"Don't tell my old lady how much I spent" journal

[Kirb]

I'm typically just a lurker on forums but figured I'd like a place to track my progress of my tank. I've been enjoying all the co-op podcast and reading everyone journals.

I got into planted tanks and aquarium's in general a few months ago. I found a great deal on a 10 gallon water box on Facebook. Was suppose to be a cheap low tech tank but it spiralled out of control. Ended up getting a fzone CO2 generator and ledstar aq-s 40. My next purchase will be a canister filter, currently using a filter from a different tank.

 

 

I played with the hardscape for a few hours but was never really sure about it. I changed route and just went for more of a dutch style. I was very lucky to find a local person who was able to supply me with all the plants and a ton of info.

 

Here is day 1 after planting and filling the tank up

 

All the plants came from a green house with very high humidity. Only a few had a little melt. I let everything adjust to it's emersed form for a week. I ended up trimming the tops off and replanting a few. Also moved a lot around. Here is 10 day in and where I'm at today.

 

Not sure what I will stock this with. Thinking cpd or phoenix rasbora if I can find some. Put a few endlers hybrid fry that was getting gobble up with my other tank.

 

 

 

 

 

[Katherine]

Your tank is beautiful! I'd love to see how it grows in.

[Hannah Parker]

Can't wait to see this stocked!!

[Jeff]

What happened with your driftwood? I like that piece - what kind was it?
 

What brand of substrate are you using? 

[Patrick_G]

It looks great. Getting that many plants is a great idea. I think a large plant mass is key to starting off a tank right. The variety is nice too. You’ll soon figure out what thrives in your tank. Concentrate on those and you’ll do great. (Hopefully they all thrive right?)

[Kirb]

On 5/26/2022 at 12:40 PM, Jeff said:

What happened with your driftwood? I like that piece - what kind was it?
 

What brand of substrate are you using? 

It looked good in pictures but was very 2d looking in person. Was 5 or 6 small Manzanita. Using fluval stratum for substrate.

On 5/26/2022 at 12:45 PM, Patrick_G said:

It looks great. Getting that many plants is a great idea. I think a large plant mass is key to starting off a tank right. The variety is nice too. You’ll soon figure out what thrives in your tank. Concentrate on those and you’ll do great. (Hopefully they all thrive right?)

So far everything is exploding with growth beside the erio Vietnam

[Kirb]

Cleaned erio off and removed the old growth, wasn't looking to hot 

The slow growers aren't doing the best. Getting a little bit of algae. Added 2 snails to help out and my add an amino shrimp. Need to be a little more consistent with my ferts. Also still getting the CO2/light dialed in, trying to push it more. Hoping everything will settle in once the tank is more established.

[Patrick_G]

On 5/28/2022 at 7:06 AM, Kirb said:

The slow growers aren't doing the best. Getting a little bit of algae. Added 2 snails to help out and my add an amino shrimp. Need to be a little more consistent with my ferts. Also still getting the CO2/light dialed in, trying to push it more. Hoping everything will settle in once the tank is more established.

I think it’s going to be a bit of a struggle with that light, but once you get past the initial growing pains algae will be less of an issue. I’m just guesstimating but I’d try 50% power at 6 hours a day. I don’t have the same light but I do have the very similar Chihiros WRGB 2. 

[Kirb]

On 5/28/2022 at 1:40 PM, Patrick_G said:

I think it’s going to be a bit of a struggle with that light, but once you get past the initial growing pains algae will be less of an issue. I’m just guesstimating but I’d try 50% power at 6 hours a day. I don’t have the same light but I do have the very similar Chihiros WRGB 2. 

Took the light down 10%, hopefully it'll help.

 

Old lady took me shopping for my birthday. Got her to get me a fluval 107. Being new to this I didn't have much filter medium laying around to cycle the filter. I used what I could and hoping it'll be ok. All I need now is some clear hose and lilly pipes to make it look nicer. Hoping this will help with the background plants that were getting pushed over by the hob's flow and move the co2 around better 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by Kirb

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/26/2022 at 6:18 AM, Kirb said:

 I got to here, and my immediate reaction was, "alright, this is going to be good, I like this a lot!" 😂

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Happy Birthday! Glad you got what you wanted! 😄

[Kirb]

I need to learn to leave the plants alone but I keep finding myself moving them around. I had a few plants I felt weren't getting great light and getting over ran. I moved them out of the back line in hopes they'll do better. Put 3 otocinclus in the tank and they are knocking the diatoms out. Woke up to a mystery snail that went sky diving... The endler/guppy fry are starting to color up. 

My first aquascape attempt is finally starting to like nicer as well. Hair grass wasn't doing to good but has started to carpet. 

[tolstoy21]

@Kirb You know, whatever you told your significant other you spent, they are just going to multiple it by at least 2 in their head.  😉

Tank looks very nice! 

[Katherine]

On 6/5/2022 at 8:25 AM, tolstoy21 said:

You know, whatever you told your significant other you spent, they are just going to multiple it by at least 2 in their head.  😉

My husband and I were having a conversation about my 75 yesterday. He said it was the most expensive thing in our house. I told him it's not as expensive as our bed. ... Yet. It's definitely going to get there since I'm not done adding fish and I'll have to keep feeding them.

[Kirb]

Lily pipes arrived today. Changed the tubing out on the fluval filter and installed Aquario neo flow. Canister filters still makes me nervous.  I hope I got the tubing on the out flow enough but it was tough as dirt getting it on. Just shy of 4 weeks running and did my first trimming. Very happy with how things are going.  Hoping the Lobelia mini in the forward ground will start to fill in some more or I may need to think about what to do with that corner. Otocinclus have destroyed all the diatom and seem to be doing well.

 

[Kirb]

Wanted to do something with the trimmings and diftwood I had planned to us so I redid my 4gallon tank. I made the original hardscape take up to much room so couldnt plant on that side of the tank. I never want to pull hair grass up, split it and replant ever again.

 

[Kirb]

Updates will probably slow down now.

This week I moved some plants around again and almost have everything where I want it. Need a few things to grow some more so I can propagate them. Added some R. vietnam and myrio Roiama to my 5 gallon tank I plan on adding to the 10 gallon onces I get some trimming and it converts from its submerged form. Also gave away all the endlers fry out of the 10 gallons which worked out great. Gave them to a local who sells drifwood for a living so that could be nice resource in the future. I took a trip to the lfs and did something I've never done... test my water. Everything was great minus my kh, so I added some crush coral. They had an amazing select of nano fish come in this week, which made it difficult to finally decide on a small school for the tank. I ended up with 6 emerald eye rasbora. They weren't the most eye catching out of the choices or really on my radar, but enjoyed watching them. I've never had a schooling fish, they are so mesmerizing to watch. Almost like sitting infront of a camp fire. 

[Anjum]

I think more people should make ASMR type videos spotlighting different fish. I tend to decide I like a fish based on a picture, but then when it's in a tank in front of me, I could be meh. A fish really only becomes fulfilling when you watch it interact with it's surroundings. 

Btw, your tank is gorgeous!