Danakin's 10g Dealeo

[danakin]

As of right now, my ten gallon is unscaped.

Run of the mill specs for a 10g: 2x15w 6500K CF spirals in incandescent hood, Flourite regular, Penguin 100 HOB filter. DIY CO2 is coming back to my tank once I design a PVC mixture container that my cat cannot knock over. Pressurized CO2 is in the works, just have to find a good regulator (folks on the Planted Tank IRC channel have me looking for nigh-unrealistic deals on regulators).

Plants:
Jungle val (soon to be transplanted to wife's tank)
Moneywort (soon to be split in to multiple stems, grown and put in wife's tank)
Dwarf Hairgrass
Microsword (temporary)
3 stems Ludwigia repens hanging on for dear life after a DIY yeastsplosion and overtrimming.

On their way to my tank:
More ludwigia repens courtesy of Imeridian
From Cah925:
3-4 stems Rotala macrandra
3-4 stems Rotala sp. Green
2-3 stems Rotala sp. Mini Type 1
10+ stems Rotala sp. Nanjenshen
5-7 stems Rotala sp. 'Pink'
4-5 stems Rotala sp. Vietnam

Fish:
2 otos
6ish neon tetras (whoohoo! stereotypical fish!)

The tetras always seem healthiest right before they croak. They are from Petsmart, but I think after the initial die-off I've got a stable population. Not replacing them as they die, if I end up with none left, this tank is becoming an all oto tank. I don't care if they aren't that colorful, they have the coolest behaviour IMO

Pics later.

[Jdinh04]

Looks like you have a sweet 10g coming along. Looking forward to seeing some pics!

[danakin]

I really want to get that Flourite out and switch it with some Eco/soil mix. I just like the ease of planting in that better than Flourite, but I suppose I'll stick with the established substrate for a while (afterall, the hairgrass is kinda matting itself in to it)

The tank is absolutely anti-spectacular at this point to me. When I get pictures up you'll see what I mean. I need to get some rocks, as the driftwood I have is headed back to the hex tank. And CO2 HAS to be put back on the tank from some source.

[danakin]

Ludwigia came in yesterday from Imeridian, along with a stem of LA. Looks like it made the trip quite well even though the temperature took a dive. Rotala from Cah925 should be showing up soon.

I'm using a Marineland Penguin 100 HOB filter. I know, I know, I really went over budget here, super high end and all eh? Anyways, the magdrive impeller (all inch and a half of it) didn't quite fit snugly in the housing so it rattled a ton. Louder than anything else in the living room running, be it Xbox, Wii, Gamecube, PS2, or even the media PC. Called up Marineland's support folks to get a replacement impeller. Couple of things here:
1) I got a lady who spoke English. She was American. It was nice being able to understand every word she said. Perfect!
2) Shipping and all was free (whereas to buy the part from a pet store it's something like $8) and fast (at my doorstep in 2 days)
3) The box that the impeller came in was about 10" cubed. All for a little tiny impeller. But on the plus side, I now have a nice box to put all the loose junk from the kitchen drawer in.

No updates or pics other than that, unless you want to see a really boring tank with no scape. Hopefully Monday for a full picture progression?

[danakin]

Too many species, not enough tank.

Need some serious scape ideas here. Wallichii stays for sure, LA as well (though it's just the one stem at the moment). Rock can move/disappear, some plants can eventually be 86'd (letting them grow a week or so first to see how they adapt).



Not thrilled with how it looks (too dense and unmanaged) or the quality of the shot. Inspiration for pushing on and not being crappy eh?

[danakin]

Wife rolled her ankle bad, couldnt do anything, so I called in to take the day off to take care of her. My boss rocks, BTW. As a result, completely rescaped with decent rocks, removed some of the plants that didn't go well, etc



A lot better IMO, still needs a bit of work and a narrower selection of species. Letting it sit as-is for a while (this time for real) and grow out. Hopeful for that DHG, and the wallichii. Those two I am excited to see start growing.

(I need to work on post processing on tank shots, blah)

[danakin]

DIY CO2 has been on the tank since my last post, and it makes a ton of difference when compared to just Excel dosing. Things are already growing much nicer.

To do:
-Paint back of tank black
-Add second DIY bottle to setup for constant pressure
-DIY CO2 reactor (already made at home, just have to put it in)
-Ensure everything is 100% catproof. Cat hasn't knocked over the CO2 bottle yet since I put it in a bucket
-Stock tank with different fish. The neons are going to my wife's hex, which is in serious need of some TLC

[danakin]

FTS 3-20-09


CO2 reactor, ugly but super efficient


Got some sort of deficiency, only seems to hit the ludwigia. Curled/wrinkled leaves, a little bronzing and some damage to the leaves themselves. Again, only on the ludwigia.


Any help IDing that would be greatly appreciated. I want to say Mg/Ca but am not sure.

Finally, a little sign of life from the macrandra!


Prior to getting the CO2 in full fish-be-hosed mode, it was all brown. Now I'm seeing some greens and reds, which gives me hope!

Thoughts and suggestions greatly appreciated!

[danakin]

So imagine the FTS from about 3 weeks ago, but super grown out and tangled up in rotala.

Had so much rotala rotundafolia, ended up giving a lot to my wife, and kinda pitching the rest (all ratty and had a TON of snail eggs hiding in it).

Ludwigia repens is growing nicely, and man I love the red hue it's taking on. Macrandra is faring better, with some new growth, and I could have easily bought some new stems, but I like nurturing this group back to health.

So, brings me to today, where my wife and I decide to go to Preuss' Pets in Lansing. Awesome store. Didn't get a pressurized CO2 setup like I was hoping for (that's gonna be 10 weeks down the line (I'm shooting for June 13th)) but got to thinking I should redo the tank. The hairgrass was just an algae magnet, plain and simple. I found it annoying more than anything. So I got some HC to replace it. But HC and the larger size of Flourite regular don't get along well in my mind. So, Flourite Onyx Sand was added to my cart, and we headed out. My wife picked up two bunches of ludwigia ovalia, and got one bunch of golden nassea for a buck (nice deal). She didn't really want the nassea (but liked it better than the other plants) so most of it is now in my tank.

So we get home, watch Army of Darkness, and I then get down to redoing the tank. Mixed in the onyx sand with eco-complete and go to town.

Woohoo! Of course, this means I have to get the dealeo re-cycled, but that's fine with me. If the tetras die, I have some ideas for replacements.

Pictures after lunch tomorrow.

[danakin]

The redo:

[imeridian]

It's looking good! ...except for that soda bottle monstrosity, get thee a Hagen Elite Mini stat!

[danakin]

The bottle monstrosity is pretty darn effective, but yeah it needs to go. I'll be redoing this sometime later in the week.

[Neoman]

Wow, big improvement. The HC looks really good and the black substrate makes the plants stand out a lot more.

I do have a suggestion though, maybe add a black background? It will make your plants seem to "pop" out even more.

[danakin]

Yup, on my list for next week as well. Gotta pick up the Krylon though, and seeing how everything is closed today, my wife and I are relaxing and enjoying the nice sunshine (through the window of our computer room :-P )

[ZooTycoonMaster]

How does the soda bottle work?