil.

I just found some hair-like worms waving above the substrate in my 5 gal tank with baby Bettas. The ends stick out of the gravel/soil by about 1". They wave just like the blackworms, but they are much, much thinner.


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## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

worms can come in aquasoil??? didnt know that

did the bettas eat the worms???


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

chunkylover817 said:


> worms can come in aquasoil??? didnt know that
> 
> did the bettas eat the worms???


Many fish, including adult Bettas, love worms and quickly polish them off. Soils occasionally come with worms. I don't consider this a problem. Aquatic worms are good for NPTs!

In my 5 gal Betta breeding tank, I removed the adult Bettas after they spawned. That's when the worms began to multiply. The little baby Bettas (2 mm in length) have a long way to go before they would be big enough to eat the worms. Once the Bettas are bigger, I'm sure they'll enjoy hunting these worms.


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## chunkylover817 (Sep 28, 2007)

sounds like you got a bunch of worms, and could you tell me what NPT means??? can figure it out X)

btw, did you see the video i posted in the first page?


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