# 10 gal tank - will i need to dose to keep healthy plants?



## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

I have a new set up of black sand and a small bag of laterite mix in a 10 gallon.

I'm running an internal Whisper 10 filter.

Essentially, will the laterite provide plants in the tank enough nutrients or will I have to dose?

*EDIT: this will be a planted shrimp tank. NO FISH*


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## aln (Jan 26, 2010)

what kind of plantes do you have and lighting? a 10gallon should be fine without dosing, if its lowlight plants. put if your planning to make a jungle you can also make some DIY c02


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

It depends on light intensity, and bioload from the fish. With low to moderate light intensity and a moderate to high bioload, you won't need to add any more fertilizer than the fish provide. It also depends on how fast you want the plants to grow. With a higher level of nutrients, they'll grow faster and you'll have to prune and thin them more often.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

I don't have plants or lighting yet, I'm going to fishless cycle cycle it for a few weeks. But I intend on crypts, some moss, valisneria for the shrimp, and I will continue looking for a carpet plant, or a low-level light plant that will allow me to create that look. And I will more than likely add DIY CO2.


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## aln (Jan 26, 2010)

yah you should be fine  what kind of shirmp are you getting?


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

that's the fun part! Menagerie is always getting in great varieties of shrimp. I've seen sunkist, they have huuge amanos right now (not for me), rcs, crs, tiger shrimp.. so I think I will do a bit of research on the varieties and my conditions and then see what Menagerie gets in.

I've done very well with RCS in a 10 gallon community tank, although I had a nipping fish that left a few corpses some nights. I even had them breed. 


It will all be based on how the aquarium looks when it is planted. I like the bright colours of CRS.


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

If you plant, you won't need to cycle. You don't really need a filter if you're only going to have shrimp, although a little water circulation is helpful.

When you get the shrimp, remember that they eat a lot less than fish do, so be careful not to overfeed. You might want some snails to pick up excess food.

Sounds like it will be very attractive when finished. Have fun!


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

For your carpet plant, I suggest java moss. I had this really cool tank six years ago, it was awesome, the whole foreground was various sizes of boulders, and each one had thatched moss on it










You can make java moss grow like that by just tying parallel single strands all the way along the surface of a rock.

Anyways you get this cool hill effect up and down up and down it looks really neat. To trim it I got good at just holding scissors about an inch from the rock and going snip snip snip really fast and the bits just get stuck to the prefilter and you pick them up.


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## aln (Jan 26, 2010)

yah AM is right  it makes a really nice carpet and if not a nice bush  which i made after he told me how


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## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

bae is right, i kept shrimp in a 25 gallon tank, no filter.

of course you still got to change the water, just put lots of plants


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## Byronicle (Apr 18, 2009)

AquariAM said:


> For your carpet plant, I suggest java moss. I had this really cool tank six years ago, it was awesome, the whole foreground was various sizes of boulders, and each one had thatched moss on it
> 
> 
> 
> ...


+1, the moss would look really nice and provide plenty of hiding spots for the little shrimpies


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

aln said:


> yah AM is right  it makes a really nice carpet and if not a nice bush  which i made after he told me how


I tie the strands of moss around a rock? or with string?

Also, I was going to go with a sponge filter, but I had good results with the whisper before. If I don't need it I might even take it out to save some room.

Thing is, I might get khuli loaches to go with the shrimp. I think they will add a really neat character to the tank. Shrimps and Khulis are really quirky.

At the moment my test results are:

pH - 7.8
Ammonia - 0.50ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 5.0ppm
GH - 8
KH -5

Is there a way to reduce my pH? I need it low 7.0's or 6.8 preferably. 
It seems awfully high.


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

What the set up looks like atm.

I'm aerating the water to help establish my bacteria, since nothing except a broken algae wafer is in it. I usually would have a fish or a plant in by now, but the water is still murky..

It's the same sand that Menagerie uses in its tanks, I think.


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## aln (Jan 26, 2010)

the ph will get lower over time. test your water (tap) to see where its at. ur Driftwood should soften it a bit. and yah java mos strands and tie them down (so they dont float away of course)  nice tank coming along nicely


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

Menagerie has red dwarf rasboras. They would look amazing in my tank, but it is not planted yet  or cycled.


Also picked up some ideas for the types of plants I want to use. Might go for christmas moss instead of java moss. and echinodorus tenellus. 
They had some dwarf anubis that would be nice around the driftwood. 



Still have some research to do.


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## dl88dl (Mar 8, 2010)

BettaBeats said:


> Menagerie has red dwarf rasboras. They would look amazing in my tank, but it is not planted yet  or cycled.
> 
> Also picked up some ideas for the types of plants I want to use. Might go for christmas moss instead of java moss. and echinodorus tenellus.
> They had some dwarf anubis that would be nice around the driftwood.
> ...


You can speed up your cycle by seeding the new aquarium...here is a link - http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/startupcycle/f/seedtank.htm

Good luck


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## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

I have seeded tanks in the past. at the moment I'm just adding flakes and algae wafers.


Today's read was:

pH 7.4
Ammonia 1.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 5.0

So the cycle is starting,


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## igor.kanshyn (Jan 14, 2010)

BettaBeats said:


> ...
> 
> Is there a way to reduce my pH? I need it low 7.0's or 6.8 preferably.
> It seems awfully high.


Set up DIY CO2, you will have pH 6.2-6.8, piece of cake


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