Aquafrogg's 10 gallon tank journal

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!View attachment 554720

It's very pretty! Did you get your smaller river rocks from petsmart? I think I have the same ones!

Dragon stone is very porous, but really large and shallow pores. It's more like grooves. Look it up on google, I would link a picture but we aren't allowed to post other people's pictures on here!

 

At Walmart. Same difference!

 

At Walmart. Same difference!

It's probably much cheaper!

My rock came!! Here is the final (for now) scape... what do y’all think? What should I change/add? There are floating almond leaves on top of the water, they haven’t sank yet



I can’t wait for the swords to grow so that they are above the water level! Also... my java ferns have little sproutlets on their leaves! How fun!!

Also here is an update on the snails. I gave two to a friend today! I hope they do well with her!


Here they are having lunch (hikarI shrimp sticks and algae wafers)

Reggie's Tank update

• aquafrogg
• May 13, 2019

Here's a better picture of the tank after it settled and the plants straightened themselves up! The leaves sank this morning, I'm going to position them where I want and get another picture. I can even do a *mini* photoshoot of Reggie, the snails, and my new shrimp! ...

I got some new shrimp yesterday. I made sure to not get ones that had the horsehair worms. They seem hardier and larger than my old ones, I hope they last longer than the others! Some of them are even berried-- I heard baby shrimp are hard to keep alive. We shall see, maybe I'll have a nice colony eventually. I have 8 right now and my brother has two. I'll be sure to keep y'all updated!!






Another update! Everyone is alive and well!

Another update! I smashed the big dragon stone into smaller pieces and I think everything flows much better now. I can’t seem to get it good on camera because you can’t see depth in pictures so everything looks like one color. But anyway.

Reggie and the snails are lovely but I believe I only have one shrimp left. Not sure how I can’t keep them alive, but I’m trying not to beat myself up about it because they were feeders.

Oh yeah, I’m also making a minI 40-60 gallon pond out of a bath tub. I made a thread about it but I haven’t made any progress on it besides the fact that I know what I’m going to put in it and where it will go. All the baby mysteries will go in it as well as two fancy goldfish. Anyways, here’s the pictures of the tank!







Click on them to see the pictures clearly!

 

I am simply in love with your tank as always!

 

I am simply in love with your tank as always!

Thank you very much!! I wish I could show you what it looks like in person (way better) but you’ll just have to use your imagination! Lol. I’m trying to get more tannins but the leaves just aren’t putting out any yet. Ugh.

Also, I found another shrimp!! I have at least two!!

I figured y’all would like to see a little photoshoot of Reggie.... here he is!! You can still see his broken rays but he is still loving life!

Click on the pictures to see them clearly!



I thought his rays looked cool as he swam into his log



“Mooooom! No more pictures!”






“Fine. Look, I’m posing. Now can we be done with pictures?”



Here you can see how the broken rays mess up the neatness of his tail. But I still think he is beautiful!!



I liked the way his ventral and pectoral fins looked in this one



The face of an angel



Also, apparently the plants like this setup. It has turned into a jungle in the matter of a week.

 

Such a cutie!!!! He looks so great! Loving his betta log too.

 

A slight update!

I took out a lot of the wisteria that was crowding up the tank and put it in my new pond. It’ll explode in there!! There’s still a healthy amount in the tank, though.





And here is some bonus pictures of Reggie when the sunrise peeked into his tank! Ignore the nasty gravel and algae, I’m doing a water change today lol




You can really see his blue eyes in the second one!

 

Following your build.. I am also doing a betta tank! Thanks for sharing yours!

 

Following your build.. I am also doing a betta tank! Thanks for sharing yours!

Thank you!! Do you have a thread? I’d love to see yours!

 

Thank you!! Do you have a thread? I’d love to see yours!

I do but there’s not much to see yet! Here it is 5 gallon Planted Betta Tank | Freshwater Aquarium Builds 410808

 

A bit of an update! Reggie and the snails are doing good. His tank is a mess at the moment, sorry. I should have cleaned it up a bit before taking pictures lol. Anyways, I took out the java fern and a lot of the wisteria and put them in my brothers tank. Click on pictures to make them clear!







My. Amazon. Sword. Is. HUGE!!! It’s filling up the whole tank! Pretty soon, I'm going to have to take all of the other plants out hahaha

 

A bit of an update! Reggie and the snails are doing good. His tank is a mess at the moment, sorry. I should have cleaned it up a bit before taking pictures lol. Anyways, I took out the java fern and a lot of the wisteria and put them in my brothers tank. Click on pictures to make them clear!

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My. Amazon. Sword. Is. HUGE!!! It’s filling up the whole tank! Pretty soon, I'm going to have to take all of the other plants out hahaha

I absolutely love your tank. It’s beautiful and so is Reggie!! What is your ph at? And also what fert and co2 do you use?

