Aquarium overhaul

[Hotshotdevil]

Hello all,

so My dad set up a 10 gallon ornamental fish tank for my brother despite his protests that he wanted me to help him with the project. I had limited experience with planted tanks at the time and a 72 gallon reef tank. unfortunately I was muscled out of the project on the basis that I would take over his tank and he wound up with an overstocked poorly designed aquarium. It currently has 3 serpa, 3 bleeding heart, and 3 emperor tetras as well as a pleco. My brother and I are now in the process of converting it to a planted tank with a central american biotope. we are planning on doing a trio of endlers livebearers and letting them populate the tank. I am going to use flourite black combined with the white gravel I have in the tank already because I am afraid it is too fine for the plants to grow a proper root structure. does anyone else have any experience with this substrate? also what would be a good carpet kind of plant that can tolerate hard water? I was hoping to do amazon frogbit but I think the tank might be too alkaline for it (I am using a buffer to raise the water to a PH of 8.2)?

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[Coursair]

Hello all,

so My dad set up a 10 gallon ornamental fish tank for my brother despite his protests that he wanted me to help him with the project. I had limited experience with planted tanks at the time and a 72 gallon reef tank. unfortunately I was muscled out of the project on the basis that I would take over his tank and he wound up with an overstocked poorly designed aquarium. It currently has 3 serpa, 3 bleeding heart, and 3 emperor tetras as well as a pleco. My brother and I are now in the process of converting it to a planted tank with a central american biotope. we are planning on doing a trio of endlers livebearers and letting them populate the tank. I am going to use flourite black combined with the white gravel I have in the tank already because I am afraid it is too fine for the plants to grow a proper root structure. does anyone else have any experience with this substrate? also what would be a good carpet kind of plant that can tolerate hard water? I was hoping to do amazon frogbit but I think the tank might be too alkaline for it (I am using a buffer to raise the water to a PH of 8.2)?

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Flourite is fine by itself. I use sand in my tanks. Roots grow great. I dislike gravel as the food falls in between and small fish have trouble getting it off the bottom.

Frogbit is not a carpet plant, it is a floater. It's pretty hardy for me, but I don't have hard water. I have driftwood and my tanks runs 7.4 PH ?

I'm happy you are starting over. I have two 10g tanks. Please look at the vid and the pics and let me know if you need help. Links are in my Sig.

I use screw in CFLs for lighting. I use root tabs and Flourish for Ferts.
It's easy to deal with. I grow lots of plants.

Besides Endlers, you could try Cherry Shrimp. They can live with Endlers and love grooming the plants.

You can find a ton of info, here and also TPT ( The Planted Tank ) and APC (Aquatic Plant Central). All 3 forums have Sales areas for plants. TPT and APC are free to join, only members can see sales threads.

 

[Hotshotdevil]

Okay thats great because I thought the gravel would detract from the general appearance of the tank but I didn't want my plant being unable to form a good root structure. I know it is a floater I was hoping to do that in addition a lawn plant. I was thinking about doing glass shrimp but cherry shrimp seem to be much prettier so if I can find them I will go with them

 

[Coursair]

Okay thats great because I thought the gravel would detract from the general appearance of the tank but I didn't want my plant being unable to form a good root structure. I know it is a floater I was hoping to do that in addition a lawn plant. I was thinking about doing glass shrimp but cherry shrimp seem to be much prettier so if I can find them I will go with them

Carpet/Lawn plants are not usually the easiest. Most require High Light and CO2. I avoid both. You can try Dwarf Sag ?

I just pulled a Crypt lucens out of my sand tank.....major long roots

Crypts are easy low light plants...one of my favs.

The easiest are Java Ferns and you just tie those to wood or rocks.

You can always find RCS (Red Cherry Shrimp) for sale on The Planted Tank.

If you look at the Video in my Sig, my floaters are Frogbit and Duckweed. Love my Frogbit. Shrimpz love to ride around on the roots.

 

[Hotshotdevil]

The tanks light isn't too low and I do plan on building a bio-co2 reactor when I finish setting up the tank, my current light is a 15watt 8000K bulb. I was planning on dwarf sag but my girlfriend has it in her tank and I have found it tends to grow in a cone shape. I am trying to stick with central american plants as much as possible but I am flexiable. how about creeping ludwigia or Straight vallisneria?

Carpet/Lawn plants are not usually the easiest. Most require High Light and CO2. I avoid both. You can try Dwarf Sag ?

I just pulled a Crypt lucens out of my sand tank.....major long roots

Crypts are easy low light plants...one of my favs.

The easiest are Java Ferns and you just tie those to wood or rocks.

You can always find RCS (Red Cherry Shrimp) for sale on The Planted Tank.

If you look at the Video in my Sig, my floaters are Frogbit and Duckweed. Love my Frogbit. Shrimpz love to ride around on the roots.

 

[Bottomfeeder88]

Central american, what comes to mind is cabomba, vals, myrio, swords, all which dont fit into a 10 g.
you might be able to pull off riccia "carpet", root-like driftwood, sand topped substrate. spiral vals maybe smaller crypts.

 

[emerald76]

Central american, what comes to mind is cabomba, vals, myrio, swords, all which dont fit into a 10 g.
you might be able to pull off riccia "carpet", root-like driftwood, sand topped substrate. spiral vals maybe smaller crypts.

Actually my cabomba did very very well in my ten until I went on vacation left the lights off and came home to a dead plant and pond snail infestation

 

[Atxpunx]

How about staurogyne repens for the background and Pygmy chain sword for the foreground? Maybe some stem plants further back. I never worked with staurogyne repens but the stats seem to work for what your looking for.