New 10G tank planted and running

O

oscaremmy

Keeper of the Frogdog
Feb 27, 2008
379
0
0
East Central Indiana, USA
Okay, so I have now planted the second-hand 10G tank from Goodwill - everything seems fine clarity-wise, ammonia level is 'safe' and filters all working nicely. On the advice of my local aquarist retailer (Angels and More, Muncie - a husband and wife business run by keen and knowledgeable aquarists), have placed 6 zebra danios in it to help develop the water chemistry. The store even buys back fish at 50% if I decide to change the species in the tank once the setup is established. They talked me out of buying more expensive fish!

Anyway, added the danios yesterday (Saturday) and they seem happy as Larry. 2 females and 4 males, I believe. Will monitor levels and then I will add more small fish over the next couple of weeks if all goes smoothly - probably just a couple of corydoras and some serpae tetras.

The danios are good eaters, barely a flake even settling on the bottom of the tank and if it does, it is soon gone! I am feeding very small amounts only.

Added 1/4 cup of Ammo-Chips to the hang-on-back filter, having removed the carbon. Added Stress Coat and API Leaf Zone prior to adding fish. Also added some darker (washed) gravel to give the UG filter a chance (there was barely a half-inch with the plate showing in several places), now between 3-4 inches deep.

Here's some pics so far.

tank large 1.JPG tank large 2.JPG tank detail large.JPG tank detail 2.JPG
 
That's a 10g? Looks more like a 15G to me. Either way, that tank is beautiful.
 
Thanks everyone, (it is a 10G tank - 20" W x 10" D x 12" H). It's early days and I know it can get ugly and out of hand really fast, without maintenance. In some ways, I feel it's harder to get this small tank right than the four-foot tanks I used to operate - I wanted something that was kind of dense around back and sides, but I'd really like to have some low growing plants cover much of the substrate. Not sure how useful or achievable that would be with my UG filter running, though. I am treating this little 10G as a refresher course in keeping a tank after a gap of twenty years. Of course, I am finding that prices have certainly shot up for food, chemicals and filter systems -only fish seem good value now! This tank has about $40 of plants and decor in it and only $6 of fish! I like the biochemical effect of live plants, which I think can be important in a small tank where it can be difficult to cope with waste, as well as having the pleasure of seeing them grow.
 
That is a very nice looking tank. The plants really make it special in my mind. The thing that might save your fish a lot of hardship from ammonia is the live plants. It will keep the ammonia to a minimum because the plants like ammonia as their food.
 
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