Burning and flowers

Long time since posts. The plants are generally doing ok. Cabomba has almost died out, and the HC doesn't seem to be doing anything. All the others have been doing well.

Today I noticed a flower on the nana!

But also, more 'burning' on some of the plants.

The growing accelerates

I seems the fertz have started to have an effect. Everything is growing crazily except the HC and the Cabomba which seems to be failing a little.

Some more pics

Algae is taking a minor toll. Still need to adjust light hours to deal with it.

The Pennywort is growing excellent.

After trimming, a secondary lily has taken to growing mega-size.

Repens is doing poorly for some reason. It was doing well, but is looking eaten and frail. Maybe the algae is getting to is?

Another trimming & Fertz

I had to trim again. The plants are growing at an amazing pace. Only the HC is having issues. Related to that, I got my fertilizers today. I had ordered the Seachem NPK kit, a bottle of flourish iron and trace. The plants got their first dose of iron and nitrate today.

Lily of Pearl

I've been hoping to get some pearling with the plants. I come home today and the Lily bulb has exploded with a huge leaf. All the lily's leaves are pearling!

It's a Fish!

One of the guppies birthed a baby today. I only see one baby, these pictures aren't great but you can kind of see it if you look close.

The water today is crystal clear today. Pretty to look at.

Maintenance Day

Today was water change and plant trimming day. I cut the Cabomba and rearranged it to provide more light and open up the tank some. Cut the Pennywort as well. I think it looks a lot better now.

Syringe, Plugged, and Cloudy

A web site had a neat idea for a bubble counter for the co2 line. You take a check valve and jam it up a syringe, fill it part way with water and put it along the tubing. Works great, but instead of a steady stream of bubbles I'm seeing nothing for a bit and then it busts loose with a ton of bubbles.

The filter intake was completely clogged with plant waste. Can't figure out how water even got through the gunk.

The water was very cloudy yesterday. I started to wonder if the co2 change was making some huge impact. I don't know if the change in temperature has anything to do with it either (I now have a constant 76 degrees). Today t looks pretty clear.

Apogogeton Growth

This plant was a bulb in one of those packets you can get at PetCo or PetSmart. This one is in the front of the tank and has spread out perfectly. The tall stem on the surface has grown in three days! I saw 4" of growth in one day!

Something is working now. The reds are red, and the greens are green. The fish seem to be doing well and the algae is gone.

My only concern now is the baby tears (HC). I'm seeing a couple of runners start but it certainly hasn't taken off like I would have hoped. Then again, it hasn't died so I just need patience.

Sneaky little snails

Yes, I found a couple of more. I've squished about 6-7 so far. I'm going to have to get something to eliminate this issue. Assassin snail?

A Trim and a Shave

Today, the tank got a trim. The new plan tool worked great. I got a stem of pennywort from the trim with good roots that got replanted. I cut down the Echinodorus Barthii down to expose the new leaves. Looking great so far.

Looking better

I don't know if it was the CO2 kicking in, or the shrimp, but the algae is almost gone. The melon plant is growing new leaves at an amazing rate. Today I got a cheap plant tool which is basically a long pair of scissors, but i think it will help. Also got a new heater to replace the lame one.

Red Shrimp

My red shrimp arrived today. One was dead, the rest were in good shape, but really small. Only about 3 were actually mature enough to be red. That gives me 30 shrimp including the ghost shrimp.

I'm starting to see some new growth to replace the old. Ligwita is blooming a pinkish plume and the red mellon actually has a new leaf.

Still, the bulb plants are growing heads over tails faster than the potted and bunch plants.

The Heat is On

The heat is definitely on this heater. I got the el-cheapo at Big Al's and now I know why. It doesn't maintain the temperature correctly and worse it stops if the water level is 1/8" below the top of the tank.

I come home and it is 68 in the tank. I think this weekend it gets inserted into a garden gnome.

See Oh Two

Tonight I setup a second CO2 reactor but without a bubble diffuser I can't really tell how many bubbles it is pumping out.

The reactor uses sugar and yeast to produce CO2 which is then pumped into the filter intake.

I bring this up because the algae is still about the same and I'm not seeing great growth from the crypt or the mellon. In fact, the mellow looks a little worse with algae. If the mellon keeps looking bad, I'm going to put it in the big tank and hope for the best.

The Vals are showing growth...I think. It is either a Val or a apons bulb the is back in there as well.

So far the bulbs are showing the best growth...I have to learn patience.

