10g Aquascaping!

[Fishingforfish]

I know there are a lot of people who have bigger tanks (30,40,50+) that are beautiful in regards of aquascaping. I see less of smaller tanks, so it's a little harder for me to vision how I would want my tank to look like, 10g.

I bought a Aqueon 10g starter kit (I know, I know!) which have 2 15w bulbs. I don't know whether this is extremely low lighting or not, haha. I am completely new to the world of planted tanks, so please bare with me!

Do any of you guys have smaller planted tanks (10g or less)? If you do, it would help if you could show a picture and state the plants used. I'm not the best at imagination, so this would greatly help me!
Thanks to all

 

[Khuligirl93]

Here's my 10g planted! I only have one 15w, and I'm growing a bunch of different things so I bet you'll have great luck! I used flora max for substrate (just to cover all my bases because I didn't know what type of plants I wanted ahead if time), I got 1 piece of driftwood from petco and have 2 pieces tied together that I found in a stream (arranging them and getting them to stay where I wanted was easier said than done). And I have 2 stacked pieces of limestone rock from my yard (so far no effect on pH), and some strategically broken pieces of pots.
Oh! Also I guess it's important to mention that I have a pressurized co2 paintball canister setup.

My plants are: amazon swords (would not suggest), water wisteria, ludwigia- repens?, dwarf sag, and anubias.

 

[azmodan]

Here's my lowtech 10g (recently trimmed!):

Current plants are hygrophila corymbosa kompakt, hygrophilia angustifolia (willow hygro), hygrophilia pinnatifida, hemianthus micranthemoides ("regular" baby tears), crypt tropica, dwarf sag, crypt parva, downoi, and some flame moss. The downoi is kinda an experiment to see how it will do.

 

[Fishingforfish]

Here's my 10g planted! I only have one 15w, and I'm growing a bunch of different things so I bet you'll have great luck! I used flora max for substrate (just to cover all my bases because I didn't know what type of plants I wanted ahead if time), I got 1 piece of driftwood from petco and have 2 pieces tied together that I found in a stream (arranging them and getting them to stay where I wanted was easier said than done). And I have 2 stacked pieces of limestone rock from my yard (so far no effect on pH), and some strategically broken pieces of pots.
Oh! Also I guess it's important to mention that I have a pressurized co2 paintball canister setup.

My plants are: amazon swords (would not suggest), water wisteria, ludwigia- repens?, dwarf sag, and anubias.

Woah! I thought I would have really low lighting haha. Sorry if this sounds like a smack in the forehead, but what is co2, and is it necessary?

 

[Fishingforfish]

Here's my lowtech 10g (recently trimmed!):

Current plants are hygrophila corymbosa kompakt, hygrophilia angustifolia (willow hygro), hygrophilia pinnatifida, hemianthus micranthemoides ("regular" baby tears), crypt tropica, dwarf sag, crypt parva, downoi, and some flame moss. The downoi is kinda an experiment to see how it will do.

Looks nice! What are the watts of your bulbs? ;O

 

[Khuligirl93]

Woah! I thought I would have really low lighting haha. Sorry if this sounds like a smack in the forehead, but what is co2, and is it necessary?

CO2 is carbon dioxide. Plants just need some form of carbon to perform photosynthesis and grow. There is carbon in the water that they can use, but with addition of carbon dioxide (a gas) or liquid carbon, most plants have much better growth. Rivercats is the expert, she could probably explain it much better

About the lighting- i think it also depends on what kind of bulb you have. Mine is a full spectrum florescent.

 

[Fishingforfish]

CO2 is carbon dioxide. Plants just need some form of carbon to perform photosynthesis and grow. There is carbon in the water that they can use, but with addition of carbon dioxide (a gas) or liquid carbon, most plants have much better growth. Rivercats is the expert, she could probably explain it much better

About the lighting- i think it also depends on what kind of bulb you have. Mine is a full spectrum florescent.

Oh dear! It turns out I have the ever so horrid incandescent bulb! ): crap. I want to get a florescent bulb, but I don't know what to do with the hood because I don't know if a florescent bulb is going to fit in -___- any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Oohitsae]

You can get compact flourescents (the spiral bulbs) just look for something in the 5,000-8,000k range. On CFL's it tends to be hard to find the kelvin rating, but most have it somewhere. I use them on my 10's and 2.5's and they work just fine, even give me high light in my 2.5's. and they "should" screw right into your hood. If not, I know for a fact that Home Depot and menard's sell "mini spiral CFL's" and Walmart should have CFL's in the fish section that are perfect for plants

My 10's are bare bottom at the moment, just a few pieces of driftwood, a couple pleco caves, java moss tied to the wood, and a ton of floating stems that I throw out of my main tanks during trim days, so not really worth any pictures

 

[Fishingforfish]

You can get compact flourescents (the spiral bulbs) just look for something in the 5,000-8,000k range. On CFL's it tends to be hard to find the kelvin rating, but most have it somewhere. I use them on my 10's and 2.5's and they work just fine, even give me high light in my 2.5's. and they "should" screw right into your hood. If not, I know for a fact that Home Depot and menard's sell "mini spiral CFL's" and Walmart should have CFL's in the fish section that are perfect for plants

My 10's are bare bottom at the moment, just a few pieces of driftwood, a couple pleco caves, java moss tied to the wood, and a ton of floating stems that I throw out of my main tanks during trim days, so not really worth any pictures

So I was looking through Home Depots mobile site for florescent bulbs, and I came across this;
http://m.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart-9-Watt-40W-Daylight-CFL-Light-Bulb-2-Pack-E-ES5M809250K/100687007/

Is this okay? I see it has only 2 left instock at my local HD. I'm not sure what range specifically you were talking about, but the color temperature is 5000k, watt equivalence is 40w, and wattage is 9. It also comes in packs of 2, so it seems perfect, though I don't know if it's suitable.

 

[Rivercats]

Here's a site with a ton of small tanks for you to look at....

Your Tanks - Browsing

 

[Fishingforfish]

Here's a site with a ton of small tanks for you to look at....

Your Tanks - Browsing

Omg thank you soo much!