 

I absolutely love your tank. It’s beautiful and so is Reggie!! What is your ph at? And also what fert and co2 do you use?

Thank you so much!! <3 sorry for the super long reply lol...

My pH has always been around 6.4, I haven’t checked it in a while though. The snails don’t seem to mind, they have cuttlebones in there to graze on for calcium and they are fed a well-balanced diet.

I only use nilcog Thrive, one pump every time I do a water change! I also use the root tabs that you get from the LifeWithPets website— sorry I can’t remember the name at the moment. I’ll edit this eventually or message you when I get home to share the name. I haven’t put any in the substrate for a very long time, a 9+ months past the due date to replace them. But my sword is doing very very good without them, so I guess it’s living off the thrive and poop. Lol.

And no co2! This is a suuuuper low tech tank besides the light. Very easy plants (Amazon sword, wisteria, duckweed, Anubias barteri, moss ball). I’m a busy person so I need something that’s very “set it and forget it”!

That reminds me! Here is an announcement I’ve been meaning to make... I am going off to college next year, and Reggie/the snail gang are coming with me! I don’t want to part from them or the tank and I don’t trust my parents to take good care of him. so I need everything to be super simple for traveling in the car!

 

Thank you so much!! <3 sorry for the super long reply lol...

My pH has always been around 6.4, I haven’t checked it in a while though. The snails don’t seem to mind, they have cuttlebones in there to graze on for calcium and they are fed a well-balanced diet.

I only use nilcog Thrive, one pump every time I do a water change! I also use the root tabs that you get from the LifeWithPets website— sorry I can’t remember the name at the moment. I’ll edit this eventually or message you when I get home to share the name. I haven’t put any in the substrate for a very long time, a 9+ months past the due date to replace them. But my sword is doing very very good without them, so I guess it’s living off the thrive and poop. Lol.

And no co2! This is a suuuuper low tech tank besides the light. Very easy plants (Amazon sword, wisteria, duckweed, Anubias barteri, moss ball). I’m a busy person so I need something that’s very “set it and forget it”!

That reminds me! Here is an announcement I’ve been meaning to make... I am going off to college next year, and Reggie/the snail gang are coming with me! I don’t want to part from them or the tank and I don’t trust my parents to take good care of him. so I need everything to be super simple for traveling in the car!

Do you use the low tech version of thrive or just the regular one?

 

Do you use the low tech version of thrive or just the regular one?

Just plain ol’ Thrive I believe and the root tabs are h2o brand

I have cleaned up the tank and added almond leaves, ill get a good picture once they sink hopefully!!

Here’s the tank currently!
Edit: make sure to click on it for it to be clear

HI all! Guess what! I’m getting ADFs for my tank!

Here’s the tank after a nice water change




And here is the temporary QT bucket while the frogs plumpen up!




I get them tomorrow! So excited!

This is how the tank looks with tons of leaf litter for the froggies

Also some pictures of it’s newest inhabitants (2 adolescent male ADF— any name suggestions?) and of course Mr. Reggie








Also, dear mods, how do you change the name of a thread? I have recently changed my username and can’t figure out how to make the title match my new name with the new update

 

This is how the tank looks with tons of leaf litter for the froggies

Also some pictures of it’s newest inhabitants (2 adolescent male ADF— any name suggestions?) and of course Mr. Reggie

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They are so cuuuute!

 

An update on all my sweet babies...

Reggie now ignores the froggies. The only attention I see him pay them is staring and watching from a safe distance. Besides that, he just chills. Cool little dude.

The froggies had their first water change today. They were very behaved and hid while I siphoned and came out to explore as I filled it back up. Then they were very hungry so I fed them, the snails, and Reggie a large helping of bloodworms and everyone is happy.

I have to say, I'm pretty darn pleased with my tank right now. I love the look, the stocking, and the easy maintenance. However I do have a new issue of slimy green string algae. Yuck. It grows on the duckweed roots so it covers the surface. I'm fixing by lowering light time, increasing ferts and increasing CO2 in the form of Excel. We shall see what happens. If it starts to kill my mossball I'll move it to my brother's tank until I get it under control.

 

Okay, so! I ended up getting a few extra decorations... lol. Petco has a piece of spider wood so I took it. Which means I rescaped my tank. It’s basically what it used to be but with spiderwood and a new baby crypt. Not sure how I feel about it yet so I’m going to let everything settle overnight and look it over in the morning. Here’s some pictures from the process lol

The massive sword... that’s my foot as a reference. I took off 10-15 leaves and replanted in the same spot.

The spiderwood

“Get us out of here”!!!!!

