Dan's 10G Planted Tank: Inclination *New Scape on Page 11*

[dj2005]

Hi everyone!

I figured I should start a journal of my ten gallon planted tank, which is essentially my first planted tank. This tank was setup on July 5th, 2009. I dose Flourish Comprehensive twice a week and Excel daily with 2x the dosage to help prevent algae. Lights consists of two 6500K GE 15w CFL bulbs that are on for twelve hours every day (I realize most people prefer eight hours but the tank seems to be doing well, for now, with twelve).

Here are some of the plants that I think are currently taking residence within this tank:
Java fern (regular, needle leaf and narrow)
Crypt Wendtii
Red Root Floaters
Anubias Nana
Ludwigia repens
Hemianthus micranthemoides
Hygrophila difformis
Vallisneria sp
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Flame moss

Fauna:
Two Nerites
RCS
MTS
Various other things I consider to be pests

I received my first stem plants on July 12th, which is why I started taking regular pictures starting at that date and hence why they look so shabby. Many of the stem plants that I have were received on the 15th, the last of my plants (needle leaf & floaters) were received on the 17th. I plan to remove the "moss" wall located behind the filter's intake next tank cleaning.

Now for the thing that everyone cares about... Pictures! Albeit, many are not in focus and/or just plain bad. The tank is not much to look at either, but I love it all the same.

7-12-09:






7-17-09 (Frogbit was removed on the 19th. I also removed a lot of java moss that mixed with my flame moss on the large piece of driftwood, so the current flame moss looks patchy at the moment):








7-19-09:

[dj2005]

7-21-09:
Plants:






Red Cherries playing in the Pearlweed (or that is what I suspect that plant to be):

One of the many berried females:

[CAM6467]

Looking great! This is going to be nice once it grows really thick and you have to do your first trim job. I'm sure that you're going to be pleased with this. What is that substrate?

Regards,

Charlie Mims

[houstonhobby]

Looks like a great job. Wish I could have a series of pictures with no algae like that!

[dj2005]

Originally Posted by CAM6467

Looking great! This is going to be nice once it grows really thick and you have to do your first trim job. I'm sure that you're going to be pleased with this. What is that substrate?

Regards,

Charlie Mims

Thanks for the compliment. The substrate is regular play sand from Home Depot ($2.50 for 50lbs). However, it is not the white, very fine play sand, but instead a coarser grain sand that does not cloud the water even after a large replant.

houstonhobby: I'm sure I'll have a bunch of algae soon enough, hehe. My two Nerites have finally stopped mating (they seem to mate more than they clean my tank!), so at least they will start cleaning again.

Does anyone know what plant this is?


Edit: Found out it is Riccia.

[dj2005]

7-25-09 (likely the last update for a week):



gif showcasing the changes from 7-17-09 - 7-25-09:

[mgdmirage]

looks good

[CL]

Very good! Everything is looking beautiful!

[Sarkazmo]

I'm pretty sure that what you're calling Pearlweed is Penny Wort. Tank looks awesome by the way. I love floating plants so I need to get some of those Red Root Floaters. I've got Duck weed, Dwarf Water Lettuce, and Frogbit. Now I need to complete my collection, heh

Sark

[dj2005]

Originally Posted by Sarkazmo

I'm pretty sure that what you're calling Pearlweed is Penny Wort. Tank looks awesome by the way. I love floating plants so I need to get some of those Red Root Floaters. I've got Duck weed, Dwarf Water Lettuce, and Frogbit. Now I need to complete my collection, heh

Sark

I actually do have Pennywort, but that is in another tank as of now (it might be seen in an earlier picture of my tank, though). I just looked up Pearlweed on TPT database and it is indeed Pearlweed (which lives up to its name). Here is a picture from the database: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/my...nthemoides.jpg

[CL]

Yep, pearlweed aka hm
Great plant!

[dj2005]

Did a quick trim yesterday of a few stem plants on the right. I do not know what to do with my Anubias Nana as it is too large. Two Anubias Nana Petite plants would look nicely in its current position (far left), but I do not have the funds for them. So, for the foreseeable future, the Nana will stay put. My Riccia is tied to the red cap as I am waiting for it to grow more before doing something more permanent with it.

Before I ramble too much, here are some blurry and bad pictures of how the tank looks today. Been getting lots of growth. I may need higher wattage CFL bulbs with the way the Red Root Floaters are sucking up the available light.








FTS comparison of 7-25-09 and 8-2-09:

[Northern_Wind]

Wow! Beautiful tank, well done!

[dj2005]

8-5-09:

[dj2005]

Decently sized update today (8-8-09):
-I created a black background for the tank.
-Upgraded the 15w CFL bulbs to 20w bulbs since the Red Root Floaters have taken over the top of the tank, as can be seen in the following pictures.
-Trimmed my Wisteria plants as they, much like my Red Root Floaters, were sucking up much of the available light. Now I see why people state this plant should be in a larger tank.
-Trimmed my Pearlweed to even it out a bit.
-Moved my Anubias to hide the roots. I am quite pleased where it is currently.

Pictures: