Wanting to switch my ten gallon from fake to real plants

CrimsonBlush

CrimsonBlush

Attemping to post rather than lurk
Jun 15, 2008
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crimsonblush.deviantart.com
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Miah
I have owned fish for a few years, but I have never attempted a planted aquarium before. I hope to soon convert my 10 gallon aquarium that is stocked with 3 female bettas and 2 mollies to a planted tank. I would like to have an aquarium that is medium-low maintenance without having to dose CO2. I currently have a 15 watt bulb lighting my tank, but I have heard that that might not be enough for thr plants I'm interested in growing.

I would like to grow:
Dwarf Chain Sword and/or Dwarf Hairgrass
Christmas Moss

How many watts of light would I need to grow these plants? What kind of substrate would I need, and do I need fertilizers?

I am interested in doing a setup similar to this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Drift-wood-Japa...6|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:5|294:50

Also does anyone have recommendations for websites that are selling driftwood and/or live plants? Do you think a could create a tree like this one by glueing driftwood together with aquarium-safe glue?

Any help is appreciated! Thanks so much! :)
 
the 15w probably isnt going to be enough to keep any of those plants alive
except for the moss, which bareley needs any light
you probably want at least 25w for a ten gal most foreground plants are pretty high light, you can stick with moss and maybe use anubias or java ferns and you can just keep your hood right now
you can retrofit your hood to a medium socket base and use spiral cfls
2x 15w would distribute niceley
 
mak3mydae said:
you can retrofit your hood to a medium socket base and use spiral cfls
2x 15w would distribute niceley
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information! How exactly do you retrofit your hood? Is it expensive?
 
retrofit just means take it apart and change it. its cheap if you go to home depot and get the sockets to change it. you could also buy one pre made that way.

as for chain swords you might want to go with sags. they do better under lower light look close and grow faster.

you can use silcone to glue driftwood together.
 
Mgamer20o0 said:
as for chain swords you might want to go with sags. they do better under lower light look close and grow faster.

you can use silcone to glue driftwood together.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions! I like the look of sagittaria.
 
thats cool you have 3 female bettas in one tank!

what I would do is start another 10 gal tank and move them to them after the new tank establishes.

here is a good setup.

on a 10 gal tank,

1 5 lb bag of cheap potting soil ( I use heartland $1.00 wallmart) it don't
have the white stuff in it.
1 2 lb bag of aquarium rocks ( I just used standard pea gravel)

2 inches of soil, 1 inch of gravel

put potting soil in, then the gravel, stick a bowl on the gravel bed in thetank and pour declorinated water in the bowl spilling over to gently fill the tank.

use an over the side or dropin filter of your choice. plant your plants.

the single 15 w bulb will work with what you have providing the light bulb is a full spectrum bulb, ( not one of those purpleish light ) the light should be really white with a touch of blue ( 6800 K ) co2 is junk and it hard on the plants (they are pretty but don't last) and it hard on the livestock causing breif moments of lowered oxegen levels. I suggest you get your plants in either pots or mats because the small plants like to float.

if you feel that you don't have enough light get one of those cheap hoods that have the two screw type light bulb sockets and stick a pair of the full spectrum 40 watt compact flourescents ( small corkscrew)

and dump a whole bottle of cycle in the tank.

after planting, let the tank stabilize for a couple of weeks before adding fish. do a 50% water change with the water the livestock is currently in
then add your fish.


if you don't want to replace your tank, take one half of your under gravel filter out (if you have one) and in a pie pan put about a 1/2 inch of cheap potting sol in it, load a spray bottle up and spray it with some aquarium water, freeze the pan of soil, take it out and cut it into chunks so you can slide it under the existing gravel ( do this before it melts). install a dropin filter or an over the side to supplement filtration.
 
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I just added some real plants to my 10 gallon. I switched out the 15 watt incandescent bulbs for the compact flourescent daylite bulbs. I think they are 13 watt (40 watt equivalent). The tank is brighter and the plants seem to be doing OK. I'm dosing with Excel every other day.
 
I would like to just buy a 25 watt bulb that will fit my standard 10 gallon. Does anyone know a good website to find one? I checked drsfostersmith and all they had was 18" 15 watts and not 18" 25 watts.
 
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