Starting a 7.5g cube!

[RevLine]

It's been a while since I've started a new tank. Now since I'm pretty settled-in after the move I found a perfect spot for my cube on the end of a breakfast bar.

Substrate is inert sand, lighting is a solar flare LED 12" lamp with 10k daylights. Planning to use seachem flourish and excel since I don't want to use CO2 gas.

Keeping things nano:
1 scarlet badis
1 sparkling gourami
4 horned nerites
5-6 celestial danios
10 dwarf shrimp (deciding a color)
1 bamboo shrimp (maybe ?)

What plants can you guys recommend?

I like to keep the plant diversity minimal. Maybe up to 5 species of plants. Dwarf baby tears (Hemianthus callitrichoides) will be a staple by the way!

 

[Thrills22]

Hey RevLine

I really like your stocking list in particular the scarlett badis. I was thinking of keeping a trio but heard they can be difficult to feed and perhaps not ideal for my setup. Are you going to boil the air out of the wood or just weight it down?

Really looking forward to this build!

 

[RevLine]

Hey RevLine

I really like your stocking list in particular the scarlett badis. I was thinking of keeping a trio but heard they can be difficult to feed and perhaps not ideal for my setup. Are you going to boil the air out of the wood or just weight it down?

Really looking forward to this build!

Hey Thrills, I personally love scarlet badis myself. In the past I tried keeping 2 in a five gallon but I always found them constantly picking at each other. They need a good amount of space each, like a square foot for each of them. Maybe having more will split aggression but I'd recommend a tank bigger tank at that point.

And it's awesome because I never fed them directly. They just found microorganisms in every nook and cranny and they're fun to watch hunt. I just made sure my tank was a little more mature to grow enough of whatever they eat.

The wood as you can see is weighed down by rocks. I'm a big fan of impatience and turbo cycling kits. My ammonia was 4ppm yesterday and 0 today. 0 nitrites and maybe <5 nitrate reading. Not sure if I should trust those readings or whatever this new product I'm trying actually works. My water just got cloudy today. May do another water change later.

I have 2 horned nerites in it right now that were transferred from my old tank. Decided on red Sakura shrimp getting later and more plants coming up.

 

[RevLine]

Day 6

Current livestock:
- 9 Sakura Reds (2 didn't make it..)
- 6 Celestial Danios
- 2 Scarlet Badis
- 1 Sparkling Gourami
- 4 Horned Nerites

Planning a small school of 5-6 Kubotai Rasboras once the LFS gets shipment.


Plants:
- Anubias nana petite
- Dwarf baby tears
- S. Repens
- Some green/red leafed stem plant in the back. I forget, scarlet temple? Wendtii? I dunno it's not talenthera. It's melted but now there's new growth at the tops of the stems :]

This morning's readings using the API drop kits:
Ammonia .25
Nitrite .25

Ammonia was .5ppm and nitrites at .25ppm at 10pm last night and I haven't changed the water yet at this time from last night.


Anyone can give me pointers on how often I should dose Excel and Flourish? My tank is pretty small so I don't know how much I should fill the caps or how frequently during the week.