New 10g project

[JustOneMore20]

Just wanted to share my new 10g project. I set the tank up on October 10, so its been going a month now.

Tank specs:
10g AGA tank
AGA incandescent hood with 2 20w screw-in compact fluorescent bulbs (*now 55w of compact fluorescent)
ADA Aquasoil Amazonia (2x 3L bags)
Pressurized CO2 diffused by glass diffusor
Cheap Cascade HOB filter with a lovely blue sponge over the intake.
50w Stealth heater

Fish: 9 Celestial Pearl Danios ranging in size from 1/2" to 3/4".
Plants: HC, Baby Tears, Rotala rotundifolia, Ludwigia arcuata, Singapore moss, Pogostemon stellatus, Riccia, Dwarf Hairgrass, Anubias nana 'petite'

Here is a photo of the tank, taken last week (need to take a new one):

The bulbs are 6500K, which I thought would be good, but I don't love the color.....
Also, the blue sponge sticks out like a sore thumb.....I have an older photo where I photoshopped it out......will probably do that on future photos.

Here is a picture taken on 10/17, so you can see the growth.

My camera is crappy, so the pictures aren't very good, but hopefully I can get some better, clearer shots soon.

More pics:

Riccia pearling nicely

(best pic I've gotten of one of the fish)

I have not been ablet to get any good shots of the CPDs because of a number of reasons. They are really shy, so it takes patience to wait for them to come out of the plants to get a pic. I am not patient though. My camera is also not good at all and since the fish are so small, I really need something with better macro abilities (hoping for Christmas!).

I will get some updated pictures soon and post them as well. I will be taking the P. stellatus stems out soon. I realize they are too large for a 10g, but I had them trimmed from my 29g and stuck them in to fill the space.

I hope to add some Red Cherry Shrimp soon and that will be the finally stocking addtion.

Thanks for looking!

 

[An t-iasg]

That looks really nice! I love the pearling on the riccia. I see the craft mesh that you used to attach it. That worked out really well!

The Pogostemon stellatus looks lovely too. I had 4 stems in a 10 gallon tank. I gave them away. They were so beautiful but got way too big for the 10 gallon. At least you still have a bigger tank to enjoy them in! When I get a bigger tank, that's the first plant I'm going to put in it.

The tank is starting out wonderfully! I really like those fish too. Are they fast swimmers/aggressive? From what I've seen of danios (don't have any) they are "zippy" fish!

Post more pics as the tank progresses!

 

[JustOneMore20]

Thanks An t-iasg!

The CPDs are fast swimmers, but I don't believe they are aggressive (never heard this or observed it in my own). They were originally labelled Galaxy Rasboras when they were introduced into the hobby, but were renamed/reclassified. I always notice them swimming in the open when I enter my room and then they dart into the plants. They are pretty skittish fish, but I'm hoping once they grow a bit, they'll be a tad braver. They only get 3/4" to 1" in size and I have several that are 1/2", so still have some growing to do.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Angel.Zero]

looks more like a 20g, awesome job!

 

[An t-iasg]

Thanks, Kristin, for answering my questions about the fish.

I was asking because I want to have a betta in my community tank and maybe these fish will be a little too active for the betta's comfort.

About the plants - is the dwarf hairgrass a fast or slow grower? My sagittaria is borderline too big for my 5 gallon tanks. Is the hairgrass sharp in any way?

I love what you did with the riccia! When it needs a trim, do you just lift out the mesh and trim some of the length/height?

 

[WaterPond]

Beautiful!

Awsome growth too. I hope you have better luck with riccia than i did. Mine grew great for a few months, then it just turned yellow.

I'll be following this.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I've fallen behind with updating this......so here are some pics to catch up.

Had an incident with the Riccia where it floated up, so I netted it to rocks instead of using the plastic mesh. This pic was taken right after I added the new rocks.


Also, I broke one of the bulbs in the hood and since my Walmart hasn't had the 20w daylight screw in bulbs in a while, that was my last one, so I had to put in a 10w bulb for a couple weeks until I could find different lighting.

I had an AH Supply 55w kit lying around that I was going to use for my 20 long, but have since changed my plans on that tank, so my mom and I built an enclosure:

Now I have 55w of light over the tank. Hopefully that will help my HC out, since its been pretty sad. I also ran out of CO2 and took a week to get it filled, so that definitely didn't help the HC out at all. Its been through alot in the past month.

Here is the tank today:

The 7800K bulb looks so much better than the 6500K bulbs did. I love it.

Rotala pearling

New Amanos I added about a week ago

I added some Rotala macrandra 'narrow leaf' that I got today in the back. The plan is to have it in the 10g temporarily until my 40g breeder is setup, but it looks really nice back there so I may just leave it. Also, I moved the dwarf hairgrass to another tank and planted some Blyxa in its place. Its a little beat up looking because it has just been surviving in my 5.5g, but hopefully it will bounce back with the high light and co2 of the 10g.


Well, thanks for looking! I'll be sure to update it sooner next time.

 

[rubysoho]

very cool!!!

 

[An t-iasg]

Yes, very nice! That riccia will grow up around the netting in no time! That's a great picture of the rotala pearling!

 

[Zagz]

Your tank is gorgeous. The plant growth is great and clearly the plants are very healthy!

 

[Glenc]

Wow, that is beautiful! Very, very nice. I just took my ten down, now I want to set it up again

 

[JustOneMore20]

This project has moved to a 20 long as of Friday! link: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?p=844544#post844544