10 Gallon Planted Tank

I finally got around to redoing my 10 gallon tank that had been running with just plants and a snail for some time. I hadn’t had the best of luck with fish in the tank, and since I didn’t care for the way I had it set up, anyway, I tore it down, sterilized everything, and set it up fresh.

I can’t seem to find my “before” pictures, unfortunately, but it had some dark colored Eco-Complete, which I never liked the look of, a couple pieces of mopani wood, some anubius, some crypts, and some Christmas moss that never did well, but never died off, either. Also, the crypts never did well in that substrate, particularly compared to my 36 bow front with sand and root tabs.

So, I switched out the jagged substrate for black aquarium sand, replaced the mopani wood with dragon stone, and got some new plants. (I did bleach dip and reuse my anubius and most of the crypts, as well.) I was pretty happy with how it turned out, though I can’t wait until the plants establish so I can get that ugly fishing line out!






The large piece of dragon stone on the left arrived with two sides cut, rather than broken, which gave it a very artificial look, so I covered the flat sections with java moss to soften it. I’ll add my before pictures if I can find them, but this looks way better than it did. The only thing I’m going to miss is the tannins from the mopani wood. I feel that tanks look more natural if the water isn’t crystal clear. I may end up buying a small piece of wood to add just for that purpose, but I’m not sure yet.

Now the hard part... waiting for the plants to establish and grow! Right now I’m leaving the light on extra to try to get some algae growth. I know that sounds weird, but my poor sunthorn nerite is in a bucket with the old mopani wood until there is a food source for him in the new setup.

 

I finally got around to redoing my 10 gallon tank that had been running with just plants and a snail for some time. I hadn’t had the best of luck with fish in the tank, and since I didn’t care for the way I had it set up, anyway, I tore it down, sterilized everything, and set it up fresh.

I can’t seem to find my “before” pictures, unfortunately, but it had some dark colored Eco-Complete, which I never liked the look of, a couple pieces of mopani wood, some anubius, some crypts, and some Christmas moss that never did well, but never died off, either. Also, the crypts never did well in that substrate, particularly compared to my 36 bow front with sand and root tabs.

So, I switched out the jagged substrate for black aquarium sand, replaced the mopani wood with dragon stone, and got some new plants. (I did bleach dip and reuse my anubius and most of the crypts, as well.) I was pretty happy with how it turned out, though I can’t wait until the plants establish so I can get that ugly fishing line out!

View attachment 732070View attachment 732071View attachment 732072View attachment 732073
The large piece of dragon stone on the left arrived with two sides cut, rather than broken, which gave it a very artificial look, so I covered the flat sections with java moss to soften it. I’ll add my before pictures if I can find them, but this looks way better than it did. The only thing I’m going to miss is the tannins from the mopani wood. I feel that tanks look more natural if the water isn’t crystal clear. I may end up buying a small piece of wood to add just for that purpose, but I’m not sure yet.

Now the hard part... waiting for the plants to establish and grow! Right now I’m leaving the light on extra to try to get some algae growth. I know that sounds weird, but my poor sunthorn nerite is in a bucket with the old mopani wood until there is a food source for him in the new setup.

Looks amazing! Following!

 

Looks good! You could superglue the plants to the rocks too and not have the fishing line. It still glues them even when damp. Only get the gel kind though.

 

I know I made this post and then never updated it, but unfortunately, the tank did not work out. All of the plants died except for the crypts and anubius brought over from the original build, the Java moss, the marimo moss balls, and the water onion bulb. (And the water onion is not a terribly interesting plant, to be honest.) To top it off, I now have what I believe to be blue-green algae in the tank, which my online research shows to be nearly impossible to eradicate. I think it may have come in on the Java moss, since that’s where I noticed it first. I guess I have learned my lesson about buying any plant that doesn’t come in one of those disease/pest/algae-free tubes! (Though that sadly limits me in what plants I can use.)

I’m really disappointed on this one. I had such high hopes, but I keep having such bad luck with plants. I’m beginning to think that anubius and crypts are the only plants that can survive my 8.3 ph hard water.

On a related note, if anyone has any advice on getting rid of blue-green algae, I’d appreciate it. I would love to try to get this tank looking nice, but it’s getting very tempting to just give up and break it down.

 

I was successful with getting rid of the BGA with Chemi Clean.
Chemiclean - Chemi-pure Advanced Aquarist Products