oltombon's 10g Cherry Breeder

[oltombon]

Getting started on my 2nd tank today - a 10g Red Cherry Breeder. This is only my 2nd attempt at a planted tank and my 1st attempt to make one look decent. Here's the plan:

Low-Tech, Excel-Based (no Co2) Red Cherry Breeder

Lights: Reusing the light that came with the hood on my first 20g - 8,000K 15w T8 bulb. Just going to dremel off the sides and re-glue the plastic caps to make it fit the length of the 10g.

Filter: Marineland Biowheel Penguin 100

Heater: Fluval 50w

Substrate: Seachem Flourite

Ferts: Dosing regiment can be seen here - http://www.sudeepmandal.com/hobbies/...-planted-tank/

So, I'm going for a clean, low, open look. Here's what I'm thinking right now for the scape...

Basically, I want to lay down 1.5" of Flourite, then place the Lace Rock into a wall formation about 1/3 down the length of the tank, and fill in another 5-6" of Flourite on the short side of the wall to create a plateau'd area. I want to have a short, grassy plant (dwarf sag or micro sword?) on the plateau and a carpet of either m. quad or glosso down below. I'm going to pepper the rock wall with some kind of moss that I haven't decided on yet.


Here's the lace rock...



And a picture of the lace rock positioned in the tank for a rough idea of the wall...



So, I've acquired pretty much everything I need except for the flora + fauna. Anyone have any m. quad/glosso, dwarf sag, or moss they want to sell???


Thoughts/Comments welcome and appreciated

[oltombon]

First scape attempt didn't go so well. Didn't rinse the Flourite near enough and had a mudcloud. Plus, didn't like the substrate wall in the front corner, so I decided to angle the rock wall to the back corner.

First attempt:


Second attempt:


Tank, filled, hard-scaped. Marineland Biowheel sounded like a weed-whacker so I returned it for a good 'ol Aquaclear 30. Shoulda never strayed...

Plant plans changed a little, going to mossify the driftwood and hill and rockwall. Carpet of dwarf sag going in the flatlands. Plants should arrive next week

[kcartwright856]

I really like it! You made the right call on the back corner, I think!

That piece of driftwood would look amazing with a bit of moss. I wish I had some to give you!

[lurrch]

How are you dealing your filter intake? (ie how are you keeping baby shrimp from getting sucked in?) It looks like you have a strainer, but it's too cloudy for me to see :P

[SlammedDC2]

Second attempt looks great.

[oltombon]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Originally Posted by lurrch

How are you dealing your filter intake? (ie how are you keeping baby shrimp from getting sucked in?) It looks like you have a strainer, but it's too cloudy for me to see :P

Right now I have some of my fiancee's panty hose zip-tied around the intake.

Originally Posted by kcartwright856

That piece of driftwood would look amazing with a bit of moss. I wish I had some to give you!

Yeah, I have a couple golfball-sized portions of java moss shipping out today. Going to attach them to the end of the driftwood to try and get that "tree" effect. Also got some pebble-sized pieces of lace rock to tie moss to and pepper around the tree base and hill. Have enough dwarf sag to start a 55g shipping today, as well. Cannot wait.


Also, does anyone know any reputable RCS breeders? I was just planning on buying a couple groups of ten from different sellers on aquabid to try and diversify the genetics a little bit...

[oltombon]

jedimasterben is going to send me some peacock moss to finish this bad boy off.

[adriano]

Liking the rock. Evokes a bit of a cliff image.

[oltombon]

Update: 2/18/2012

Dwarf Sag and Java Moss is in. Just waiting on some Peacock moss from jedimasterben for the driftwood/rockface to finish off the flora.





Noticed some slimy-looking mold stuff growing on the lace rock





I picked at it with tweezers and it was like a slimy blob that pulled off. Underneath, was like dried toothpaste like substance attached to the rock that I scraped off. Anyone know what this is??

[oltombon]

Mold started to spread onto the moss so today I broke the tank down completely

I'm in the process of cleaning every individual item in the tank. Boiling the ever-living crap out of each rock, and building her back up.

Hopefully, when I'm done today she'll be even better than before.

[dreamt_01]

sorry to hear that. have you tried looking into underground filters? check out mordalphus' setup on the shrimp and inverts thread. I'm also in the process of making a shrimp tank.. from what I've read, shrimps can really benefit with UGF's due to the fact that the substrate is included in the filtration and it acts as a biological filter..