10 Gallon Tank Dual 10g Project Tank Journal

Got 2 10g tanks up and running. First is a Blackwater that is already cycled and colonized with copepods, bladder snails, and micro ramshorn. 2nd is just a basic planted tank that is currently finishing the nitrite stage.

I'm going to attempt to place 1 male and 1 female pencilfish in the Blackwater to see if I can get them to breed. Plenty of food for the fry in there.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the other.

Will keep this thread open as a journal. Any ideas are welcomed

 

Peacock gudgeon breeding tank for the 2nd!

 

Following!

The 10 gallon planted tank could do with a small group of honey gouramis. If the water flow is weak then it creates an opportunity to successfully have some in there. Just a suggestion though. There are so many options to choose.

 

Peacock gudgeon breeding tank for the 2nd!

Oy I didnt even think of that definitely a contender

Following!

The 10 gallon planted tank could do with a small group of honey gouramis. If the water flow is weak then it creates an opportunity to successfully have some in there. Just a suggestion though. There are so many options to choose.

Both tanks have those low flow internal filters so should be okay, that would be a nice peaceful tank to raise fry in

 

Oy I didnt even think of that definitely a contender



Both tanks have those low flow internal filters so should be okay, that would be a nice peaceful tank to raise fry in

Just add some caves.

 

Following!

The 10 gallon planted tank could do with a small group of honey gouramis. If the water flow is weak then it creates an opportunity to successfully have some in there. Just a suggestion though. There are so many options to choose.

Honeys are beautiful. That might be a fun breeding experiment!

 

Interesting results on these tanks so far. The blackwater cycled quickly, and is being weakly supported by the snails and decaying leaf litter for now. I'm seeing some amphipods appear, which is super cool as I've only ever had copepods in my tanks. There are some interesting copepod-looking critters in there with double tails as well, which are also new

The second tank keeps stalling on its cycle, and that's the one with plants lol. I keep putting stability in it but stability is pretty weaksauce. I'm not really in a hurry but its interesting, two identical tank sizes with the same filters and media, yet the one with plants is being stubborn

I didn't get home until today so I will probably try to breed a pair of pencilfish in the blackwater tomorrow or on the weekend

 

Redosed the Blackwater today, if all looks good tomorrow I can try to spawn my pencilfish. You just can't rush these things unfortunately

The planted tank is still stalled out on the nitrite stage which is pretty interesting. Plants are growing like crazy though

 

Got 2 10g tanks up and running. First is a Blackwater that is already cycled and colonized with copepods, bladder snails, and micro ramshorn. 2nd is just a basic planted tank that is currently finishing the nitrite stage.

I'm going to attempt to place 1 male and 1 female pencilfish in the Blackwater to see if I can get them to breed. Plenty of food for the fry in there.

Not sure what I'm going to do with the other.

Will keep this thread open as a journal. Any ideas are welcomed

Love the way they look side by side.

 

Dosed the blackwater last night with 0.5 ppm ammonia and this morning it reads 0,0,0. Incredible results honestly, this is the fastest I've been able to achieve a "full" 0 nitrate cycle. Of course I used seeded media from my other 0 nitrate tanks though

The other tank has the exact same filtration, a Tetra whisper internal, but its still being stubborn on the nitrites so today I'm replacing it with a Topfin 30 stuffed with ceramic beads and turned down low lol.

Tomorrow I'll introduce my breeding pair of pencils finally, then I go to work until Thursday morning. The information available says to keep the pair in for 3 days, so that should be perfect. After 2-3 more days the fry should be visible.

Will post back end of next week more than likely. Hopefully both tanks are cycled by then

Edit: added them now so they could have an extra day to graze. Here is a video of them enjoying live foods. Around the 1 min mark I zoom in so you can see various copepods, amphibious, and lice-like critters in the leaf litter. There is also hydra which the pencilfish will also eat. I won't be feeding this tank at all as these are all the things pencilfish eat in the wild. Male is a little paled out still, and I could only net my 2nd best (nearly had to tear my tank apart lol) but I managed to net my best female. Enjoy

https://streamable.com/256foz

 

Ended up moving 3 females into the blackwater with 1 male. The tank seems ideal for them so after my little breeding project I might just move the whole group of 7 over permanently. Funnily enough it seems that one of my "males" was actually a colorful female hiding out as a sub male, guess it didn't want to breed lol. I thought I had 4M/3F (not ideal) but I have 3M/4F (a bit better)

One female was already swelling up with eggs when I went to work so I'm hoping to find 3 little balloons swimming around with a bright red male when I get home tomorrow

I switched over all the media from the other tank into a bigger HOB and topped up with ceramic beads.. hoping it cycles faster now. I put one single seeded bead half a stick of Jobes just to get some consistent ammonia in there while I'm gone

 

Got home today and found my 3 females with nipped fins. The male was being pretty aggressive with them. I removed all 4 back to my main tank for health reasons and because they should have spawned by now anyways.

