planning 10g planted

tanhql

I LOVE my F8 puffer!
Nov 10, 2006
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Singapore
i have a 20g brackish tall, and am planning a 10g planted. i'm eyeing a 10g tank in my lfs (17" x 13.5" x 13"). i have a researched a list of easy, low demand plants:

name (position - number of plants)

Egeria densa (back - 2)
Bacopa australis (front - 5)
Limnophila sessiliflora (back - 3)
Ceratophyllum demersum (Hornwort) (back - 3)
Ceratopteris thalictroides (Water Sprite) (mid - 2)
Cryptocoryne affinis (front - 5)
Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia (back - 3)
Cryptocoryne undulata 'Red' (mid - 3)
Hydrilla verticillata (back - 3)
Hygrophila difformis (Water Wisteria) (mid - 3)
Hygrophila polysperma (mid - 3)
Hygrophila polysperma 'Narrow' (mid - 3)
Potamogeton crispus (back - 2)

i plan to buy 2 high light fluorescent light strip, seachem fluorish and seachem fluorish excel as i don't plan on adding CO2 other than a few otto. i plan on using a tom aquatics mini canister filter i have on hand (used to be used on my 20 gallon, but has been replaced by a bigger one lately). i will use seachem fluorite as the substrate.

does this look good?
 
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Where you have choices, go with the smaller leaf plants. They will look more in scale in that tank. Same holds true for smaller plants over all.
The water sprite will take over that little tank in short order, but it is cheap and a great nutrient hog so it will help with the maturation process and with the inevitable fight against algae initially. I would use it as a floater.
You are talking about a trace element and a carbon source. I suggest that you start thinking in terms of macros as well.

Len
 
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Your water sprite and water wisteria as well as the H. polysperma are really background plants since they'll grow pretty tall. They'll cover up the L. sessiliflora and hornwort in no time.
 
That seemslike a lot of types of plants and if you go withthe quantities you are planning, before long the tank will be pretty much all plant very little for any fish to swim, very little open water, if any at all.
 
dorkfish said:
That seemslike a lot of types of plants and if you go withthe quantities you are planning, before long the tank will be pretty much all plant very little for any fish to swim, very little open water, if any at all.


yeah i htink you should down size it and let the plants GROW IN instead of FILLING it in that also give you a natural look. as far as suppliments..... you might have to do more research cuz you need to have a balance of lighting co2 and nutrients


too much lighting no nutrients the plants arn't healthy they yellow up or dont look as green

low light to much nutrients you get algae blooms

and lack of co2 causes your plants to yellow up also.. not as bad as nutrition deficiency



especially with being an all planted tank i suggest you look into the cheap co2 or even a diy setups



the substrate is good but you can even mix that with other brands or simply with garden perculite to help airate <--?
 
ok, i've decided to start with 20 of every plant and 2 pots of dwarf hairgrass. so, where should the plants go to (the position in the tank) ? below is the tank plan. dark green is background plant. light green is 'middle' plant. yellow is foreground plant. red is driftwood slanted against back wall of the tank. the background plants will have to cover up most of the black background. middle plants will be planted with 3 in the same 'hole' together, around 5 of such groups in each circle. foreground plants will be randomly planted.

tank_plan.jpg
 
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What do you mean 20 of each plant? What size tank is this a ten gallon? If so, please don't throw your money away like that. I can tell you that the hornwort if given time will double probably even triple itself in a week or two! You probably won't even want it as it grows so fast and you'll have more of it than you could possibly ever want. Another poster suggested to let the plants grow out, and that is the wisest choice. Water sprite is also a prolific grower and will overtake the tank in no time. The elodea and hygro will need constant trimming as well giving you more plants. Unless you are planning on selling the plants to others maybe a LFS, you should just be patient and let the plants grow in. I just don't want to see you waste money unnecessarily. We already spend enough money in this hobby the most of it going to mistakes like this. :rolleyes: Now you can spend the money elsewhere, like on shipping.
 
You may plant water sprite in the back but as it grows it's branches will easily reach to the front of a 10g tank. What's nice about it though is that the branches they die off grow new small plants that you can use to replace the ones that out grow your tank.
 
ok, for background plants, i want to have 3 types of fast growing plants. i will prune once a week. for middle plants, i want average growing plants, preferbly 4 types of plants. for foreground, i want slow growing plants, preferbly rosette or similar (like Eleocharis parvula). does anyone have any suggestion for the types and number of plants? if possible, give me links from aquaspot world. thanks. however, keep in mind there will be no CO2 added, just the macro, micro and carbon source.
 
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