Planted tank journal (10G Hex)

[MrJG]

low-light journal (10G Hex)

Now that the lighting on this tank has been upgraded its time to start planting some new plants.

I jacked most of this stuff from the "rate my tank" forum just to keep the specs and all here. I really hope this isn't considered cross posting...

Tank info updated on page 5 post #38.

If you'd like to check out the current pics of the tank they are here:
http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/rate-my-tank-freshwater/44754-10g-hex-planted-betta-community.html

If you notice between that post and this one that I've gotten rid of the Zebras and added in more tetras and another rasbora. I finally got around to searching for a semi-local fish store and ended up finding a really nice one about an hour away from my place... snagged the new fish there today and these...

After boiling them for ~1 hour

Possible configuration but haven't really decided how its going to go in yet. Trying to make sure that the shrimp have hiding places and the betta has a cave to sleep in.

They are being soaked in a bucket for the next few days... now its just time to decide what kind of moss/plants need to go back in the tank.
Going to keep everything thats in there already sans the mondo grass.

Look for updates fairly soon...

 

[MrJG]

So woke up sunday morning and to my surprise after soaking all night the bucket was almost completely clear. Decided just to boil them (again) for another hour each with not very much of the tannins coming out during that.

Went through the process of setting them up in different configurations on a table next to the tank. Making sure that each of them would even fit the tank. Is it just me or does something like this literally take hours/days to decide? It took me almost 1.5 hours to just decide on which pieces to take from the store. :-/ After much thought the decision was final and I pulled the old ornament did a quick gravel sweep to pull about a gallon of water out to make room. Added in the driftwood pieces and it barely fit (there are 2 - 1 inch sections that I'm not going to be able to fit a mag float around). I can't believe what a difference in the look of the tank it has made. I'll try to get some pics up this week sometime.

So now its time to plant shop. Already got the wysteria and java fern for the back wall so that takes any larger background kinda plants out of the equation. At this point I'm thinking this...

The way the driftwood sits there is a nice tray that might be perfect for an Anubias Barteri petite. Either java moss, taiwan moss, or Fissidens spontanus for the extending driftwood pieces. Then pulling out the mondo grass and just adding a few marimo balls to sit on the substrate. I think without higher lighting and CO2 that I would be hoping for too much to try glosso or HC right?

Lighting is 1.8wpg on for 7 hours daily, lunar light rest of the time.
Adding 1ml of flourish and excel every other day.
Everything is growing nicely and there is even a fresh growth of wysteria at substrate level (will get a pic of that too) and surprisingly I can actually see growth on the java fern already.

cheers.

 

[VirgoWolf]

Wow, sorry, I can't really answer your questions as I am just getting into planted tanks myself. I just love this tank, this is exactly what I want for my betta or maybe even the Galaxy Rasboras, although I think they would appreciate a longer tank,... anyway, back to the topic at hand...

I love the driftwood pieces you chose, one piece of advice though, make sure all the edges are nice and smooth, betta fins are extreemly delicate and even my Oscars have been shreaded by driftwood. I took the piece out, baked it (to dry it out), took a dremel sander to all the edges and points, rinsed it well, and put it back.

So when do we get pics? LOL I want to show my hubby what I want for Valentines day LOL.

 

[MrJG]

Hehe. I'll get some pics up in the morning I promise.

I forgot to mention that after boiling them the first time I let them dry out fairly well and took some high grit sandpaper to them followed by some low grit to smooth them back out (I usually end up really screwing stuff up with my dremel since its not adjustable speed). Hopefully I got any of the mean jaggies off of them. Either way I hope to have the edges covered with moss as soon as I can get it.

 

[Guysy1110]

Sounds good to me wood looks good aswel

 

[MrJG]

Ok as promised here are a few pics with the driftwood in the tank. I think I'm finally satisfied with the setup and hopefully the tank layout should stay like this for a while unless something hits me.

Full shot from across the room:

Closer:

Little closer:

Left:

Right:

New wysteria growth. I had a previous stalk of wysteria growing here and this just popped up at the bottom so I'm going to let it grow out from there.

Wysteria in the back peeking out. I'm hoping that this grows straight up from this point and then the underlying part will grow legs to make room for the neons to swim underneath.

Tis all for now. Just gotta decide which moss to order and make a decision on either marimo balls for the forground or something else. I'd still love to hear any thoughts on the question of possibly growing low ground covering with my low-light.

Cheers.

 

[Mahamotorworks]

The Driftwood Looks great in the tank. I think the tank looks bigger then 10G. Cant wait to see the plants grow in.

MAHA

 

[Big Vine]

I'm afraid I can't give any suggestions, because I think the choices you've made on your own work really well together so far. Everything looks great!

BV

 

[tropicalfish]

I'm jealous!!
Want to trade tanks??

lol jk

Great looking!

 

[Limi310]

Wow...stunning tank

 

[MrJG]

Thanks you guys it feels good that the tank is finally starting to shape up to the way I was picturing it in my head. It makes it that much better that this is my first try at a planted tank and its turning out so well (granted I know the plants in there are low light/hardy). You haven't gotten to see all the fun plant loss from having the very low light hood. Onward and upward as they say.