If I was successful then I should see fry appear within a few days, if not then I'll have to modify my method and try again

The other tank looks cycled now but I'll have to do a full param check tonight when I have more time

 

I'm following

 

I've had some time to think this through. The pencilfish weren't in breeding condition when I came home so I'm not expecting to see any fry in the coming days. If do appear I'll be shocked.

A lot of the literature on N. Beckfordi seems to be missing or inaccurate. They're supposed to do better with a single male but that clearly isn't the case. When I remove a male from my display tank and transfer it over it immediately loses breeding colors. I put it back in with the other males and the colors return, even without females present. Also, the females were stressed and not interested in spawning.

This tells me a few things:

1. That the males need to establish a hierarchy with other males to get into breeding condition

2. That the females also need to be isolated to get into breeding condition

My plan now is to drop my pH over the next week or so down to 5 with RO water. After my tank is ready I will drip acclimate 3 females and let them settle for 1 week. Then I'll add my 2 best males.

If all goes well I should be able to add all 7 after my project ends

 

I’ve bred beckfordi in tanks packed with Java moss. My tap water is very soft, 30 ppm TDS, the pH usually drops to 6.2, but I didn’t add any tannins to tint the water. The fry would emerge from the moss when they grew large enough avoid being eaten by the adults. My males sparred constantly but never damaged the females.

 

I’ve bred beckfordi in tanks packed with Java moss. My tap water is very soft, 30 ppm TDS, the pH usually drops to 6.2, but I didn’t add any tannins to tint the water. The fry would emerge from the moss when they grew large enough avoid being eaten by the adults. My males sparred constantly but never damaged the females.

Thank you for the input! Hard to find someone who bred these guys before. I'm guessing my issue is pH then as my tank sits at 7.5. Maybe I'll just drop it and stick with the one male. Any other suggestions?

 

Just that the newly hatched young find enough microfauna in the moss without me having to culture infusoria.

 

This is awesome! I love the 2 tanks side by side.

 

Just that the newly hatched young find enough microfauna in the moss without me having to culture infusoria.

Nice. I should be good then, I have their breeding/grow out tank cultured with tons of different microfauna. Even have some neat little wood lice guys in there that I've never seen before

This is awesome! I love the 2 tanks side by side.

Thank you I didn't want to commit to a 40g so I set up these 2 project tanks with the light I was going to use for my 40

 

Definitely agree with the others that the tanks look amazing juxtaposed with each other. Following .

 

I have the Blackwater half covered with cardboard, if I don't see any fry by Wednesday then I'll drop the pH

That Jobes plant spike that I put directly into the filter of the 2nd tank (lol) burned a couple hygro leaves slightly but otherwise seems to have helped. Tank is almost finished the nitrite stage finally. It showed 1 ppm yesterday as opposed to immediately turning so purple that it looks black. Might stock something sometime this week

There's some licorice gouramis available within shipping distance but my one tank isn't ready yet. I hate waiting when cool rare fish show up

 

well the planted 10g is cycled with tons of diatoms and nice green algae, none of the unwanted hair algaes or bba. ill probably stock "something" in it soon.

the blackwater is going through some kind of mini cycle for some reason. still colonized with plenty of live foods though. my little tetra internal filter got clogged while i was away from home so that's probably why. i'll have to upgrade that one as well i guess

might try to spawn the pencilfish in the planted tank this time around, theres nothing in it so ill do a 90% change with soft water and monitor the cycle. will post back with results

 

Came home from work to find that the population of live food in the blackwater 10g had EXPLODED. I might just keep it open for fry to be perfectly honest. I'm not sure why but all the hydra disappeared. I could only spot one node and it was clearly dead. I won't complain!

