# Kev's 10 Gallon "journal



## Kevdawg (Jan 17, 2008)

*Kev's 10 Gallon "journal"*

I've got a few planted tanks, but I have a bad habit of forgetting to journal them step by step. So far this is the closest thing to a journal that I have made. I forgot to take some pictures along the way, but this is my 10 gallon over the past year.

I started off sometime last winter/spring with some hairgrass, Eusteralis stellata, dwarf sagittaria, and I can't remember what the plant on the back left corner was. 

















As you can see I was a little lazy and left a pot of cardimine in the tank... I changed the scape around slightly, but once again I forgot to take pics after 









Eventually, I got bored of the layout so I tore down the layout and started with some florabase substrate and got rid of the plain black sand. At the time I wasn't sure how I wanted the layout to look so I just got some Utricularia graminifolia in the summer I believe and split it up into plugs and let it grow. Again, I forgot to take some pics of the setup along the way lol. 

























By late September I was basically just UG growing in the tank with no other decor, so I pulled out the carpet, gave the tank a good clean, and replanted it.


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## Kevdawg (Jan 17, 2008)

So far this is what the tank looks like today. I'm growing the UG with Pogostemon helferi, and blyxa japonica. I had a few problems with algae getting trapped in the carpet early on, but its under control now after I decreased the lighting period. Now the only issue is the extremely slow growth of the blyxa. Once I get some free time I think I'm going to add some more gravel to the back to give it more depth. 








There's a bit of a bald spot in the carpet to the front right corner cause I cut some out for trade.


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## KamHo (May 23, 2008)

Wow, looks cool!


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

Nice!

Isn't it amazing how thick that stuff will grow in! What do you think is accounting for the blyxa growing slowly?


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Really nice hope mine grows as good .


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Wow I love that grass! Much nicer than the gloss. Do you have any more for trade or sale?


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## Kevdawg (Jan 17, 2008)

jrs said:


> Nice!
> 
> Isn't it amazing how thick that stuff will grow in! What do you think is accounting for the blyxa growing slowly?


Yeah, its growing so compact that the shrimp don't bother crawling through it anymore. I can't figure out why the blyxa is growing so slowly, it is possible that I've disturbed it too many times, as I have re-planted it twice within 2 months. It's kind of odd because the leaves have turned very reddish, yet it doesn't so much progress other than that, which is a shame because its my favorite plant. I just love the way normal blyxa gets to a nice green colour and fountains the way it does.



desjardo said:


> Wow I love that grass! Much nicer than the gloss. Do you have any more for trade or sale?


I do have little extra. I'll probably transplant some into the new 20gallon I'm setting up. Hopefully it spreads just as quickly and I'll be able to share some for a low price, because I was just at Big Al's in North York the other day and they were selling it for an outrageous $15.99 per pot!!!


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

15.99?

Well if it spreads, count me in for some. 

btw. I am getting massive red X o' doom


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## desjardo (Aug 30, 2008)

Myself as well. I currently have a few plants I need an i.d on but am waiting for an order to arrive. Is supposed to have approx 5 cutting off of some red colored plants. Not sure what but will need id on them so I will post when I plant.
Currently have a micro sword that grows like mad other than that nothing I could part with yet...


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

Kev

What are you running for NO3 ppm? What is the lighting on it?

I, by mistake, was running 130W 24/7 for about 4 days on a 20g with the Blyxa and it turned red on me as well. I can only assume that the high light would have gobbled up all of my NO3 leaving me with near zero values.


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## Kevdawg (Jan 17, 2008)

The no3 is at 2ppm. The lighting is 28watt PC, 12" above substrate and stays on for 10hrs. I thought about adding some fert tabs underneath the blyxa it to help it out.


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## Prodicus (Nov 3, 2008)

This is a _very_ cool tank. Two questions:
Where are the fish? 
What's your CO2 setup?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Kevdawg said:


> The no3 is at 2ppm.


I'm just curious as to what test kit you're using to measure the NO3 level down to 2 ppm. I'm pretty sure the API NO3 test kit's lowest limit of detection was 5 ppm, and the only other brand that I can think of that will test to such accurate levels would be LaMotte.


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## jrs (Mar 18, 2006)

Darkblade48 said:


> LaMotte.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

jrs said:


>


Heh. Definitely. I wish I had the money to throw away on LaMotte test kits...


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## Kevdawg (Jan 17, 2008)

Darkblade48 said:


> Heh. Definitely. I wish I had the money to throw away on LaMotte test kits...


No no you're right, I'm using API. Sorry its not 2 its at 0 How much are LaMotte kits anyway?



Prodicus said:


> This is a _very_ cool tank. Two questions:
> Where are the fish?
> What's your CO2 setup?


I just added in some treadfins 2 days ago and I'm gonna try to get them some female friends, if so I might move them to a 20gallon and just put some harlequin rasboras in the 10gallon. I'm using pressurized CO2 btw.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Kevdawg said:


> No no you're right, I'm using API. Sorry its not 2 its at 0 How much are LaMotte kits anyway?


You might want to bump up those nitrates then!

LaMotte nitrate test kits are about 70 CAD each


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## Camper (Feb 7, 2009)

Nice tank!! what kind of lighting are you using?


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## Prodicus (Nov 3, 2008)

Beautiful fish. Thanks for the video!

I just added in some treadfins 2 days ago and I'm gonna try to get them some female friends, if so I might move them to a 20gallon and just put some harlequin rasboras in the 10gallon. I'm using pressurized CO2 btw.
















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## simsimma (Aug 3, 2008)

yeah, can u tell us what kind of lighting you used,
from what i can see the light is so bright its reflecting the green on the fish making them look like theyr glowing lol


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## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

Nice lawn, that's gorgeous!

I almost bought some Lamottes kits once.. geez, wish I had that money to waste today, lol.


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## Kevdawg (Jan 17, 2008)

simsimma said:


> yeah, can u tell us what kind of lighting you used,
> from what i can see the light is so bright its reflecting the green on the fish making them look like theyr glowing lol


I'm using a coralife 6700 28watt fixture.


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## simsimma (Aug 3, 2008)

nice, whats ur c02 setup?


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

Wow. I have tried to grow a foreground carpet before, and it was TOUGH. Of course, Flourite isn't the best for things like this...

However, while I'm at Guelph, I want to start a shrimp tank. Something small, I'm thinking ten gallons, and I want a nice carpet.

However, I do have two concerns, and they may be odd ones...

Does your UG ever... eat anything? Shrimplets, perhaps?
Also, how do you keep your substrate aerated? Do you have MTS in there, or do the heavy plant roots keep it aerobic?

Ah, LaMotte test kits. Maybe someday...
But right now, I can buy enough dry ferts to keep my tank healthy for a year for that price. 
I just do a lot of large water changes. My nitrate can theoretically NOT get over 30ppm, although it's realistically at around 5-10.

The EI has saved me a lot of headaches.

Anyways, thanks for showing us this tank. Your carpets are the envy of all of us.

Wes


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