planted 10 gallon journy

[aquatic-Bizkut]

thanks for your help still, my tank is heavily planted already, with 12 plants that are mostly pretty big sized..... and they are in a little 10 gallon tank, so i will let these grow for now, i also bought 10 more lbs of the same gravel, so i will just pour it in tomorow morning

its just im wondering how the people with huge heavily planted tanks that take up the whole thing avoid the heater..... how do they do that

i also have other threads for emergencys and such and im also gonna do a bunch of water changes daily.... as another platty might have a sick sick problem...

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

sorry for yet another thread, im a little thread thrasher

well i took some picks becuase i cant sleep so here is some visuals of the 10 gallon planted tank........
(all are shots of the algea)
please tell me how i can cure this algea, the grass (thick) had a little brown to start, but now it has spread, what can i do to solve this, get some otos?? snails, any kind of chemical???

i am putting some dwarf puffers in here, so not a whole lot will work with them so spread your advice please...

 

[jollysue]

Well, get well little platty; stay strong.

I think I would consider waiting to get more fish stock until the tanks are fully stable and then only add a few at a time (every three weeks or more max until the tank is fully stable) so the tank can adjust. Perhaps that is what you are doing. It's just that as long as your stock have a high loss rate and the water doesn't test consistently good, new fish just further stress the tank. Losing even 1 out of 10 new fish is a high ratio to me if you have a good lfs.

Of course I'm just a novice.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

hahahah yes but...

that is my little puffer, and i hope to put her in the 10 gallon tomorow

but one problem, bio spira??? i got it and i have heard that you put your fish in right after you add the bio-spira

or is it you wait a night

or a week, i have heard all of these things.....



what is the right one!!??

 

[jollysue]

Cute fish

I don't know. I'm not familiar with bio spira. Are there instructions with it?

How much salt and what kind is used for medicinal in fresh water. It is on sale, and I'm making an order and I'm not sure which (reef salt or ocean salt) to get?

Sorry I don't always get notified of a post. Didn't get it this time.

 

[modernhamlet]

With BioSpira, you should stock pretty much immediately after adding it. And one addendum... I think it's best to add the BioSpira directly into the filter. That's where you want it to end up anyway.

Good luck with your tanks!

 

[zig]

The algae looks like it could be a diatom bloom which is normal on new setups, how many watts did you add in the end? is it 40 watts on a 10 gallon?

If it is 40 watts then you have 4 watts per gallon, so its quite a bit of light, you will probably have to consider co2, diy co2 would be ok, just check through the threads here, id probably add a few more fast growing stem plants in there as well in the beginning to try and outcompete any algae, with the amount of light you have that could be an issue sooner than you would like, fast growers would include Moneywort, Wisteria, Red Ludwigia, Egeria and Water Sprite, any of these will do the job and should be widely available.

If you dont want to go with co2 then i would reduce the light to around 20 watts or you will have problems with algae on an ongoing basis.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

wow thanks for all the info, so if i dont want CO2 i have to reduce my lights!?? well can all those (including microsword grass) grow in 2 wpg???

and i will do the biospira today

but if i have to reduce my light to 2 WPG i could just trade hoods with my 20 gallon and i could have my 20 be my puffer tank and my 10 be my community.....



but CO2 is pretty confuzing and i dotn want to blow up my tank so i would buy a kit and i can get one at my work for around 32$ but i dont want to get into that just yet......

 

[zig]

Well with 4 watts per gallon and no co2 i can almost guarentee that you will have problems with algae, so either add co2 or reduce the lighting, i would say the microsword will struggle at the reduced lighting level, but you never know until you try it may do ok, but i suppose the microsword struggling is better than a tank full of algae, so i suppose its a pretty decent trade off, you can always add the other light later if you decide on co2.

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

well i have talked to a bunch of different people and posted this on different threads, the most answers i have recieved points to this

since the tank is a 10 gallon it requires more light for the plants (doesnt make sense to me either ) so it is actually about at 2 WPG right now....

and my grass does fine, but plants are kind of suffering.... here are some updated picks i added more gravel, put in substrate tablets.... and replanted the plants withought weights.....

^^ that is a little bulb i bought at walmart.....look at him grow!!!

look how cloudy the water is... is it ok if i put in a chemical liquid to make it clear... i have water purifier, but im not sure if it will damage the plants...

look how much algea my plant has aquired..... should i just chuck it??

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

update, check out my tank, i didnt use my tripod, becuase im late for work, so check out my shaky flicks!!

before:

after:

before:

after:

and just to let you know if anybody cares i decided to get that cheap CO2 system at work, and i will make my own mix, i think its called hagen.... its pretty nice, its got a ladder, and a delux pop bottle !

 

[nodding_dino]

looking good aquatic-Bizkut!

 

[aquatic-Bizkut]

thanks, it is kind of a pain to have the puffers being live fed every night and morning..... and it is really hard right now, as i have school and a job, plus hobbies, and i almost always forget to feed them, its very time taking to feed my three tanks, and it adds up around 4$ a week, i am already out, and dont know what else to feed my puffers!!??

but tank is doing ok i have suddenly bloomed lots of brown algea all over the rock bed, hopefully my otto will eat it up!

thanks again

 

[kenneth_kpe]

i would suggest you remove the algae infested bacopa monieri (in my experience that plant cant survive covered in algae), you could try placing the monierri (if the leaves underneath are still healthy) in a pail of water in a dark place for around 2-3 days ? wait till the algae dies off and hope the bacopa recovers