Frosty's 10 Gallon Setup

[FrostyNYC]

Specs:
Tank: 10 Gallon All-Glass
Lighting: 40 Watt USA Satellite 6500k/10000k
Substrate: Eco-Complete
Hardscape: Zebra rock
Ferts/Dosing: EI w/dry ferts plus Flourish and Excel, but while emersed just misting with diluted Miracle-Gro and Flourish Excel
Filtration: Toms Mini-Canister (later changed over to an Aquaclear HOB)

Flora: HC & HM
Fauna: None so far

Set up this tank on February 25, 2008, so it's been a little under a month since I put it together. I planted an HC lawn in the front, and purchased some HM to use as sort of a "backup" if the HC failed, which I suspected it might. I planted HM to the front right and also in the background. I intend to plant heavily with stem plants in the two back corners once I fill this thing up with water, with HM acting as a midground and HC as a foreground. I planned to grow these two emersed for about 8 weeks, at which point I hoped to fill the tank.

Here's some pics. I'm running into a little problem, which I'll discuss in my next post.

Pic 1: Tank as of 3.9.08 (2 Weeks after startup)


Pic 2: Overhead shot as of 3.9.08 (2 Weeks after startup) (Added a little more HM to front-right and middle)


Pic 3: Overhead shot as of 2.25.08 (Date of Startup)

[Ladykatze]

Nice tank. I like the zebra rock.

[Bk828]

zebra rock does look nice.. I wouldve loved to use it but my lfs charges about $10 for a small stone...

So whats the problem you are running into/ran into

[BiscuitSlayer]

FrostyNYC -

Thats going to be a sweet little tank! The only change I would make is adding a background so that you don't see the receptacle and cords behind the tank.

[FrostyNYC]

Originally Posted by BiscuitSlayer

FrostyNYC -

Thats going to be a sweet little tank! The only change I would make is adding a background so that you don't see the receptacle and cords behind the tank.

I actually tried using a black plastic garbage bag, cut to fit, but the bag I selected was of flimsy plastic and it just didnt look right. I'm going to have to find a heavy-duty black bag... or bite the bullet and paint it.


All - Thanks for the comments. I actually ended up moving the rocks slightly because I felt there was too much of a horizontal line going on, especially on the right side of the tank. Annnnnnd I ended up filling the tank, for a couple reasons. The HC was starting to die, somehow. After spreading out very well for weeks, something bad was happening and it started to turn brown and melt. I filled the tank, started dosing EI, Excel, and DIY CO2 and the dying-off seems to have abated, but I lost a lot of HC. Who knew that emersed plants could just melt? I also ripped out a bunch of HM from the rear of the tank to make room for background plants, and I added a handful of young red ramshorn snails to eat up the dead HC and start pumping out ammonia for my cycle. (Tho I did seed my filter with floss from another tank) I'll post pics soon.

[Bk828]

What plants you plan to use for the back??

[PhiShY92]

very nice loving the rocks

[FrostyNYC]

Well, I filled this guy up with water and added plants about a week or two ago. I'm dosing EI with Rex's dry ferts and all is well so far. I had to break down my 5 gallon because the sig other won't let me have two tanks in the apartment Oh well. I transferred the plants from the 5 gallon over, with the exception of my TON of java moss in that tank... which is still sitting in there until I figure out what to do with it.

At the rear left is stargrass, then tons of vals that I pulled from my 5 gallon (over 30 plants/plantlets), some ludwigia repens, blyxa japonica at the front left by the rocks, a tiny bit of java moss and HM at the left by the rocks, HC spread throughout the foreground, HM at the right in a bushy mound, and a little HM in the middle rear, and finally my rubin sword centerpiece.

Not at ALL what I expected or planned for the tank to look like. I had wanted a background of stargrass, myaca, hornwort, and a foreground of equally small leaved plants. But, then I found out I had to break down my 5 gallon and do something with my vals, and then I fell in love with that sword... and now this is what I have.


