First Planted Tank! 10 Gallon

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok, so I wanted to do a few live plants just to test. So I set up a 10 gallon and got some dwarf sag, water sprite, and corkscrew val. Unfortunately there was a delay in the post office as well as a Sub delivering on Saturday that didn't deliver the plants to me so I couldn't pick them up until Monday morning at the post office. Anyway, my dwarf sag are thriving after only about 3 weeks. Creating babies(out of 12 plants there are at least 7 babies!). The water sprite was almost dead, and I only have a few small plantlets surviving and growing. The corkscrew val melted some but then seemed to be coming back, but now they seem to be rotting or something, not sure. But the roots were nasty and rotting on those as well so I think that was the problem.
 
So, instead of ebay this time, I went to plantedquariumscentral to get all but one of my plants, the other I'm bidding on on aquabid. Here is my plant list(trying for heavy planting), that I bought!
 
Aquabid plant
   12 amazon frogbit(probably will only put 5 in this tank and maybe put the rest in my 20 gallon tetra tank, already put some dwarf sag in there to see how it would do) IF I win this auction!
 
plantedaquariumscentral plants
 
3 bunches of Moneywort(supposed to be 5+ stems per bunch)
2 water sprite plants (3-4 leaves approximately 10 inches tall)
2 Java fern (5 or more leaves appx 5-6 inches tall)
1 Lace Java fern Windelov (5 or more leaves 7 inches tall)
9 corkscrew vals (12" tall)
1 pygmy chain sword narrow leaf(potted, will cover a 3 inch x 3 inch area)
1 anubias barteri var. nana (1 rooted plant with 5 or more leaves)
3 italian vals (averaging 16" tall, but this is to see how well it does in my 20 gallon, not my 10! lol)
 
I figured I'd have the dwarf sag and the pygmy chain sword as foreground plants that are around the anubias nana, kinda seperated by it. I know the "carpet" sort of look will take a bit to fill in, but hope it will look good. If I don't have enough room for all of the moneywort, I figured I can put some of that into my 20 gallon as well(and yes, I want to plant that heavily too but one tank at a time! lol). As for the other plants? I'll just have to see. I'll probably have at least one corner in Moneywort, maybe with one of the java ferns in it or something...The corkscrew val may be in the corner with the filter intake as long as they won't stick to it. I'll have to be creative with the rest of it I suppose, lol. I know I'll have fun with it!
 
Would you consider this tank to be heavily planted once I get all these in? I think all these should ship on Saturday or maybe on Monday, so once I get the aquascaping done on it I will take pics. I have gravel substrate and will at least be putting some small pieces of malaysian driftwood in(ordered 2 mediums plus an aquascaping kit from drs foster and smith but I don't know if they'll get here before the plants!). So I may have to play around a bit if I like the medium size driftwood that comes in better.
 
I did have some stocking questions though....I would like a male only guppy tank. How many could I put in there? I would also like to try some shrimp to take care of the algae as well, never had shrimp before. How many would be ok in a 10 gallon? I was going to try ghost shrimp first if I could get them at Petsmart(same place to get guppies at more than likely), just to see how well shrimp do. But other than that I like the orange shrimp and yellow shrimp that I could buy online. Also, should I only start with a couple guppies at a time or add quite a few? (I was thinking a total of maybe 6-8 guppies but if you think I could do more that'd be cool, like I said, all males though! Or if it's less then I understand that too!)
 
So, this will be the start of my new, and first!, 10 gallon planted tank!!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok, this will probably be a few posts on my progress. I have taken a bunch of pictures but just haven't posted my progress yet and now I've got some time!
 
So, first post will be of the plants I got from plantedaquariumscentral! Awesome order, received quite a few extras as well!
 
 
My entire order after I got them out of the newspaper and one pot.

 
 
Corkscrew Val(I think! Thicker than the stuff I got off of ebay)-maybe 13 plants, Moneywort-4 bunches, and pygmy chain sword narrow leaf-1 pot. There is also supposed to be some Italian Val(4 plants) in here but I may have set that in a bucket to plant in my 20 gallon first!

