new 10 gallon...hardscape ideas? November Update

[notropis]

I'm setting up a 10 gallon! Okay, I wish it was more like a 49 gallon, but it's what I've got

I'm using Schultz's Aquatic soil (a step up from plain gravel for me).

I also have two pieces of old madrone that I had laying around that I soaked for 3 weeks and then boiled this morning. I'm not sure what the best way to lay them out? Anyone have some ideas for me? I like one piece better than the other. And I'll have to dig through my rock collection to see what rocks might work. I plan on wrapping the wood with moss and/or java fern.

[notropis]

here's another wood shot...I like the bridge effect even though I lose the curl at the end

[notropis]

And here is a third wood placement option.

I should probably mention what I want to do with this tank. As far as fish go I really want to have a pair of dwarf cichlids of some type. I'll also have 3 pencilfish that I've raised up. In terms of plants I'll use some from my 20 gallon, for sure HM, java ferns, and moss.

If folks like the setup in photo #3 I could put the HM in the front left corner and taller stuff in the back right corner, and wrap the java ferns and the moss on the wood..........any ideas?

[duff]

I like three, but it might be a bit more eye pleasing if you flip it so it rises towards the left. I like the height of the third picture! Might be hard to flip the bottom peice around due to the length at the one end but possibly you could cut it down a bit to fit... Good luck, your on your way!

[notropis]

Hmmm....So I flipped the front arch piece around, but I'm hesitant to cut the end off, so instead I moved the back thick piece around so the two "rises" are kinda parallel. Is this what you had suggested duff?

[Y0uH0]

the one that looks like a "V",perhaps you can invert it and bury the pointed part in the substrate,leaving only the "\" and "/" out in the open. thereafter,position the driftwood a little diagonal and tie moss on certain parts of it but not cover it up completely..that is what i would have done.

[notropis]

After much fiddling around I decided to take the V shaped wood out. It was too difficult to invert, YOuHO. And it seemed too large and too clunky for the size of the tank.

So here's a pic of the single wood. To stabilize it I attached a small flat rock with monofilament to the left end. I'm thinking about leaving the "curvy" end bare as a focal point and wrap moss on the long straight end. I'm also thinking of putting the tall plants in the back left corner so hopefully the eye will be drawn from the front right side of the tank up to the back left corner.

[notropis]

So here is a shot of the rock attached with monofilament to stabilize the wood. I envision this end buried in the substrate so it won't be visible. And then the moss wrap.

I've picked up a dual head sponge filter. It's a little larger than anticipated but I guess it will be okay. Boy space really goes fast in a 10 gallon!

I guess the next step is to add some plants from my other tank to get the new tank going. I'll put in hygro and watersprite and maybe HM initially. There will be no pics of this because it will be a mess!

Another snafu is that I upgraded the light on the 20 gal to a 65W, thinking that the 36W would be great for this tank. Of course the light fixture is 24 inches and the tank is only 20 inches across!

Eventually I'll get a DIY co2 going, probably with one of those wood air stones.

[notropis]

This turned into a fry tank when I put a few adult beckfordi pencilfish in. So it was a jungle of watersprite, hygro, java ferns, and hygro until very recently. But now that the fry are of a size that I feel safe to mess around in the tank I'm going to try scaping it.

I'm really happy with the driftwood although there is a bit of algae on it. I'm thinking of going with the java ferns in the back right corner, the blyxa front right, and once the stems grow up hopefully they'll hide the filter in the back left and leave the front left bare. I've still left some water sprite and hygro in for the mean time. No DIY CO2, only excel.

[g8wayg8r]

One piece of driftwood about the same size as yours is all I really found that would look nice and fit properly in my ten-gallon tank. I could throw in a few more pieces but they would get lost in the plants, I' afraid. I keep playing aroung with stacks and I keep drawing blank.

Tank looks fine.

[blueguppygirl]

Keep in mind that cichlids like to have caves and places to hide. My cichlids would probably tear each other apart if they didn't have places to hide. They also like to uproot plants, and move the substrate themselves. Good luck.

[notropis]

I am very happy that I decided to go with only the one piece of wood. I like the arch. After putting all the equipment in the tank there would not be enough room for a second piece of wood AND plants!

While waiting for the fry to grow I've been thinking a lot about the potential fish choice for the tank. If I were to go with a cichlid it would most likely be a single and not a pair. I'd also hope that I would have enough plant cover for it to hide and be comfy. And if that did not work I could always add a cave later.

I'm looking forward to a package of red temple, rotala and lysimachia. Not sure if it will go here or in the 20 gallon. I'm thinking about using the red temple to cover the filter and shuffling existing stems and rotala to the back center.