[gt turbo]

Hi all.

New to the whole aquascaping arena, so here is my re-scape of my 10g on my desk at work. It's a work in progress and for me it's more about the end-product. I have in my mind what i want it to look like in a few months when it matures. Please note this tank is Ultra-low tech. I recently got married and because I was on vacation/honeymoon for a total of 5 weeks my tank suffered from some neglect. Fish were fed daily but that was basically it.

Equipment:
1) Aqueon 10 gallon basic tank kit (Tank dimensions are 20"x10"x12", and it came with a HOB filter w and incandescent light hood)
2) Tetra mini heater, rated for a 10g tank (I'm only using this because it's in an air-conditioned office, our average daily temperatures here are around 29-31 degrees)

Substrate:
Aquarium gravel and Laterite

Lighting:
Swapped bulbs for two (2) fluorescent 6500K bulbs at 15w, comparable to a 75w incandescent.

Plants:
Reusing plants that were in previously, but lasted though the rough period.
Vallisenaria- Seemingly three different types 055, 056, 056B.
Hygrophila corymbosa
Cryptocoryne wendtii
Anubias nana
Very tiny piece of elodea
And two bulbs that I bought in a pack, waiting to see if it actually they actually sprout, they are supposed to be an onion plant (Crinum thaianum) and a dwarf lily (not id'd yet)

Ferts:
API Leaf Zone

Fish:
Tetras - 5 Aphyocharax rathbuni, 3 Paracheirodon axelrodi and 2 Paracheirodon innesi
Also 1 Xiphophorus variatus (there were a pair until recently , will take hime home to be with his siblings)

Now onto the pics.

Old setup.

Picture 011 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

What i returned to after the long vacation.

IMG_8937 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Removal of plants and decor

IMG_8939 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Nothing beats calcified algae and calcium deposits like Ms. Fix-It

IMG_8943 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Poor pic of emptied tank

IMG_8946 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Start of re-scape

IMG_8947 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Top view

IMG_8950 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Re-fill time

IMG_8954 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Top view, finished scaping or replanting really, testing equipment

IMG_8972 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Fishies acclimation, trusty heavy duty dechlorinator and liquid ferts

IMG_8983 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Complete

IMG_8992 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

View from Side

IMG_9001 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Tank - 5 days later

IMG_9004 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

DIY Light fix

IMG_8964 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Light close-up

IMG_8967 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

My office flower, that almost died but a steady diet of aquarium waste water caused this

IMG_8957 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

 

[gt turbo]

Any and all advice is welcomed. I'll also take any RAOK for CO2 equipment and plants. I'll pay postage.

 

[loucas6290]

i think i have the same hood. what light bulbs are you using, and what has your growth been like?

 

[gt turbo]

i think i have the same hood. what light bulbs are you using, and what has your growth been like?

The lights are regular grocery store lights they just have the right/best Kelvin range for plant growth. Plus at 15w with an output equivalent to 75w of an incandescent bulb, if we use the very old and in-accurrate measure of watts per gallon, I'm around 15 wpg.

In actual fact the growth has been pretty good. I had to trim my tank and remove at least a small grocery bag full of Vallisenaria. I had to cut back the Hygrophila quite a bit.

Will post a pic of the tank in 2 weeks. The only other thing i'm going to add is 3 root tabs tomorrow. There's also a tiny piece of Hygrophila Polysperma ‘Rosanervig' in there that i thought was dead but i replanted it anyway and i'm seeing growth. So let's see how it goes.

 

[gt turbo]

Well guys it's been two or so months since the original rescape, which I really didn't like. It was more of a tank with plants in it. Not really a beautiful scape which is what i really wanted.

Sooo, re-rescape was in order.

Additionally, I procured a Seachem Plant Pack: Fundamentals, and have started to dose the tank as per the instructions and I added some Osmocote to the substrate.

I know you guy like pictures so enjoy.

FTS - sorry about the dirty glass.

