First 10g tank

[abmorissun]

Hi. My 10g is in a nice place right now. It's been cycled since, March? I think. I had diatoms the first month after I placed the Anubias and S. Repens. I'm not really sure why, but I was using tap water for water changes with Seachem Prime. The LFS says we have high phosphates in our tap water and that would explain the "algae." I'm not sure if he just wants to sell RO water, but I bought it. The diatoms dispersed over a few weeks after I switched to RO water, but not before giving my plants some hell. I'm at full capacity also, with 4 guppies and 4 dwarf frogs. The tank sits near a window. I was keeping the blinds closed all the time. The Anubias and S. Repens haven't changed much since I planted them a few months ago. They might be slightly larger. The Pogostemon Stellatus is really taking off near the light, though. I highly recommend Pogo for fry. I have 2 guppy fry that live in it.


Waiting for the tank to fishless cycle was really boring, but fish-keeping is pretty neat. I only ever knew one fish before this and he wasn't exciting at all. These guppies know when I'm near the tank and when I lift the lid, they go nuts. They all come to the top and wag their tails like puppies. Love it. The frogs are more sedate. They do their own thing. They will sit and stare at me, though. I often here the males sing at night, since I sleep near the tank and that's really neat. Not quite like cicadas, more like running a finger across a comb.


I see a 20g in the near future. I'm really curious to see if I can breed the guppies a certain color. Papa looks like a candycorn and the ladies are all white and orange, except Bender who's not-quite-black, sort of deep purple.


Thank you for the advice! This site is a treasure. I'm really glad I fishless cycled, because the tank changed every time I learned more about fish and plants.

 

[Voxon]

That is incredible, I know of a couple of fish that come to the surface of the water to make noise but I have never heard of the frogs coming to the surface, now I want to keep them just to hear it myself. You have a really nice aquascape and the fishless cycle is always worth it, it gives you time to think about what you plan on doing without worrying about harming any of the inhabitants.

Edit:
The Anubias will take its time, I had my 2" anubias in my 7.5 and I just recently got a 29 high, moved it in there and I never noticed how much it grew until I pulled it out it had gone from 2" to around 8" in just about a year or so of growing. Which to me is incredible because it was attached to a fake wood ornament and never really got into the sand it just fed from the water column that I didn't feed either. So I would suggest some patience and eventually you will see some substantial growth if you take care of feeding it. And if not I promise as long as it has water it will grow!