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After a couple of traumatic platy deaths, I decided to get rid of the clown puke gravel and do a properly planted tank.
The tank is a 10g with 2x 15W 6500k CF bulbs.
For substrate I used topsoil (sterilised in the oven) and pool sand.
For decor, I used bleached beach gravel and rocks and a piece of Malaysian bog wood.
I planted some hygro and micro sword and I'll be looking for something for the mid-ground and a centrepiece plant tomorrow. I had a couple other plants to put in but I was afraid to remove them from my other tank; it's overstocked until the planted tank cycles.
Any comments or suggestions for plants are welcome!
post pics once u have fish. what u planning on puting in there
I'm not sure... I'll either move my 4 pepper corys over or get a couple otos and a khuli loach. I have 16 platy fry that are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long that need a home; I may try to trade them for some tetras when they get a bit bigger. I'll be moving 3 of my ghost shrimp to that tank and either my pair of bumble bee horn snails or red onion snails. I was at the local big box pet store today and they had some interesting red eyed and blue eyed something (Edit: Red eyed tetras and blue eyed rainbow fish) or others :P. I'm still researching and trying to find out what is available around here...
Last edited by MrEMeat; March 2nd, 2009 at 02:22 AM.
Reason: Added proper names of fish.
WELL.... Let my mistake be a lesson for all of you... Always test your topsoil before you use it. Apparently something in my topsoil is leaching tannins. I kind of like the black water look but the wife hates it . It did lighten up after a 40% water change and I think that it should be clear within a month or so. If it takes too long, I think I might upgrade my filter and run some activated carbon until the water stays clear.
I bought some crypts and dwarf four leaf clover today. I think they are going to round out the tank nicely. I'm going to try moving the front crypt over to the other left side and put some more micro sword into the middle.
That looks like tannins from driftwood. The malaysian bog I had took two months in a bucket to get all the tannins to leach out. They are loaded. You may have already soaked it, in which case its the topsoil.
seriously like it and even though im not a big fan of backgrounds that one works for me. nice job whats that on the left hand side? is it the hygro? and i like the touch of the random beach gravel rocks and larger ones
That looks like tannins from driftwood. The malaysian bog I had took two months in a bucket to get all the tannins to leach out. They are loaded. You may have already soaked it, in which case its the topsoil.
It could be from the driftwood but I have a nearly identical piece in the tank next to it and it didn't leach at all (that's why I think it's the topsoil).
tom28: I'm not a big fan of the background myself. I'm hoping that it will not be visible once the hygro bushes out. The tall stuff in the back is hygro and a little in front of that are crypts and in the very front is the micro sword.
Thank you all for your positive comments! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that likes how it looks. :P
The tank is coming along nicely! I'm very happy with it! The tannins are almost gone now (though still noticeable next to my fry tank) thanks to daily water changes (20%) and a filter bag of Purigen dumped in the outlet of my HOB filter. Purigen is awesome! I will be trying to run without it once my tannin problem is gone though.
I just trimmed my hygro and planted the trimmings. That stuff is a great value! One small bundle will pretty soon have my whole background filled out. It grew about 6 inches in 9 days!
The four leaf clover that I added isn't doing so well. It was very difficult to extract from the rock wool to plant. I think I damaged a lot of the roots when I was doing it. Most of the leaves are dead now (and they are quite difficult to remove without pulling the plant out of the substrate) but there are a few new leaves growing. It's not a total loss but it is going to take a long time to look good. I would worry about the micro sword out competing it but the micro sword hasn't had any noticeable growth.
Oh, and I have a DIY co2 system with a Hagen bubble counter. This really helped with my algae problem that was starting to appear.
I'll post pictures tomorrow. The tank lights are off and i don't really want to freak my fish out by turning it on an flashing them a bunch.
Hey hey looks great, and hello to a fellow BC'er. I am a odd one, I personally love the look of tannins in certain tanks, especially in SA tropical themed tanks etc with cardinal tetras etc. I can't keep tannins in my water for any duration though, as I extremely over filter my tanks as I tend to overstock them with a single type of fish.
Hey hey looks great, and hello to a fellow BC'er. I am a odd one, I personally love the look of tannins in certain tanks, especially in SA tropical themed tanks etc with cardinal tetras etc. I can't keep tannins in my water for any duration though, as I extremely over filter my tanks as I tend to overstock them with a single type of fish.
Well... The topsoil I used will give you a lot of tannins. It was from Home Depot. I just looked at the bag and it says that it is topsoil with steer manure :S It seems like there are chunks of shredded wood in it too. I imagine a filter bag of the soil in a corner might leach some tannins for you or soak some of it in a bucket add it to your water changes to get the colour that you want. Just an idea though. I'm no expert. :P
Here are a couple pictures. The tank today. The Purigen filter bag. My molly (I couldn't find the oto).
I think that I will be moving one of my crypts from the left corner to thin it out a bit and let me plant some more hygro there. I'm am not sure where to replant the crypt though... 10g is so small...
I threw in the pic of the Purigen bag to show how dark it is after less than a week.
I think next week I will start looking for some cardinal tetras.
My oto seems to only come out in the evenings. I think it he's lonely because I think he's trying to school with my molly. I need to get him some buddies...
Is that a Co2 Injector? Your plants are coming out very nicely.
EDIT: Oh woops this a pretty old topic.
That is the bubble counter for my DIY pop bottle co2 system.
Actually, I'm glad you did. I've been meaning to post an update!
I'm still getting tannins in the water but it's much less now. The plants are all doing great but the micro sword and dwarf clover are growing a lot slower than I expected. The hygro grows super fast though. I have to trim the hygro every week...
I have 3 pepper cories and 5 guppies in there right now but I want to get rid of the guppies and put cherry shrimp in.
Is topsoil similar to eco-complete in anyway? I plan on using that with pool filter sand or some sort of rock substrate for my 10g. I forgot to mention that's a great looking setup!
Last edited by eiginh; May 15th, 2009 at 05:53 PM.
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. It did lighten up after a 40% 
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that likes how it looks. :P
