Settting Up First Tank - 10 Gallon

[schmee]

Hi

i'm setting up my first tank - a 10 gallon. i have finished fishless cycling, have the temp and pH as needed and have decided on what to stock it with (please let me know your opinions): one male betta, 3 amano shrimp & 4 african dwarf frogs. i'll be letting the shrimp and frogs get settled before the betta comes into the picture and hopefully keeping the frogs well fed in the hope that nobody eats or attacks eachother. i know it might be a bit hit or miss.

i'm also not sure i have enough places for them all to hide and am a bit worried about that. As it stands, the tank has two tunnel things, one of which has java ferns lodged in it, and an anubias nana which is attached to a rock. The plants are very sparse at the moment, they've only been there around 6 weeks. i'm hoping the ferns will thicken out somehow...but i'm not sure. i'm getting another java fern and an anubias barteri which will hopefully provide more shelter. What do people think?

Also a little worried about the light as it's an inbuilt type jobby and very bright. i don't think the plants like so much light, i'm wondering if you can change the voltage/change the intensity of light somehow?? i know it's stupid but i can't work out what wattage a bulb i have. It only says FSN YDN11 - PiRR 2007 I. Any ideas?

 

[waterdrop]

I don't know much about African Dwarf Frogs except to say that other members have said its important to know how to verify that you are not getting clawed frogs by accident. I'll let other members comment further on the frogs and shrimp, the sizes they get to and whether your bioload planning is ok.

Anubias and Java Ferns are among the best choices for Low Light Technique with the plants and the way to deal with a strong light is to get a simple mechanical lamp timer from the hardware store and be able to control the amount of time the light is on (each stretch of it being on is called a "photoperiod" in my lingo.) The plants need a minimum 4 hour continuous stretch to get their photosynthetic apparatus up and running and to produce some useful sugars for their cells, anything less and they'll not get to the sugar stage. So a single 4 hour photoperiod is a good starting point for a new tank where you don't yet have data logged in your aquarium notebook. If you don't get algae problems with the 4 hour block then you can potentially begin to add another block. When you add this second block and go to 8 hours, you need to watch very closely for algae. Of course there will always be -some- algae cleaning possibly needed in your weekly maintenance.

Fluorescent light bulb technical values are to a large extent -matched- to the circuit that drives them. OM47 may remember better than me whether there are any parameters in the circuit or allowances for bulb variation, but better to not vary them until you have such information.

~~waterdrop~~