Put a post in the Introductions portion of the forum and a couple of posters suggested I start a journal so if you've already read my introduction thread you might want to skip this post. Otherwise, read at your own risk.
Been away from the hobby for about 15 years after having worked my way through a 10 gallon freshwater starter to a 29 show brackish to a 29 show marine reef.
My son gave me a 10 gallon tank and some associated hardware when he up-sized his tank to a 40 gallon.
So, I'm starting off with:
Hardware
10 gallon acrylic tank
Marineland Penguin 100 Box Filter
Air Pump and Stone
Unidentified Submersible Heater
Substrate
1/4" river gravel
Hardscape
3 ceramic "sunken pots" with molded in fake marine animals & freshwater plants (kitschy, huh?)
Background
Mostly dark marine reef style background (yup, more kitsch)
After a bit of reading and research, I decide on the following stocking list:
Animals (in order of intended introduction)
3 Platys - 2F, 1M for a brightly colored (yellow or orange) schooling fish
3 Corydoras Hastatus - active, interesting scavengers
3-5 Cherry Shrimp - red or yellow, colorful exotic cleanup crew
1-2 Nerite Snails - algae control in a non-reproducing snail
1 Dwarf Gourami - show fish to offset size and activity of platys, blue to balance colors
1 tobedetermined algae eating fish
I've never done live plants before. Tried it a couple of times and killed them pretty effectively but that was pre-Internet. Never thought to get their roots out of those little black plastic cages and we certainly weren't adding phosphate and carbon to the water to help the plants grow. However, the same son who gave me the tank had gotten into plants for a while and had some success. I've always liked trying to create as complete a biosphere as possible with my tank so after watching a few YouTube videos and reading about the improvements in freshwater planted tanks, I decided to "go natural".
Plants (in order of intended introduction)
Anachris - background height
Moss Ball - foreground shrimp motel
Dwarf Hairgrass - foreground and cover for platy fry, shrimp and shrimplets
Anubias Nana - focal point and shaded cover for gourami
I'm pretty old-school so I'd never heard of cycling a tank by adding ammonia before fish. The way I learned it was to treat the water with Amquel and Novaqua and start the filter and pump. I would throw a bit of flake food and some bacteria into the tank after the filter had been running for about a week then wait for the water to clear and test for NH3, NO3 and NO2. Check ph and slowly build up the quantity of animals.
Started this tank the same way I always have except because the substrate and filter had already been used (filter has a bio-wheel) I didn't bother to purchase any bacteria additive. I also ran the water through a Brita pitcher to remove chlorine, chlorine by-products and metals.
After the filter had been running for a week, I went to my LFS to get a test kit. They were out so I waited another week. This time I went back with a water sample to let them test. Water tested 0's across the board with 7.6 ph. I mentioned my planned stocking list to the person who ran the water tests for me. His response was that I should buy everything right then. Sounded a bit overly aggressive to me but now that I've read about the modern start up method I get why he suggested it.
I stuck with what I knew and picked up 3 Mickey Mouse Platys (love the bands of color and the variance in the mouse marks), a bunch of Anachris and a Moss Ball.
Get everyone back to my office at the school where I teach (that's where I've set up the aquarium). Float the bag of Platys and start arranging the Anachris pushing it down into the gravel. The LFS stocks were low and it was pretty beat up but I didn't have a lot of confidence that I could successfully grow live plants anyway. The Moss Ball looked very healthy. Anachris is now in place so I remove the rubber band from the bag the Platys are in and turn it on it's side so the aquarium water can start to mix with the water from the store. After about 5 min, I pull the bag and dadgummit I gots me an aquarium again with fish and everthin!
Pick up some filtering media, food and a new Fluval 100W heater (the one I inherited with the tank was stuck in the heat cycle, didn't want to make fish stew) at the local big box pet store. Won't buy animals there but LFS supplies are about 150% of the price compared to big box. As I'm walking the isles I see a really nice looking piece of ceramic "drift wood". I know I want to create some variance in level for the Anubias Nana. I also find some Dwarf Hairgrass in plastic packaging guaranteed to be snail and parasite free. Take about 10% of the water out of the tank. Watched a YouTube tutorial about how to plant Dwarf Hairgrass. Grabbed some tweezers and went to town.
I intentionally overfed the tank the first week after putting in the Platys to build up my bacteria colonies and fertilize the plants.
End of Wk 1 9/1/13:
ph 7.6 stable
NH3 0.25 okay
NO2 0 excellent
NO3 0 excellent
Everything looks to be going to plan, fish have good color, are active and have ravenous appetites. I'm feeding vegetable/algae based flakes 2x/day and frozen bloodworms 1x/day. Tank is mostly clean in less than a minute. As I said, I'm intentionally overfeeding a bit. Anachris are putting out new growth. Moss ball look a bit larger. Dwarf grass only planted an hour or so earlier.
Only problem is, once the fish calm down and lose their shyness, I inspect a bit more closely and LFS sold me 3 females. Call them up. They say no problem. Bring 1 back and they'll swap for a male.
