# New user, mind checking my work?



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

Hi all after about 2 years out I'm back in the aquarium hobby and with a 10G low tech planted tank. I just wanted to run my tank by you to see if there is anything I should be doing that I'm not and stuff I'm doing that I shouldn't. The new setup is about a month old.

10G tank.
Aqueon Power Filter 10 w/ DIY sponge on intake.
??Watt heater @ 80° F (+2° day, -3° night).
(2) Coralife Mini Aqualights each with (1) 6700K & (1) 10000K, 9Watt compact flourescent bulbs on for 10 hours uninterupted each day.
15lbs. Black Sand Flourite.
(1) piece Malaysian driftwood.
(1) piece Mopani driftwood.

Plants:
Java Moss attached to driftwood.
Guppy Grass untethered.
Stocking:
(1) Male Crowntail Betta
(8) Ghost shrimp

Feeding:
Betta: HBH Betta Bites or Wardley Betta Food once every day. (1) thawed skinless pea every week.
Shrimp: Any of the betta's food he misses plus algea wafer bit once a week and flake food once a week.

Water care:
50% change once per week.
New water treated with Tetra AquaSafe (manufacturer dosing) and 1 tsp. Aquarium Salt.
Testing done with strips inconsistantly but more then once a week.
No ferts. of any kind.

Latest test:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nirate: 0 - 20ppm
GH: 150 - 300ppm
KH: 80 - 120ppm
pH: 7.2










I was thinking of adding an Anubias amoung the grouping of 4 rocks on the left and would like suggestions on a plant that could cover the area behind the driftwood / infront of the heater. Do you think my lighting is too much too?

Thanks for looking, woke up from this wind storm can't get back to sleep so sorry for any wonky typing.


----------



## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Awesome - Another WV person! Welcome to TPT! Wind storm was fierce up here, too. I love the tank by the way. Have you thought about vals as a background? Or a moss wall would be pretty sweet. Oh, and if you can't find Anubias, Marselia minuta would look cool.


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Wow, beautiful tank. Excellent job. I think that you it was a really smart idea to undertock your tank. My experience has been that my plants and fish both do better when I understock my tanks. Just a couple of suggestions or things to think about.

10 hours seems like a long photoperiod, IME 8 hours works best but seeing that you only have a total of 18 watts lighting, you may be able to get away with it. Keep an eye for the devlopment of green spot algae on glass - that is a sign that you may have to reduce your photoperiod.

You figure that your GhostShrimp and Betta will co-exist?? By nature Bettas are carnivores, so there is a 50-50% chance that he may stalk and prey on your Ghost Shrimp. I also find that Ghost Shrimp tend to have a very high mortality rate in general vs other shrimp like Amano or Cherry Shrimp. 

Betta food; I would go with the HBH Betta Bites or Hikari Biogold betta pellets. Wardley pellets have a tendency to sink quickly and foul the water but you may be fine if your Ghost Shrimp survive and clean up the mess. 

You may or may not be able to get away with fert dosing. I have a friend at work who breeds guppies and all he has in his tank is java moss. He does not add ferts and uses the stock lighting that came with his tank; the java moss grows like a weed. I have no luck keeping java moss and I use ferts so it makes me wonder if java moss is one of those plants that just does not prefer ferts. Either way keep an eye on the plants, if they develop nutrient deficiency symptoms you may have to dose, otherwise the ultimate opportunist: algae will capitalize on the situation and you will have a big mess to clean up. 

Here is a good guide to plant nutirent deficiency symptoms. It is good to have on hand in case you ever need to troubleshoot plant nutrient deficiencies.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

Thanks Sewingalot, I haven't thought of vals I know what they look like but not too much on care req's I'll check that out. I don't think I want more moss back there. I'm soo groggy b/c of that stupid storm... garbage cans all went for a walk... ugh.

Great link Homer! Thanks a bunch. I actually would like to add more to the tank but keep going back and forth. The betta seems like he is the type that plays well with others and actually, during feeding has more trouble with the shrimp picking on him then the other way around! I had heard of the fragility of the shrimp, they were kind of an impulse buy when i first got my tank planted, the were sold as feeders so i figured even if they died in my tank I am sparing them from a worse fate. So far no deaths one has even survived a molt!
Just one misunderstanding, I am actually running 2 of those lights with 2 bulbs each so 36Watts not 18W, I should probably decrease it then huh?


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Aphexmatt said:


> ... I am actually running 2 of those lights with 2 bulbs each so 36Watts not 18W, I should probably decrease it then huh?


Based on my experience, I would say that much light is asking for trouble(i.e., algae bloom). 

When I set up a 10 gallon tank, I jam packed it full of fast growing plants, was only running 30 Watts(2 15 watt compact fluorescent bulbs) and was even dosing ferts, dosing carbon(Seachem Excel) and DIY c02 with a good diffuser and a drop checker that was showing 30 PPM C02 and I still ended up getting all kinds of algae, Black Beard Algae, Green Spot Algae, Blue Green Algae, etc., It was only when I reduced light to a total of 8 hours using 2 10 watt 6700K compact fluorescent bulbs that the algae began receding and finally went away.

If you want to use that much light, it will only work if you jam pack your tank full of plants and use pressurized C02, IMHO. But then you have to keep on top of your ferts and it becomes a more difficult balancing act, because one screw up and algae will rear its ugly head.


