10 Gallon Tank. Need lots of help.

When I bought the black gravel, I thought it was just regular black gravel...but no. I got home, and what do I see, sparkly black gravel. It is aquarium gravel though, so I guess it's okay. It gets sparkles in the water though. Now I have to pick all the black gravel out of the neon pink gravel. Seriously, someone it trying to mess with my masculinity or something. >.>

Oh, I can get some construction paper. That's easy and cheap enough.

My anubias is attacked to a piece of driftwood...but I think it gets knocked loose by the water coming out of my filter. That or my Embers are ninjas and manage to dislodge it so they can have a floating plant.

I'm sure I can find Turkey Oaks somewhere. If not here, I'll pick some when I got down to South Carolina. They have tons down there.

Yep, I have pool filter sand in all my tanks. The only tank that is diatom free is my 3.25 gallon Pond Snail tank, and from what you are saying...it might be because the 3.35 is plastic/acrylic.
 
I don't think the acrylic thing has anything to do with it, but maybe...

Diatoms do go away on their own, so take heart. It just takes time. It goes by a lot faster with some olive nerites ;)

Eww, pink gravel. Ugh. I would try and scrub the black gravel to get the glitter out if possible...but yeah, I'm sure it's aquarium safe.
 
So I need some Malaysian trumpet snails and an Olive nerite? Alrighty, I'll see what I can do. By the way, do they multiple as fast as Pond Snails? Hopefully they don't, because my poor 3.35 gallon is being overrun by them.

Yeah, pink gravel is bad...but this is neon pink. You could see this stuff a mile away. When I bought the black gravel, I had enough for a 5 gallon, not a 10 gallon. I know my cousin buys -and successfully kills- fish all the time, and I live in her dad's house, so I started looking around for extra gravel. And boy did I find it. A brand new bag of neon pink gravel. Ugh.
 
So I went outside to walk my dogs and to look for Oak leaves, rocks, etc. and what do I see? A nice big piece of thick glass just a little bigger than a ten gallon aquarium. I brought it in and cleaned it, sat it on top of my ten gallon, and placed both lights on top. Wow. It looks so much better now.

I had to re-arrange the equipment...which might be a bad thing. The filter is on the side now, so it shoots water the whole length of the tank. I had to reduce the flow because the Embers seemed stressed by it. I'll work the flow back up over the course of the next few hours. Also, I had to move the heater and bubbler to the other side...so the glass is sitting on top of the electrical cord for the submersible heater and on top of the airline tubing. Will this cause problems?

Also, now that I added the other light...we're talking 30 watts now. Do I need CO2 or will I be okay?
 
Yes, I would do DIY CO2 and/or Excel.
Your Embers would feel much better if you added some tall stem plants or floaters to the tank to create shelter/shade. I wouldn't mess with your sand. You'll just end up regretting it. ;)
 
Sounds like I have a lot of work ahead of me. Asked my dad a while ago, and he asked me how much I needed for the tanks. We don't have a lot of money at the moment, so I'm not sure if I should borrow $20 from him or not. Hmm.

Which is more important at this point, DIY CO2 or Excel? I still have tabs that I could somehow manage to stick to the ferns. The anubias might be on it's own though.

Suggest plants, and I'll try to find them. I know I can get hornwort, as a nasty pet store on this side of town always has a huge tank full of it.

Okay, so don't mess with the sand. Got it.
 
Just set up the DIY CO2 for now. It doesn't require a boat load of cash to start. You'll need some flexible airline tubing and a glass diffuser or limewood airstone (cheap).
When you've saved enough cash, buy a 2 liter of Excel as it will prove very useful and should last you for quite a long time.

I have Brazilian Pennywort in my tanks. It's very easy to grow, looks great and will provide the shelter/shade that your Embers require...especially when it grows to the surface and begins trailing.
 
I have plenty of airline tubing, 2 liter soda bottles...and stuff like sugar and yeast are cheap. Never seen a limewood airstone at any of the stores around here, but I'll look. DIY CO2 here I come.

Brazilian Pennywort. I really like that. I'll have to check out my LFS and see what plants they have.
 
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