My 10 Gallon Triops Tank. It Will Be Planted Soon!

[JustLikeAPill]

Here are some pics of my 10 gallon triops tank. I'll plant as soon as the plants get here.

My question is, how long will it take the water to become crystal-clear? I washed the playsand like 5 times untill the water was clear, but I guess it was just clear while in the bucket. Will the water clear once bacteria colonizes the free-floating silt particles?


What do you guys think? I was going to put a dwarf anubias on the big tall rock and some weeping moss in the crevices. Any other plants? What about 2 or 3 banana plants? If I can convince my parent's maybe I can get a few Neon Tetras and a Betta.

 

[lljdma06]

What's the wattage of the light in your tank?

I also suggest that you read the pinned topics in this section to give you a better idea of what is needed to have a successful planted tank.

That being said, your rocks are very nice.

llj

 

[JustLikeAPill]

About 40 watts, so 4 WPG. It looks darker than it really is because of the cloudy water.

I'm no newbie to aquaria. I used to have a 75 gallon reef tank and i've kept various FW tanks all my life. I know that it takes a couple days for reef sand to settle down but i've never used playsand before. Should I turn off the filter, or put some cloth like around the intake of the whisper 10 to try and strain out some of the particles? I washed the sand for about an hour over and over. I probably had about 5 inches of sand or so in the bucket. I stopped washing when the sand fell within 5 or 10 second after being hit with the hose stream.

I'm kind of worried. Should I just switch the sand to something else?