First Tank!! Low-tech 10gal

1975 Views 12 Replies 5 Participants Last post by deaddack, Jan 8, 2017

deaddack

Discussion Starter · Dec 7, 2016

Hi all,

I'm brand new to the aquascaping / aquarium world. After a ton of research and much back and fourth about what gear to get, I just finished setting up my first tank!

I'm trying to keep it simple by going low-tech, but I may end up adding new plants and/or C02 in the future. I've attached some photos of the Day 1 setup process, and gear is listed below. As for fish, I'm still undecided!

Would love any feedback or recommendations. Is there anything I can do to help cycle the tank better or faster?

I'll try to keep this thread updated as the tank progresses!!!

The Setup:

Tank: ADA Rimless 10 Gallon

Lighting: Finnex Planted+

Filter: Shiruba XB-303

Do!Aqua Mini inflow/outflow set

SUBSTRATE: ADA
- Amazonia powder
- Power Sand Special
- Colorado Sand

PLANTS

Foreground:
Micro-sword

Mid and Background:
Cryptocoryne willisii (I think?)
Rotala wallichii
Java moss (applied to driftwood and rocks with flourish glue)

Heater (not yet installed)
Archaea Mini 50W

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 2

1 - 13 of 13 Posts

philipraposo1982

· #2 · Dec 7, 2016

Good luck, looks like a good start too.

How many hour photoperiod are you going to run?

Ferts or no?

Keep up with water changes and get a good routine going. Try not to mess with the plants too much and let them get settled.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

Save

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 7, 2016

Thanks!

I was going to start with running 9/10 hours a day.

My lfs recommended that I wait to add any ferts or suppliments, as the substrate is already going to provide a ton of help in the beginning.

The water got super clear overnight, still just slightly cloudy but I'm hoping the first water change will fix that. Otherwise, all seems calm - no plants coming out and floating to the top so I'm happy about that!

Save

philipraposo1982

· #4 · Dec 7, 2016

I can promise you a ton of headaches if you try and run a photoperiod of that length.

Normally only well established tanks can pull that off and the ones that do have a good amount of plant mass that's already growing healthy.

Start off with 6-7 hours and give it a month or more. As the growth start to look good bump it an hour and wait another month. Do this till you reach your 10 hour goal. Each time you can monitor algae growth, plant health and plant uptake.

Always slowly adjusting and being patient is the key to success.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

Save

Bananableps

· #5 · Dec 7, 2016

deaddack said:
Thanks!

I was going to start with running 9/10 hours a day.

My lfs recommended that I wait to add any ferts or suppliments, as the substrate is already going to provide a ton of help in the beginning.

I bet you got that advice from Fauna NYC. Amirite?

Tank looks great. You have started with a good sized tank and an appropriate variety of plants. Much smarter than how I did my first tank...

Save

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #6 · Dec 7, 2016

Start off with 6-7 hours and give it a month or more. As the growth start to look good bump it an hour and wait another month. Do this till you reach your 10 hour goal. Each time you can monitor algae growth, plant health and plant uptake.

Ah, I didn't realize it was so high- that was just my initial guess. I'll definitely take your advice and lower it!

Bump:

I bet you got that advice from Fauna NYC. Amirite?

I actually went to Monster Aquarium in Queens - they were super helpful. They didn't try to push anything on me and were patient with my 101 questions

Save

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 12, 2016

6 Days in...

Update on the tank....

Things seem to be trucking along. Ammonia levels are staying steady at 1-2ppm. I'm doing 50% water changes every other day and waiting patiently for nitrites to spike, but I have no sense of how long that'll take using ADA Amazonia / Power Sand Special. My understanding is that PSS has dormant bacteria and nutrients which help speed up the process - any thoughts?

The moss and micro-sword seem to be doing OK, except a few blades that have melted off here and there. Other than that, they've stayed pretty green.

The rotala seem to lean towards the center of the tank a ton instead of growing upwards like they did when I first planted them. Anything to be concerned about?

And lastly, my crypts are melting, which is my own fault- I read somewhere that not properly washing off all of the rockwool before planting could cause algae issues in the tank, so during the last water change I pulled them up cleaned them off and replanted. They immediately started to melt, which I then discovered is common when replanting them. Oops. I'm hoping some new growth will happen if I leave them alone.

See less See more

Save

Sea_Of_Treachery

· #8 · Dec 13, 2016

Congrats on the new setup! Be careful with that species of rotala, from what i know they like high light and C02. I personally have rotundifolia and it always grows well and like a dang weed. If the wallichii does survive, it will mostly loose the red coloration from lack of light. Good luck!

Save

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #9 · Dec 13, 2016

Sea_Of_Treachery said:
Congrats on the new setup! Be careful with that species of rotala, from what i know they like high light and C02. I personally have rotundifolia and it always grows well and like a dang weed. If the wallichii does survive, it will mostly loose the red coloration from lack of light. Good luck!

Thanks!

Yeah, I've been hearing the same thing about them- thought I may be switching over to using C02 in the near future, so hopefully they'll improve after that!

Save

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #10 · Dec 18, 2016

Updated: Day 12

The rotala has been growing like crazy, but almost horizontally into the center of the tank. Some stems even started to produce new offshoots that were growing vertically up. I trimmed most of it back and replanted those stems off to the left where they could get way more light. Overall, they have still managed to retain quite a bit of pink at the tops, so I'm hoping they'll continue to stay that way. Not sure how the trimmed stems will do...

