Revamping My 10 Gal

[Treevore]

I currently have a 10 gallon freshwater. It has a bronze cory, a cory that is white-ish with black stripes vertically on his eye and rear fin and a black top fin, and a betta. I just added the second cory. I keep an amazon sword and some other plant. There is a penguin bio-wheel mini and an UGF. I want to redo the tank, replacing the 18 watt PC fixtures that I put into the incandescent hood with aquarium-kelvin 13 watt fixtures, get a proper plant substrate, and get some driftwood and thick plants. I plan on removing the betta. What kind of substrate do you recommend? I will also remove the UGF. What fish do you recommend other than the corys? What are some pretty, very easy to keep plants? I don't want to have to deal with pH and everything. The water where I live is more towards the alkaline side than the acidic side.

Any other tips would be great.

Thanks

 

[val]

Welcome...

Trevor to Aquaria Central, home of more cory lovers than anywhere on the Internet

Well, I find keeping fish to be pretty easy, but I am completely flummoxed by plants. So, even if you want to keep your 10g tank simple, you'll spend a lot of time keeping it beautiful. So. let me recommend fake plants, which now look pretty good.

If you want to keep plants, anubias nana have survived even my ham-handed attempts to kill them, as well as a lot of crytpocoryne species. Java fern looks pretty good in a 10g and would make a good centerpiece. You won't need a lot of light, you won't have to worry about CO2.

As for substrate, I am setting up a 10g tonight for a pair of keyhole cichlids and I decided on a 14 pound (I think) of Flourite which I will mix with 5 lbs or gravel for the base.

As far as fish, I'd recommend 6 checker barbs. Very hardy, very pretty, almost deceptively so, and easy to sex (the males have red dorsal fins with a black leading edge). Add a male and female betta and you've quite a pretty tank. Plus, I think everyone who emancipates a betta from those stupid little plastic cups is helping to make the world a better place.

Get yourself an Ebo heater, set it at 78 degrees and forget about it.

HTH

Val

 

[aquatix02]

just a few suggestions and points to note:

1. do not use plastic plants with bettas as it will shred their delicate fins, use silk or real plants instead.

2. do not put both a male / female or male / male betta combination in a 10G. it will result in the death of one of the fish. unless you use a tank divider to separate them...

3. an Ebo Jager heater is a good choice for a heater as they are constructed from Pyrex material and are very difficult to crack.

4. if you have a good planting substrate (small gravel with flourite or equivalent), easy plants include cabomba (bushy), cryptocrynnes (broad leaved), hygrophilia difformis (bushy), vallisnera (straight leaved), saggitera (straight leaved)..

5. since incandescent bulbs generate much more heat than flourescent ones.. make sure you check that your tank temparature does not rise too much when the lights are on and drop when they go off.

hope this helps.