Ten gallon Betta tank journal... journal of a newbie

[phoenixkiller]

Hello everyone! Thanks for skimmin' through here! I'd sure love your advice, as I'm not too experienced in planted tanks.

To bring you up to date, I upgraded my betta from a cup at the pet store to a vase, to a 2.5 gallon unfiltered tank, and now to a 10 gallon Betta paradise.
Equipment:
AquaClear 20 HOB filter
Menard's full spectrum 27w desk lamp
No heater (As of late)
Substrate:
10 lbs of Petco black sand... nothin' special...
Livestock:
1 male Betta (no duh! lol)
a few Ramshorn snails
Plants:
Wisteria, a colorful Ludwigia (I must remember the name...), Green Cabomba, and Ambulia. A log-shaped DW piece adorns the center of the tank.
Fertilizers:
Dry fertilizers, in one bottle we have Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Phosphate, and Potassium sulfate. In the other, we have Plantex CSM + B. I at the moment do half the EI dosage, but I may be soon doing the full EI dosage (Awaiting confirmation from friend). The fertilizer schedule is:
Macros: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
Micros: Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday
with a 50% WC weekly.

I am battling my first hair algae issue as of late, so see my other thread and help me out!! When the crisis is passed, I will order some plants. I plan to do an Anubias on the DW, and some Dwarf Sagittaria in the foreground. Any ideas or thoughts?

It is very late, and the lights have long since gone off, so I can't post any pics now. I'll be scrubbing the algae off the plants tomorrow to give me a head start in battling it.

I hate hair algae. It's this fuzzy nasty organism straight from the fires of hell. Wish me luck!!

[Ganyon]

We are using the same substrate. My plants love it.

[Hilde]

Originally Posted by phoenixkiller

I am battling my first hair algae issue as of late

Could you post a pic of it?
What is your light?
What is your light period?

[phoenixkiller]

Originally Posted by Hilde

Could you post a pic of it?
What is your light?
What is your light period?

Lotsa info on it on my other thread. I hope I'm allowed to do this...
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=181210

[phoenixkiller]

Finally got rid of the stupid hair algae. Now to stop this from happening again, I'm gonna start looking for a CO2 system....

[maxwellag]

If David sent you the same ludwigia that he sent me, then it is ludwigia x repens arcuata. I'm sure the algae will come back before you get the co2 system, so I would start by decreasing the photoperiod.

[phoenixkiller]

Originally Posted by maxwellag

If David sent you the same ludwigia that he sent me, then it is ludwigia x repens arcuata. I'm sure the algae will come back before you get the co2 system, so I would start by decreasing the photoperiod.

As I said, it's not too much of light, only on for 5-6 hours, with a break in between.

[phoenixkiller]

Oh dang, I completely forgot about this thread. Hopefully I won't get in trouble for reviving it.

Wow, what HASN'T happened in this tank? It is gonna take me all night to bring you up to date.

Well, I guess I better get started....

I did get a CO2 system. To be specific, it is the paintball ASA valve system. I actually haven't set it up yet, as I was waiting for a bubble counter to come in the mail.... from Hong Kong. I got it a few days ago, and I'll update when it's been set up.

Secondly, I got a ton of new plants. All are growing well at worst, my Ambulia turned into a forest while I was on a long vacation to the East Coast. Let's see... I got some Marsilea Minuta, a good sized rhizome of Anubias Nana, Rotala Colorata, and some mystery plants.

My filter media is getting kinda gross, I hope to change it out when I get my first paycheck of the fall soccer season (I am a soccer referee).

Strangely, a Red Cherry shrimplet somehow made it into this tank from the shrimp tank, and grew up into a very pretty female. I was gonna put her back, when I decided I would try to start some sort of a shrimp colony in that tank too, maybe in the future some Neon Yellow Neocardinias. If ya don't know what those are, I saw a seller with some. Was it ilikeguppies or something? I dunno. This is nothing set in stone, and it would be quite the undertaking should I proceed with my idea.

As for the lighting and algae, the first is great and the latter is non-existent. I love this lamp for the 10g, it's great medium light, I highly recommend it to any other planted tank keepers on a tight budget. Haven't seen algae since last I posted, save for a few spots on the Anubias and a couple thingies of BBA on my Ludwigia Repens x Arcuata. So that's awesome.

I started dosing full EI ferts some time ago, and everything took off growth-wise. So that's good as well.

I was thinking about selling some stems of Ambulia and Ludwigia Repens x Arcuata, maybe secretly throw in the foreground mystery plants. Who knows? Maybe some Rotala Rotundifolia will end up in there from my shrimp tank. If anyone weird enough to read this wants this package, you can ask about it. I dunno if I'm gonna go as far as to post a for sale thread for it though.

Future plans? Not too much. Obviously getting the CO2 system online is a big priority. Some neon yellow neos maybe in the future. I dunno.

Whaddya think? Got any thought... like... at all? Improvements? Changes? Lemme know!

Thanks for reading!