Small Tank Recs?

[soritan]

Well, my tank seems to require some recycling time due to... something. However, duing this time I've managed to alter the lighting so that it's slightly more favorable.

My substrate is basic aquarium gravel, nothing fancy. I have a fair bit of bogwood in there and some polished river stones.

It is currently empty, except for a few little plants that I picked up along the way.

Tank Size: 10 US gallons
Watts per gallon: 4

I have an incandescent style hood with two places for bulbs and a big blue sticker that says, "25 watts max. bulb wattage." I picked up (2) 6500k Compact Florescent bulbs, the sort that are packaged and advertised as 'sunlight bulbs', that are 20 watts each.

I understand that for my tank size, this means, 'medium light'?

My current plants include: anacharis, hornwort, a single rhizome of java fern, a single strand of java moss, 2 marimo (algea) balls, and some duckweed.. I think. My duckweed went missing when I did my big water change and hasn't returned. Maybe I'll be an odd 'duck' out and it'll go away and not come back? I was one of those weird people who wanted duckweed in their tank, so when I got a little ... erm, patty, in with my hornwort, I plunked it right in.

Well, since my tank uncycled itself (or I uncycled it, whatever, the condition remains unchanged despite blame or action), I've decided to simply heave a sigh and start putting in more plants.

Most of my hornwort seems to be yellow, except for one very healthy branch. Should I remove the yellower bits, or leave it if the stem itself is still a nice green?

Is my lighting enough for my tank and plants? I never understood the whole "your tank is so small so you need far more!" situation, so I beg your forgiveness if I seem assinine.

And what else would you recommend?

I've been told anubis.. anubis anything, will work in my tank. I'd like low maitanance plants, and I tend to prefer lots of a single plant over a little o this and a little o that. I'm thinking of pulling my anacharis for just that reason, or my java fern or my hornwort, for my empty 5g tank...

 

[Rodders]

4 WPG. Thats loads. Your going to need CO2 for your tank. But im not sure if 4 WPG is too much???

 

[soritan]

My understanding is a 10g tank needs at least 4wpg to achieve medium light, as the wpg rule only applies to tanks 20g and over. That confused the hell out of me too, when I read up on it, and part of why I'm asking for recommendations here, as well.

 

[houndour]

It is true that the WPG guide goes out the window for smaller tanks...however I think your tank would benefit from CO2 and fertilisation.

anacharis, hornwort, a single rhizome of java fern, a single strand of java moss

I dont know about hornwort and anacharis, but java fern and java moss are relatively slow growing plants and will grow under low light conditions.


I'm not qualified to give advice as I have had every algae under the sun, but common sense tells me with slow growing plants, no CO2, no ferts and 4WPG you are probably going to get algae.

Anubias sp will work in any tank...again these are slow growing and require low light.

To give you an example, I have a 5 gallon with nearly 5WPG. No CO2 (cos I've been lazy), no ferts. I dont have algae, BUT, I have a plant cardamine lyrata (I think...) and its pretty much covered the surface and therefor probably blocking a lot of light so helping keep algae at bay..thats my theory anyway. I also have glosso and hermianthus micranothoids (sorry about spelling again)...they aren't doing brilliantly, but are doing OK (this is prob due to light being blocked and lack of nutrients).

If you want a lower maintenance tank I would stick with anubias, java fern and moss and lower the light.

 

[soritan]

I definately have algea. Bright green algea, rather close to the light. At the moment, I'm not bothered by it. I'm thinking of getting an otto or two to help me keep them clean, and possibly a malasyian trumpet snail. So long as it's that nice, bright green algea, I won't mind having it around, and simply consider it a part of the upkeep.


Oh, and my research/asking about indicates that 4wpg on a 10 US gallon tank is 'low' to 'medium low' light.

Pretty much all my plants can take it, since I did a fair bit of research and purchased for my old light set (2.5wpg), where everyone agreed I had low light, and I didn't have this odd half, "so much light!" half "so little light!" combination of people. My hornwort is naturally growing like someone is chasing it, and my anacharis is growing quite densely. I think I'll add some anubis something to it and call it 'good', and migrate my tiny java moss and java fern over to the 5g once it's set up proper... or just get more, and add it there.

I think, despite its ugliness atm, I quite like what I've got going on here.