[sunkyokim]

So I guess I got bit hard by the “aquascaping bug” so while I’m waiting the gear for my 50 gallon to arrive, I got antsy and decided to get a small 10 gallon and scape it in the interim. This time around I loaded up on ADA power sand + ADA substrate additives and I’m using RO water with seachem equilibrium to keep my TDS down from the start. I picked up a twinstar 450E to see what all the fuss is about. For filter media I’m now using seachem matrix and purigen and taking some filter media from my well established 5 gallon to kick start the cycle. Didn’t want to wait for my stand and background plants so I started scaping the tank and am treating it like a dry start until Thursday when the rest of my gear arrives. Your feedback is greatly appreciated

ADA power

Added some ADA Bottom Plus, Clear Super, Bacter 100, and Tourmaline to the Power Sand...

It looks like ice cream toppings haha:

I then added a thin layer of ADA Amazonia Aquasoil ver. 2, and sprinkled ADA root tabs before adding the rest of the mound of soil:

then came the hardscape. Not really a fan of hardscaping a 10 gallon because it lacks real estate LOL! This is the best I could do but still wasn’t ecstatic so I ordered a bundle of root accents which I will add to the spider wood when they arrive on Thursday:

Added a foreground layer of ADA Colorado sand:

And planted all the tissue culture plants I received today. Hemianthus Callitrichoides ‘Cuba’ in the sliver of foreground and some staurogyne repens, Alternanthera Reineckii ‘mini’, and some hydrocortisone tripartita in the midground. I didn’t want to fill it with water yet until the rest of my plants and gear arrive so I sprayed the plants generously with water and sealed the top of the tank with saran wrap as if I was doing the dry start method. Will add more plants on thursday :

would love to hear your feedback and suggestions on what to add next. Thanks for tuning in! I’ll see you all Thursday for part 2!

 

[evil8]

Love the hardscape!