OldeOne
- #1
PI have a 10 gallon. It is stable. Some of my plants aren't doing so well, but I chalk that up to needing a better light. Ugh. I wonder how much money we spend on such things before finding the right one? LOL!
When I first set this thing up, I was very happy with it. Now, after seeing the tanks of others in this forum, as well as Google Images, I am left with an empty and unfulfilled sense of Tank Envy.
Keeping in mind that I do not have much money, I would appreciate input from the more artistic of you Fishlorians.
I have been toying with the idea of moving the thermometer over to the left side, but that would create a breadth too wide for the phenomenal fake driftwood to cover. If I moved the filter to the right, all of the tank equipment would be easily hidden, but then the outflow would be too near the center of the tank for my tastes. (I have always had one side of the tank with a strong current, the other with a weak current. This allows my fish to choose their comfort zone, as well as rest after playing "waterslide".) The other reason for wanting so large a "weak" zone is because of the plants. The anacharis just gets caught in high-flowing water and looks terrible.
So, right now, my tank is precisely utilitarian, but not as beautiful as I would like. I am working through a brown algae issue, which is ugly, but not necessarily detrimental. My anacharis is doing poorly. I have removed about half of it since I switched to my new light. However, my Amazon sword and, more importantly, my FISH like it better. The old light setup I had caused my anacharis to grow wild, but was too bright for my sword. My tetras would spend the entire day hiding, which is not really why we get fish. ^_^
Stats.
-10 gallon standard.
-Marineland LED.
-Glass top.
-Small, smooth gravel substrate.
-Tumbled black rocks, used to weigh the plants down because of the naughty snails.
-A cheap replica of a Japanese stone lantern from Petsmart.
-An expensive and incredibly realistic replica of driftwood from my LFS.
-Tetra Whisper 30 HOB filter with small tweaks to the filter innards.
-Aqueon 50W adjustable heater, keeping my tank solidly at 79F.
-Tetra whisper air pump with little blue airstone on end of common airline tubing.
-Anacharis.
-Amazon Sword, supplemented with Flourish Tabs.
-Pygmy Sword Chain. *
-Crinum Natans. *
-Staurogyne Repens. *
-Black Skirt Tetras x3. ** (One died, see my blog.)
-Mystery Snails x2. (One died from sex-related injuries.)
-Amano Shrimp x2. ***
-Ghost Shrimp x1. *** (One died, and I have no idea why.)
-Albino Corydora x2. ****
* These three plants have the worst case of brown algae. The amazon sword seems largely immune.
** I am not going to buy any more Black Skirt Tetras. These are the last that came from the Wal-Mart stock (see earlier posts), and I am quite set on letting these fellows live out their lives, as-is. My current stocking is the result of initial ignorance, and I'll be danged if I am going to overstock like that, again. I am a bit gun-shy when it comes to this species. Perhaps it is only the tortured stock of Wal-Mart that is to blame, but these guys seem overly susceptible to disease. My cories aren't, and one of them came from the same store at the same time! My next mid-high zone fish will probably be guppies, or I'll skip that altogether and get some Japanese filter shrimp.
** I thought the shrimp would help with the brown algae. Though the Amano do seem to eat it, they do not do that muh damage to it. I do have just a tiny bit of lovely green algae at the top of my fake driftwood, which they will interestingly farm. They will wait until it grows a certain amount, then eat it. The ghost shrimp I got first because I thought they'd eat algae. They don't. They do eat other stuff, though, and are awesome to watch. I think I'm in love with shrimp. Sadly, since they're sold as feeders, I do not think great care is taken with their genetics. My tetras do not attack the shrimp. My shrimp will chase my cories. My last remaining ghost shrimp (of 2) is a giant beast, who fears not water changes nor piranha-cousins.
*** I had purchased one albino cory, initially, not knowing that they like to school. See some of my old threads for that. Not having the room for a whole flock of the buggers, I did get ONE more, so at least Zoidberg would not be lonely. He and "Little Butt" are quite the cuddlers! The rest of the critters in the tank have learned to follow Zoidberg and Little Butt, because they are the best at sniffing out treats to eat.
