Lackey's first real attempt 10g

[danakin]

I have toyed around with various ideas before with my tank. Most of them have been bad.

So, being on a college budget, I'm working with what I have.

Fish:
Tons of guppies.
Two otocinclus.
Soon to be an oscar or a cichlid as "population control"

Plants:
Anachris (back right).
Bacopa somethingorother (front left, back left).
Eleocharis somethinorother [possibly?] (mid left)
Some sort of vallisneria, sold to me as "Italian" val (mid center)
Glosso [Thanks fishscale!] (tiny plant all over the foreground)
Amazon swords (right front)

CO2: DIY 2 liter, pooling method in glass jar in back of tank (soon to be hidden by new plants or a rock)

Filter: Cheap HOB filter that came with the tank. Works fine for me.

Lighting: Two 15w CF 6500k spirals in a regular incandescent hood, with the interior chromed out.

Substrate: Flourite. Wanted Eco, but didn't want to pay shipping and nobody around here has it.

So, here's my start (click the pics to go to the Flickr page for larger shots):





Could I get a hand identifying whether this is HC, HM, or something entirely different? I'm not too good at identification yet:


My CO2 pool. Seems to be working, fish don't mind the pH drop at all.


I'd love any ideas on where to go with this. My access to a real LFS that stocks good plants is limited until March, but plant suggestions would be welcomed as well

Thanks to this entire community for all their smarts and willingness to teach folks. I appreciate it a ton!

[fishscale]

Looks good, I believe your foreground plant is glosso.

Don't put an oscar in a 10 gallon tank. It will die quickly. Oscars get to be over a foot, and require a much, much bigger tank. I can't think of a cichlid that should go in a 10 gallon except perhaps a single dwarf cichlid (a ram or an apisto). If that is an amazon sword, it will eventually get too big for the tank, but since it is a plant, I wouldn't worry about it until you get there. They often get too large for 55 gallon tanks. If you are using a HOB with DIY CO2, I recommend you keep the tank topped off. If the HOB splashes, you will lose any beneficial additional CO2 from your DIY CO2 setup.

[danakin]

Oh, duh! Never even crossed my mind that it could be glosso. Thanks!

I know the swords will probably bust out of the tank, but they are nice to have right now just to green up the tank with my limited plant selection (LFS here sells amazon swords, vals, hornwort and anachris, and that's it. Gotta harp on them to order in more variety).

I've got daily mini-topoffs going on to prevent de/outgassing (which term is more appropriate?), dosing Kents FW Plant twice a week until my other ferts come in.

What would be a good guppy fry chomping fish? Something that would go after the fry, but not the adults.

[colinthebassist]

Looks nice, you have a very unique piece of driftwood too.

[danakin]

Thanks!

The driftwood is very special to me. I do Katrina cleanup with Samaritan's Purse on my breaks from college (spring break, Christmas break, etc). On my first trip down to Biloxi, MS we stayed at the Samaritan's Purse camp down on the water. This piece of driftwood was the only natural thing on the beach when we got there. This was almost a full year and a half after the hurricanes hit, and there was still garbage and debris just littering the shore. The driftwood is a bit of a memento and a reminder of the conditions down there.

[SearunSimpson]

I kept a betta with my guppies no problem. Some people have different experiences, but my betta was fine with them, and yeah, no baby guppies, hahaha.