Getting started

[straick]

Thanks. I'll still be doing daily checks on the water parameters though. Don't want anything to go wrong after all this tortorous patience.
Shut the filter off for a little while to feed him(thinking of calling him either Barry or Bob), and noticed that the anacharis is sending of a fairly large number of almost microscopic bubbles. Guess that the plants are happy too.

 

[Deckape]

Awesome. I like Barry. Like Barry Gibb from the BeeGees. Disco ain't gone! Hope you the best anstay in touch. I want your help whenever I try plants...

 

[straick]

I'll be staying in touch.
I took the advice of the LFS on the plants. They gave me a little tour, and I must say that I'm more than a little impressed. All their fish coming in get quarantined there, and they have several planted tanks as well.
I will say this, it is more peacefull here already. Probably going to get some glofish tetras this next weekend as long as all the water parameters stay where they should(0 ammonia and nitrite, and keep an eye on the nitrate, but the plants will also help with that).

 

[Deckape]

You found a great store. Good luck

 

[mommytron]

congrats on your betta!! can't wait to set my betta tank up.

are you getting glofish, or glowlight tetras? glowlight tetras are larger than a neon tetra and twice as active (mine anyway). I would not personally put them in a 10g (id say 20g minimum). I would look for a smaller tetra (like an ember) or a micro rasbora (like a chili)

 

[straick]

Glowlight tetra is what I'm looking at.
Did notice something today though. Anytime I touch the gravel for anything, I get a bunch of white specks floating around the tank for a while(noticed it when I was putting a fake piece of driftwood in).
My other concern is that I won't have enough CO2 for the plants right now with only a betta in the tank.

 

[straick]

Here's my tank as it now sits.

And here's two of Barry.

I do have to admit, he isn't too cooperative at me taking his picture. Spent an hour to get those two of him. Funny part was when I took the one of the tank, he turned and looked straight at the camera to see what I was up to.

 

[Deckape]

Nice job and nice name too

 

[straick]

The anachris isn't doing so well. Went through tonight, and had to remove most of it because it was dying. I'm hoping I can save the tops that are still nice and green.

 

[mommytron]

what kind of light do you have? are you dosing excel? (flourish excel will kill vals, and as i learned today, anacharis as well) anacharis should be fine in any low-light situation (provided there is no excel )

 

[straick]

The only things I put in the water are Start Right(chlorine/chloramine neutralizer) and a syringe that I use only to pull water for during water tests. For lighting, I'm running a CoraLife F15T8 10000k flourescent lamp running on a choke ballast. I also have a thread about this in the planted tank area.

 

[straick]

I hope that the sprigs that were still a bright green make it. Just happy I have a lot of lead strips(cast my own stuff for fishing, and I had just made a batch of strips to weight hooks). It looks a it depressing right now with only a bunch of sprigs of anachris. At least the crypt and Barry seem to be doing well. The anachris has quite a few new leaves around the bottom.

 

[straick]

The anachris didn't make it. Still trying to figure out why. Had to take the rest of it out to prevent it from fouling the water.
One thing I am thinking is that maybe the 15 watt flourescent I have right now isn't enough, and I want more lamp selection and availability, so I'm going to be custom ballasting a 16 inch 36 watt compact flourescent.
The other thing I'm thinking is that it was a lack of nutrients, so I'm also trying Flourish.
Barry does seem to be missing his anachris. He made a habit of napping in it.

 

[maxwellag]

That is way overstocked. Only like 1 or 2 cories would fit. The betta can be agressiive and the tetras there r too many. That is way too small of a tank.

 

[straick]

Right now there is only Barry in there. Planning on 5 glowlight tetras and 5 or 6 pygmy cories.

 

[James_in_MN]

The anachris didn't make it. Still trying to figure out why. Had to take the rest of it out to prevent it from fouling the water.
One thing I am thinking is that maybe the 15 watt flourescent I have right now isn't enough, and I want more lamp selection and availability, so I'm going to be custom ballasting a 16 inch 36 watt compact flourescent.

I know that people have suggested that anacharis is a low light plant, but I've also had problems with it dying off in a low tech setup. I've gone through two waves of dead anacharis - one nuclear melt, and one where I got them out before disaster struck.

I suggest sticking with java ferns, java moss, crypt, and anubias plants in a low light setting.

 

[straick]

I'm going to be building a custom light setup. Planning on a 36 watt compact flourescent with a custom setup for a magnetic ballast. That way I will have plenty of light for the anachris and the crypt.
Trust me, if I could be around the electronic ballasts long term, I would use one, but I can't.

 

[straick]

Fixture is almost done now. Just waiting for the PVC coating on the lamp support clip to fully cure to finish assembling. Running the lamp off of a 40 watt magnetic preheat ballast and a FS4 starter. The ballast and starter are getting mounted remote of the fixture to keep them away from moisture and to save space in the fixture. The reflector is a stainless steel one that was originally an incandescent setup, but the switch and lamp sockets were both junk, so I saved the reflector. Mounted a socket for the lamp in one end, and am running a 4 wire cable out the back and down to the ballast/starter assembly. I'll post some pics of the setup after it's all completed and hooked up.

 

[allaboutfish]

when will you be adding the pygmys and glowlights?

 

[straick]

The pygmy cories won't be for a few weeks yet, and the glowlight tetras will be coming home once I can get some more live plants growing well. I want them to be able to have someplace to be able to hide if they feel threatened or scared. Just hoping that my biggest problems were nutrient and lighting when I first got the live plants. Added some Flourish, and the crypt wendtii is growing like mad right now.