Angry man who got kicked out of his house as it got remodeled

Everyone is doing good and eating their massive dinner. I’m curious to see what it looks like when the water clears up. I think I might have taken out too many sword leaves but I’ll see what y’all think when I get pictures some pictures tomorrow.

 

The tank has finally cleared! I added some creeping Jenny from my pond. It’s looking a little pale and sparse from being in a 40° Blackwater pond but I’m excited to see what it does in proper conditions

Click on the picture to see it clearly!

 

It looks lovely!

 

It looks lovely!

Thank you!! I really like the direction it is going

I’d say the creeping Jenny likes its new home lol. Look at that bubble!!

 

What a pretty little pearl!

 

Happy one year to Reggie and his tank! It's come one heck of a long way.... lol....

Just a little update! This tank is at a bit of a low right now lol. I woke up this morning to Reggie missing a ton of scales. I don’t think it was the frogs because of the way it looks. I’m pretty sure he tried squeezing through a tight hole or something. He will heal, though.

The real issue is the algae. This hair algae is getting out of control. Does anyone know how to get rid of it? My diatoms are crazy right now also.

 

Just a little update! This tank is at a bit of a low right now lol. I woke up this morning to Reggie missing a ton of scales. I don’t think it was the frogs because of the way it looks. I’m pretty sure he tried squeezing through a tight hole or something. He will heal, though.

The real issue is the algae. This hair algae is getting out of control. Does anyone know how to get rid of it? My diatoms are crazy right now also.

Maybe a nerite for the diatoms? They will eat them. I’ve never had hair algae so I’m not sure if they’ll eat that or not.

 

Maybe a nerite for the diatoms? They will eat them. I’ve never had hair algae so I’m not sure if they’ll eat that or not.

I’ve been considering a couple nerites for a while. I think I’ll go get some at some point this week.

I don’t think they eat hair algae though, but Amano shrimp do. I just don’t know where in the world to get Amano shrimp around here though.

I did a 50% water change and removed as much algae as possible. It looks great right now but I just know that in about a week it’ll be awful again *eyeroll*

Okay... don’t be mad... I redid the tank again lol. But for good reason and I’m very happy with the result!!

So... first off, I took out the huge amazon sword. I know. It’s such a sad day. But! I replaced it with my old java fern that I had growing in my brothers tank. That’s where I put the sword, btw.

There were so many baby java ferns on the ends of the adult plants that I took all of them off and replanted them in the wood lol. I think it looks really cool.







I also moved everything to be centered around the wood piece and I think that it will do for now. However my plans are:

-Add more floating plants like frogbit
-add red tiger lotus or another variety of big-leaved red plant
-add red Ludwigia
-add cabomba
-add maybe guppy grass or water sprite
-possibly add some colored buce
-possibly also pennywort

Woo hoo! I also can’t wait for the java fern to fill in the back as well.

Anywho, here is a dump of some pics of my tank and it’s inhabitants! Enjoy!



Frog being cute



One of my new amanos in hiding






Amano!



Sweet Reggie man



Yes because this nugget NEEDS more food... lol... they’re so chunky



Thought this was a cool picture (excuse the detritus)

 

Awesome! It almost looks like a floral arrangement Well done!

 

Also, an update on everything:

Algae is still an issue, but I feel like without the huge amazon sword, my plants won't be choked of light and can actually grow and use more nutrients and kill off algae.

The amanos are very shy and hardly come out from the wood to eat algae. They have only been in for 2 days though, and were incredibly shy at the store, so I'm not too shocked. Hopefully they come out of their shell soon. I get so excited when I see their little shrimpy noses poking out from the foliage and their arms picking away at whatever they are on. I believe I have a male and a female, so I need some names. Any ideas?

Reggie's face looks way better. You can actually see the scales growing back in. He is as curious and personable as ever.

The nerite snail hasn't moved much. It just sits on the glass all the time not moving. I need a name for him (assuming it's a he) also. Hopefully after he settles I will be able to see his personality. I'm used to mystery snails though, so the nerite might just seem dull in comparison.

The frogs are fat and happy finally. They sing me to sleep every night and are probably some of the most interactive things I've ever met. They constantly just beg for food.

The mystery snails are getting big and are wrecking havoc on all of my aquascaping. ugh. I hope I can find a good home for some of them soon. I'm seriously considering giving them to the store I got them from for free because I don't really know what else to do with them anymore.

Oh, and everyone goes NUTS for brine shrimp. Even more than bloodworms. I saw Crash and Eddie straight up fighting for them once.

Awesome! It almost looks like a floral arrangement Well done!

Thank you!! Hopefully it will look much fuller once everything has time to grow and I get more plants.

 

I think it looks gorgeous! One thing I will recommend though is to not go too crazy with the floating plants since you have air breathers. I noticed when the duckweed got a little out of hand in my betta tanks they had a harder time going up for air.

