Just planted my ten gallon!

[fishguy619]

Have always wanted a planted tank and finally had the time to convert my 10 gallon. Super stoked about it, u think it came out great, what do you guys think?
Stock:
5 neon tetras
2 Siamese algae eaters
2 bolivian rams
1 cory cat
And a few ghost shrimp

I know this is way over stocked. I'm planing on converting my 30 gallon into a planted tank sometime this week. I'm gonna move the stock from my ten into the 30. Gonna add five tetras and 2 Cory's. I'm gonna use my ten as a grow out tank for my plants. I'll probably keep a betta in there.


I'm

 

[Kittykat364]

What is your lighting? It doesn't look very high, but sometimes the camera just doesn't show lighting well. Also, the red plants will need higher light than most to stay red.

 

[fishguy619]

I use zoo-med bulbs, not sure which ones exactly they were but one of them just went out. Gonna go pick up another pair today. Any suggestions?
My tank is right in front if a window, thought it couldn't hurt to get some sunlight in the mix

 

[Rivercats]

It looks like you have Ludwigia repens. It will only get and keep red tops on the leaves if there is high enough light. They also do best if CO2 or liquid carbon is used and ferts. You could use liquid carbon daily and start with using Seachem Flourish Comprehensive 1 or 2 times weekly and see how they do.

Sunlight can cause algae issue and water temp swings. If you begin to notice algae growth in the tank you may want to add a background to the tank to cut the amount of natural light that enters the tank.

 

[fishguy619]

Yupp, it's ludwigia. I also have some Anubis tied down on some of the rocks and some micro sword. I'm using seachem flourite substrate, and this stuff called leaf zone. It's been up for about 2 days and I'm already seeing a bunch of growth in the ludwigia.
Is that liquid cO2 pretty easy to use?

 

[Rivercats]

You can get a gallon of Metricide 14 Day Solution for about $20 online. It's double the strength of Excel so you would use 1/2 ml Metricide for every 2 gallons of water daily (unless you have delicate shrimp) every morning before lights come on. It's quite simple.

 

[Kittykat364]

I'm a relative newbie at this whole planted thing (and aquariums in general) so you should go with Rivercats's advice