My first planted tank - rimless 10 gallon

[rozdaboff]

So over the past few weeks, I have been working on my first planted tank. I have started a few threads about it looking for help/comments - and everyone has been very helpful. Now that it is up and running, I wanted to compile it to a single thread that I can post with updates.

The driftwood piece is two pieces of mazanita/ghostwood joined together. Here was the initial picture of the driftwood placed in the tank.



The tank is on a Brooklyn metal style stand from Petco that I got during the Black Friday 50% off sale. The light is a Finnex FugeRay 20" suspended from shelving brackets by black metal chain. Filter - Fluval 106 (also 50% during Petco Black Friday Sale). Calaqua Nano Lilly Pipes. Hydor inline 200W heater.



I played with several versions of the rockscape to complement the driftwood. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the final rockscape before I flooded the tank - but here is a shot from the side to give you a feel of the depth I tried to achieve in the tank (subtle rise in the back).



I planted the tank over the weekend.

Soil - ADA Power Sand, Aquasoil Amazonia Powder, some Tahitian moon sand (to break up the homogenous color of the Aquasoil)

No CO2. Excel dosing. Root tabs.

The plant list is as follows:

Foreground:

Marsilea minuta
Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
Crypt parva
Crypt willisii

Midground/background:

Crypt petchii
Hygrophila pinnatifida
Hygrophila species 'Araguaia'
Rotala sp. 'Bangladesh'
Hygrophila corymbosa 'angustifolia', Willow Leaf
Java fern - narrow leaf


Attached to driftwood:

Anubias barteri nana
Anubias barteri petite
Mini Xmas moss
"Weeping moss"
Willow moss
Fissidens

Background:

Echinodorus bolivianus
Crypt retrospiralis (back right corner - the leaves melted - hoping it will make a come back)
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Myriophyllum simulans
Myriophyllum tuberculatum
Anarachis (Sp. not known)

Floaters:

Phyllanthus fluitans, Red Root Floater
Salvinia cucullata
Salvinia oblongifolia

Fauna list (Myanmar biotope-ish):

Danio margaritatus
Microdevario nana
Yunnanilus sp. (Burmese Rosy Loach - AKA Tuberoschistura arakanensis)
Hara jerdoni
Neocaridina heteropoda Wild type

Date - 12/10/12



1/13/13

[alipper]

Looking at the flora list I thought it would be a lot of different plants in a small tank, but once I scrolled down to the actual picture, sweeet.

[rozdaboff]

Thanks. I overplanted it to start - and will see how things look as they grow in. Hopefully - since everything is somewhat restricted in location - as long as I can keep it that way - it won't become too much of a jungle.

[jpalimpsest]

Great start! Looking forward to seeing how it matures.

[marioman72]

cool start, looks nice. lots of different plants but it works will with the arangment u have great start! you should look into a Co2 set up of some sort even DIY set up to start, it will help ur plant growth growth.

[Neatfish]

Pretty cool where did you get that piece of wood?

[rozdaboff]

Originally Posted by Neatfish

Pretty cool where did you get that piece of wood?

I got the wood from a terrarium supply store - Black Jungle in MA. They often have nice branch pieces for dart frog vivaria.

[ikuzo]

it's weird but i kinda like it
different feel
makes some problem though because of the dark area right under that wood. what plants do you plant there

[rozdaboff]

Originally Posted by ikuzo

it's weird but i kinda like it
different feel
makes some problem though because of the dark area right under that wood. what plants do you plant there

The darkest part is in the back left corner. There the drift wood goes all the way back and covers the light. In that space there is a java fern, mattogrossense and a couple of cuttings of Hydrophila araguaia. In the middle of the tank under the wood there is the rock "wall" a couple of crypt willisii and java fern. The light nicely gets to the back of the tank.

[james1542]

Nice job with the aquascape!

[Green_Flash]

it looks pretty good!

[GMYukonon24s]

I like the scape!

[rozdaboff]

Update - about one month in (pic in first post).

The tank has been growing in nicely. Some plants are happy and are doing very well and spreading (Crypt parva, Crypt willisii, Hygrophila pinnatifida, Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides). Others look good - but have not grown a lot (Marsilea minuta, Hygrophila corymbosa 'angustifolia', Willow Leaf
Java fern - narrow leaf, Myriophyllum mattogrossense, Echinodorus bolivianus). The crypt retrospiralis that arrived completely melted is sending up nice new leaves, so hopefully in another month or two it will be in good shape.

I wasn't happy with the background plants - so I added some Myriophyllum tuberculatum, Myriophyllum simulans, Rotala wallichi and anarachis.

I also stocked the tank with fish this weekend. I went with a Myanmar biotope - with Danio margaritatus, Microdevario nana, and Yunnanilus sp. (Rosy loach, sometimes called Tuberoschistura arakanensis). I also planned to add Hara miniscula (Burmese Mini Moth Catfish) - but Frank at Frank's Aquarium wasn't convinced what he got labeled as H. miniscula were actually that - and they were some a bit bigger then expected - so I broke from the biotope to add a couple Hara jerdoni. I am very excited by the grouping - as so far there is activity in all levels of the water column. There are also a few wild type Neocardinia heteropoda in the tank to help with algae. One of the females is berried - but I expect the young will become fish food...

I am keeping a close eye on water parameters to make sure that the transition from fishless cycle to stocked goes smoothly - and so far, so good.

Here are a couple of pictures of the tank fauna:

CPD, M. nana, and Rosy loach (bottom left corner)


CPD and M. nana


CPD hanging out with the M. nana school