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Hi everyone, I recently got back into the hobby after doing some house cleaning, finding all my old stuff, and getting the itch to try my hand at it again.
As a kid(~12) I started my first tank (20 Long) with basic fish like guppies, swordtails, corys, and a couple other fish. It slowly evolved over the course of 6 years and by year 5 it was a heavily planted with all the fish being born and raised in the tank. It seemed to be it's own ecosystem that just needed to be topped off every week, I fed it every few days just to be sure the fish got food. It met it's unfortunate end when I went to college and too much water evaporated for the filter to function. I dabbled in SW too, but failed miserably because I didn't want to go big and the 10 Gallon tank I used was too small/unequipped for me to keep it stable.
A couple years ago I wanted to try making an aquaponics system for cheap. I made a frame to sit over a 10 gallon tank and hold a planting bed made out of a storage container, pvc, and Hydrocoton. It worked to an extent but ultimately failed because of a less than optimal design and too small of a bioload. I was successful in growing an amazing basil plant, the other herbs struggled and the growing bed was overtaken by mold.
I recently dug up that 10 gallon tank and started messing with some ideas, I built a couple of internal sump prototypes like you see on fluval tanks. I decided on one and got to work.
As it stands now the tank is almost two months old, it has a simple scape and a simple stocking. It's also is having a battle with thread algae and staghorn/Clado. I've been successful in slowing down algae growth and am going in for the kill in the following weeks. Still trying to find the sweetspot in my dosing regiment(CO2, Nilocg Thrive, SeaChem Root Tabs, Excel, and lighting)
Plants:
Ludwigia Repens
S. Repens
Dwarf Hairgrass
Inhabitants:
2x Amano Shrimp
Endless amounts of "pest" snails
Hardscape:
Dragon Stone
Eco complete substrade
BDBS
Equipment:
Filter media: Various sponges, Poly-fil, Hydrocoton.
Adjustable 160gph MAX pump(On lowest setting)
Semi-Submersible adjustabe heater
"Custom" CO2 injection using a mini keg regulator and 16g CO2 cartridges
NICrew SkyLED Plus
Anyway here's the reason anyone looks at a thread:
Day 1: No CO2 yet, freshly planted
Day 22: Added ecocomplete to try and raise ammonia for the cycle
Day 44:
Day 57: Today, it's WC and a trim day. This is beforehand, going to do it later along with an H2O2 spot treatment and some trimming on the Ludwigia
The S. Repens has been giving me some trouble after trying to propigate it but most of the mother plant is doing well and some of the smaller clippings are making a comeback.
As a kid(~12) I started my first tank (20 Long) with basic fish like guppies, swordtails, corys, and a couple other fish. It slowly evolved over the course of 6 years and by year 5 it was a heavily planted with all the fish being born and raised in the tank. It seemed to be it's own ecosystem that just needed to be topped off every week, I fed it every few days just to be sure the fish got food. It met it's unfortunate end when I went to college and too much water evaporated for the filter to function. I dabbled in SW too, but failed miserably because I didn't want to go big and the 10 Gallon tank I used was too small/unequipped for me to keep it stable.
A couple years ago I wanted to try making an aquaponics system for cheap. I made a frame to sit over a 10 gallon tank and hold a planting bed made out of a storage container, pvc, and Hydrocoton. It worked to an extent but ultimately failed because of a less than optimal design and too small of a bioload. I was successful in growing an amazing basil plant, the other herbs struggled and the growing bed was overtaken by mold.
I recently dug up that 10 gallon tank and started messing with some ideas, I built a couple of internal sump prototypes like you see on fluval tanks. I decided on one and got to work.
As it stands now the tank is almost two months old, it has a simple scape and a simple stocking. It's also is having a battle with thread algae and staghorn/Clado. I've been successful in slowing down algae growth and am going in for the kill in the following weeks. Still trying to find the sweetspot in my dosing regiment(CO2, Nilocg Thrive, SeaChem Root Tabs, Excel, and lighting)
Plants:
Ludwigia Repens
S. Repens
Dwarf Hairgrass
Inhabitants:
2x Amano Shrimp
Endless amounts of "pest" snails
Hardscape:
Dragon Stone
Eco complete substrade
BDBS
Equipment:
Filter media: Various sponges, Poly-fil, Hydrocoton.
Adjustable 160gph MAX pump(On lowest setting)
Semi-Submersible adjustabe heater
"Custom" CO2 injection using a mini keg regulator and 16g CO2 cartridges
NICrew SkyLED Plus
Anyway here's the reason anyone looks at a thread:
Day 1: No CO2 yet, freshly planted

Day 22: Added ecocomplete to try and raise ammonia for the cycle

Day 44:

Day 57: Today, it's WC and a trim day. This is beforehand, going to do it later along with an H2O2 spot treatment and some trimming on the Ludwigia

The S. Repens has been giving me some trouble after trying to propigate it but most of the mother plant is doing well and some of the smaller clippings are making a comeback.