# new 10 gal



## finfollower (May 27, 2004)

Hey everyone. I decided to attempt to make a planted tank cause my friend just gave me his old 10 US gal tank. Along with the tank, I got a hang on back filter and some flora base substrate. The lighting that I got with it was a 50W incandescent which I hear isn't too good for plant growing. I want to try and setup an easy and cheap, but good looking tank. Any suggestions on plants and lighting? Any help would be appreciated.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Easy and cheap huh  Here are my suggestions for easy and cheap:

As far as lighting, I have had success with a single 15w flourescent strip light that comes standard on some 10g tanks. This will limit you as to the types of plants you can grow but it is good for a starting point. I had more success with two of the above strips but found that more regular dosing and the addiditon of Flourish excel was a necessity. 

If you want to keep it easy and cheap start with one 15w flourescent fixture over the tank. They are pretty cheap and if you can find one used, they are even cheaper. 

As for plants you can't go wrong with Anubias species, Cryptocoryne species, Microsorum pteropus (Java Ferns), Dwarf Sag, and many others. Check out the Plant Finder...under the Hardiness pull down look at those listed as easy or moderate to get you started. 

The plants will need some form of fertilization depending on your fish load. If you don't have many fish you may need to add 5ml of Flourish Comprehensive or Tropica Master Grow once a week or so.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

this light will fit a ten gallon tank. 42 dollars (including the appropriate light) is still pretty cheap and is probably better than making your own retrofit light or possibly failing with the incandescent lighting.

only suggestion here is that if you plan on housing aquatic life other than plants that need temperatures under 76 degrees, buy a mounting leg so the light doesn't input too much heat into the water


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## finfollower (May 27, 2004)

thanks for your inputs. The tank hood fits 2 compact bulbs, and I have some "energy-saving" compact fluorescents that are 13W each. Would that work? Or would it be too much lighting for the 10gal? I also have that Flourish(not excel, just Flourish) stuff from my previous failed planted tank a while back. As for fish, I plan to house a few tetras and transfer corys from my other tank that I'm converting into a shellie tank.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

If it were me I would try the 13w CFs and see how they work. Are the lights mounted at each end or do they mount in the middle? 

I don't think you will get quite as good of a light spread across the tank with them but it is worth a try. The longer flourescent lights will give good spread length wise but not so good front to back with a single bulb. 

I noticed with two 15w flourescent bulbs that I needed to add Flourish Excel to my 10g tank so keep an eye on yours. Without the Excel, Hair Algea began to sprout on some of my plants. I removed it and began Excel dosing and it stayed away. However, once I quit using the Excel for a few weeks (I ran out and was too lazy to order more) the algae came back...something to consider especially if you decide to add more light


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## finfollower (May 27, 2004)

The bulbs are mounted in the middle. When I used these for my old tank algae began to grow pretty quickly, but that was also because I used only sand substrate which pretty much destroyed my plants and I used Flourish. Totally newb tank, so that's why I wanted to restart and get things perfect this time before I go on and add plants and fish.


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## yoink (Aug 31, 2005)

You can try the spirals. A better option would be to get 2 15w or 20w U-shaped "Lights of America" brand bulbs from walmart. They put out a much better color(6700k) than the yellow spiral bulbs and also put more light in the tank because of the shape. Good luck.


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## finfollower (May 27, 2004)

oh, by the way, how deep should my substrate be? so far it's about 1 1/4 inch deep evenly in the tank. If that is too low, could I add small smooth gravel on top of the flora base to make the tankbed deeper? I'm too poor to buy another bag of flora base for 30 bucks lol.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I notice you said you haven't added plants yet? You need to plant it heavily with cheap stem plants from the begining, then cycling the tank isn't of much importance, and you can add a few fish at a time right away. I would try the screw in fluorescents too, before spending more for another light fixture, and I would splurge by buying some Flourish Excel - Big Al's is a good place for that.


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## finfollower (May 27, 2004)

so far i have just cleaned the tank and dumped the flora base in and evened it out. No water or anything yet. I will be heading to the fish shop in a couple days to look for plants. Still trying to figure out which plants I want to put in. Also, how deep should my substrate be?


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## yoink (Aug 31, 2005)

2-3 inches should do it.


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## finfollower (May 27, 2004)

well, im out of flora base, could i just top another 1 inch with small smooth gravel instead of buying another 30 dollar package of flora base?


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