 

I think it looks gorgeous! One thing I will recommend though is to not go too crazy with the floating plants since you have air breathers. I noticed when the duckweed got a little out of hand in my betta tanks they had a harder time going up for air.

Ah yes thank you! I was planning on trying to get rid of as much duckweed as possible and just get some frogbit.

 

HI all! I just took advantage of buceplant.com's early 20% off of all plants deal and got:

nymphaea tiger lotus
cabomba aquatica
ludwigia ovalis
crypt beckettii

Can't wait to get them in 2-5 business days!! lol
Will keep everyone updated!!

My duckweed is actually growing again now that the amazon sword is out of the tank so I won't be getting a different floating plant. Also, everything else I wanted was just "wants" but not necessary for the moment, so I will wait and get more plants when Christmas rolls around to keep adding to the tank.

 

A sad update. The smaller, more friendly shrimp passed this morning. When I woke up and went to check on everyone, he was zooming around erratically upside down. When I checked on them one last time before school, he was lying dead. I saw the larger shrimp once when I got home from school but haven't seen her since. Feeling kind of nervous. Things aren't looking too good for her. The nerite is closed up in his shell lying on the gravel also. ugh.

The algae problem seems to be stopping. After the sword was taken out, all of the plants have gotten tons of beautiful new growth that is algae-free. The shrimp are also helping. But my mystery snails are bulldozing and uprooting everything. I'm on the last straw with them. Going to call local pet stores this weekend and see if anyone will take them. I'll keep 2, I think.

Buceplants still hasn't shipped my order yet. They said last night that it would be shipped today. Ugh.

 

Happy update! I moved all the snails out and the last amano is still alive!! She is very friendly and is out often

Also I got my new plants

This is what the tank is looking like currently while the plants adjust. I’m going to leave the plants where they are until they fill out and can handle being moved around a little. Then I will make it pretty lol













I also have pond snails now... lol... this was not planned

 

Some bonus pictures of the amano

Any name suggestions?









Her molt in the pothos roots, which scared me to death!!

 

Plant update!! Cabomba is very very happy. It has already grown like 2 inches. Also, the red tiger lotus has melted a little. Ludwigia ovialis is growing more branches on the stems. Wisteria has done a fair bit of growing. Java ferns are growing a bit of algae (not again!!ead. Anubias barterI is doing the same. The original crypt has some minor melt from being moved around. The new crypt beckettiI has completely died lol. Moss ball is slightly falling apart. Creeping Jenny is doing alright. Duckweed is growing like mad. Pothos is growing more roots and got moved to the back by the java fern.

Phew!! That’s a lot of plants lol. I still feel like I’m forgetting some. Anywho, enjoy the pictures

 

Reggie says good morning <3

 

An update!

I can’t believe it, but the crypt beckettiI is growing leaves! It’s coming back to life!

Also, I just ordered 10+ neocaridina culls, 2 more amano shrimp, and 3 b grade nerite snails. Hopefully they will be here within 3-4 days! Yay! Can’t wait to see how they do. I’ve only had ghost shrimp and haven’t had any luck with them. Hopefully these new guys like my tank.

 

Some updates! I changed the substrate and the overall layout of the tank I quite like it! Plus some bonus pictures of the inhabitants. Enjoy!
















Showing my new filter setup. I brought the old filter back (internal) and reduced flow with pothos roots

 

Here’s how the tank is looking as of right now. If you were wondering, the floating container is a DIY breeder box that my dad made for me. Crash broke his leg and so he is staying in there for a little bit until he heals. That way he can swim up for air easier.







This is proof of how relaxed Reggie has become... Crash is just chilling on top of reggie’s Fins. Reggie didn’t care at all, he just turned his head to look initially, then was like “eh whatever”.

Also I took out a bunch of plants cause it was very overgrown.

Also (part 2): I have 10 chilI rasboras that will be on the way Monday, and will be here early Tuesday with next day shipping.

 

Unfortunately, Crash passed away this morning. It looked to me like he had a lot of internal bleeding. Took out the container and gave him a nice burial in the flower bed.

Eddie is fat and fine, he was singing last night and was eating up a storm this morning. I think he will be okay on his own for a little bit until I have the time and money for more frogs.

The chilI rasboras are shipping tomorrow, and will be here Wednesday. Hopefully they enjoy the tank. I think I will boil up some more tannin, just because. And keep a highly concentrated solution in a jar.

Took a few pictures of the tank and Reggie to cheer myself up.

 

Another update, although I’m not sure anyone ever looks on here anymore. Lol

I have a chilI rasbora in ick treatment right now, I’m going to order 5 more Monday and treat them the same.













Eddie being cute