My First Planted Tank - 10 Gallon madness! (56K)

[PortalMasteryRy]

This is my first ever planted tank. It has been a fun and challenging experience but having a planted tank is also one of the most rewarding hobby that I have ever got into.

Equipment:
Aqueon 10 Gallon
AquaClear AC 30 with Fluval Pre-filter at the intake
Aquatek Mini CO2 Regulator w/ solenoid valve attached to a 12 Oz Paintball Tank
Finnex Ray II DD 18" LED Fixture
Finnex Breeder Box with 6" FugeRay
Generic Ceramic Bar Diffuser
General Bubble Counter with check valve
Fluval Stratum Substrate @ 2.5 to 3 inch
Stanley and Westek Digital Timers plugged into a Belkin Multimedia Power Strip


Flora:
Needle Leaf Java Fern
Narrow Leaf Java Fern
Dwarf Baby Tears
Christmas Moss
Glossostigma
Crypt Wendtii Green
Crypt Parva
Red Root Floater
Frogbit
Duckweed
Water Lettuce (Tiny and came with the duckweed)
Micro Sword
Dwarf Hairgrass
Amazon Sword
Staurogyme Repens
Anubias Nana Petite
Anubias (can't remember which one)
Anacharis
Banana Plant
3 Unknown stem plants.


Fertilizers:
Seachem Trace dosing 2.5 ml 3x week
Seachem Flourish (Dosing stopped)
Seachem Potassium, Phosphorus and Nitrogen (Dosing done)
Seachem Iron - dosing @ 1.5 ml 3x week
Potassium Sulfate - diluted as 10ml dose x 64 doses for 3x week.
Mono Potassium Phosphate - diluted as 10ml dose x 64 doses for 3x week.
Potassium Nitrate - not yet started dosing since Nitrates are fluctuating @ 20-30 ppm.
GH Booster @ 1 1/2 tsp once a week


Fauna:
Galaxy Rasbora - main fish
Cherry Shrimp
Amano Shrimp
Twig Catfish
Bristlenose Pleco @ 2 inch
SAEs
Otocinclus Catfish @ 2 inch and 1.5 inch
Salt and Pepper Cory
Pygmy Cory
Baby Blue Betta (Don't know which one. This is my daughter's fish)
Borneo Sucker

First Month
This is how empty the tank was when I first started out. I got the mopani driftwood at Petco and thought it would be an awesome piece in my tank. I had a vision of some moss growing on the right side of the driftwood when I first got it. After some research and a golf sized chunk of what I thought was java moss, I was able to successfully attach the moss to the desired area. I was a bit conservative when wrapping the thread around the moss thinking I was going to hurt the plant that is why it looked like some parts of it were coming of.

The 4 Crypts are still small in this image and they are still in the tank. The java fern on the right was moved to the center of the tank right behind the driftwood.

My lightning at this time was 2 20 inch Aqueon light fixtures with 18" T8 Hagen Power-GLO. The black thing on the top right of the tank was my 1 gallon submerged filter pump being used as a CO2 Reactor. I also started with the DIY CO2 using 2 litre bottles.



Second Month - Dwarf Baby Tears and more plants
Below is a photo of the tank 1 week after planting the dwarf baby tears and some plants I got from aquariumplants.com. I was so concerned about the dwarf baby tears that I did not even bother to check how to plant the glossostigma so it ended up being some kind of shrub at the front of the tank. I did like how it turned out and the shrimps loved it too. At this point I got rid of the Power-GLO lights and replaced it with a Flora-GLO and Life-GLO T8 bulbs.



After almost 4 months



Photo of the top of the tank showing the breeder box at the back


Photo of the tank from the left side

[andrewss]

roger that... lol

[PortalMasteryRy]

LOL! My first attempt said something about the post requiring validation and it never showed up so I am redoing it again.

[PortalMasteryRy]

Pics posted! I'm looking for some old pictures when I first started my tank to show how the tank progressed.

[QQQUUUUAADDD]

Beautiful tank! But it's the most overstocked tank I've ever seen in my life!

[PortalMasteryRy]

Originally Posted by QQQUUUUAADDD

Beautiful tank! But it's the most overstocked tank I've ever seen in my life!

I know and it is my fault. I'm a sucker for (small) odd ball fish and every time I visit the LFS I would see some weird fish in there that I would end up bringing home. I've been monitoring my parameters everyday and I've been monitoring it constantly (2x a day). The only issue I have is the nitrates which are constantly increasing throughout the week around 5 PPM per day.

I actually lost some shrimp last week because I did my regular dosing of seachem nitrogen and did not know the nitrate was already way above 20 PPM so by the time I hit the end of the week my nitrates were close to 80 PPM which did a number on my shrimp population.

[PortalMasteryRy]

I found a picture of my tank when it was still empty! I also found a picture after getting some more plants added to the tank and getting my dwarf baby tears carpet started.

[GMYukonon24s]

Nice growth

[PortalMasteryRy]

Thanks. I think the only big advantage of having a small tank is the distance from the light source to the substrate. At 10-11 inches I have a pretty good PAR value which gives me good growth.

[95gsrturbo]

Do you trim the carpet plants ?

[BeachBum2012]

I'd say you've done a hell of a job for your first tank. Looks great.

[PortalMasteryRy]

Originally Posted by 95gsrturbo

Do you trim the carpet plants ?

Yes. I trim it once a week. I take out 1/4 of the height and try to cut back on growth around the other plants. It does create a big mess and It is very hard to clean up since The size of the tank also does not give me a lot of wiggle room. FYI I found out the best scissors for my tank was the small nail scissors due to the size.

@BeachBum2012: Thanks! I owe my success to sites and forums like this one. A lot of information was able online but good and reliable information was hard to find.

[andrewss]

great job dude! is that a glosso and HC carpet in the foreground?

[PortalMasteryRy]

Originally Posted by andrewss

great job dude! is that a glosso and HC carpet in the foreground?

Thanks and yes that is Glosso and HC. The Glosso was planted incorrectly as you can see in one of the earlier photos of my tank. I did not correct the problem because it became some sort of shrub that my shrimp liked to hang out. I also have one Staurogyme repens (and a lemon bacopa at the back of it) at the very left of the glosso shrub.

[alipper]

Tank looks awesome, IMO 1 of the best I've seen on here, too my liking that is.