10 Gallon Planted Journal "START OF THE REBIRTH" .Updated 9/2/07.

[wood]

Here is my 10 gallon planted tank. New pictures taken with Digital. No More camera phone pics!!!

All plants added over month ago, recently trimmed. I figured I would start this journal now since it is not grown out much.


Inhabitants are 2 Otto's & 30+ Cherry Shrimp.

ADA Aquasoil Amazonia & ADA Bright Sand. One piece of driftwood.

I dose KH2PO4, Flourish Iron and Kent Pro-Plant. DIY C02 with Hagen Ladder. PH 6.5

6500K 2 x 20 watts screw in CF. 14 hours a day. Keeps plants small.

Filtration is an AquaClear 50 which is an excellent HOB filter. Inside of it is 1 foam pad, 1 Purigen bag, & 1 Matrix bag

Plants as of 1/1/07 are as follows:

1. Ammannia gracilis
2. Rotala sp. green
3. Rotala rotundifolia
4. Limnophila aromatica
5. Ludwigia glandulosa
6. Anubias barteri var. nana
7. Hemianthus callitrichoides
8. Rotala wallichii
9. Hemianthus micranthemoides

Front View

Front Right Side

Front Left Side

Overhead Left Side

Overhead Right Side

Left Side

Lazy Otto

Asian Filter Shrimp (looking overhead)

Hope you like it.

-Ryan

[conduct]

Nice looking little tank there I love the balance of reds and greens. I do think though if you went with a lighter color back ground (light blue) everything would come out allot more.

[AnneRiceBowl]

Great looking tank!

I also had a "Cherry Tree" layout, but I made a "tree" out of driftwood and plants.

[fresh_lynny]

Nice job, Ryan....pretty tank, and it looks much bigger than it is.

[wood]

better digi pics posted

[PeteyPob]

colorful plants
good job on the layout and their health

[Subotaj]

Superb!

[wood]

It needs A LOT more grow out time. It is hard to shape so many plants in such a small tank. I have to let them grow some more, then trim again, then grow. I can't let them all grow crazy in the beginning because then they will interfere with each others growth. The rotala rotundifolia will shade the rotala sp. green and cause the sp.green to shade the HM which will screw up the shape I desire. You can see how the rotala green is already growing along the substrate because it is being shadowed. I will have to trim that in order to let the HM grow there.

Once I reach the desired shape I can then just trim as needed, but for now I have to trim for future shape. I hope any of this even makes sense what I am trying to say.

The Limnophila aromatica is especially a problem. I want it in the back but it cannot be shaded at all or else it will really look out of shape. It already has started zig-zagging because the rotundifolia was shading it (look at the left side photo and how the stems are curved). The rotundifolia grows very fast.

Hope this whole ramble made sense.

-Ryan

[Cydric]

Hey Wood,

is that the one-eyed Asian filter shrimp you and i were talking about in another post?

[wood]

Originally Posted by Cydric

Hey Wood,

is that the one-eyed Asian filter shrimp you and i were talking about in another post?

haha. Yes it is. As you can see the left eye is missing. It is hard to make out the right eye, but the left is definitely gone. It is doing well though. Has gotten bigger.

-Ryan

[wood]

I did some rescaping of the tank. I moved the Ammannia Gracilis to where the Ludwigia glandulosa initially was and traded the glandulosa for some Red Cherry Shrimp. The gladulosa was just too big for my 10 gallon, didn't really fit IMO.

I also took some suggestions and trimmed the HM in a slope to create some perspective. It is kind of hard to see because I recently trimmed it.

I am going to now let the tank start to grow a lot, let it fill in. I have finished scaping it for the time being. I will post updated pictures of the gradual growth.

Take a look at the pics and let me know what you think.

Front

Front Left

Front Right

Limnophila aromatica

Ammannia gracilis

New Cherry Shrimp added 10 minutes before pic.

Asian Filter Shrimp feeding using its filter fans

[wood]

*UPDATE 1/16/07*

I just let the tank grow some more. you can see how the Rotala rotundifolia is starting to appear creating a "mid-contrast" between the Rotala sp. green and the Limnophila aromatica & Ammannia gracilis. The Rotala walichii has also starting coloring very nicely.

Front


Left side shows Rotala rotundifolia poking out


Grazing Cherries


Rotala walichii


Rotala walichii

[PeteyPob]

looks awsome, cherries probably lovin the room !

Always have loved the walichii plant.

[huleeo21]

that looks awesome, a really impressive tank indeed. And might I add its nice to know there's another Miamian on the forum

[wood]

Hehe, thanks guys.

Yea down here in Miami everyone wants saltwater, naturally. It is hard to really get anything freshwater as far as plants are concerned. Of course these forums are awesome because I can buy/trade almost any plant out there.

I am now letting the tank grow out for a while. I am going to have to trim the Limnophila soon, but I will replant the trimmings to further wrap it around the back left side. The anubias aren't doing so well, probably too much light for them, so they may have to go

The Rotala walichii is going to get trimmed as well so that I can spread it more. It grows very fast and I think that after trimming the newer stems will be even more red.

Everything else, the Ammannia, rotala green/rotundifolia, HM, HC, will all be left alone to grow out more.

Sometime in the near future I will be setting up either a 29 gallon or a 55 gallon. I have (2) 29 Gallons and (1) 55 Gallon just sitting empty in the closet. For the type of setups that I want to do with either of them I will need a good amount of money to start off with considering they are just bare tanks with nothing else. I really want to do a planted discus tank for my 55 but discus are a whole other ball game. I also want to get some CRS, but am going to see how my RCS skills are first. So far there are 3-4 pregnant cherries after having them for about 4 weeks, I may have a baby boom soon..

That's all I have to ramble about. If anyone has any suggestions for this 10 gallon please feel free to tell...

-Ryan