# Newbie 10 Gallon Planted Tank



## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to share my 10 gallon planted tank with you all. I had this tank for a while but were only able to grow light plants using the stock light. I have recently replaced the lights and now I have more choice on the plants I can grow. After few re-scaping I think i'm finally content with the looks. I hope it will look better when everything grows in. Please feel free to leave any comment/suggestion 

Specification
-10 Gallon
-Two 23w CFL
-DYI Co2
-Fluval 105 Filter
-Gravel bedding
-Recommended Excel Dose
-EI Fertilization

Plants
-Riccia
-Some kind of moss (Christmas Moss maybe)
-Dwarf Nana Plant
-Pearl Grass
-Rotala Rotundifolia
-Gloasso
-Dwarf Baby Tears
-Blyxa Japonica
-Duck Weed

Fish
-Fancy Guppy
-Chili Rasboras
-Otocinclus
-Cherry Shrimp
-Nerit Snail









By kanli1984 at 2012-02-08









By kanli1984 at 2012-02-08









By kanli1984 at 2012-02-08


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## jamezgt (Feb 17, 2009)

Good looking tank! How exactly did you attach the moss onto the driftwood? I tied mine on with fishing line, but the growth seems to be very slow :[


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

jamezgt said:


> Good looking tank! How exactly did you attach the moss onto the driftwood? I tied mine on with fishing line, but the growth seems to be very slow :[


Thank you for the compliment  Those moss are attached using fishing line to the driftwood also. What kind of moss are you attaching to the wood? Did you chop the moss into bits before attaching them? I think it does takes a while for the moss to grow out after you attach them to driftwood. I also noticed the original potion of moss tend to turn black after a while.


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

I really like the lighting, where did you get those light fixtureS? i might get me 2 of those


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

sketchillus said:


> I really like the lighting, where did you get those light fixtureS? i might get me 2 of those


I bought those light fixtures from Walmart (Kennedy and Sheppard location), you will find them in desktop light section. They cost around 13 dollar each


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

oh .. i don't have desktop space... ill figure some diy lighting out hmm


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

sketchillus said:


> oh .. i don't have desktop space... ill figure some diy lighting out hmm


Those lights are clip on lights. You do not need any desktop space to put it


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

lol oook then. might stop by walmart.. that location is close to me hmm my lighting is the biggest issue for me now


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

sketchillus said:


> lol oook then. might stop by walmart.. that location is close to me hmm my lighting is the biggest issue for me now


Ya good light will change you life lol. I was using stock light (15w) before and I could only grow moss and some other low light plants there. Pearl grass/Glosso/Baby Tears would slowly die or not grow at all. I think these lamps are good choice for anyone who want to keep it low budget and still get decent light. The replacement for bulbs will also be easy to get and will not be too expensive


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

where did you get your plants?


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

sketchillus said:


> where did you get your plants?


I bought most of my plants from people to save money. I bought pearl grass, glosso, blyxa japonica from AI when they were having sale on plants. I have also traded some of my plants with other people's plants. I probably spent around 20 dollars in total for all the plants (Some of the plants came as hitch-hiker when I bought other plants so they are free ).


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## charlie1 (Dec 1, 2011)

Nice start, would be interesting when the plants grow out, thanks for sharing.
On a personal note, i find the input & return hoses distracting, even with the plants grown it might still be a distraction, personally i prefer a solid colour back ground such as white , black etc.
Regards


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

charlie1 said:


> Nice start, would be interesting when the plants grow out, thanks for sharing.
> On a personal note, i find the input & return hoses distracting, even with the plants grown it might still be a distraction, personally i prefer a solid colour back ground such as white , black etc.
> Regards


Thank you for the suggestion charlie. What do you use to cover the back of your aquarium? Craft papers? The plants are growing pretty fast hopefully it at least cover the right side soon cause my diy co2 reactor is pretty ugly as you can see lol.


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

*Quick Upate!*

It's been two weeks and here's updated picture of my tank  I've been fighting with GSA for a while, hopefully it becomes under control soon. Also been thinking of swapping the substrate with fluorite for better CEC, because I noticed glosso in this tank have larger leaf than glosso I'm growing in pot with soil. I'm guessing the reason is because it can not absorb much nutrition from root due to low CEC of gravel and are forced to expand its leaf :/

*Whole picture of the tank*


*Some growth in HC and huge growth in pearl grass and riccia, had to trim some*


*Glosso spreading pretty well*


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

*Another Update!*

Here's another update! I didn't realize it's only been two weeks since last update, everything have grown so much! Also added few red plants for some accent, really loving them (Thanks to the nice member here who offered to trade them ).

*Picture of the entire tank*


*Baby tears starting to cover up nicely, stem plants are growing too fast it has to be trimmed weekly.*


*Glosso completely taken over the whole floor on the left, need to trim it soon *


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

Glosso looking very nice.. i just got a tfho 4x24 light for mine.. hopefully the glooso will spread like yours.. um is your water level dropping?


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Thank you for the compliment  you are right the water level is very low in the picture because the picture was taken just before the weekly water change. Also I should have cleaned the water mark a little bit heh. I will do a nice picture after I do another trim and wait a bit for everything grows in nicely


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Here's another update. I replaced my substrate last week and at same time re-scaped it a bit for different look. New substrate I'm using is Eco-Complete.

First, two pictures were taken before I pulled out everything.

*Kinda messy since I already pulled out some Glosso*


*My favourite view of the tank*


*Picture of the new setup. Still undecided what to do, plants are kinda placed randomly and messy. Any advice is welcome *


*Close up picture, switched to HC carpet from Glosso, it was growing way too fast.*


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## sketchillus (Jan 4, 2012)

no rocks or driftwood?


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

As you can see my setup is running on very low budget, otherwise I would put some nice rock in there  Just trying to get the best out of what I have right now heh. I do have few branches I picked up outside which I might user later, but for now I will wait for everything to grow in a bit. Maybe then I will have some new layout ideas.


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## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

Low budget and its working, nice job


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Thanks  I'm sure my future wife will be happy I'm so frugal about my hobby lol


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## jimmyjam (Nov 6, 2007)

I like it , good job so far. Low tech... awesome!


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

Thanks 

Here's another update, it's been two weeks since the tank was set-up.

*I moved around some of the plants, added a DIY drop checker *


*Plants are doing pretty good, starting to see little bit of algae though.*


*Another problem I have is red plants tend to turn green as you can see in the picture.*


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