10 gallon need advice

[Slowgro]

I need some suggestions please…

I currently have a 10 gallon tank kit, the kind you get from walmart

Lighting: Two 15 watt 6500k cfl’s on stock hood

Substrate: about 2 inch Flourite Black with about half inch of black aquarium sand as cap

Co2: DIY yeast with chopstick diffuser (nano glass coming in the mail), with 1 ml Excel daily

Filter: Whisper 10-30 internal

Fertilization: Flourish (2ml 3x a week)

Plants: cryptocorynes, java moss, java fern, anabia nana and berteri, microsword, amazon sword bleheri, hygrophila augustifolia (blue bell?)

I was thinking of buying dry ferts with this weekly dosage:

10- 20 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/8 tsp KN03 (N) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp KH2P04 (P) 3x a week
+/- 1/32 tsp (2ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

would this fert weekly dosage be good for my set up?
Is my lighting high enough to get a carpet or lawn effect from my microsword?

[FisheriesOmen]

What kind of Fauna do you plan to put in it?

[Slowgro]

Fauna is the animals? sorry im new at this. I have 5 neon tetras, 2 corys, and 1 dwarf gourami. I just redid my fishtank so i could put in the flourite substrate. It's not the most aesthetically pleasing tank like many on these forums, i got a jungle look in there.

[Slowgro]

this is a pic

[CatB]

oh man that tank is beautiful.
can't say i know anything about fert dosing though....sorry ;u;

[Kathyy]

Go for it. I used Excel, not DIY CO2 in my 10 gallon tank with 2 pinches of N and 1 pinch of the others and the plants looked great, tank was super clean.

Keep the big plants from shading the lawn and you should be good to go. It already looks terrific. If microsword can be mowed then it will look much neater when it grows back. Do research this however, don't want to mow plants that oughtn't be mowed!

[Slowgro]

thanks so much i appreciate the input!!! do you think my lighting is suitable for microswords to carpet out?

[picnik]

I'm doing a micro sword carpet in my ten gallon too, I have two 26 watt cfl over the tank. The micro sword is carpeteing very nicely a new grass blade every 2-3 days with pressurized c02. Although I'm fighting alage everyday.

I've considered switching over to two 15 watt cfl but been reluctant to do so, afraid I won't see the growth rate with the 26 watt.

I think 15 watt cfl will grow microwsword just fine

But I'm still a learning newbie here, good luck if you do decide to go with the 15 watt cfl, let me know how it goes.

[FisheeFrenzy]

I had a 75 gallon that sprung a leak. Fortunately, I didn't have many fish in it. Problem is, the only other tank I have is a 10 gallon. With the damage from the 75 gallons of water making it rain in my kitchen, I don't really want to spend extra money to buy a new tank. I currently have 1 betta, 9 neon tetras, and 3 platies in there. They seem to be doing alright...it isnt too heavily planted. Do you think this is really serious overstocking, or should it be alright with careful maintenance?

[150EH]

It looks so nice as it stands, the thing I'm worried about is there enough light to make the plants eat up all those dry ferts? Do you see any problems or deficiencies in the plants? If not I would just stay like you are.

On the other hand at they very worst you would gain some experience using dry ferts, just be careful because you don't have any really fast growing plants.

[jujiro]

WOW. Great looking tank. Same 10 gallon tank I started off with, modded the hood a little though with two cut off soda cans to try to help the light get directed down to the substrate.

[CryptKeeper54]

It will be interesting to see how the lights hold up. I want to get one of these myself.

[Jubs]

Great looking tank! I am working with the same setup myself right now. I just got it planted last night thanks to Seattle_Aquarist. I use the same kind of lighting and I have for years and have had pretty decent success in the past with them.

This is my first tank in 5 years so I'm a bit rusty but its slowly coming back to me lol.

Keep us updated, I really like your tank!