My attempt at Aquascaping

[Thever]

This tank began its life on october 22nd. Its a simple 10 gallon w/ modified glass top(plastic hinge removed so its just 2 panes of glass) Aquaclear 20 HOB, 50watt submersible heater, and eco-complete substrate.

 

[Thever]

On Nov. 16, I received some Riccia from a forum member - this pic shows after 'planting' it.

 

[Thever]

My first inhabitants hitched a ride with the riccia, snails. There were also some other species of plants that were tangled in the riccia, so I pulled them out and tried to get them to grow too. About a week later I purchased an oto and he seemed to get right to work.

On a side note - my lighting consists of a coralife 28 watt fixture w/ 6700k bulb, customized w/ an additional 20 watt cfl.

 

[Thever]

I ordered some dry ferts to help supplement things as I believe I'm approaching high lighting.

I thought I would give the snails and oto some company so I bought a Red Claw Shrimp, as he looked pretty cool, and was told they like hair algae - which I'm struggling with. Within 2 minutes of introduction to the tank, he 1)Ate a ramshorn snail, and 2)had a small tussle w/ oto as he wanted to check out the new(apparently ornary) tankmate. Needless to say - after some research - he went back.

I now have 2 algae eating shrimp, and 1 RCS, probably will get some more to start some breeding. 1 Algae eating shrimp and red disappeared - I found them hanging out in my HOB - they took a ride up the pipe and survived the impeller! Alive and well- and seem to have molted to fix the damaged parts.

And this is what the tank looks like today.

 

[Thever]

My question is...am I going to need to start doing co2? I dont think I have any to speak of. I measured ph last night at the end of the light cycle and it was 8.8.

 

[runninwoof]

i think ur scape looks great!! with 48 watts over ur 10g, i think you have the choice on whether u want co2. your plants will like it and it will improve growth, but more $$, i would say do DIY co2 and see how you like that, then if you enjoy it move to a pressurized system. it would take down your ph a few points, which is nice for plants and inhabatants

 

[Thever]

Thanks! I have not much of a clue what I'm doing and thanks to the great advice found here and elsewhere, I've hacked together something to look at. I've got some Pogostemon Helferi coming tomm. so I'm trying to figure what to do with it.

I wast sure if my low co2 is causing some of my algae issues, ive read so many different things that cause it, so its tough to figure what direction to pursue.

 

[Jnam]

Looks AWESOME!!! keep it up. Another option for carbon introduction would be excell. It will help clear the algae issue right up. It may not go with your scape but some stem plants to soak up the extra nutients may also help. You dont have to keep em just use them to help fight the algea

 

[Zagz]

It looks really great right now. I wouls start with dosing flourish excel as Jnam suggests and see how the plants do for starters.

 

[brutus]

we will nickname you Amano jr looks good.

 

[Thever]

I forgot to mention that I am dosing Excel, just not sure if its enough. 5ml after pwc and 1 ml every day . I got another RCS tonight. A male I think...so hopefully the 2 will....ya know...get together!

Thanks for you comments so far, I just hope I dont have the dreaded crash that you read about on occasion.

 

[Thever]

Today I started a DIY CO2 system. KISS principal in use big time. I will have to work on a Bell diffuser of some sort in the near future. Is there a rule of thumb as to how large the container should be?

My idea is to mount a container with a low profile of some sort to the underside of my glass top which would it out front of the discharge of my filter for water flow past the CO2.

I have to laugh because I have no idea if these hairbrained ideas will work, and I get these ideas like Im a pro or somethin.

 

[Jnam]

That works great i used the bottom of a gatorade bottle. With that small internal filter you have you may try feeding the CO2 directly into its intake using an airstone (the cheap replacable ones work best for me the acid produced by co2 eats up the stone so fast its best to replace every few months). The impellar chops up the bubbles even more. Plus its more astheticly pleasing than having a gatorade bottle in you tank... The problem i found with the bell is water flow is key. Without it the area around the bell becomes super saturated but the water aven a few inches away from it shows very low co2 levels.

 

[Jnam]

Scratch that internal filter comment just re read the post and you have an HOB. I use a 5 gallon submerisable water filter to disperse the co2 as microbubbles works great with my DIY set up. Ill find the post i had before and give you a link for it.

 

[Jnam]

Tiny super efficient CO2 reactor - Page 2 - DIY Aquarium Projects - Aquatic Plant Central

This is what i use and i love it. Works great on both the 10 gallon and the 29 and the 55 LOL...
costs like 10$ for everything.

 

[Thever]

Hmm, that could be the ticket. Right now my co2 is slowly dumping into my intake. Its about 5 minutes between shots, not a big fan of that so I may look into one of those.

On a side note, the Helferi arrived today, so that is now planted, I think I have all the plants I need for now. Now its wait and see what I can keep alive. I noticed when planting the helferi, a tweezers would be the cats....so I think I need to get one of those asap.

 

[runninwoof]

i did diy co2 for my 10g with 43 watts over it. it was fun, and my plants enjoyed it, but i hated having to refill the bottle with sugar and yeast. i had my co2 output hose into my hob filter, well not in it but right beside it so it would suck up the bubbles. i had about 1 bubble every 2 seconds. i wonder what 2 or 3 bottles of co2 hooked up together would give u!?

 

[Jnam]

A lot of your CO2 will gas off when ran through your HOB. Its kinda like shaking a soda as the water tumbles into your tank the turbulence gassses of the co2 into the atmosphere. The DIY method i mentioned allows the gasses to stay suspended in the water longer.

 

[Thever]

I agree, I dumped it in there so at least some of it would get into the water, I'll probably go see if I can hunt one of those hydor's down tomm.

Muhahahah! Things seem to be working as the riccia is pearling! There was no pearling last night, and very little since I started- Although the stuff closer to the surface(read ON the surface-pearls readily)

 

[jrp1588]

wow! I love the riccia carpet man. Glad to see my plants going to good use. haha. I may even do that myself. What exactly is the mesh you used to hold it down?