10 gal "hands free" Planted tank

I scraped down the 10 gallon tank since there was wicked calcium deposits on it and set it up next to my desk at work. I'm excited to start this.

I also have eco-complete ready to go, and my plants arriving on Friday. I'll end up planting them this saturday.


CALCIUM:


Leak test:


ready for action:

 

Nice can't wait to see it. This might just inspire me to set up a small tank in my cube at work. My cube is so boring (besides 3reefing all day).

 

I set up a small 5 gallon Hex aquarium at work my self. Peacefull to watch, I have a 5 pound piece of texas Holey rock and 5 neons in there. I put 5 pounds of sand in there and when at Petsmart I noticed an aquarium with some what they were calling nuicence snails. They breed fast, and take over an aquarium. I thought this would be fun to watch in a small tank, so I got 3 of their nuicence snails and added them. From those 3 snails, I probably have around 500 baby snails easily. Fun to watch, plus they keep my glass clean. If you are interested.

 

I want to keep this snail free. I don't want them attacking my plants that I have which has happened to me before. I'll probably go the cherry shrimp/ghost shrimp route instead. Or maybe a small pleco if things get really OC.

 

Pics update on this project.

I have in some eco-complete, dwarf hairgrass, baby tears, java fern, and a Lilly pad (looking forward to the flowers coming out of the open top)., and a banana plant, and 3 bamboo. I know the bamboo aren't technically "water" plants, but I'm taking advantage of the open top and eventually going to use them to hide the heater.

I also have 5 ghost shrimp, 2 glass catfish, and a betta.

I have added a filter to it right now because I don't think I soaked my driftwood long enough and my water turned BROWN. Not that I could have known how long to soak it for since the instructions were in Malaysian or something. The water has cleared up nicely over the last few days though. After the tank becomes more dense with growth, I'll most likely take it off to have a cleaner look. I also added a heater since the tank is normally about 68 in the morning when I come in, and then gets up to 78-79 during the day after the sun comes out. I feel a 10 degree swing is too much for fish. so I'll likely keep the heater and hide it with some plants as they grow out.

I've noticed a great amount of growth with the lilly right now, and the java fern has started sprouting new rhizomes so I should hopefully be able to remove the rubber band from it next week.

The pictures/sun make the water look browner than it really is.

Pic with no sun (sorry for the reflections):


Pic in the sun:


Closer up, you can see the 2 glass cats in this picture and some shrimp:


I'm enjoying it so far. I'll update with some growth pics in a few weeks!

 

cool cool. I gotta try it!

 

I'm sorry, but that is not going to work. You don't have enough plants to eat up the nutients and therefore when the sun hits the tank your going to get massive green algea bloom. I wish it could be this easy!

 

The first flower from the water lilly broke the water yesterday/today. I'm getting pumped for it to bloom.

I did have a slight green algae bloom, but added a Pleco to the tank and he took care of it in short order.

I've noticed some of my dwarf hairgrass sending out runners and sprouting new blades, I've also gone from 2 to 11 lilly pads since planting it in the back corner. Awesome plant so far and creates an awesome view of the tank from the top-down.

 

Siphoning

So you are telling me that, when I do a water change, on my 30 gallon fresh water planted tank, I should not siphon the gravel ? Leave all that yuck under the gravel !

 

Here's some updates on this tank.

Updated growth pics of the Java Fern. It's gone from around 4 leaves to 15+ leaves, and has started spreading runners across the driftwood.


Dwarf hairgrass. It's not growing very quickly as the source of light has diminished with the angle of the summer sun, but it's staying lush and green, and I've noticed some improved growth over the last 2 weeks or so.

I picked up around 10 red cherry shrimp and they look great in contrast with the bright green leaves in the tank. The shrimp arrived on a tiny piece of plant, no sure what kind, that I planted. It's taken root and grown by about 300% or so. You can see how it's grown from a 3-4 inch pieces to multiple branches, one of which stretches fully across the tank and can be seen in the java fern picture. Here's a picture of one of the pregnant (or egg carrying i guess?) females hiding out in the grass:


Here's a slightly reflective pic of one of the glass catfish and a golden mystery snail. I picked him up to eat the lilly pad bases that are left in the tank after I cut them off. I've been keeping the lilly pad well trimmed to keep it from growing out of control.


Full tank shot: 6-14-10


Specs:
Heater: due to office temperature swings I couldn't risk the fish being stressed. I put a jager in the tank to keep it ~ 77 degrees. It goes up to around 80 in full sunlight (predominately during winter).
Filter - basic tetra whisper 10 dollar cheap one (filter floss to catch glass cleaning debris).
Lights - None, natural sunlight for 0-4 hours a day.
Additives: none
Feedings - pinch of food 5 days a week, except weekends.
water changes: once a week to once every 2 weeks. 1 gallon changes.
Current Occupants: 13 red cherry shrimp, 3 ghost shrimp, 2 glass catfish, mystery snail.
plants: banana plant, dwarf hair grass, dayblooming lilly pad, java fern, 2 bamboo stalks (holding filter in place), 2 unknown plants. Ill update with ID's when I have them here.

I'm impressed with this experiment so far. It's turning out well. Once the hair grass grows out more. I'm going to start trimming it into a nice underwater lawn.

The pleco I bought to help control some of the green algae ended up having Ick, which ended up killing both the pleco and the betta that were housed in this tank. A sad day indeed. The glass catfish have been unaffected thus far. The Green algae has since subsided, and the only unwanted growth I'm seeing right now is a dust or film algae on the glass. I need to clean the glass about once every 2 weeks at the moment to keep it looking nice.