Limi310: odd coincidence... the "local" place I found was in Charlotte. Fintastic over off of 485@Tryon St. Man the saltwater section there is awesome (at least to a newb). I could totally see myself attempting a nano reef tank if I could convince my wife... and win the lottery. :O

 

[MrJG]

Little update. Lost a Rasbora yesterday and still not quite sure what happened. Either one of two things happened. The two originals had been nipping and fighting quite a bit so something could have happened there or...
After I found it I immediately tested the water to find that adding the driftwood had dropped the ph down to 7.2! Arghhh. Its been sitting at a constant 7.8-8.0 forever. I'm quite happy that I have a better ph level now but the cost may have been mr. rasbora.
I snagged a kh drop test today just to make sure the swing wasn't from very soft water. Will post the results tomorrow.

 

[MrJG]

So I tested the carbonate hardness in the water...

KH - 8 dgh

So with the buffering capacity being there it must have been the fact that it was such a large amount of driftwood going into the small amount of water that made the PH swing so significant. I'll be testing all water parameters this weekend just to make sure everything has stabalized.

I was looking at some CO2 information and found a few calculators. I decided for giggles to put calculate my tanks CO2 with the current PH and KH levels...
Came out to a little over 15ppm which is way higher than it should be. Upon further reading I found that its more than likely something like phosphates thats doing all the buffering. Guess its time for another test kit.

Either way, all appears well with the tank. The small bunch of wysteria at the front is taking off quite nicely. Made a plant order today and probably will not do another picture update until adding those in. Got 2 anubias barteri petite plants, 2 marimo balls, and a 6x6 inch patch of taiwan moss.

until next time...

 

[Limi310]

Limi310: odd coincidence... the "local" place I found was in Charlotte. Fintastic over off of 485@Tryon St. Man the saltwater section there is awesome (at least to a newb). I could totally see myself attempting a nano reef tank if I could convince my wife... and win the lottery. :O

Cool, where about are you? Fintastic is a great store...they have lots of variety. Some stuff can be a little expensive. You can also try out Frank and Peg's on South Blvd. They have a much smaller fish selection then Fintastic, but they are more 'mom and pop'.

 

[MrJG]

Had to update my profile. I'm in Lancaster about 30 miles south of Charlotte.

I have Frank and Pegs on my list of places to check out but haven't had a chance to make it by there yet.

 

[Jake]

I haven't seen a 10g aquarium look so natural, and unique. Great Job.

 

[MOsborne05]

Your tank looks awesome! Hex tanks are really hard to scape but you did a nice job, I love the driftwood. For foreground plants, about the only thing that will do well in that light is dwarf sag. I've had success with it spreading runners in a 5 gallon hex with 2wpg. It won't grow as fast as it would in higher light of course, but it does grow. Marimo balls are a great choice as well. Also, green hygro is IMO the best fast growing stem plant for low-light plants. Red Ludwigia is also a good choice, and cryptocorynes are good fillers because they don't need much light at all.

 

[MrJG]

Thanks for the heads up MO. I actually had my wife pick up some Ludwiga Repens for me the other day and I planted a ton of it at the front of the tank where the mondo grass used to be. From what I read though it might require more lighting that I can give it esp considering how tightly I packed them in. We'll see I guess. Looks like there were also 4 stems of Ludwiga palustris in with all the bundles.

Hopefully the rest of the plants should show up later this week and I can get everything settled in and leave it alone. Its looking pretty dense already so once the moss and anubias go in its going to be fairly heavily planted with lowlight goodness.

The wysteria continues to recover from the mass pruning a few weeks ago, I think the root system is finally taking hold again so it should explode soon. The java fern is producing new leaflets every other day or so. I might consider strapping one of the plantlets to the driftwood when everything is out of the tank.

I read earlier today that dosing excel with moss is not a good idea and it would kill the moss. I've looked over threads and threads today trying to find any mention of this here, at tpt, and killies.com and can find nothing other than a one line sentence saying that excel will kill moss. Anyone have the lowdown on this?

 

[Smalltank3]

Well, when I dipped my moss in an Excel bath to get rid of algae, it died. However, Lonewolfblue adds excel to his 26g daily and his moss is better than ever. Here, look at the bottom of the first page. He tells what he does in his tank. Show off your Java Moss!.
BTW, can you post some updates

Smalltank

 

[MrJG]

Thanks for the reply smalltank. I think from reading a bit more as long as the excel isn't super concentrated when it comes into contact with the moss it should be ok. Since I'm only doing 1mL every other day I think it will be ok.

I guess a small update could be in order. Not much has happened since my plants grow very slow (low maintenance is the goal). This will be a in between shot just showing the added Ludwiga and the little progress of the wysteria. Still waiting on my moss and other plants.

Wysteria reaching for the most light it can get.

Added 4 Amano shrimp this past week to help with algae and they have almost taken care of everything.

The only other new stuff...

I decided that I didn't like the woodgrain finish on the tank and put black vinyl tape around the top/bottom rim to match the entertainment center.

I have a LFS checking their suppliers to see if they can order some captive bred galaxy rasboras (celestial danios). If they can get them I'm going to trade in the Hets, Neons, and otto for store credit and pick up 12 of those to attempt to breed them.

Cheers

I'm going to be posting asking about phosphates pretty soon. Its looking like I have an issue with mine. Its still spiked > 10ppm even after 2 - 2 gallon water changes. All other parameters are great. PH 7.2, KH 6, NO2 0, NO3 5ppm, NH4 0