10 gal "hands free" Planted tank

I picked up a 10 gallon tank from a garage sale the other day and was thinking about starting a planted tank on my desk at work. My office has a big bay window that faces south so it receives direct sunlight between the hours of 1pm - sundown and ambient natural light at all hours of the day.

My goal here is to create a no-light, no filter, no supplement planted tank. I haven't seen any of these in my quick search online but I'm fairly certain it can be done. All nutrients for plants I'd like to be provided by the nitrate cycle/substrate in-tank with fish, and I WILL be doing water changes (10-20% weekly?).

I was planning on setting up some low light requirement plants in here, as well as a Betta (since there wont be a filter on the tank, any idea if a non Betta will be able to survive with the oxygen put into the water via photosynthesis?) and some ghost shrimp. A relatively low livestock list at least, but I haven't finalized it yet.

I plan on using some good substrate and focus primarily on the plantscape rather than the livestock.

Any planted tank guru's see anything wrong with this experiment or see anything i'm overlooking? Also, anyone able to comment on the oxygen/co2 cycle for a planted tank with livestock?

Thanks!

 

I had a 55 planted. I used regular pebbles but you might be better off using a soil based substrate for planted tanks. I also started off using a DIY CO2 System but eventually got a co2 tank and reactor. The plants and fish will go hand in hand. Plants use CO2 during the day to produce oxygen. So the fish use the oxygen and exhale co2 so as long as you have plenty of plants you shouldn't need to supplement air except maybe an airstone at night while the plants aren't producing Oxygen. I had lots of plants and about 40 neons with some cory's and a pleco. I never had an air pump installed because the plants gave them all the oxygen they needed. I also had lots of red peppermint shrimp to clean any algae but the plants should use the nutrients before algae can starving them out. You can buy a bunch of those sword plant bulbs at walmart and most of those grow like crazy, never had much luck with the lily bulbs though. Those walmart sword plant bulbs are like weeds and are very low maintenance. If you deside to dose chemicals later, start very slow after you have lots of plants or you will have a nasty algae bloom.

 

P.S. you don't want to siphon the substrate on a planted tank, it damages the root systems of the plants. Stuff will accumulate on the bottom but plants like that (FOOD). It also gives it a more natural look. You might not want to add any snails either because they will mow your plants down in no time.

 

Agreed with that, we had 2 apple snails hitch-hike into a planted 10 gal at the house, after about 6 months and 200,000 apple snails later it is no longer a planted aquarium.

I wont be siphoning, adding chemicals, using a filter, or even have a lighting ballast. I think that due to my low livestock level the plant and fish Co2 cycle should compliment itself perfectly.

Thank you for the recommendation on the shrimp too, i wasn't sure what kind to get that would work best. I've read mixed reviews about the SAE's and fake SAEs.

I'll post some pics here once I get things rolling.

 

Cool, planted tanks are so relaxing when done right. I have seen many photos of those amano styled tanks and they are amazing.

 

**subscribed** I am very interested in this thread, So gimme some pics, details, and results!!!

 

Here was my planted 55 when i first set it up.

 

I never realized you could put plants in a salt water tank.

 

There are saltwater plants, but he’s setting up a freshwater tank.