10 gallon planted setup...thoughts?

Hi everyone! I am already looking into resetting up my 10 gallon, and have an idea how to do so...have any thoughts?
Substrate; 2 inches thick, with 75% turface and 25% fluval stratum (at the bottom) (NOTE; After doing more research, I may use a mixture of 50% each turface and 1/8 inch horticultural pumice instead). Tank will be dry started for a month before flooding (will likely add springtails to help prevent mold problems)
Filter; 80 GPH sunsun internal filter, with a filter sponge, about 1.5 tablespoons seachem denitrate, and 2 teaspoons purigen. Will be cycled in a QT tank while the tank is dry starting.
Light; Two 2700k led BR 20 bulbs, each 575 lumens, to start; on 7 hours a day. Will likely upgrade the lighting after the tank is flooded if algae is absent.
CO2; Yes, from yeast reactor. Will shoot for 20-30 ppm CO2.
Fertilizers; Yes. I will likely try to limit nitrogen somewhat to encourage red coloration in some of the red plants.
Fish; TBD (need to figure this out before flooding the tank)
Plants; Not 100% sure. Riccia will be used as a floating plant (and a sanctuary for the aforementioned springtails once the tank is flooded). Other likely options include christmas moss (as a carpet), Ludwigia 'super red', a Rotala rotundifolia variant.
Setup; Dry start the tank for a month (during which I will mist the glass - but not the plants - daily and partially open the plastic wrap for 10 minutes a day), then flood the tank and add the filter. Biweekly 40% water changes the first month post flooding, then weekly 40% water changes. Every water change, I will use a large pipette to disturb the top of half of the substrate and suck up the resulting detritus (a source of the ammonia and organics that cause algae blooms)

Thanks for your input

 

Just a question i tried to make a yeast reactor but didn't work. How do you do it? Do you use a co2 diffuser?

 

Just a question i tried to make a yeast reactor but didn't work. How do you do it? Do you use a co2 diffuser?

I've never had good luck with traditional diffusers with my yeast reactors; instead, I insert the output of the tubing into my internal power filter, turning the filter into a crude CO2 reactor. It has worked well for my other tanks. I wish I remembered who on here gave me that idea...

My reactors have - per 20 oz bottle (I wrote 16.9 yesterday...wrong bottle size!) - 1/4 cup raw sugar, 1/8th tsp each corn starch and baking soda, a tiny amount of fish food, and .45 ml instant yeast (which produces high tech levels of CO2 for 2 weeks straight for a 5 gallon tank; for larger tanks I use larger bottles and scale up the recipe accordingly). I then add dechlorinated water to mostly (not entirely) fill the bottle, cap it and shake it vigorously, then remove the cap and place it in a container of water heated to the high 70's fahrenheit (temperature changes sharply alter CO2 production from yeast, so you want to heat the reactors to prevent large fluctuations in CO2 and the resultant algae issues). If a foam appears at the water surface in the new reactor within a few minutes after you shake it, the reactor is functional and can be used (though I would recommend waiting until the tank photoperiod is over before switching out the old reactor, as CO2 fluctuations during the photoperiod WILL cause algae problems by stressing the plants out). I thoroughly rinse the old bottle after replacing it and save it for the next change. With this recipe, the yeast reactor goes for over 2 weeks without a drop in CO2 production caused by high alcohol levels in the yeast reactor, which would trigger algae problems if it occurred (on a related note, I would recommend keeping a record of when to change the reactor out).

One other thing...I found online (again, don't remember the source) that you can make a bottle cap for these reactors by drilling a hole in a bottle cap slightly smaller than the CO2 tubing and pulling the tubing through it with pliers (it helps to cut the end of the tubing at an angle to make it fit better through the hole and give the pliers something to grab). The tubing automatically seals to the hole, sparing you the hassle of aquarium silicone that did not necessarily seal properly. This has worked a mighty lot better for me than buying CO2 bottle caps online, which tend to be difficult to remove from the bottles they are attached to.

 

Hi everyone! I was doing some research and discovered that 1/8th inch horticultural pumice has a surprisingly high CEC - about 51.19 meq/100 ml (it has about 75 meqs per 100 grams...for comparison, sphagnum peat moss is about 110 meq/100 grams, but taking into account its low density of .169-.219 grams per ml gives a CEC closer to .186-24.09 meq/100 ml). I thus may use the pumice instead of any kind of soil, as it has a high CEC without the difficulties imposed by the decay of organic material in the soil (peat humus has a higher CEC and density than regular sphagnum peat moss, but seems to be hard to acquire)

 

Did you get the pumice? How did it work for you? Does it float? I'm trying to figure out what to put in a sorted tank setup myself.

 

I never tried the pumice and am currently taking a break from planted tanks. Sorry I cannot be of more help