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

I see thanks for the warning, I am going to do some switching of lights around to come up with a temp solution before something happens. Do you think that two 20inch 14W T5 bulbs would be too much as well (28W total) ? That was my plan for building a light top for this tank.


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Aphexmatt said:


> I see thanks for the warning, I am going to do some switching of lights around to come up with a temp solution before something happens. Do you think that two 20inch 14W T5 bulbs would be too much as well (28W total) ? That was my plan for building a light top for this tank.


Good question. As I have no experience with that wattage T5 over a 10 gallon, I cannot really say. You may be able to get away with it if you keep your photoperiod to 7-8 hours, but maybe someone else with more experience with that T5 wattage can chime in. I am currently experimenting with 2 14 watt compact fluorescent bulbs(one cool while and one warm white) over the same 10 gallon. I have no algae yet but since these are compact fluorescent bulbs the results may not be applicable to T5's.


----------



## rpayer (Jun 9, 2008)

Aphexmatt said:


> I see thanks for the warning, I am going to do some switching of lights around to come up with a temp solution before something happens. Do you think that two 20inch 14W T5 bulbs would be too much as well (28W total) ? That was my plan for building a light top for this tank.


Are they T5HO or standard T5? If they are HO you are asking for trouble. I have 48w over my 2ft deep 34g and I can only run a 6 hr photoperiod without an algae farm...


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

I was thinking regular T5 not HO for this.


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I think even with just T5NOs that's too much light to not use either CO2 or Excel.

Why not just stick with 18 watts of the Aqualights you already have?

Or if you want to stay low tech, I've always had good results with the stock T8 15watt single flourescent strip for 10gal tanks.


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

Well the spread of the light on just one of my fixtures wouldn't be right, they are small. I could use 1 bulb in each i guess. So 18W really would be enough? Even if I added more low light plants like in my first post?


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Aphexmatt said:


> Well the spread of the light on just one of my fixtures wouldn't be right, they are small. I could use 1 bulb in each i guess. So 18W really would be enough? Even if I added more low light plants like in my first post?


Check out this link: It does not take a lot of light to grow the types of plants and then some.
http://vickisaquaticplace.com/PlantsChapter1.html


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

If you go over 18watts you're likely to run into algae issues if you don't also start dosing CO2 and/or Excel.

IME 18watts is perfect over a low tech 10gal tank. Especially sticking with the plants you've listed. :thumbsup:


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

Thank you soo much for all your help everyone I changed it so now I am running the 2 fixtures with one 6700K bulb each for the 18W total I also reduced my photoperiod to 8.5 hours. I think you all averted a potential disaster mistake for me.
Any more suggestions for the rear cover plant?


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Bacopa has always done well for me in low light.

Ludwigia repens would be nice for some red, if it will grow for you (won't for me...)

A crypt or two might be nice, would bring in some other colors.


----------



## sewingalot (Oct 12, 2008)

Oooo! I agree with lauraleelbp on this one. I am liking the idea of bacopa or a couple crypts for the background! Only thing I hated about crypts in the beginning was the melt though. I have ludwigia repens at work under 20 watts in a 10 and it grows okay, but really didn't respond until I added excel.


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Sunset Hygrophilia(Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig') may work well as a background stem plant. You would likely need to keep it trimmed. IMHO, this is one of the most beautiful low light undermanding plants around. Its beauty rivals that of some of the high light/high tech plants. I also read that Bettas, guppies/Endler's live bearers and tetras love this plant and take solace in it. I have been trying really hard to get a hold of this plant for my low tech, but it is next to impossible to come by. I begged a local fish store owner to order some and told him price was no object. I would pay whatever he wanted for it if he ordered it. http://www.aquahobby.com/garden/e_Hygrophila_polysperma_Rosanervig.php


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

I think I am partial to some crypts but i dunno if I really want a rooted plant, I like the lugwigia too, I think it will come down to what I can find someone selling that will ship w/ heatpacks (and is upfront about shipping costs).
I have been doing more browsing (some of Homer's links) do you guys think Excel would be right for my setup? Also I do have old Flourish and Trace from my setup 2-3 years ago. Think its still viable and should it be something I use?

For Homer: On auquariacentral.com/forums I saw someone selling Hygrophila polysperma but I am not sure if its the exact one you are looking for or if he still has some might be worth a shot. Bk828 is the username.

Thank you again for reading and helping me out.


----------



## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Aphexmatt said:


> ...For Homer: On auquariacentral.com/forums I saw someone selling Hygrophila polysperma but I am not sure if its the exact one you are looking for or if he still has some might be worth a shot. Bk828 is the username...


Nope, this is the regular one that is not as pretty. Plus being in Canada, even if he did, he would never be able to ship to me due to customs restrictions on imported plants. Thanks anyways.


----------



## Aphexmatt (Dec 31, 2008)

Sorry Homer thought I would try.. Good luck on getting the Sunset it really is beautiful.

Sorry too keep this thread going and going but I would still like a bit more guidance. So in the method from this link: http://vickisaquaticplace.com/PlantsChapter1.html I see she doses 1tsp. Yamato Green once a week plus root tabs every 3 months. As I don't yet have rooted plants the tabs I will get to when they are relevant. I was wondering since I do have regular Flourish on hand should I be dosing in a similar manner?


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

With the plants you currently have in the tank there's no reason to dose at all.

So whether or not you need to dose anything really depends on what plant(s) you end up adding; and even then, if you stick with just 18 watts of light, you aren't likely to need much if any additional ferts.


----------