This was not the plan. I wanted to add some shrimps but removing a fish and adding a new one (even same species) is going to introduce stress into the tank. Not in my happy place.
I've decided to hold off on the Corys. The ones I see in the LFS are not the "playful, active" animals I keep reading about. They just lay around on the bottom of the tank displaying the same personality as a Plecostomus.
I scoop out the least active of the females (her tail fin looked a bit chewed when I got her and it didn't seem to be healing quickly) which I figured was the most inferior of the bunch and off to the LFS I go.
It's Labor Day weekend and the store is having a 25% off sale on freshwater plants and animals. I don't need any plants right now but they sell Cherry Shrimp for $8.99 ea and none of the other four shops in the area carry them. Carefully select my male Platy and make certain that's the fish that ends up in the bag. I also pick out 3 Cherry Shrimp trying to find one that has a straight tail segment and no sign of a saddle (that's how I read to sex Cherry Shrimp, yes/no? LFS is useless in attempting to sex the shrimp) so I have 1M and 2F. I end up with 2 yellow and 1 red. I'm really hoping one of the yellow is a male.
Acclimatize and introduce the male Platy and shrimps to the tank. Everyone seems to be okay except for a bit of excessive curiosity toward the shrimp on the part of the Platys. Shrimp have plenty of cover and find it quickly enough that I'm not worried.
Three days later that piece of fake driftwood and the Anubias are calling to me. I decide to put em in the tank. The male Platy was a bit frantic when he first went in but has now settled nicely. I keep spying the shrimp first thing in the morning. The red has already molted. Tank seems to be doing well so I'm guessing a plant and some hardscape shouldn't stress it too much.
comparable picture of tank changes from Wk1 to Wk2 coming
End of Wk 2 9/6/13:
ph 7.6 stable
NH3 0 excellent
NO2 0 excellent
NO3 0 excellent
The addition of the "driftwood" and Anubias overcrowd the tank with hardscape. Also, as I continue to read and learn I come across the aquascaping of Takashi Amano. Never really liked the "sunken pots" or the background. Too busy and too mariney (I know, not a word). I want the natural look now that I've seen it.
Do some more reading and learn about CO2 (okay I already knew about CO2 but I didn't know it needed to be added to an aquarium to keep the plants healthy). Also, read about micronutrients. My son had some leftover micronutrients from his planted tank days which he sold me at a very reasonable price ($1). I ordered some Flourish Excel (not ready for pressurized tanks of CO2), a piece of real driftwood (to naturally lower ph, I'd like to get down to 7.2 or 7.4), a GH/KH test kit and a livebearer nursery.
Been away from the hobby for about 15 years after having worked my way through a 10 gallon freshwater starter to a 29 show brackish to a 29 show marine reef.
My son gave me a 10 gallon tank and some associated hardware when he up-sized his tank to a 40 gallon.
So, I'm starting off with:
Hardware
10 gallon acrylic tank
Marineland Penguin 100 Box Filter
Air Pump and Stone
Unidentified Submersible Heater
Substrate
1/4" river gravel
Hardscape
3 ceramic "sunken pots" with molded in fake marine animals & freshwater plants (kitschy, huh?)
Background
Mostly dark marine reef style background (yup, more kitsch)
After a bit of reading and research, I decide on the following stocking list:
Animals (in order of intended introduction)
3 Platys - 2F, 1M for a brightly colored (yellow or orange) schooling fish
3 Corydoras Hastatus - active, interesting scavengers
3-5 Cherry Shrimp - red or yellow, colorful exotic cleanup crew
1-2 Nerite Snails - algae control in a non-reproducing snail
1 Dwarf Gourami - show fish to offset size and activity of platys, blue to balance colors
1 tobedetermined algae eating fish
I've never done live plants before. Tried it a couple of times and killed them pretty effectively but that was pre-Internet. Never thought to get their roots out of those little black plastic cages and we certainly weren't adding phosphate and carbon to the water to help the plants grow. However, the same son who gave me the tank had gotten into plants for a while and had some success. I've always liked trying to create as complete a biosphere as possible with my tank so after watching a few YouTube videos and reading about the improvements in freshwater planted tanks, I decided to "go natural".
Plants (in order of intended introduction)
Anachris - background height
Moss Ball - foreground shrimp motel
Dwarf Hairgrass - foreground and cover for platy fry, shrimp and shrimplets
Anubias Nana - focal point and shaded cover for gourami
I'm pretty old-school so I'd never heard of cycling a tank by adding ammonia before fish. The way I learned it was to treat the water with Amquel and Novaqua and start the filter and pump. I would throw a bit of flake food and some bacteria into the tank after the filter had been running for about a week then wait for the water to clear and test for NH3, NO3 and NO2. Check ph and slowly build up the quantity of animals.
Started this tank the same way I always have except because the substrate and filter had already been used (filter has a bio-wheel) I didn't bother to purchase any bacteria additive. I also ran the water through a Brita pitcher to remove chlorine, chlorine by-products and metals.
