Aquafrogg's 10 gallon tank journal

I saw a lot of people making these threads, so I figured I would too! This is the story (so far) of my 10 gallon planted tank for my betta, Reggie.

So it all started the sunday after Homecoming: October 6, 2018. My mollies in my 5.5g bowfront tank I had since I was 5 had just died for reasons I was unaware of at the time (let’s just say, I was EXTREMELY inexperienced and had those fish in some pretty bad conditions. S.I.P. River, Humphrey, and Pebbles. I am sorry.). Everything I put into that tank died, no matter what it was. So, I decided to start over. I threw out the tank, and my boyfriend and I set out on a mission: to get a new tank. I had don't a ton of research that night and learned about something called cycling a tank. But no, I was far too impatient for that. I’d had some bettas as a kid in a tiny .5 gallon unfiltered tank (again, I am sorry. S.I.P. Shadow, tex, Shadow 2.0, and any other betta fish I had.) and remembered how bettas “don’t need a cycled tank” (I was so stupid) and decided to do a fish-in cycle on a tank with a betta fish.

We arrived at Walmart and looked at the different kits they had and settled on the Aqua Culture LED Aquarium Starter Kit 10. It’s 10 gallons (duh). Tank, filter, hood, and light? Check. So, next, we got some gravel, also at Walmart. Check. All that was left was the fish.

I didn’t particularly like any at Walmart, so we went to Petsense and I bought Reggie, who I had my eye on for the past month or so. He had been there for a long time. All that was left was to go home and set it up.

We got home and set it up (without washing the gravel or ANYTHING of course) and used the plants from my death trap aka 5.5 gallon and put reggie in after acclimating him. BEWARE: it looked SO bad.




Yeah. I don’t want to talk about it. Not the ideal setup for a betta (or any fish) whatsoever.

So, after almost a month of looking up bettas and falling in love with a channel on Youtube called LifeWithPets, I learned a ton about bettas and decided I was going to change up the setup. The first step was live plants and altering the filter flow.




I ran off to pet supermarket and got a bundle of water wisteria and a raggedy amazon sword for $2 each and one of those cichlid hides for $5. Viola. Oh, and I did the water bottle trick on the filter to reduce flow. After a week or so, I realized the plants needed root tabs and the sword needed some TLC. So, I stripped it down to only the healthiest leaves (poor thing, there were only about 6) and ordered some root tabs off of LifeWithPets’s website. I also moved one if the fake plants to a suction cup to use as a betta leaf. Reggie loves it and to this day still sleeps on it every night.

Anyways, after about 2-3 weeks, I decided I would make my own sponge filter and get a snail and a heater. And that’s exactly what I did.




By this point, the wisteria had grown to the top of the water and barely touched it. I was ecstatic. Also, the sword had like 3-4 new leaves. I named the snail Sheldon and got him some cuttlebone for calcium, because there are some spots on his poor shell that are so thin they’re almost completely see-through. He also needed some TLC.

About two weeks later (yesterday) my wisteria had grown to like 2 inches past the water’s surface and my amazon sword had 6 new leaves total. I hated how bare my tank was, so I gave the wisteria a haircut and replanted in that bare area by the filter.




You can see just how full the sword has gotten. Woo hoo! Hopefully in about a month or so, the wisteria will be back to its former length all around. Around christmas, I have plans on getting a real plant light, water lettuce, anubias on driftwood, moss balls, pothos to decorate the outside of the tank, and lobelia cardinalis. Yay! Tell me what y’all think! Reggie and sheldon are my children and I love them so very much. They will eat out of my hand and reggie dances and follows me around the tank. Oh yeah, and my tank is cycled now. Lol.

Also, Sheldon has some nice new shell growth that is a much better color of yellow and isn’t all raggedy and chipped. It looks like his shell is going to fix itself! Yay! I’m going to give him some zuccinI tonight. His regular diet is algae wafers and any rotten leaves in the tank. I also want to get a couple ghost shrimp one day, too.

I am planning on getting reggie frozen blood worms and frozen brine shrimp soon to replace the freeze dried blood worms. This is his feeding schedule:

Sunday: fasting day
Monday: 2 soaked betta pellets AM and PM
Tuesday: pinch of freeze dried blood worms AM and PM
Wednesday &Thursday: same as Monday
Friday: same as Tuesday
Saturday: same as monday

Any suggestions on his feeding schedule? Or Sheldon’s?

 

this is so charming! soon, I'm going to set up my first tank, with a betta fish, so this very inspiring! the best to you and reggie.

 

this is so charming! soon, I'm going to set up my first tank, with a betta fish, so this very inspiring! the best to you and reggie.

Aww thank you!! This made my day let me know when you get your tank, I want to see it!

 

Aww thank you!! This made my day let me know when you get your tank, I want to see it!

ill get it late this month for christmas, so it might be a little while. ill be sure to post updates!

 

ill get it late this month for christmas, so it might be a little while. ill be sure to post updates!

Okay!! Well whenever you post it, tag me so I can see

 

Very good story and I'm happy you pretty much didn't give up the hobby and continued to learn more and learn from your mistakes to make your next tank better. Sorry for you loss. I too did not follow or know about the nitrogen cycle. I was one of those people that set up my tank and got the fish without doing enough research and for all I know I done harm to Kory, but he is still a very happy fish since I bought him. I would of been impatient to just to have an empty tank and wait for it to be cycled and stubborn me would of bought a fish as it is lol. Everyone learns, I certainly did from this forum. Otherwise, I do not believe Kory would be here still.. That's pretty cool you set up a fake plant with a suction cup than the typical betta leaf hammock product. I was curious about that when I saw one of the photos in your album. I didn't know you could do that to a fake plant too, I think I'll keep that in mind.

 

Very good story and I'm happy you pretty much didn't give up the hobby and continued to learn more and learn from your mistakes to make your next tank better. Sorry for you loss. I too did not follow or know about the nitrogen cycle. I was one of those people that set up my tank and got the fish without doing enough research and for all I know I done harm to Kory, but he is still a very happy fish since I bought him. I would of been impatient to just to have an empty tank and wait for it to be cycled and stubborn me would of bought a fish as it is lol. Everyone learns, I certainly did from this forum. Otherwise, I do not believe Kory would be here still.. That's pretty cool you set up a fake plant with a suction cup than the typical betta leaf hammock product. I was curious about that when I saw one of the photos in your album. I didn't know you could do that to a fake plant too, I think I'll keep that in mind.

Hey so glad you liked the post, thank you!! I’ve done so many unspeakable things to fish over my lifetime and I figured it was time I compensated for that by giving reggie the best life I possibly can. This forum has really taught me a lot as well and I know I can always rely on the people here to give me good answers to my questions. And thanks about the DIY leaf lol. It looks better than the regular betta leaf IMO. The original one is too dark for my likings.

Update! So, it's day 3 of the trimmings being planted and they keep on popping out of the substrate lol. This happened when I first put in the mother stems, I just had to wait for roots to grow. So far, I only saw one tiny root starting to form, then somehow it fell off. I wouldn't doubt it if Reggie thought it was a worm and bit it off.

But, I added a root tab near the filter, so their little roots should shoot off super soon. The mother wisteria and the cuttings have both straightened out a good bit, too. I'll try to get a picture tonight if I can. I also want to draw out my plans for the tank on this drawing app I have, so you'll be able to see my idea for the "aquascape" (can you even call it that?) that shall be executed around christmas.


1 week after trimmings have been cut, and they’re starting to take root and grow a ton. The mother plants also have a lot of buds shooting off of them to make new stems. Each has 2, but 2 of them have 4. There’s also algae beginning to grow on the hide and plants. Ugh. I’ll start dosing excel again

 

Bubbles_and_Fins Meanwhile, Reggie is flaring. <3

 

Bubbles_and_Fins Meanwhile, Reggie is flaring. <3

He is? Haha, I didn’t notice. He’s been super flare-y lately. And sometimes he’ll just zoom back and forth across his tank randomly lol. How’s kory?

 

Bubbles_and_Fins Kory does the same randomly and zooming lol. He is doing fine as ever, just the way I love it. I also feel like ever since I been giving him the catappa leaf treatment he is much active and has his relaxing moments. It's hard to tell still if his minor fin rot is healing, but I'm looking at him carefully everyday. He gave me a scare last Thursday. It looked like he was kind of stuck in his silk plants. I posted a status about it on my profile.

 

Bubbles_and_Fins Kory does the same randomly and zooming lol. He is doing fine as ever, just the way I love it. I also feel like ever since I been giving him the catappa leaf treatment he is much active and has his relaxing moments. It's hard to tell still if his minor fin rot is healing, but I'm looking at him carefully everyday. He gave me a scare last Thursday. It looked like he was kind of stuck in his silk plants. I posted a status about it on my profile.

Awww! That must have been scary, i’ll take a look at your profile



Okay, so this is my idea. Don't judge, I made this with a touchpad on my laptop lol. you can see my hide, gravel, rock pathway, heater, filter, wisteria, and amazon sword that I already have.

