# My 10G and 6G: After 2 years



## spec v (Aug 8, 2008)

i haven't been on this forum in god knows how long, so I figured I'd post a pictorial update.

Here are some new pictures of my 10 gallon planted tank, on it's 2nd anniversary of operation...original fish include 3 black neons and one otocinclus...there are 4 black neons, 1 oto and 2 blue cobra guppies in total.










Plants pictured at foreground, from left to right: crypt wendtii, dwarf subulata, java fern, crypt blassi, dwarf subulata, val spiralis carpeting, crypt wendtii. Also, some anubias barteri on the driftwood, hygro difformis and hygro rose mid-rear ground plants, and mini-amazon swords on both ends.










Pictured above, a closeup of my valisneria mini-carpet/forest, and my crypt wendtii corner piece.










Pictured above, a shot of the center of the tank, between the driftwood, home to wisteria, java fern, and my crypt blassi in the foreground.

I've recently managed to stave off, or rather, keep at bay, a rampant outbreak of black hair algae...I've switched to dosing my fertilizers daily (Excel, Flourish (NPK), and trace), in a set order, as well as keeping a 50-60% WC as part of my weekly schedule. This has worked really well. Lighting is still weak, at 15W 10000K. I plan on upgrading the lighting to a 28W Coralife 20" power compact fixture (non-actinic) to help out the more light-hungry plants. I have substrate 16:9:12 NPK tabs for the swords, and the vals carpet, and the crypt blassi.

All in all, a very satisfying outcome to what was 2 years of ups and downs, radical transformations, changing aquascapes, from fake plants to real, from fake decorations to real driftwood...hindsight is always 20/20...I wish I'd had a plan from the get go, but it started life as something for my kids, and has become my hobby exclusively.

Below are a couple of photos of my almost 2 year old 6 gallon Eclipse tank that sits in my kids' room, for their enjoyment (not too many dads I know would keep a planted tank solely for their kids, lol, I must be nuts). It is home to 3 tequila sunrose male guppies. It had been home to my beloved male betta, Harry, but he died several months ago.










Plants include (from left to right) java fern, a HUGE anubias that was a mere stump with a leaf when I first got it, some crypt blassis up front, some java fern in the middle on the rocks (that were also babies originally), an anubias lanceolata, and some more fern. The anubias barteri gets alot of diatom algae, as does the front of the aquarium. I just brush it off with a soft toothbrush when it gets too covered. This tank has great water quality, and all these low-light plants are thriving in this low-light setup...9W 10000K lighting, 10 hours/day photo period. Algae is not a problem in this aquarium, and the minimal stuff I DO get, some black brush algae, is attractive on the petrified wood. Substrate 16:9:12 tabs are present for the root feeding crypts, and I must get a new shoot/leaf every week/week-and-a-half. This tank gets ferts only once per week, as it is a very low-light setup...just some Excel and .5ml of Flourish. I have no plans for this aquarium, except maybe to add a shrimp or two.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Great lookin tanks  nice that their low maintainance.


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