New 10 Gallon Tank..

[Khanna]

Or not so much. I've learned from my mistakes, and this 10 gal is cycling, just waiting. It was the former goldfish tank -shudder-. Anyway, I was thinking of imitating this: http/www.aquascapingworld.com/threads/excel-based-non-co2-low-light-aquascape.5669/ for plants- except on a much smaller scale. Also, I'm thinking 3 cory cats ( in my current 20 gal) and a betta to go with them. Do you have any suggestions for inverts? I'm interested in having snails/shrimp..any pointers?
 
Agh, I'm just waiting for the lighting to get here so I can start ordering plants. It looks so empty..

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Cory's are happier in bigger shoals and I think the minimum is 6.
For snails either nerite or assassin snails.
If you do want a betta then shrimp may not be the best as some bettas will eat the shrimp though it does depend on the betta.
But if you do want some shrimp then some Red Chery Shrimp (RCS) or some Ghost shrimp might be good.
Hope this helps

 

[Khanna]

Thanks Blondie! Do you think having six cories + betta in a ten gallon tank is a good idea?
And I'm thinking three assassin snails.. but I'm worried if that will be a little overstocked.
What do you think?

 

[Noahsfish]

6 Pygmy cories would be fine in a 10g, I wouldn't go for the bigger types like sterbai or emerald though.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

How long is your tank? 
As Cory's are bottom dwellers they like quite a lot of space at the bottom to move around.
But because Cory's are mostly at the bottom you should be fine with the betta with them as they shouldn't bother eachother much hopefully.
As long as you keep on top of your waterchanges you should be fine.
And like Noahsfish said make sure to get the dwarf specie of Cory and the Pygmy's would be best.

 

[Khanna]

20 inches. And they're peppered cories- the biggest  I have is two inches. Thank you both!
Do you have any knowledge of planted tanks? I'm not sure how to start once I get my plants.

 

[Noahsfish]

What type of planted tank? If you mean you've never had a planted tank I would start with easy low light plants like anubias, java fern, java moss, marimo, amazon swords, water wisteria, or maybe some type of crypts. If you're jumping right in to highlight foreground plants you'll need either co2 or seachem flourish excel, some type of enriched substrate, I also like to use root tabs just for a bonus. Those plants will also need higher lighting 2-4 watts per g. My favorite plants are dwarf baby tears, dwarf hair grass, glosso, and hair grass. Also dwarf sag is nice and easy to grow. Good luck I left out a ton of plants you can easily grow, cabomba is also one of my favorites which is easiesh to grow.

 

[Khanna]

 I have play sand as my substrate. As a substitute for root tabs, apparently osmocote plantfood works just as well as root tabs, so I'll try those (and the price is ridiculously low!). Also in my shopping cart is seachem flourish excel.
 
As for plants, I'm using (Cryptocoryne, Balansae), (Java Fern), (Cryptocoryne, Wendtii, Red), (Lobelia Cardenalias), (Anubias, Nana), and (Anubias, Afzelli)
 
Question, if I use 2 15 watt bulbs on a 10 gallon tank, does that mean I have 3 watts per gallon? Also, would these plants work well under that light regime? I'm opting for a low-tech tank.

 

[Noahsfish]

Yes that would be 3w/g. That's a very good amount if light, do you know the spectrum of the light? If you're using lights that came in a. Kit they're probably incandescent, meaning they're the lights most people use to read by, the warm orangish glow. If that's so I would replace them as they don't offer a full spectrum and they heat your tank up. T5s are excellent for all plants. For your plants though you don't really need anything special, 1 watt per gallon is sufficient, 3 watts is better. In my 10g I only have 2 watts but am successfully growing plants like baby tears and glossostigma. Molar sand is fine for plants, but if you're planning on planting the anubias in the ground make sure and keep the rhizome above the surface of the sand. The rhizome is the big part that holds the stems of the leaves. If you don't know what I'm talking about you can just look up an image. For crypts if you're buying from a lfs don't be surprised if all of their leaves fall off. Crypts hate being uprooted so it's normal for them to "melt". If you're ordering them you'll probably receive a jungle of roots. Java fern is also very easy to grow. I suggest since you hav high lighting that you either put the anubias out of the brightest spot, or you flat some plant on the top because anubias gets algae growth n it very easily, that can be scraped off though. Using the liquid "co2" isn't entirely necessary for your plants but if it's an option it would definetly help. Hope I helped if you have any more questions feel free to ask!

*play sand * float

 

[Khanna]

Whooh! Finally got approval to get all the basics! (Plant foot, lights, cover... yeah this is pretty much a new tank)
 
Thank you so much Noah!
I'm ordering off of aquariumplants. And since I know now that I can have dwarf baby tears, I'll invest in some of those too

The tank I want to plant is cycling, so I don't have to drain it to plant, right?
I also allow 3 weeks before for it to grow in so I can clip and add fish. But can I add shrimp right after I plant, or no?
Also, when planting a carpeting plant, do I take apart the plant and spread it? How far apart?
One last question (sorry!). If I add plant food to the sand, and give them seachem excel every week, is that all they need? Or do they need more dosage?
Once again thank you!

 

[Noahsfish]

No, you don't need to drain the aquarium before you plant. It's easier if it's empty, but I've always had mine full with water before planting. If you just started cycling the tank (less than a week) I would wait to plant until at least 3 weeks of cycling are done. You can add shrimp whenever as long as the tank is cycled, they won't bother or be bothered by the plants. If you already have the seachem excel or if you're buying it on the bottle it says how much to dose, and how often. One last tip on planting baby tears, when you buy them they will most likely come in a little pot or on a mesh mat. The ones that come potted are normally much cheaper. Simply take them out of the pot, remove all the wool that's wrapped around the plants, (as much as you can) and then just stick them in the sand. You can just plant the whole thing as one bunch, and it will eventually spread out to make a carpet, for faster results though you can cut the baby tears into 1/4s or 1/8s and plant each section a few inches apart and they'll grow into a carpet faster. Some people even plant each individual one, but I wouldn't suggest trying that unless you have very long tweezers and a lot of time. If any of that was unclear you can probably find it explained more thoroughly and clearly on another website. Happy I could help

 

[Khanna]

Okay, thank you for all your help
And that concludes our questions for the day.