My plan is to put some anubias nana petite on the hide (probably from lifewithpets because they sell the right size I want), and get an "anubias on driftwood" from pet supermarket and put it to the left of the hide. And then I want to put some pothos out the side and let it droop down off the tank.

I'd like to get a couple moss balls and put them wherever ends up looking good, but the big green circles on the substrate are where I'm thinking. Probably gonna get those from pet supermarket as well, or wherever has ones that look good. I'll probably not get them online unless lifewithpets sells them cheaper than I can buy in store. I don't trust most online stores.

Then there's the little scribbles by the driftwood and amazon sword, which I plan on being lobelia cardinalis, unless it will just die from being too high maintenance. Then I might look for some different plants. I wanted a little "bush"-looking plant with tiny leaves but most of those aren't easy plants. Maybe a clump of monte carlo? idk.

Last but not least is the water lettuce, which are the little green roots at the waterline. I just impulse-ordered those from a fellow fishlore user (I couldn't find it anywhere else for this cheap!), but I won't be able to provide it a nice light until christmas. I'll plop it into my tank anyways. I got 15, so hopefully at least some will survive another week or two without sufficient light. If not, I might just put them in a little dish on my windowsill with some tank water so they can have the light they need. Hopefully the water lettuce will make it so that I can get reggie's betta leaf out, because I think it's way too ugly.

That's it, I think. All the plants I plan on getting will be ordered/bought on christmas. The fancy light (beamswork) is the big black thing on the top of the aquarium. Unfortunately the tank will have to be lid-free until I can get holes drilled in an acrylic sheet to be the new lid. I'll also be getting some liquid ferts (thrive) for christmas, too. That'll help bump my nitrates a little because my current bioload won't be enough to sustain all these water column feeders. What do y'all think?

I'll also be making a run to petsmart after christmas to get some frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. They're cheap, but I'd rather buy them with my parent's money than mine, you know? Also, as an FYI, I've bought everything in/for reggie's tank and reggie with my own money. He's my first pet that I've been able to call just mine, not my family's pet.

 

Bubbles_and_Fins I have to research more about having real plants so I know the names and about them and overall, to give a better feedback of my opinion, but your setup as it is from your photos look so nice and organized and a very nice layout for Reggie. I await to see more. I'm assuming having a lid-free tank is okay for real plants? My current 5 gallon doesn't have a lid x.x I got it at a flea market along with a air pump my boyfriend and I found while I was considering getting into the hobby so it all fell into place, hahaha. Just buying a lid itself is pretty pricey and I'm kind of surprised. Your drawing you made is very well done for using a touch pad, I'm for real, probably because I love to draw and use Photoshop to digitally design. It's very nice to know a responsible fishlore friend to care for a fish and take pride in what your accomplishments have been towards Reggie, good on you!

 

Well, I’ve bought some water lettuce and got a pothos trimming for free lol. The water lettuce will multiply when I get my good light and ferts and the pothos will grow many many leaves until it looks like a jungle. There’s maybe 5 or 6 leaves on there currently but you can’t see them from that angle.

Also the wisteria trimmings have outgrown the mother plants and they’re just absolutely shooting off. I’ve found baby stems sprouting off of one trimming already. It’s taking time for the mother stems to grow because ethey have to create whole new stems, which can take a while to get going. But once the stems reach a certain length they shoot off too. Just wanted to update y’all! You can see reggie chilling on his bed in the picture

I’m off to do a water change lol

Small update! I think I’ve decided to turn this tank into a blackwater aquarium for my dear Reggie boy and his snail pal. I think they’d love that so much. Reggie will really feel “at home” and Sheldon will love munching on the fungus that will grow on the wood and leaves.

Reggie’s tank as of 12/25/18

• aquafrogg
• Dec 25, 2018
• 4

Reggie’s tank under new light and lidless! We will be cutting the new lid this week.

I also added a holiday background to get him in the christmas spirit! Haha.

I got $50 to spend solely on plants/decorations so hopefully I’ll be rescaping soon!

Hmmm... yeah I completely changed my original design and went a tad overboard.






Good news is, Reggie absolutely loves it. He is still swimming around and exploring so happily! So, here’s why my plans changed...

First off, I got the betta log because the new light is so dang bright on his poor eyes. Then, (forgetting how tiny a 10 gallon is) I got a big ol’ piece of mopanI driftwood, which the camera does no justice for. It’s stunning in person. I also got the river rocks.

Last but not least, I got (a LOT) more plants. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. I asked the worker if I could have a couple stems of bacopa, but he was like “I need to order some more anyways, just have ALL OF THEM.” ...So now I have a ton of bacopa jammed in there. I also got a couple anubias barterI (spelling?) for the driftwood. And that’s about it. Lol.