As I hoped, the crypts that were melting after being moved have started rebounding, but it's slow going. I went out and bought some anubias petite in order to fill out the tank a bit more and I must say, they're a great little plant, my favorite so far. I may even get a few more and attach them to the center rock which I think is a little too bare at the moment- I've started to refer to the moss I attached at the very top as it's "toupee". Not a great look.

The back right corner behind the driftwood still feels a bit empty, but there's not much light in that area and the filter intake is also in that corner. Does anyone have suggestions for a background plant that might fit nicely in that space?

Still patiently waiting for nitrites to show up. Ammonia hovering at 1-2ppm with 30-40% water changes every 2-3 days....

Bonus question: I have a little snail friend!!! He must have hitched a ride on the anubias. He's so small, I almost wiped him off the glass thinking it was gunk. How hardy are they? Does he have a chance or surviving the tank cycling process?

See less See more

Save

Reactions: 1

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #11 · Dec 30, 2016

Update: Day 24

Added fish last night! No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates for the past few days, so I decided to take the plunge and begin stocking the tank.

I added 7 cardinal tetras and so far they seem to be doing well. They're all very active and schooling quite nicely. I may add a couple of more, but I'm waiting a few days to see how these little guys do first.

I also bought a nerite snail who's going to town on the little bits of algae that have been popping up on the glass. Thank god, it was a pain to get down to the substrate line and clean that stuff.

As for the plants, I've changed things up a bit since last post. I've added a bunch more anubias petite and planted some crypt lucens to fill out the mid and back of the tank. I've pulled out most of the crypt parva; I wasn't a huge fan.

C02 is installed and setup. Photoperiod is 7 hours, gas comes on an hour before and turns off an hour before lights turn out.

The micro sword narrow leaf carpet is ....sloooooooow growing. I'm finally starting to see a few roots and runners appear under the substrate, but it's at a glacial pace. Small bits of algae are accumulating on all of the leaves, which is annoying as hell to clean off without ripping them up.

Would amano shrimp and/or oto cats help with this? I'm considering buying one of them or a combination of the two. Any recommendations?

See less See more

Save

jmccullough108

· #12 · Dec 30, 2016

deaddack said:
Added fish last night! No ammonia, nitrites or nitrates for the past few days, so I decided to take the plunge and begin stocking the tank.

I added 7 cardinal tetras and so far they seem to be doing well. They're all very active and schooling quite nicely. I may add a couple of more, but I'm waiting a few days to see how these little guys do first.

I also bought a nerite snail who's going to town on the little bits of algae that have been popping up on the glass. Thank god, it was a pain to get down to the substrate line and clean that stuff.

As for the plants, I've changed things up a bit since last post. I've added a bunch more anubias petite and planted some crypt lucens to fill out the mid and back of the tank. I've pulled out most of the crypt parva; I wasn't a huge fan.

C02 is installed and setup. Photoperiod is 7 hours, gas comes on an hour before and turns off an hour before lights turn out.

The micro sword narrow leaf carpet is ....sloooooooow growing. I'm finally starting to see a few roots and runners appear under the substrate, but it's at a glacial pace. Small bits of algae are accumulating on all of the leaves, which is annoying as hell to clean off without ripping them up.

Would amano shrimp and/or oto cats help with this? I'm considering buying one of them or a combination of the two. Any recommendations?

Really nice touch with the Cardinal tetras, they look great in there

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Save

deaddack

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jan 8, 2017

Update: Day 33 - Ich and Algae oh my!!

The last few weeks have been stressful, to say the least!!

Of the seven cardinal tetras I added, three survived. Two of them kicked the bucket within the first three days. I actually woke up to one of them dried up on my living room floor!! The jumper was surprising, my water params have been pretty on point, for the most part. I suspect that I didn't acclimatize them well enough and they were stressed as hell.

Soon after, I noticed several white spots on some of their fins and immediately began scouring the web. It was ICH of course. I don't have room for a quarantine tank right now, so I cranked the heat up and started rigorous water changes and salt treatments (i'm trying to go light on the salt to keep from damaging the plants.) Two more cardinals perished, probably due to the added stress.

It's been a week now and the treatments seem to be working. The three cardinals that remain are active and playful. If I'm snooping around the tank, they'll scurry off to hide but will eventually come back out to explore and play in the water current. One cardinal in particular is always out and swimming about. He's brave as f*ck, I like him. Once I'm sure the ICH is completely gone I plan to try again with a few more cardinals.

And of course, while I'm freaking out about my poor cardinals, more algae blooms. I removed as much as I could manually, and increased C02 in the tank. This definitely helped a ton, but what really crushed it was... amanos! I added six of them, and these little suckers can EAT - the entire tank was spotless overnight. I still have a few spots of BBA, but I plan on doing H2O2 spot treatments to zap it.

I think I got through the worst of it, and the tank seems to be stabilizing. I just finished my first big filter cleaning, cleaned all the glassware, and did some gravel vacuuming.

Pardon my bubbles in the latest photos - usually happens right after a water change.

See less See more

Save

1 - 13 of 13 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.

First Tank!! Low-tech 10gal

deaddack

Attachments

philipraposo1982

deaddack

philipraposo1982

Bananableps

deaddack

deaddack

Attachments

Sea_Of_Treachery

deaddack

deaddack

Attachments

deaddack

Attachments

jmccullough108

deaddack

Attachments

Top Contributors this Month