10 gallon planted progress pictures

SnakeIce

SnakeIce

AC Members
May 4, 2002
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North Ga, USA
Real Name
Frederick
I have learned alot here and wanted to start a medium-high light tank. When one of my wife's shell dwellers in the ten killed the other two she didn't want anything to do with the remaining individuals and told me the tank is mine. I gave the remaining female and fry to a local friend and that is where this starts.

already in the tank was the flourite from when she had plants and the two 15 watt flourescent strip lights, an aquarium systems millenium 1000 HOB filter, and lighting timer.

I tore the tank down, saveing some mulm as I took water out and cleaned the tank glass all up befor layering the substrate back in mulm first. I have 1/2" to 1 1/4" of flourite visible with about a quarter inch hidden by the tank trim.

Plants: 5 inch drift wood with java fern on it, 5 short dwarf sag that I had, two growth forms of cryptocoryne wenttii, java moss, frill plant, 15 sag subulata(5" tall), 4 anubias nana from a friend(smaller than normal plants but not petit sized), and a pot of chain sword.

befor the dust settled I took this photo (4/1/05)
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A few days later with the water clear I took another
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I'm not quite happy with the right side, the blob of java fern just isn't doing it for me. Also I looked at the bulbs in the strip lights and discovered that one was a cool white and the other an ancient GE plant and aquarium. I changed the cool white out for a coralife nutri grow plant light. Tank looks better already :)
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:dive2: I'm in over my head, those were supposed to show up in the thread... Oh well.

I guess you can just look at the photos in the album or read here and click each link.

When I got the frill plant I thought it was Ceratophyllum demersum, but then I saw the plant at Pet-SomeThingOrOther and it was labled Myriophyllum scabratum. Looked that plant up at home and that is a synonym for Myriophyllum pinnatum. Pinnatum has red stems and this "frill" plant doesn't, its all green. So much for scientific names being more exact :D. The plant might be M. simulans as the coloring and form looks similar to the photo in the book.

I also got some Rotala indica as labled by this same store. Kasselman's book says that is actually Rotala rotundifolia and that indica is a different plant.

I took out the java moss and rearanged the right side, moveing the subulata from the back to the front, and putting my rotala in between the frill plants in the back.
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It has some growing in to do befor it fits what I want it to look like but that is how it is now.
 
Congrats! It looks nice.

Do you have a lot of experience with plants? I'm just starting out with plants for the first time in my ten gallon, and I think I am starting to like them more than the fish O.o
 
Where did you buy the bulk of your plants?
 
well lets see, the cryptocorynes, dwarf sagg, and java fern I think came from aquariumplant.com ???2 years ago or so. The frill plants(Myriophyllum species), Echinodorus tenellus, crypt beckettii and Saggitarus subulata I got several weeks to right befor setting up the tank from my local fish store. The Anubius nana a local friend gave to me. And last but not least the plant known as Rotala indica(actually is Rotala rotundifolia as per se C. Kasselman) I got from Petsmart out of town.

I have taken the scenic route to a densely planted tank. 4 years ago when I first got a fish tank I started with some of the dry hybrid aponegeton/lily bulbs. I had hygrophilia, a melon sword and tried elodia all in first in epoxyed gravel, then in natural river gravel. About 2 years ago I got flourite and cryptocorynes, java moss and fern, dwarf sagg and a few items substituted in my order that died in my low light tank. Alternanthera reineckii was one of the plants that didn't survive my setup.

I am now doseing the 10 gallon tank after weekly 50% water changes the ammount of KNO3 that would bring the nitrate level from 0 to 10 ppm. 1 ppm Phosphate from fleet enema and 1/4 cc of flourish two times in the middle of the week for traces.

I am enjoying the increased growth I am seeing in my 10 with the same amount of light I had over the 20. I haven't gotten them to consistently pearl yet but I'm tickled that my plants have for the first time since I started keeping tanks.
 
Did you have a problem with those aponogaton bulbs? Are they the ones at walmart? I had them last fall and the were growing soo well that they were growing out of my tank and now I cannot get the bulbs to grow in my tanks at all and the existing plants I had went dormant, so I guess they grow best in the fall.
 
Some aponegeton species need dormant periods where the plant either dies back or has to dry out befor resumeing growth. The hybrid aponegetons you get dry are a grab bag of whatever the packing place has on hand and may or may not need those dormant periods.

I added one good sized ramshorn snail to the tank and thickened up some of the stem plant groups with some I had put in another tank.
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The chain sword is already sending out runners but the subulata isn't doing much at all. The anubias has show more growth than the dwarf sagg. ???
 
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Thanks :)
aponogetons, not in this set up, I was answereing a question from a previous post about plants that I have had so far in my tanks. I actually had an aponegeton only 5 gallon eclipse that was just beautiful. best they have done for me was in that setup and haven't matched that since. that was back befor I knew why what I did worked and so I don't know if I could duplicate it now.
 
Just a bit of an update photo. I had no idea the chain swords would grow in around themselves so fast.
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