#NoRegrets

 

Bubbles_and_Fins This is super amazing! I hope Reggie likes the betta log too. xD Overboard? I think not! What I see is called Dedication.

 

Bubbles_and_Fins This is super amazing! I hope Reggie likes the betta log too. xD Overboard? I think not! What I see is called Dedication.

I just saw reggie laying in his log already!!

 

Bubbles_and_Fins Yay!!! Well that was a fast adjustment.

 

Update! The tanins are starting to tint the water. I love it so much! Also, Reggie hadn’t built a bubble nest in months, but guess what I saw floating all around his betta log? A bubble nest he built last night!

 

Bubbles_and_Fins oh wow! What a wonderful moment to wake up to. How exciting!

 

Sudden emergency in this tank, everyone. I'll keep y'all posted.

Important - Emergency! I Accidentally Tainted My Tank!

Reggie’s tank, with driftwood tannins

• aquafrogg
• Jan 2, 2019
• 2

It’s so dark in there haha

The tannins are from the driftwood

Hey everyone... I have bad news about this tank. Sheldon passed away last night. I believe it's from the worms, so I'm going to be treating this tank when I get good information on the medications I'm considering.

Also, the back wall and most things in the tank is covered in green hair algae. Ugh. This tank is a mess.

I’m trying to get this tank back in order. I’ll update you guys soon.

 

I'm sorry for your loss. .__. Don't dwell on it, but look into the problem to resolve it. I believe in you. Yes, let us know anything new.

 

Reggie's tank: Less tannins, no bacopa

• aquafrogg
• Jan 29, 2019
• 2

The title says it all haha

Another update on this tank! So I took out the bacopa, it began rotting because there wasn't enough light (too much tannins and water lettuce)

I also have a new snail! He's a wild type mystery snail. There's also 5 ghost shrimp in there, too.

 

It's beautiful, loving to see your tank like this.

 

It's beautiful, loving to see your tank like this.

Why thank you! He (and all his invert friends) love it too! ^-^

A bit of an update:

Well, not sure if I have updated y'all on when I got Mama Snail, but be ready for a wild ride.

About a month after Sheldon died, I wanted another mystery snail. So, I went and got Mama Snail from a local pet store. She is a beautiful wild type mystery snail with a dark brown striped shell and a dark body. Let me tell you, she. is. huge. She touches both ends of my palm when she stretches out. She was around sheldon's size when I got her, but she is all grown now and her shell is around the size of a small golf ball.

She is very very goofy, and I originally thought she was a male and named her Pumba. Now let's get into the story of how she earned the name "Mama Snail".

I came home from work one day to find not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE clutches of snail eggs on my lid of my tank. Yeah. Apparently female mystery snails can hold on to fertile eggs for a long time before laying them. I panicked and threw out all but two egg clutches, because I was open to having baby snails, but not over 500 of them.

After a while (I can't remember how much time had passed) I noticed that some of the eggs in the clutches were open and baby snail shells were peeking through. I was ecstatic!!! I crumbled the clutches into the tank and watched all the little babies float to the bottom and start wiggling around. They are SO cute and I love watching them explore and climb all over each other to get to food. They are about two weeks old now, and the size of peas. Some are colored like the mother, some have the same shell but light bodies, and a couple even look like magenta mystery snails-- a rare color! I'm so excited to see what they look like as they grow older and I can't wait to see where they end up in their forever homes once they are old enough!

Oh, and get this: Mama Snail has had ANOTHER clutch of eggs hatch this morning. I'm being overrun by snails!! Luckily, my aunt is waiting for the last of her fish to pass, and then she is giving me her 20 gallon with all of the stuff that comes with it. I plan on moving all the babies into there so that they don't overcrowd my tiny 10 gallon!

 

What an amazing update! Sorry for your loss of Sheldon and happy for you with your new mama snail. I hope all is well!

 

I redid the tank lol But I don't have any pictures yet, I'll post this weekend. I'm actually not very happy with the wood, I want to get a new piece. It's just... weird looking.

Also, the baby snails are so big!! They are munching away on romane lettuce as we speak. Can't wait to sell them!!

 

Cool!! What kind are they? Did you say they where baby mystery snails? Ok, well when you post a picture of the tank, make shure you get a close-up on the ghost shrimp, and baby snails!! I have snail eggs right now!! They are so cool!

 

Cool!! What kind are they? Did you say they where baby mystery snails? Ok, well when you post a picture of the tank, make shure you get a close-up on the ghost shrimp, and baby snails!! I have snail eggs right now!! They are so cool!