IMG_9170 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Right Side view

IMG_9173 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Added a few small stems I had at home to fill in between the rock border - Bacopa and hygrophila polysperma.

IMG_9189 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Stem close-up

IMG_9194 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

 

[gt turbo]

Pulled down this tank to move it home (long vacation), so a re-scape was in order. A little bit of collectoritis set in. Used some stems I had here at home and then (the shame starts here) I went to the local plant source and acquired some more plants (*facepalm* I honestly tried to stop myself).

Anyway, true to form onto the pics.

Tank with only cuttings from home

IMG_9618 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

After collectoritis bug

IMG_9644 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Growing out these little guys

IMG_9633 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

 

[thebuddha]

Cool, IMO your re-scapes have been getting progressively better. Nice work
What are those new fishies you have in there? they look real cool!


And I think this tank would look great with a light sand substrate

 

[gt turbo]

So it's been a few weeks since the rescape, so it's time for an update. I was up to my armpits in algae, a result of no cleaning crew. Unfortunately we don't get shrimp here atleast not on purpose any way, and otos are really hard to come by. I didn't want to move over any from my 90g cause I was battling some kind of parasite that was doing a fantastic job of killing off my fish one by one. Finally started to get that tamed. I was only able to purchase 1 oto from the LFS, they had 2 in stock but the other one was in a tank being treated for ich. Not much a clean-up crew so I'm fighting the algae manually for the time being. I'm also trying to convince the LFS to bring in some Amano shrimp to bolster my clean team.

Onto the pics.
FTS

IMG_9713 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Right side

IMG_9720 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Left side

IMG_9731 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_9748 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

My little piggies and you can see the algae in the background (turning red from Seachem Excel direct treatment)

angel closeup by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Comments and questions welcomed.

 

[Jessicafish]

Algea is normally caused by a abundance of nutrients in the water so some fast growing stem plants will normally take care of it... plus maybe cuting back on lighting, just a 1hr or 2hr

I really like how it filled in! I'm digging your driftwood, where'd you get it?

 

[gt turbo]

I fear I've made a mistake with the scape, in that I planted the Hygrophilia polysperma in the mid-ground but it's leaves, now that the plant is getting what I assume are all the nutrients and CO2 it could want, are huge like 2" long. Therefore it takes up some much visual space and obscures the Ludwigia Repens.

Views???

 

[gt turbo]

I just realized that I am the worst poster on TPT. It seemed I have skipped over some responses that had questions and comments. So here goes:

thebuddha -Thank you for your kind words and I am much happier with this scape than others I've done so far. The fish in the tank are 2 month old Angel fish. I've been breeding some outside in my "fish shed". I needed some space to give them room to grow, so I stuck quite a few in there and as you can see in the latest update they've been growing quite well. As for the substrate, the white sand isn't gonna happen. Substrate cost a whole lot here on the island so, when one has 5 planted tanks and 4 fish only tanks, the wife won't be happy with me buying additional substrate just for the look of it, especially since I wanna upgrade/change the lights on the 90g.

Jessicafish - Thanks for the compliment. What I've done is reduce my dosing regime. I'm using an all-in-one dry fert, and I was using close to the maximum amount, so I've dialed it back to half of that and really, the algae looks to be slowing down and dying off. Additionally I've been spot treating with Flourish Excel to kill off the staghorn and hair algae, and the angels have been eating it up. Will continue this regime and see how it works out.

As for the driftwood. The one piece with the Anubias on it was bought from a local general store that carries a few pet supplies. All rest came from Tom Barr via Ms. Jinkzd. I bought a few pieces from her, and she sent me much more than I asked for, so I try to honor her by using the wood to the best of my abilities (such a suck-up, maybe she'll send me some shrimp).

Thanks for you comments, keep em coming.

