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From clown puke to ozark glades (10 gal, low tech)

13K views 46 replies 13 participants last post by  calebkraft 
#1 ·
I have this 10 gallon setup that is currently in full clown puke mode.

I'd like to transform it to something a little prettier to keep me sane during the winter. I'm considering emulating our local landscape a bit instead of going the traditional route.

Here's the current state:

Here's my quick mockup:



Plants:
tall stuff (emulating tall grass)= ?
short stuff (emulating short grass)= ?
considering doing moss on the creek bed.

I should be able to do med/high light but would like to stay low tech. I don't mind dropping in some ferts, but I'm not planning on doing C02.

Any suggestions for plants? The substrate will obviously not be able to be super thick where the soil meets the rock cliffs... should this pose a problem?
 
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#3 ·
Plants:
tall stuff (emulating tall grass)= ?
short stuff (emulating short grass)= ?
considering doing moss on the creek bed.

Any suggestions for plants? The substrate will obviously not be able to be super thick where the soil meets the rock cliffs... should this pose a problem?
Looks nice! I like it. Dwarf Hairgrass Belem and the regular dwarf Hairgrass.
 
#4 ·
+1 to the belem and hairgrass. The belem is shorter and the hairgrass can get as tall as you want. Narrow leaf java fern and vals of somekind might be an option, but the blades might be too thick.
 
#6 ·
It will be fine. Some put it in a Unfilter unheated really low tech bowl. That is what I am going to do with DHG. Newman has some in his bowl currently.
 
#7 ·
Great! I forgot to mention, this will probably be a shrimp only tank. I might drop in a single fish or possibly two at some point, but the goal is a shrimp habitat.

I wish there were more inverts to play with, but crawfish are aggressive. I might find some friendly bugs to put in there like dafnia. Still researching.
 
#8 ·
Great! I forgot to mention, this will probably be a shrimp only tank. I might drop in a single fish or possibly two at some point, but the goal is a shrimp habitat.

I wish there were more inverts to play with, but crawfish are aggressive. I might find some friendly bugs to put in there like dafnia. Still researching.
Self-cloning crays are a peaceful, vegetarian crayfish that only get to around 3". Mine is a really awesome blue color and is great to watch in my community tank. They are kind of expensive initially, but are better-looking then shrimp, IMO.
 
#19 ·
Thanks.

well, most of the rock around here is limestone. To emulate that visually, I'm just going to settle with some southwest flagstone (flat bits of sandstone). I'll lay it flat and maybe stack it to create the creek side.

You can see some of the stone here
 
#21 ·
Well, I finally moved the last few fish out. I dumped the old water and most of the clown puke. I kept a little clown puke and left it under the soil and sand. The red rock was in the old tank too. I need to get more sand to build up more, there's not a thick enough layer over the soil. I also want to get some kind of lighter material for the "creek bed". Not sure if I'll do light sand or pebbles.

I moved the filter over to the new tank to keep the biofilter alive. When this one is ready, I'll just move it back! My cycle should go much faster.



I don't think I'm going to try super hard to get the grass effect I had initially planned for. I think I will still plant something taller in back but the foreground will probably be whatever grows a thick carpet the easiest.
 
#23 ·
Marimo won't carpet. I cut one up and flattened it out in a 2.5 gallon. It had to be weighed down and the undersides turned very brown. I ended up pulling it completely. Once left to grow on its own after many many months the pieces started trying to ball up again.
 
#24 ·
I finished the hardscape I think. The creek bed turned out a little goofy looking, but I'm cool with that.



I have been researching and thought about trying HC for the carpet and doing the emersed way where you just have enough water for the roots to grow for like a month (is that the correct term?). But I'm not sure my sand could hold down a healthy growth of HC.

Still researching I guess.
 
#25 ·
Not a bad start man. That hardscape is pretty spiffy.

For HC, sand will work great. I have a partial HC carpet in my 2.5 gallon with black marine sand and it loves it. The only issue I think you will have is how slowly it will grow once you flood the tank if you don't have CO2 going. Some Excel added religiously will solve that problem for the most part though. And I think the term you are looking for is emergent, but emersed and emergent are used pretty interchangeably around here, so no worries. What you are planning is called a "Dry start". Not too dry, but that should help with the research on this tank. Looks good so far man, keep it up.:icon_smil
 
#26 ·
I'm really not stuck on HC. I mean I like the way it looks, but at this point I'm still building experience. I have also considered different mosses. Even Riccia would be really easy to just tie to a bunch of rocks and have an almost instant carpet. I suspect it would require constant trimming though.
 
#30 ·
So frustrated right now. I had ordered $40 worth of HC. I noticed as the order went through that paypal had my address that I had just moved from.

I put a note in the "notes" section of the order form to contact me since the address was wrong, and included the correct address... they completely ignored it. No contact and the package was attempted at the old address and is most likely being returned to them.
 
#32 ·
I ordered through plantedaquariumscentral.com. I have emailed them asking how they would like to resolve the issue. I've been a small business owner before and I know how things can slip through the cracks. I always give people a chance to make things right before being a jerk.
 
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