By the way, if a natural hijacking of this thread occurs, I do not mind.
When I first set this thing up, I was very happy with it. Now, after seeing the tanks of others in this forum, as well as Google Images, I am left with an empty and unfulfilled sense of Tank Envy.
Keeping in mind that I do not have much money, I would appreciate input from the more artistic of you Fishlorians.
I have been toying with the idea of moving the thermometer over to the left side, but that would create a breadth too wide for the phenomenal fake driftwood to cover. If I moved the filter to the right, all of the tank equipment would be easily hidden, but then the outflow would be too near the center of the tank for my tastes. (I have always had one side of the tank with a strong current, the other with a weak current. This allows my fish to choose their comfort zone, as well as rest after playing "waterslide".) The other reason for wanting so large a "weak" zone is because of the plants. The anacharis just gets caught in high-flowing water and looks terrible.
So, right now, my tank is precisely utilitarian, but not as beautiful as I would like. I am working through a brown algae issue, which is ugly, but not necessarily detrimental. My anacharis is doing poorly. I have removed about half of it since I switched to my new light. However, my Amazon sword and, more importantly, my FISH like it better. The old light setup I had caused my anacharis to grow wild, but was too bright for my sword. My tetras would spend the entire day hiding, which is not really why we get fish. ^_^
Stats.
-10 gallon standard.
-Marineland LED.
-Glass top.
-Small, smooth gravel substrate.
-Tumbled black rocks, used to weigh the plants down because of the naughty snails.
-A cheap replica of a Japanese stone lantern from Petsmart.
-An expensive and incredibly realistic replica of driftwood from my LFS.
-Tetra Whisper 30 HOB filter with small tweaks to the filter innards.
-Aqueon 50W adjustable heater, keeping my tank solidly at 79F.
-Tetra whisper air pump with little blue airstone on end of common airline tubing.
-Anacharis.
-Amazon Sword, supplemented with Flourish Tabs.
-Pygmy Sword Chain. *
-Crinum Natans. *
-Staurogyne Repens. *
-Black Skirt Tetras x3. ** (One died, see my blog.)
-Mystery Snails x2. (One died from sex-related injuries.)
-Amano Shrimp x2. ***
-Ghost Shrimp x1. *** (One died, and I have no idea why.)
-Albino Corydora x2. ****
* These three plants have the worst case of brown algae. The amazon sword seems largely immune.
** I am not going to buy any more Black Skirt Tetras. These are the last that came from the Wal-Mart stock (see earlier posts), and I am quite set on letting these fellows live out their lives, as-is. My current stocking is the result of initial ignorance, and I'll be danged if I am going to overstock like that, again. I am a bit gun-shy when it comes to this species. Perhaps it is only the tortured stock of Wal-Mart that is to blame, but these guys seem overly susceptible to disease. My cories aren't, and one of them came from the same store at the same time! My next mid-high zone fish will probably be guppies, or I'll skip that altogether and get some Japanese filter shrimp.
** I thought the shrimp would help with the brown algae. Though the Amano do seem to eat it, they do not do that muh damage to it. I do have just a tiny bit of lovely green algae at the top of my fake driftwood, which they will interestingly farm. They will wait until it grows a certain amount, then eat it. The ghost shrimp I got first because I thought they'd eat algae. They don't. They do eat other stuff, though, and are awesome to watch. I think I'm in love with shrimp. Sadly, since they're sold as feeders, I do not think great care is taken with their genetics. My tetras do not attack the shrimp. My shrimp will chase my cories. My last remaining ghost shrimp (of 2) is a giant beast, who fears not water changes nor piranha-cousins.
*** I had purchased one albino cory, initially, not knowing that they like to school. See some of my old threads for that. Not having the room for a whole flock of the buggers, I did get ONE more, so at least Zoidberg would not be lonely. He and "Little Butt" are quite the cuddlers! The rest of the critters in the tank have learned to follow Zoidberg and Little Butt, because they are the best at sniffing out treats to eat.
By the way, if a natural hijacking of this thread occurs, I do not mind.
