[headflowers]

I have a 10 G tank that has been up and running for a while.
(Fully planted, cycled and populated about 2 months now)

Substrate- Thin layer of gravel; covered with black petco sand.
Plants - Anubias on my driftwood and rock, moneywort, Swords, Moss Balls (a wee bit obsessed with them :wink, banana plants and some others that came in an assortment. identification of the plants would be appreciated!
Inhabitants- 10 Neon tetra, 7 Ghost Shrimp, 3 very small bronze cory (newest members of the tank less than a week ive had them, had 4 but one mysteriously disappeared over night last night, tore apart the tank searching for him, anyone got an idea about that, i googled it and many said they die and snails will bury them? creepy little undertakers if that is true, one of them was very lethargic and not as playful as the other three) & some snails that i hope to eventually weed out. (aqadvisor says im 117% stocked, but besides one cory going missing everyone seems happy.)
Filter- Tetra Whisper 10-30i
Lighting - Two 13w CFLS @6500k (i think, ill have to double check with my BF bc he's the electrical guru) that are on a timer as of yesterday 9 am - 9 pm.
Temp - stays roughly between 74-76 F with heater i have.
Ferts- api root tabs when first planted, and dose weekly with 5 ml leaf zone.
pH- around 7.4-7.6, those colors on the results sheet are too similar to each other lol
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 10

Every Sunday i do a 15-20% water change and clean the best i can without disrupting the environment too much and add my ferts.

Mainly i'm just looking for constructive criticism and helpful words of wisdom to help me get an idea of how i'm doing. I have some Algae growing on my filter spout, my anubias and some of my moneywort, tried rubbing it off, doesn't help much. has a gritty texture almost. it doesn't hinder the visual beauty of the tank in my opinion but i worry about a take over. :help:

I hope this is the right topic to post under, since it was general low tech area i just went for it :flick:​

 

[headflowers]

permanently or temporary just to help stop algae growth?

 

[headflowers]

Perm. 12 hours of light is too much. Aim for 8. You can even split it so the tank is on during the morning and on again when you are home.

Nice start though. I wish my first planted tank looked half as good as yours.

thanks for clearing that up, i've read recently about splitting up the time so i might give that ago! i don't know where i got 12 hours from! too much contradicting info online!

i am very proud of my progress and outcome, so it's nice to hear it looks good and i'm semi on the right track! so thank you x 10! :thumbsup:

 

[headflowers]

Yes your off to a great start! I like that pic of the ghost shrimp on the moss ball.:icon_mrgr

yay, thank you so much! :thumbsup:

 

[headflowers]

Most likely.

i did a quick search about moss balls/outbreaks of cladophora on plants and it seemed like it was evenly divided between yay and nay for having them in your tank... I will sit on the idea of removing them for a little longer and do a little more research.

did you have this happen to one of your tanks? if so, how long after introducing them to your tank did you see it take off?

 

[headflowers]

changed it up a bit

I snuck in a pic of one of my tinier shrimpies that isn't a blurry mess
added a new peice of driftwood and did some rearranging of big stones.
clipped and replanted some of my crazy tall moneyworts
gave my moms new betta a moss ball and some snails from my tank(i convinced her she needed some snails bc i had too many creeping in here and didn't want to just toss them out)
i removed the two mystery plants that turned out to be terrarium plants or whatever! thank you Plantedtank.net i figured out what they were while researching red tailed sharks on here!

:help::help::help:Can anyone name that algae on my anubias? (SECOND PIC DOWN with another ghost shrimp chilling under it) it's cleared up a little bit now that i've shortened my lighting period, but i'd still like to know what it is. my snails like it.:help::help::help:

 

[headflowers]

I don't know what kind of algae that is, but I found that turning my light period down and feeding less so my shrimp were hungrier cleared up a similar algae I had.

that's what i'm doing, hopefully i'll see some improvement soon! thank you : )