After the filter had been running for a week, I went to my LFS to get a test kit. They were out so I waited another week. This time I went back with a water sample to let them test. Water tested 0's across the board with 7.6 ph. I mentioned my planned stocking list to the person who ran the water tests for me. His response was that I should buy everything right then. Sounded a bit overly aggressive to me but now that I've read about the modern start up method I get why he suggested it.
I stuck with what I knew and picked up 3 Mickey Mouse Platys (love the bands of color and the variance in the mouse marks), a bunch of Anachris and a Moss Ball.
Get everyone back to my office at the school where I teach (that's where I've set up the aquarium). Float the bag of Platys and start arranging the Anachris pushing it down into the gravel. The LFS stocks were low and it was pretty beat up but I didn't have a lot of confidence that I could successfully grow live plants anyway. The Moss Ball looked very healthy. Anachris is now in place so I remove the rubber band from the bag the Platys are in and turn it on it's side so the aquarium water can start to mix with the water from the store. After about 5 min, I pull the bag and dadgummit I gots me an aquarium again with fish and everthin!
Pick up some filtering media, food and a new Fluval 100W heater (the one I inherited with the tank was stuck in the heat cycle, didn't want to make fish stew) at the local big box pet store. Won't buy animals there but LFS supplies are about 150% of the price compared to big box. As I'm walking the isles I see a really nice looking piece of ceramic "drift wood". I know I want to create some variance in level for the Anubias Nana. I also find some Dwarf Hairgrass in plastic packaging guaranteed to be snail and parasite free. Take about 10% of the water out of the tank. Watched a YouTube tutorial about how to plant Dwarf Hairgrass. Grabbed some tweezers and went to town.
I intentionally overfed the tank the first week after putting in the Platys to build up my bacteria colonies and fertilize the plants.
End of Wk 1 9/1/13:
ph 7.6 stable
NH3 0.25 okay
NO2 0 excellent
NO3 0 excellent
Everything looks to be going to plan, fish have good color, are active and have ravenous appetites. I'm feeding vegetable/algae based flakes 2x/day and frozen bloodworms 1x/day. Tank is mostly clean in less than a minute. As I said, I'm intentionally overfeeding a bit. Anachris are putting out new growth. Moss ball look a bit larger. Dwarf grass only planted an hour or so earlier.
Only problem is, once the fish calm down and lose their shyness, I inspect a bit more closely and LFS sold me 3 females. Call them up. They say no problem. Bring 1 back and they'll swap for a male.
This was not the plan. I wanted to add some shrimps but removing a fish and adding a new one (even same species) is going to introduce stress into the tank. Not in my happy place.
I've decided to hold off on the Corys. The ones I see in the LFS are not the "playful, active" animals I keep reading about. They just lay around on the bottom of the tank displaying the same personality as a Plecostomus.
I scoop out the least active of the females (her tail fin looked a bit chewed when I got her and it didn't seem to be healing quickly) which I figured was the most inferior of the bunch and off to the LFS I go.
It's Labor Day weekend and the store is having a 25% off sale on freshwater plants and animals. I don't need any plants right now but they sell Cherry Shrimp for $8.99 ea and none of the other four shops in the area carry them. Carefully select my male Platy and make certain that's the fish that ends up in the bag. I also pick out 3 Cherry Shrimp trying to find one that has a straight tail segment and no sign of a saddle (that's how I read to sex Cherry Shrimp, yes/no? LFS is useless in attempting to sex the shrimp) so I have 1M and 2F. I end up with 2 yellow and 1 red. I'm really hoping one of the yellow is a male.
Acclimatize and introduce the male Platy and shrimps to the tank. Everyone seems to be okay except for a bit of excessive curiosity toward the shrimp on the part of the Platys. Shrimp have plenty of cover and find it quickly enough that I'm not worried.
Three days later that piece of fake driftwood and the Anubias are calling to me. I decide to put em in the tank. The male Platy was a bit frantic when he first went in but has now settled nicely. I keep spying the shrimp first thing in the morning. The red has already molted. Tank seems to be doing well so I'm guessing a plant and some hardscape shouldn't stress it too much.
comparable picture of tank changes from Wk1 to Wk2 coming
End of Wk 2 9/6/13:
ph 7.6 stable
NH3 0 excellent
NO2 0 excellent
NO3 0 excellent
The addition of the "driftwood" and Anubias overcrowd the tank with hardscape. Also, as I continue to read and learn I come across the aquascaping of Takashi Amano. Never really liked the "sunken pots" or the background. Too busy and too mariney (I know, not a word). I want the natural look now that I've seen it.
Do some more reading and learn about CO2 (okay I already knew about CO2 but I didn't know it needed to be added to an aquarium to keep the plants healthy). Also, read about micronutrients. My son had some leftover micronutrients from his planted tank days which he sold me at a very reasonable price ($1). I ordered some Flourish Excel (not ready for pressurized tanks of CO2), a piece of real driftwood (to naturally lower ph, I'd like to get down to 7.2 or 7.4), a GH/KH test kit and a livebearer nursery.