Unfortunately, I haven't seen Harry, Larry, Barry, Jerry, OR Terry in quite a long time. I believe they have passed on, and probably became the equivalent of a filet mignon for Reggie. I'd love to get some more shrimp for the tank once the baby snails are gone, now that I can properly pick out a healthy shrimp from one with a massive horsehair worm slithering inside its clear body. I don't believe I will be getting them from Petco this time. Their tank is tainted. I'm probably going to order some cherries off of LifeWithPets's website. I trust them hands down.

Yes, they are baby mystery snails! And they eat SO MUCH! I'll try to get some closeups of their cute little faces... And Mama Snail, too. I don't have any pictures of her yet.

What snails do you have?

 

I have NO idea!! No one can figure it out!! The first picture, is the one of the he/she and the second picture, is the one of the eggs.

They are not bubbles!!

 

I have NO idea!! No one can figure it out!! The first picture, is the one of the he/she and the second picture, is the one of the eggs.

They are not bubbles!! View attachment 550873View attachment 550874

looks like a bladder snail but i'm not sure

 

Are they pests?

 

Are they pests?

they are considered pests, yes, but as long as you don't overfeed you're fine. every once in a while just pick them off yourself.

 

Ok, thanks!!

 

Here’s some pictures I got last night!


Two babies in drift wood


Reggie photobombing when I try to take pictures of anything but him


Size comparison to Mama Snail (ignore the dirty gravel they all ate and pooped in that spot a couple hours prior)


“Jazz hands”!! He/she was wiggling their antennae all around


Walking the root right rope
And, finally...


Bonus picture of Reggie

I will be redoing the tank slightly this weekend, stay tuned for that!

 

Mama snail so cute!! Finally an updated pic of Reggie!!! Glad to see he is doing well too.

 

Mama snail so cute!! Finally an updated pic of Reggie!!! Glad to see he is doing well too.

He is going great! He’s been very active and interactive lately

Okay, soooo... I completely moved the log to my brother’s big 20 gal and bought a tiny little twig for my tank. I ended up moving the filter back to the right side and hid it with Java fern and my sword. Here’s how the tank looks so far, but it is most definitely a work in progress!!

Click on the pictures to make them clear








I am going to put a big rock on the left side where the random anubias is. It’s just going to sit there until I get it. I have a thread up to help me pick the rock and help me do any other aquascaping things. I can link if y’all want it

Another update... this time on the well-being of my aquatic friends

Reggie’s tail doesn’t seem to be healing... but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him at all, so it’s just a cosmetic setback. I’m going to just let it be and he will live out a happy life as an imperfect little pal that also is perfect at the same time <3

He also seems to be really loving the new life spectrum pellets. He couldn’t eat my old tetra pellets until they were pre-soaked and squishy. I soaked the NLS pellets for the first few weeks and slowly transitioned him to eating dry pellets. He gobbles them down like it’s nothing!! Woo hoo! He doesn’t seem to be bloated at all from eating dry pellets either, which is more amazing. Yay!

Also, i’m Not sure if the life expectancy of an adult mystery snail, but I’ve had Mama Snail for a few months now and she is starting to slow down a little. I’m sure it is of old age, because what else could it be? My Parameters are fine and there’s no contamination from my brothers tank and she is given a great diet. I’ve just noticed her hanging out in her shell more often than not. I’ve heard that they go through seasons of being energetic and seasons of being lazy. We shall see.

 

She could just be getting old, most creatures slow down, when they get older, much like humans!

 

It definitely could be age or just because. My oldest mystery snail slowed down and I was wondering for quite a while if it was alive or not, but it kept popping out of its shell and moving a little every now and then. Then it died after a couple weeks or a month of being much slower than usual.

 

I bought dragon stone!! Thank you Scott from SR Aquaristik for the AWESOME customer service. They send you pictures of their different rocks and let you pick which one you want! Can’t wait to see it when it gets here!

Anyone who is looking for rocks or wood, for sure check them out. I can happily say that i’ll be a returning customer!

 

View attachment 554651

I bought dragon stone!! Thank you Scott from SR Aquaristik for the AWESOME customer service. They send you pictures of their different rocks and let you pick which one you want! Can’t wait to see it when it gets here!

Anyone who is looking for rocks or wood, for sure check them out. I can happily say that i’ll be a returning customer!

That's awesome, even cooler to hear that they let you choose!

 

What is a dragon stone? Like what is the difference between a dragon stone, and a regular stone? Btw, do you like my structure? I plant o put it in my 10 gal. Tank, when I get one!