 
 
 
3 Bunches of Watersprite! Awesome plants

 
 
Java Fern, Windelov Java Fern, Anubias Nana

 
 
Tons of plants to play with! I had a lot of fun, though the moneywort didn't want to stay in! Some of it still doesn't, oh well! And I also was able to cheat on attaching the java ferns and the anubias nana as my driftwood had some natural slots I just stuck them in!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok, here's part of my 10 gallon process! First try with the aquascaping that is. I rearranged it after this a bit.
 
 
Had to float them all for a day since I didn't have time to do anything other than unwrap them and clean them up a bit when I got them.

 
 
Here is my very first actual try at aquascaping my 10 gallon!!

 
 
 
One closeup of one side of 10 gal. You can see I put some vals in the back here(though at the moment you can't see any of them, including in the 20 gal, since the leaves all melted! But I am starting to see new leaves poking through so that's awesome!)

 

[DrRob]

Looking nice. Shrimp will love it in there, if you get one of the cherry subtypes then you can start with enough for a breeding colony for genetic diversity (or a berried female or two) and they'll fill the space rapidly. I started with about 10 cherries, but have swapped a few out for diversity with other keepers, and now have, quite literally, countless shrimp in my 20 gallon.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

A few more on my 10 gallon process and my finished work!!
 
Another closeup of 10 gallon that wouldn't fit in last post!

 
 
 
10 gallon FINISHED!!! (Minus the frogbit! Lol) Ok, so I didn't quite like the look of the windelov fern, it was a bit too tall for this tank so I pulled it out of my 10 and put it in my 20. I also spread the moneywort out more and tried to break apart the pygmy chain sword but I couldn't quite get it out more. Sorry the picture isn't of great quality on this one, not sure why.

 
 
Frogbit pictures! Out of tank and in tank. Nice little plants from a guy on aquabid. I split these up between both tanks so hopefully they will grow nicely in each! Love the lilypad affect and the roots hanging down!

 
 

 
 
 
 
And that is the progress on my 10 gallon. Hopefully everything will grow nicely. I'll try to update the progress on it every now and then to show the growth. Love plants now! And one more post to show progress on my 20 gallon! Love it too. Lol. My tetras seem happier. Sadly I lost one of my glow lights the other day(now I have four of them), due to what I believe was swim bladder disorder. I tried to fast the fish but he only made it a couple of days and the bloat didn't get better

I think he was just too stressed out by not being able to swim good. Once the tank settles a bit I'll try to add a couple more for them, I know they should be at least 6 per school though they do have 8 black neons to hang with if they want! Anyway, other than that I am very happy with the progress!
 
 
Also, I do plan on getting 2 or 3 guppies to add to my 10 gallon today if Petsmart has some decent ones! Can't wait for that!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Ok, just an added thing, but here is the progress on my 20 gallon! From when I very first started it with glofish danios, to switching to the glow light and black neon tetras, to now a not quite done planted tank! I do want to add more plants to this though, maybe the smaller amazon sword, can't remember the name(starts with a k I think though....). And I may add more water sprite to this one as well. I did put most of the corkscrew vals in here as well as all of the italian vals. I put about half of the moneywort and 3 bigger stems of the water sprite! As well as adding the windelov java fern to this tank as well. Much better and I hope it will get a bit taller!
 
 
20 gallon started for danios. Nice little setup for brightly colored fish. This is also the setup when I got Spots, my female bristlenose Pleco. I did end up eventually switching this setup around for the tetras I got later. And did more switching trying to get it more natural. Spots misses her castle! She absolutely loves that thing. If I still have her whenever I got a nice big 75 gallon like I want, that's going to be going back in just for her!!! Lol.

 
 
20 gallon picture for a more natural look for tetras

 
 
20 gallon look to add plants too! It's a bit cloudy due to rearranging stuff. I do have some dwarf sag in here that I had gotten from my 10 gallon to see if it will grow in it. The rest of the plants are still plastic at this time.

 
 
 
Almost finished 20 gallon! I wish I would have taken a picture though before the vals melted, but I forgot. Those are going to be all along the back wall when they grow back in! But this is an almost finished tank now. I'll probably add more watersprite and maybe an amazon sword or something someplace. I'll have to figure it out but I do like the new layout. Spots sort of likes the new pleco caves I gave her but not as much as her castle! She hated the rock thing in the other picture so I got these for her instead.The windelov java fern is also hiding behind the moneywort but I like it better in this tank than the 10!