 

[gt turbo]

So, I had switched over to pressurized CO2 and for some reason it malfunction and started to gas this tank. Luckily, I was on my way to the kitchen to check some turkey in the oven when I noticed all my little angels huddled together gasping at the surface. I immediately took some evasive action. Turned of CO2 and replaced it with 02 and upped my surface agitation to off gas the Co2. Worked well, within 10 - 15 mins everybody was looking quite happy.

Anyway pics.

IMG_9842 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Right side - I think I'm gonna have to pull out the Sagittaria subulata cause it's just getting too tall. Never seen it grow more that 2 - 2 1/2" now I have 6" leaves in my foreground. sigh

IMG_9841 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Left side - I think my Melon sword (Echinodorus Osiris) is suffering due to the lack of light with the stems taking over the surface.

IMG_9840 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Just playing with camera and trying a back-lit shot.

IMG_9832 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

View from the top (right to left)

IMG_9828 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

View fro top (left to right)

IMG_9826 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

FTS -

IMG_9822 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Random shots
Wifie's tank
Went from -
IMG_9036 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

To this (and I've been stealing plants from it, shhhhh:icon_cool)-
IMG_9786 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

I need this shrimp ID please.

IMG_9796 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9798 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9800 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9801 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

And side question for those who know, shrimp don't hold sperm do they?

 

[OVT]

When that sag settles in it will go for the 12" mark.

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2

 

[gt turbo]

When that sag settles in it will go for the 12" mark.

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! That will certainly not do for the front of this tiny 10g. I guess I'll try to replace it with that tiny bit of DHG that i got from my local source. Hmmm , maybe he might be willing to part with some more although it's really hard to come by here.

I guess the key to keeping the sag short is to keep it in low light conditions.

You know it's really funny but this 10g with the DIY CFL lighting has the highest light of the 3 tanks in the house. The 90g is suffering although I'm running 153w (3x33w CFL + 1x54w T8) on it. Anyway, thanks for the heads-up.

 

[flukekiller]

i would say tiger shrimp,, but im no expert

 

[gt turbo]

When that sag settles in it will go for the 12" mark.

via Droid DNA Tapatalk 2

It settled. Had to pull out the two 12" plants.

Did a pretty big trim, gotta take some pics to post.

 

[gt turbo]

Trim Day

Pre-trim

IMG_9844 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Pre-trim from the top

IMG_9845 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Post trim

IMG_9850 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9856 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9852 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9860 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

IMG_9859 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Cuttings

IMG_9848 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Size of container for size comparison

IMG_9849 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

Pic for WKNDracer

IMG_9858 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

 

[kcoscia]

what is the tubing for in the cuttings bucket? is it just how you got the water out form the tank or something else

 

[gt turbo]

what is the tubing for in the cuttings bucket? is it just how you got the water out form the tank or something else

Yes actually, I was using small air tubing to keep the flow coming out and going back into the tank as minimal as possible, so as not to disturb the flora and fauna.

 

[gt turbo]

So, no one told me but when you add a 2 - 3 month old into the picture, this is what happens to your tank.


IMG_9886 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_9888 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_9890 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr

That being the case I had to tear down and restart. So here's the reboot.

Tank Specs -
Size - 10 gallon
Substrate -Aquarium gravel mixed with pure laterite
Lighting - 2 15w spiral cfl bulb with diy foil reflectors
CO2 - DIY (yeast, sugar, water) diffused through air stone and a small powerhead
CO2 drop checker for measuring CO2 levels.

Flora
ludwigia repens
hygrophila polysperma
bacopa caroliniana
Eleocharis acicularis (Dwarf hair grass)
lobelia cardinalis
anubias nana
hydrocotyle
echinodorus ocelot
echinodorus rose
microsorum pteropus 'Windelov'
rotala rotundifolia
alternanthera reineckii

Fauna
Xiphophorus maculatus (panda platies x 3)
Otocinclus affinis (Oto catfish x 2)


IMG_0005 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_0016 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_0011 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_0010 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr


IMG_0008 by Gt Turbo 1883, on Flickr