# First planted tank



## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

Hey all, i've cleaned out my 10gal (US) aquarium and i've decided to try real plants. Now im a complete beginner when it comes to planted tanks (sorry if i ask alot of questions). First off, im wondering if i'll need some sort of enriched gravel or a co2 injecter. Also, one of my tank lights is burnt out and i'll need to pick up a new set so im wondering if there will be any decent lights adequit for plant growing that are somewhat cheap. How many watts per gallon should i be looking at to grow plants successfuly?

Any advice is appreciated.


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

Welcome to APC!  

You have really come to the right place to learn about planted aquaria. 

anyway to answer your questions it might bet best to start off with asking you a couple questions. 

What kind of plants do you plan to keep? Are you planning to keep up with weekly waterchanges and daily fertilizer dosing? What kind of budget do you expect to have? These things might help to determin the best lighting for your needs. 

Flourite is a great substrate for most situations, so is Eco Complete, and the ADA substrates.


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

yeah weekly water changes 20-25%, but im looking towards not having to fertalize.. if i have a lower wpg like 2, then will i need to fertalize?? As for plants.. Maybe some java moss, and im not sure but maybe amazon swords for height? really anything that looks good will do the trick.


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

I want to warn you right off the bat, Amazon Swords will grow to be enormous, I have one now in my 75 gallon tank that takes up between about third of the tank. A plant like this will quickly outgrow a 10 gallon or really any small tank, its almost to big for my 75. If your set on a plant that looks similar to that but the scale would be a little more appropriate maybe try a Cryptocoryne Wendtii, or Java Fern. I know those plants dont look like the amazon sword but they can give a similar effect if the scale is kept in mind for your other plant choices. Otherwise it sounds like your heading in the right direction if you want to keep it relatively low maintenance. You can probably get away with no ferts but considering there are plants, to get the best overall appearance you may at somepoint need to add a little bit, even if its once a month or so. Also another thing to keep in mind smaller leaves and plants will make the aquarium look much bigger, changing the over-all scale.

Plants to Consider, 
Anubias Nana
Java Moss, Christmas Moss
Cryptocoryne Wendtii
Java Fern/Wendelov Fern/Narrow Leaf Java Fern

Now to pull this off with minimal ferts lower light is better, but not too low. Also another thing to consider is the watt per gallon rules go out the window with small tanks like 10-gallons to achieve a low light condition you would need something like 2-4wpg.

I would probably suggest for lighting something along the lines of one of the following:
-1x36watt bright kit from AH supply
-3X15watt Normal Output Flourecent fixture. You could probably get away with a 2X15watt fixture though. 
- or if you have the standard 10gallon dual incandecent fixture, you might be able to get away with 2 of the 9-10 watt cfl screw in bulbs. Just make sure whatever you do that your bulbs have a color temperature between 5,000K and 10,000K.

you could probably add a couple fish too to provide some fertilzer to the plants. You may still have to occasionally suppliment it.

What kind of filter do you have or did you have in mind?


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

Thanks davis. My filter is pretty embarrasing. Pet cetera deal 10gal starter kit for 30 bucks lol. Its a pet cetera brand side filter SF-0310 with no carbon involved. Also i've read about people using a dyi Co2 system with yeast and sugar but im wondering how i connect it to the aquarium. 
Thanks for the advice.


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

To be honest you probably wont see much if any benifits from CO2 with a low light low fert tank, your probably better off without it. Plus not using it will save you from having to maintain that as well. But if you really want to do it there's a lot of info in the DIY forum stickies about it. 

How many and what kind of fish do you plan to accomidate in your tank?

Are you set on staying with the filter you have or are you willing to purchase a new one? With a 10 gallon you could definately use a $15-20 Hang on back filter like the Acuaclear 20 or Whisper 10 or 20, These filters are pretty good for your size tank and are pretty easy to maintain, plus you can add carbon if you want or more bio media, they offer a little flexibility. 

Do you have a heater?


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

for fish.. im looking at a small school of cardinals 7-? And i know i could definately use a new filter.


