10 gallon "native" build

[jpappy789]

Thought I would start this now in order to ease some of the anxiety of getting the tank itself setup.

Fauna:
? x Elassoma sp. (pygmy sunfish)
? x L. ommata (pygmy killie)

As of right now numbers will depend on availability. Hopefully I can get a single male and some females of the sunfish to get some good breeding going right away.

Flora:
Vallisneria americana
Cabomba caroliniana
Bacopa caroliniana
Ludwigia repens
Micranthemum umbrosum (depending on space)
Eleocharis acicularis (depending on space)
Sagittaria subulata
*undecided "floater"* please see my thread in the planted section for help choosing!

It's going to be HEAVILY planted, as you can tell.

Substrate is going to be a soil base capped with some silica sand. Will be an interesting experiment as I have never worked with soil in an aquarium before.

Lighting will probably come down to an old incandescent hood (topfin bran maybe?) with some daylight CFLs screwed in instead. Probably will go low tech and just dose some flourish comp and excel every so often. I think I still have some dry ferts sitting around somewhere too if I need to target dose.

I am going to try and get a blackworm colony going as well as the Elassoma seem to relish them.

Otherwise it will be unheated and filtered, as of know, via a small sponge filter. The experts at NANFA have been talking me into going Walstad but I am not sure how up to that I am. I guess I am too traditional...

Anyways the plan for tomorrow is to clean out the tank, possibly paint the background, and get the soil/sand ready. As of right now I am going to start the "cycle" now and transfer everything to school before getting the fish. So much easier that way. The plants on the other hand may be a different story as I doubt I will be able to watch a virtually empty tank for very long!

[Mr.Catfish]

Have you thought about maybe going with Heterandria formosa instead of L. ommata. They are a very small livebearer and will not eat you Pygmy sunfish fry. And the fry from them will be food for your pygmy's.
Also with dirt you most likely won't need to use ferts. I have had several dirt tanks and have never used ferts in any of them.
The tanks sounds like it will be perfect for pygmy's.Here is my Everglades Pygmy sunfish tank. It has grown in some since the video. Maybe I should do an update.

[jpappy789]

The L. ommata are pretty small as well. A member on NANFA who has kept both said they were able to keep a few pygmy generations alive with the ommata but they didn't have a population explosion like others who get them breeding pretty constantly. That's fine for me as when I am at school I am in a more remote area and wont always have the means to get rid of any fry that do survive.

The ferts will just be a back up in case I notice any deficiencies. I've done a few low tech tanks in the past and never done any routine dosing on those but really the only plant I am worried about is the Cabomba. I can never seem to get that one growing correctly although I've only grown C. aquatica.

[jpappy789]

Progress so far...I'm basically follow Ms. Walstad's instructions here http://www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/00388Shrimp.pdf

Painted the back back. Used Rustoleum this time and it seemed to work fine.


Using this potting soil. Basically just needed to remove the large twigs, pieces of bark, and a few pebbles (yes, pebbles). Pretty tedious and not something I would do on a large tank.


And this is all the progress for today LOL


Going to order the plants soon. Once those are in place I'll cap with the play sand I bought. Sponge filter is on its way so the cycle will begin when it gets here...

[Slappy*McFish]

Nice. Sounds like a fun project.

[jpappy789]

Certainly will be, especially since I thought about taking the next couple years off from the hobby...guess not!

[jpappy789]

Placed an order on Amazon through That Fish Place because I had a ton of Amazon credit (just getting general supplies) over a week ago and it still has yet to be shipped. Not too pleased but hopefully I can figure out why they never confirmed my order.

Plants should be here soon, hopefully, unless something screwy happened too. Will update with pics once I start 'scaping!

[teigan666]

how many coats of rustolium did you use? and how long between coats?

[jpappy789]

I think I ended up doing three because between the first two I noticed from a different angle from where I was standing that I missed a noticeable portion. I don't remember what I did in terms of timing because I was off doing other things in the meantime but I believe the can itself says it is good to do a coat every twenty minutes.

[teigan666]

thanks im gunna do this for my puffer tank soon