My First Planted tank Is Coming Together..

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
G

GhostShrimpMan

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 18, 2010
2,395
2
68
Brownsville, Texas
Hello guys and gals!

Here is my 10g planted tank. Not sure if it is considered high or low tech.

DSC_0725.JPG

The stats are as follows:

2x 13 watt compact fluorescent bulbs

12-15 lbs. of CaribSea FloraMax

4 Aponogetons, seem to be crispus?

1 Anubias

1 bunch of what was sold to me as giant hairgrass

Not sure what the plant to the left is called, not really liking how it looks in this setup though.

7 guppies, female and her offspring. Will probably replace with neons..

4ish baby cherry barbs, might leave them there

Some snails :irked:

One otocinclus, plan to get him a buddy/s

Hopefully some RCS in the future...

Phew, what do you guys think? Should I re-arrange the plants? I am open to suggestions as this is my first planted tank.
I do want to do a carpet of something though. I was thinking of dwarf sag but I don't know if that will work in the current set-up. If dwarf sag is not an option as a carpet what do you suggest?

All comments welcome! :D
 
looks good!!!!!
 
I agree with JamesF.

I had an aponogeton in my 40 breeder and within two weeks it tangled itself into all of my plants. Also if I were you, you might want to try to shade the Anubias. The light won't kill it, but you will likely be getting algae on the plant and will need to remove it on a regular basis.

It may sound strange, but in my ten gallon planted tank (by planted I mean insane amounts of Najas grass) I had about 20 guppies, 1 3" catfish, 2 2" catfish and some ricefish. I water change that tank every two weeks, and the amount of plants keeps the nitrates low, but the amount of fish was necessary to support the plants without having to add anything else. So in the future, unless you are using CO2 or dosing, you might want to add a lot of fish to keep up with plant growth.

Nice tank!
 
Looks great to me. I don't know ***** about plants! The plants look very healthy to me, did you get those locally???

mark
 
JamesF said:
Those aponogetons are going to grow WAY too large for a 10 gallon. One will fill a 75 easily.
Dwarf sag may work as a foreground. If it grows well it will make a better background plant as they can reach 24".
Dwarf hairgrass is another option for the foreground.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they sure have grown fast. Need to find somewhere to put them as the cichlids in the 55 will just tear them up. Will look into dwarf hairgrass.

Industrial said:
I agree with JamesF.

I had an aponogeton in my 40 breeder and within two weeks it tangled itself into all of my plants. Also if I were you, you might want to try to shade the Anubias. The light won't kill it, but you will likely be getting algae on the plant and will need to remove it on a regular basis.

It may sound strange, but in my ten gallon planted tank (by planted I mean insane amounts of Najas grass) I had about 20 guppies, 1 3" catfish, 2 2" catfish and some ricefish. I water change that tank every two weeks, and the amount of plants keeps the nitrates low, but the amount of fish was necessary to support the plants without having to add anything else. So in the future, unless you are using CO2 or dosing, you might want to add a lot of fish to keep up with plant growth.

Nice tank!
Click to expand...
I'm already having problems with algae on the anubias so I'll take your advice and put it closer to the aponogetons for now. And I'll probably overstock on rcs a bit to keep the plants healthy if I don't get any co2.

JamesF said:
Is the plant you don't care for the stem plant on the far left? If so, separate and plant the individual stems instead of planting them clumped together. It also looks like it has been grown emmersed. Once it switches its leaf form, it should look much better.
Click to expand...
I'll try that out for sure, I think you're right as some leaves are sticking out of the tank and they look quite nice.
spirofucci said:
Looks great to me. I don't know ***** about plants! The plants look very healthy to me, did you get those locally???

mark
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yes, I got everything from petsmart. The anubias came from the cylindrical bottles, the aponogetons came from the seed packs, and the giant hairgrass came from one of the tanks. The substrate I was also able to acquire from there.

Not a bad selection really, will probably need to get my foreground plant online though.
 
Looking good. If you want to do a foreground plant and not have CO2, Dwarf Hair Grass looks good:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom