James' Regular old 10 gallon

[parrottbay]

This is my first tank journal, so with that being said any help on anything including this site would be awesome. I am not even sure after I start this, how to even get back to this LOL. This tank was started back on September 15, 2012... So as always criticize away, it couldn't hurt!

[halffrozen]

Is there meant to be no air line/ stone connected to the sponge filter???

[sayurasem]

Substrate would be nice

[parrottbay]

Specs

Tank: A regular 15$ aquarium 10 Gallon

Substrate: Flourite Dark

Lighting: Oddysea 24" T5HO x4 with daylight bulbs Total of 72 Watts; On roughly 5 hours a day broke up every hour with two hours in-between.
Ferts: Started with Seachem Products but now using GLA green starter pack as of December 12, 2012.

C02: Mini Paintball System started December 12, 2012 but before used DIY yeast techniques...

Filtration: Started and now back to the Aqueon 30 I believe because when I switched to the other for the slim better looking because my tank became a wreck.



Flora:

Hemianthus Callitrichoides

Rotala rotundifolia

Blyxa Japonica

Java Moss

Rotala Indica

Dwarf Hair Grass

Giant Hair Grass; Elocharis Montevidensis

Sunset Hygro


Fauna:

One Otto

Starting Colony of Cherry Shrimp

One Trilineatus Cory

Two Amano Algae eating Shrimp



Sept 15, 2012 Day four... Let's grow dwarf hair grass; Also, at this point I had added Dwarf Hairgrass I had bought from Petsmart. The other plants look horrible, I know but I had nothing else to add at the time and didn't want to many nutrients to cause algae etc, so I just added them....

Before my first attempt of rocks I had collected

This was after the rocks but still was looking for better ones along with the plants :/

Day 19

The layout with incoming plants; The new rocks that I finally found on the side of the road; boiled and prepped properly

One of the Shrimp on Java Moss up close and personal.

Pregnant Cherry Shrimp

My one Trilineatus Cory

Oct 15. 2012 45 days into the process with tiny baby tears added in the front left; only two little pieces though

October 27 2012, 57 Days into the process

November 1st, 62 Days in...New filter, hope it works without putting in to much oxygen.... Also almost time to do some trimming!

November 9, 2012 before the trimming 71 days into process....

November 10, 2012 After trimming 72 days into process

November 11, 2012 Top View

December 01, 2012

[parrottbay]

Originally Posted by halffrozen

Is there meant to be no air line/ stone connected to the sponge filter???

The sponge filter was added from my 125 gallon in hopes that the bacteria from it would help the cycle time.

[parrottbay]

Originally Posted by sayurasem

Substrate would be nice

It was to come lol, I was just so excited to have this tank that I wanted to try and start the cycle process. :P I now know looking back I should have got my substrate and hardscape first and laid it out AND maybe did a dry start, but at least I have learned from my mistakes

[parrottbay]

December 10, 2012

Paintball Co2 was added Same day... hope it makes a difference. It is going about 1Ball to 1-2 Seconds; was shooting for 1 ball a second but these setups are WAY to touchy

[parrottbay]

Also, if anyone is reading this, you can kinda tell that my blyxa is turning red and has patches with hair string algae on it while the blyxa seems to me that is slowly dyeing off. This is why I started the paintball co2 and the GLA starter macro and micro supplements....

[AquaMD]

looks nice, I don't care for large rocks in small tanks - they displace too much water

[parrottbay]

Originally Posted by AquaMD

looks nice, I don't care for large rocks in small tanks - they displace too much water

Never thought of it that way, thanks!

[parrottbay]

Got a question, I am having a stringy algae for the past few weeks; almost a month; so my question is what causes this type of algae and what can I do to permanently fix this problem because I thought my amano shrimp would take care of it but it has showed no interest to it. I have tried to remove it daily by cutting it off but it seems only to help it... anybody got any ideas?

[parrottbay]

I am now starting to notice that my blyxa Japonica has started to regrow. I added 5 CRS to the tank Friday and did a N202 dose yesterday and did my weekly 20% W/C today. I will have more pictures soon but I am wanting to show how badly the blyxa had melted either due to when I first got it of the shock of a new tank or because I was using Seachem products and now am using GLA green fert pack.

[QQQUUUUAADDD]

Parrot, that's a trilineatus cory. Not a peppered.

[parrottbay]

Okay, I didnt know that, I can now research them thanks to you. The fish store I bought him from said that, so I went with it lol

[Fishies_in_Philly]

Parrot, how's the tank doing?