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

Good choice of fish, perfect number and species for your tank. They should also provide a nice aestetic apeal with the bright blue contrast against the greens. You will definately need a heater though if you dont have one, cardinals or really any triopical fish seem to really do well in water temps around 75 or so degrees farenieht or 23-24 degrees celcius, maintain consistant temps a heater is usually necessary. I wouldn't go much warmer though because plants exspecially the mosses prefer cooler temps.

by the way the dollar ammounts Iv'e been giving you are US$ just for clarification


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

i do have a heater, and im heading out to my lfs in a bit to pick up some peat and fertilizer. Can i use gravel which was just in it?


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

you can but a 15lb. bag of flourite or two would really be best. Its an iron rich clay based substrate. What ferts are you planning to buy? Seachem?


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

not sure about ferts yet.. im going to take a look around the store and ask someone probably (they know their stuff unlike many fish stores). Did you have one that you would recommend?


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

I would probably recomend the seachem line for you since its a smaller tank with low lighting, a little would go a looooooong way. lol. Another option though that allows a little more flexability would be to order ferts from greg watson and mix them yourself, its a lot easier than it sounds and far cheaper than the premade seachem ferts or kent ferts. All this being said, I really think you would be fine without ferts for at least a month or so after setup.


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

ok thanks for all your help!


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

no problem let me know if you have more questions along the way, I subscribed to this thread so I will know about it if you post. If you have a digital camera I'm sure a lot of people on APC would like to watch the tank progress.

Good luck


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

ok, i'll try to keep you up to date with it. I've got my flourite and bulbs in but the water is cloudy from the flourite, but uh how do i put in a picture when its over 100k, and in "my computer" not in an http:// link?


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

ok, i think i've got it.. see if this works



















Hopefully it works.


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

well.. it didnt work. but i have a question about the flourite. I've added it about 20 hours ago and my water is still very cloudy. Does anyone know about how long it takes to settle down? On the bag it says 2-12 hours but im way past that, I even added water trying not to disturb the flourite.


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

I PM'd you about the flourite but I'll repeat it here for anyone else reading this. I'm really sorry I forgot to warn you about that. Flourite takes a ton of rinsing before you put it in the tank and even then you will get some cloudy water unless your extremely carefull filling the tank and dont rush the rinsing. this is the only way it will be clear in 12 hours or whatever the package says. 

Hopefully you dont have any fish yet but if you do just take it easy doing this... change the water as many times as possible doing 50-75% or even bigger water changes untill it clears, let your filter join in on the work but dont expect much from it as it will clog quicly, I also wouldnt recomend using carbon yet untill it is pretty clear because this will shorten its life. Be very carefull refilling your tank so you dont disturb the substrate even more, you might try using a dish to disperse the stream of water even more. 

This is one of the drawbacks of using flourite but once it clears you wont regret it. Flourite is really worth the initial hassle. 

It will clear up


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

umm you can shrink pictures using photo editing software but I'm not really sure how to explain it... another option is to get a free account at a site like Photobucket.com and link to the pics there... it will even write the link HTML text for you. so you just copy paste it here and it will show up in your post. Thats probably the easiest way to get around the size restrictions on APC.


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

Ok, NOW i've got it. *image remove temp... it was huge*


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

oh no.. sorry for the huge pics....


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## redstrat (Apr 3, 2006)

I haven't been able to see the pics anyway... so have you had any luck with the clearing of that cloudy water?


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## Goof (Aug 24, 2006)

its just much better now, but still a bit cloudy. It's getting there.


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## SkinniMini (Mar 26, 2006)

Goof,
did you get any kind of free editing software with your digital camera?
A good size for posting basic pics on a forum is generally 640x480 pixels. If it asks you for dpi, 75 is usually still pretty good, it helps keep the file size down for us dial up dinosaurs!
If you have a printer/scanner, sometimes you get a basic photo editing program with that, _or_ if you have a newer version of Windows, look under you programs list for "Paint" (under accessories) click on "image" then "attributes", you can get to a basic resize format from there, see if it works, then load it onto photobucket.
Oh, keep an eye out on your filter-the sediment from the Flourite will totally clog it up!


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