 
 
Anyway, I think this is it for the time being!! Can't wait to go shopping to see if I can get a few guppies for the 10. I'm hoping for two but if they have another one that I like well I'll get 3. Won't go more than that just yet though! Wish me luck! I do hope I have good success for all of these plants!

 
Thanks DrRob! I don't know how many shrimp I can add to my 10 gallon, but I was thinking maybe the orange or yellow shrimp. Any shrimp I'll have to order online someplace eventually as the only thing at petsmart is the ghost shrimp. I'd like this to be a male guppy/shrimp tank.

 

[jag51186]

Those frogbit are awesome!! Mine didn't have any roots when I got them, but I just setup my twenty gallon long and put some in there, and the roots hang down almost to the substrate!!....My substrate is probably too thick though, but still...They get so long!!

Things are looking great though!! The twenty is looking awesome, and if you ever decide to switch the blue gravel for something more natural, your fish will really pop!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Thanks jag! I love how I love the plants now. Lol. And I was thinking the same on the blue gravel...but that may be a while yet. Budgeting issues and such lol. I did end up getting four guppies for the ten. I'll try to post pics of them soon. Got a few when they were in the bag still but they aren't great ones. May try my regular digital camera instead of my phone too. But the names are Flame, TC(short for the cobra), Bluey, and Pirate lol. They are so awesome!!

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Well, unfortunately Flame didn't make it. Not sure why. Came home from work yesterday morning and turned lights on and found him on the filter intake already gone. day before that he had lost a tiny bit of color and was maybe just a tiny bit less active than before but no other symptoms than that. Guess he'll be going back to pet smart tomorrow. Oh well. The other three guys seem to be doing good though and my tank seems stable. Plants seem to be doing good too. I will still try to get better pics of the other guppies soon though!

 

[jag51186]

That sucks, sorry for your loss! It could just be the stress of it all. Are all your water parameters ok??

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Water parameters seem good. PH(for some strange reason) is 7.5. (Out of tap, and 20gal tank is 8.2.) Ammonia was 0.25 or close to it. The color was in between first and 2nd color(api master test kit). Nitrite remains 0. Nitrate hasn't gone higher than 30. Though I am trying a small experiment by not using the plant food to see if that will help as well as water changes. Or at least maybe not dosing every week. I did also take a sample in to pet smart when I returned the fish. They said everything was good. I got another guy now which makes 4 again. He's a nice fish. Another cobra(pale yellow) with what I thought was a black tail but it's almost iridescent. He moves too fast to get a good pic. Same with the rest! I think his name is going to be Moody....his tail likes to fade and get darker on just a whim.

Anyway, back to the water....can plants soften the water? I haven't been using any water conditioner at all. I'll post my two tanks to show you what I mean. If I remember I can retest tomorrow. 10 gallon was on the 5th and 20 gallon was on the 6th. (One thing I did in my 20 wa adding zeolite to help with the ammonia. I removed this when I put plants in on the 30th of April.)

10gal. 20gal
PH. 7.5. 8.2
Am. 0.25. 0.10-0.15
Ni. 0. O
Na. 10-30. 30
Kh. 8. 13
GH. 10. 6

Water comes from the same source, well water. I have no idea why the pH, kh, and GH would be so different! Any ideas?

Oh, temp in both tanks is 77f. 10gal has aquaclear20 filter with sponge, carbon(just going to use as more filter media. Won't change it,) and their biological media. 20 gal has marineland biowheel150 and I use filter pad and just added national geographic biological media.

 

[jag51186]

Got nothing lol, hopefully someone else can chime in. As far as the water softening...plants won't do it as far as I know, but driftwood can...But it is usually fairly minimal.

I honestly never worried too much about the ammonia registering at that level on my master kit. If it read somewhere between zero and 0.25, I just looked to my fish to tell me what they needed...mine tend to flash if the ammonia hits the actual 0.25 then I would do a water change.

What plant food are you using again?? I use seachem's flourish, and I only dose it after a water change, so once a week.

 

[cowgirluntamed]

I'm using the Aqueon Aquarium Plant Food. I do have the driftwood, which I only soaked it for a few hours before putting it in. Just Malaysian driftwood. My 20 gallon had the huge piece of mopani and it never touched the pH or hardness of the water. I'm not home right now but I'll try to post the results from my tap water I did a month or two ago if I can remember when I get home! It's different from the tanks too!