Plants

I ordered my plants from SweetAquatics and couldn't have been happier. The plants arrived quickly, and looked great. I only found three snail egg sacs, and all the plants had roots -- even the bunch plants.

• 1 x Pennywort Pot (Hydocotyle Leucocephyala)
• 2 x Cabomba Caroliniana (Cabomba, Green)
• 2 x Ludwigia Natans (Ludwigia Repens)
• 2 x Vallisneria Asiatica Var. Biwaensis (Corkscrew Val)
• 2 x Hemianthus Callitrichoides (Potted) (Dwarf Baby Tears)
• 2 x Echinodorus Barthii (Red Melon)
• 1 x Cryptocoryne Walkeri Pot
• 1 x Anubias Barteri Var. Nana Pot
• 1 x Bacopa Monnieri Pot

Of all the plants, the dwarf baby tears are the ones I was most excited about and the ones doing the least well.

After putting the plants in the algae took over. I understand that this is normal for newly planted tanks but with only 4 female guppies I felt something needed to be done. I went out and got 10 glass shrimp and 4 albino cory's. On Saturday, I changed 30% of the water and trimmed the vals back, and moved the nana to the front. Between all of these steps, the algae is toning down and the plants are looking good again. I also, set my light timer to toggle every 4 hours (I read that this will help kill the algae because it needs lots of light).

While surfing the net, I couldn't resist bidding on 20 Cherry Red Shrimp. I won them for $20 and they should be here by Wednesday. That will be 30 shrimp to suck up the algae.

Coralife 28w Light

My original idea was to get an incandescent light and use those curly fluorescent bulbs. I went to purchase this setup and found the lights were all full hoods. I didn't really want that, what I wanted was a light strip and a glass top. I bought the top and went to the truck. I opened it up and realized it was the wrong size!

Now, I have a problem with shopping. If I go out, hassle with parking, and annoying store clerks only to find that what I wanted isn't available I get irritated. Especially since I can get online and have all the stuff delivered to me!

Again, I decided that buying the original light choice might not be the best idea. All my reading just confused me on whether the light with the curly bulbs would provide enough light for the plants. I ended up deciding on a Coralife 28w light. When I got it, I noticed 2 things;

1. The bulb was a 50/50 with the bluish light for marine tanks.
2. The light didn't fit on a 10g tank like it should. It's "lips" fit perfectly on the side rails. What this means is, the lips sat ON the side, not outside of it.

I had to loosen the side screws almost all the way to get the lips to grasp the sides of the tank. But this was an accident waiting to happen. I ended up ordering legs that raise the light above the tank. In this case, I HAD to order them because no place local sold them. I also ordered a different bulb for freshwater plants. Overall, I spent over $70 on the light...which means it would have been cheaper to order a US Currents light with a moon light LED instead. Live and learn...

The light works fine, just cost about $40 more than I wanted to spend on this tank.

Substrate

My $13 tank needed substrate. I read about a lot of options and decided that eco-complete was the substrate I would use. Only one place in the area sold it, so I picked up a 20# bag as we left on an vacation to Missouri.

Note: Plant substrate is a fertilizer and in summer heat, in the back of a pickup truck it will heat up and sweat....

I put the substrate into the tank and added gravel over the top of it...then I waited.

About 2 days later, I couldn't wait. I got some bulbs again and dumped them in the tank. From the picture you can see that they started sprouting nicely.

And So It Begins

In the year 2009, I rediscovered my interest in aquariums.

As a child I had a single 10 gallon tank which I filled with sand and plants from my home in Crystal Lake, IL. I actually took 2 garbage cans to Crystal Lake and scooped out sand and plants. I added guppies and had a forested breeding ground that lasted for a couple of years.

This year, my son (4) finally started to use the potty instead of diapers. A reward to him was a fish tank with some easy to care for fish. As time went by and I had to prepare to clean the tank, I took the kids to PetCo and started to get new supplies. I wanted a fluorescent hood, and a new filter, and...I paused. Why do this when for nearly the same price I could get a 37g kit! I did, my wife wasn't pleased but I was.

I added some plant 'bulbs' that I got from PetSmart and within a short time I had live plants growing! This awakened my childhood desire to create a planted tank that was both functional and attractive.

A Hard Sell
I had need of a seperate tank for fry (guppies again), and I had given away the 10g to my niece. So, after a lot of discussion I sold my wife on the idea of getting a 10g with a good light and eco-complete substrate. This would house the fry and a whole forest of plants.

This blog is devoted to my efforts to create this planted tank....