So I scraped the dirt tank for now because the dirt was still filled with little pieces of wood which would float up every now and then(After picking the big pieces out for an hour). This is a beginner set up so excuse the stupid pictures and descriptions. I will be taking pictures frequently to record low light plant growth, don't laugh

I wanted something more simple so I chose moss.

Tank: 10 gallon
Light: Hampton Bay desk lamp
Filter: aquatic edge bioclear filter (should arrive on the 2nd)
CO2: DIY (when everything is set up)
Substrate: Black Tahitian moon sand
Plants: Christmas Moss, Marimo balls
Fish/inverts: Currently tons of rasboras which will be moved to a 20L (fire reds in ~2 weeks)

Oh and the tank is positioned this way because I currently don't have a stand and my mom wants it somewhat hidden..
Going to look for some driftwood tomorrow!


Tank.


Substrate.


What I used to tie stuff down. Seems like everyone asks this question


Experimentation with plastic mesh. It floats?


The tank right now.

Nice start, love to see this grow in!!

cool start, is this just going to be a grow tank?

Going to Petsmart in a bit to see if they have any driftwood. Probably won't but thats the only pet store besides petco within 15 or so miles.


Thanks!

Sorry, I've got most of the lingo down, but is a grow tank just for juvies to grow?

So I went to petsmart, and I picked up a ghost shrimp just to test things out, some more rasboras!, and a piece of driftwood. It's actually decent looking, the plant they had in it was pretty much dead so I tossed it. After an hour of boiling, most of the tannins came out(my house smelled like tea).

Since there is a hole, I will placing my one Anubis barteri nana strategically. I will also tie some xmas moss to the wood.


As long as I position it correctly, the hole won't be visible. What do you guys think?

Nice work so far man!

Looks great Ben!

Thanks guys!

The tank will be moving to a stand soon, once I clean it off, then I'll rearrange things because it will not be meant to be seen side ways anymore. The internal filter will also be removed once I move the tank.

I tied some xmas moss to the piece of wood and rearranged the marimo balls. The ghost shrimp molted yesterday which was really weird because I saw a little clear shrimp looking thing floating around...I thought it was dead. I'll try to get pictures of everything but for now here's a FTS and HalfTankshot?

Lookin good!

Thanks two stroke!

Here's about 4 - 5 days of growth, there are little green nubs everywhere and its starting to grown in pretty much all places. The internal filter has also been removed and will have a sponge over the intake after more shrimps are here. The tank will hopefully be moved tomorrow. TESTS tomorrow gahh.

Pic 1, They all look the same. I just couldn't choose:P


2


3

So the tank has it's own stand now! The internal filter was removed and once the shrimp get here, a sponge is going over the intake. Here's some FTS's. Oh and ignore the floating plastic mesh, it's just filled with a little moss. What else do you guys think I should add?

What kind of shrimps are you putting in?

The Zoo Med 501 replacement sponge will fit perfectly over your intake. They're like 5-6 bucks at petco/mart.

Fire reds Oh I already have a sponge, its just not on there because I want most of the waste to go into the filter media. Now I just have to figure out what to do with 18 rasboras:P

The fire reds shipped out today, so I have to move the rasboras out! Here's a picture of the lone ghost shrimp sitting at the top of the drift wood.

Should I move him out when the fire reds get here?

The shrimp should be arriving tomorrow if USPS has the date correct, so I removed all the fish along with the ghost shrimp(saw a picture of a ghost eating fish, yikes). Cleaned it up a bit. Where should the placement of the intake be on the HOB, high, low, middle? or does it not matter? It will have a sponge over it.

FTS w/o flash


Moss has grown a lot! with flash(looks ugly..)


w/o flash


and the anubis has grown a new leaf at the top left(the still unraveling one)