The planted 10g is going through a big diatom phase but I actually like to see that. It will provide lots of food for algae/biofilm grazers and snails. I think I will move the pencilfish over once I am confident in the cycle and see how they do in their own tank. I will be rehoming the SAE in my main 20g tank, who grew 4 inches in 6 months, so that should fully open me up for some new stocking choices

I redosed the planted 10g with 0.5 ppm ammonia today. If I see zeros tomorrow I will be confident enough to stock it

 

Man, I can't believe it but the planted 10g is stalled out on nitrites again. Super weird. I'll move some more cycled media over

I redosed the blackwater just to make sure everything is 0. I've finally decided, I'm going to move my pencilfish over and see how they do. I'll start remineralizing to KH 2.2 GH 4.5 and drop it slowly after they're introduced. Right now the pencils are acclimated to harder water so this is a good solution

 

My SAE was trying to eat the pencilfish so I moved them over to the 10g biotope last night. I did a 50% WC with distilled beforehand. There is a bubble wall set to very low flow just to keep the water oxygenated since there is minimal filtration. This morning they are fully colored up and spawning in the leaf litter

I need to go to work this morning but I will post a video on Saturday showing them in their new home

 

Newest pic, isnt the clearest cus I'm not using the good phone but I plan on posting a video next time I get the chance anyways




Oh and the other tank finally finished cycling just have to clean off the glass and figure out what to put in it now. At the very least I'll be using it to quarantine some chili rasboras if they come in

 

Newest pic, isnt the clearest cus I'm not using the good phone but I plan on posting a video next time I get the chance anyways

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Same, I can relate to not having a good phone for picture taking. You do blackwater setups very well and I really like the twisty branches you have in there! Great work with your setup there, friend!

 

Same, I can relate to not having a good phone for picture taking. You do blackwater setups very well and I really like the twisty branches you have in there! Great work with your setup there, friend!

Thank you very much I got a lot of awesome advice from MacZ and that helped a ton

When are you setting up a Blackwater JL?

 

Thank you very much I got a lot of awesome advice from MacZ and that helped a ton

When are you setting up a Blackwater JL?

I'm thinking pretty soon. MTS is coming at me full force right now, thanks to Fishlore! However, I still have a 10 gallon aquascape to complete (cycle is finally about done though). Maybe in the next year or so I can try a Blackwater setup for the first time.

 

I'm thinking pretty soon. MTS is coming at me full force right now, thanks to Fishlore! However, I still have a 10 gallon aquascape to complete (cycle is finally about done though). Maybe in the next year or so I can try a Blackwater setup for the first time.

Nice that 10g of yours looks incredible by the way. Excited to see what you come up with

 

Took some better pics in HD this morning

 

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Just by curiosity, did that Duckweed get in there by accident or did you put some in there yourself? The tank is looking really nice by the way.

 

Just by curiosity, did that Duckweed get in there by accident or did you put some in there yourself? The tank is looking really nice by the way.

I put it in there in purpose just to help provide some additional cover but so far it just dies lol. I don't think plants will make it in this environment. A dwarf lily would probably be okay if I can find one but then again there is very little light

 

I put it in there in purpose just to help provide some additional cover but so far it just dies lol. I don't think plants will make it in this environment. A dwarf lily would probably be okay if I can find one but then again there is very little light

I bet an Anubias or two would do just fine in there unless you tried that already... Either way, it looks awesome even without the plants. In fact, having green plants such as Anubias may even ruin the cool aesthetic your tank provides.

 

Newest pic, isnt the clearest cus I'm not using the good phone but I plan on posting a video next time I get the chance anyways

View attachment 789806

Oh and the other tank finally finished cycling just have to clean off the glass and figure out what to put in it now. At the very least I'll be using it to quarantine some chili rasboras if they come in

what type of wood did you use? I really like it!

 

I bet an Anubias or two would do just fine in there unless you tried that already... Either way, it looks awesome even without the plants. In fact, having green plants such as Anubias may even ruin the cool aesthetic your tank provides.

Lol probably, I don't plan on adding plants in the long run but I might see an Anubias I like at some point

what type of wood did you use? I really like it!

No clue lol. It was unlabeled but apparently aquarium safe

 

Little video from the planted 10g showing all the different microfauna in there. This is just how the glass looks lol. Definitely going to stock some benthic grazers

Microfauna

 

Cleaned the planted tank up a bit but didn't go too crazy. It looks cloudy because I just shot a bunch of diatoms into the water while cleaning the front.

The pencilfish in the Blackwater tank still needed more cover so I think I've finally added enough for them. These little guys can be tricky. They've colored up considerably since I added the extra branches. The tint is finally stable where I want it as well.

pH still won't go down. 70% of the water has now been replaced with distilled. Hopefully it starts to go down now. I have to agree that large pH drops are a myth. You really would have to not be paying attention for months and already have water below 2 dKH

 

Well the Blackwater is so dark now that I can't see into it at all. My wife asked me what the point of having fish is if I can't see them

The filter died on the planted side but I think I'll go filterless anyways. After all that trouble of cycling it too

I found some giant red lilies in a local lake and they were just beautiful. I dug one out of the sand and the "bulb" was like a big potato. I stuck it in the planted tank so let's see what happens

 

Can we get pictures pleaaasseeee