Some vals that got transplanted into the 10 gal:


I want the ludwigia to grow into more of a pink mass. I may replace it with a rotala if it doesn't fill in the way I want it to. Hopefully the star grass takes off and fills in the left... Once my stems root, I'd like to get rid of a lot of the vallisneria, as there's a lot of it. The tank just looks too messy to me. Also, I'm VERY unhappy with the HC. It just didn't work out, unfortunately. The last week before I filled the tank, half the HC melted while emersed. What's curious is that when it was melting, it was sending out little what appeared to be seed-pods. And now, I have this growing in the most unsightly piles of dead HC:



If you look in the middle of the brown dead HC, you'll see tiny plantlets growing. Is it baby HC from seeds? It's definitely a vascular plant of some form. Sorry for the blurriness but they're TINY and there's about 30 of them. Hopefully they grow and nothing eats them. PS - As you can see, that section of HC is done-for. Anything that started melting before I filled the tank just got worse after I filled it. Fortunately, there are other sections doing well and the HM is doing great, so if I end up with an HM carpet instead of HC, its not the end of the world.

[CL]

i have had my emersed hm do that. they are like little leaves that grow into another plant, they come of of the dead leaves

[Ladykatze]

It looks great. But then I like the zebra rocks as well - Both looks were nice, but I like your little garden you have going on in the new tank!
Cheryl

[FrostyNYC]

The zebra rocks are still there, just covered by plants now. Do you think I crammed enough plants in this tank? I'm making up for the 6 months I spent with only java moss and vallisneria.

Speaking of which... check out my java moss' sexual reproduction! Is this sexual reproduction? If you look closely, you can see little spores on stems emerging from the moss. They're brownish.

[Ladykatze]

I knew you had left the rocks in, since I can still see them in the first picture!

I have no idea what your java moss is doing, but someone who knows a lot about this hobby is sure to see the posting and tell all of us if that is the Java Moss reproducing.

Great job!

[sea-horsea]

whats HC and HM?

[Darkblade48]

Originally Posted by sea-horsea

whats HC and HM?

Hemianthus callitrichoides and Hemianthus micranthemoides, respectively

[FrostyNYC]

It's been one week, and there is absolutely noticeable growth. To me at least. The Ludwigia repens, which I thought hadnt grown a single leaf, apparently grew an inch this week. At least. I only noticed when looking at last week's photos. The stargrass has obvious growth, which looks amazing. Stargrass has the habit of turning black and hideous when it's transplanted and/or damaged. Every little bruise turned to necropic black when I planted it, which really sucks for such a delicate plant (it's nearly as soft as guppy grass). Anyway, the new stargrass growth is a very soft bright green. Plus it's branching in everything direction. I'm so happy with this plant!

The blyxa is also surprising me. I thought I would love this plant after seeing it in so many tanks on this forum. In my own tank, I didnt love it so much, to tell you the truth. But it's grown about 5 new leaves each this week, and it looks much, much better than before. The last tank it was grown in had higher light, I believe, so it was very red/brown. In my tank, the new leaves are green with a pink overtone.

The HC has changed to submersed growth and the leaves are really oblong and neon green. The HM is looking pale, and some new growth is completely white. It's got to be a symptom of missing ferts, but I'm dosing EI plus supplemental Excel, and I have a 2 litre DIY CO2 bottle running. I dose 2 ml of Flourish comprehensive three times a week. You would think that would be enough iron. Why are the new leaves white and decaying?

Oh, and I found clado growing in my HM. And I'm getting quite a bit of hair algae on my vals. Gotta cut back my lighting. I've been leaving it on 10 hours a day sometimes.

So here's a tank update pic, and some photos of my ramshorns. Current tank occupants are 2 amano shrimp, 2 otos, 2 juvenile platies, 6 small red ramshorns, and about 20 baby ramshorns that were born this week. Oh, and I have limpets. Interesting things.