My 10 gallon planted tank story.

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

I wanted to share with you the story of my 7 month old planted 10 gallon.

it started in January with a my white cloud minnows that I moved from my pond to this tank for the winter (with cycled filter). I had a jc&p light, an aquaclear 20, fluval stratum and the plants where Java fern, anubias, S repens, Christmas moss, a bunch of Cryptocorynes and Myriophyllum guyana. It started with all the crypts melting and not coming back because I didn’t know you aren’t supposed to bury the crown of the plant in the substrate. Only my crypt lutea survived. Then the Java fern and anubias turned all brown and died. I was getting lots of algae  on the Christmas moss at this point. So my only thing thing alive was the Myriophyllum guyana, my S repens and the crypt lutea for about a week. Then the s repens melted and the Myriophyllum guyana turned brown and Died. This was all super disappointing because I did so much research before setting it up and I was doing everything the internet told me. 

Day 1 ^

^after all the crypts melted and stuff started turning brown.

 

Probably a month after setting up the tank I was so annoyed all plants died but I went to a store called: Planted Aquaria they have the healthiest plants I’ve ever seen and the owner was super helpful and sent me home with some easy fast growing plants (elodea, limnophila sessiliflora, salvinia and a new Java fern)

then after a week of having these new plants my algae was slowly disappearing and the plants were actually growing. Then I went back and picked up a new anubias, a stiphodon goby and at some point I got some buce.

day 1 with new plants ^

after a week with new plants ^ 

new goby ^

 

then for the next couple of months the tank just kept getting better and all the plants were doing great and growing healthy and I was super happy.

 

Through out the process sadly 3 fish died, one just randomly died, one got an internal peracite and ones swim bladder got damaged and died. 

Then about a month ago I moved across country (3 day drive)

 
 

 I have to stay with my grandparents for 2 months then I have a 1 day trip in a couple weeks to get to my final destination. through the trip all my fish didn’t have any problems but my limnophila sessiliflora took a hit and started doing badly. Also my substrate and hard scape shifted  during the move and the tank just looked bad. So for a couple weeks I kinda neglected it, still doing water changes and feeding fish and plants but not making the tank look nice.

this isn’t the best pic cause I don’t have many of when I was neglecting the tank, it got much more overgrown.

finally we reach today when I just decided to spend an hour and a half making it look better, trimming tons of plants and moving somethings around. it’s not perfect but it looks better then before the maintenance. 🙂

The tank today ^

That’s pretty much the journey of my tank currently, I hope you like it and I’ll probably update this in the future if I make any major changes. If you have any questions please ask away 🙂

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics

[anitstuk]

I love your tank! Look heavily planted and good stocking choice! I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses! 🙂

[Guppysnail]

Finding the right plants that do well for you makes all the difference between a discouraging tank and an enjoyable one. It looks lovely. I’ve not heard of limnophila sessiliflora I may give it a go. 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

@Guppysnailits a really easy and beautiful plant to grow I highly recommend it.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The plant in the middle in the back - it looks like anacharis.  Did you plant that or did you just weight it down and leave the roots out?  I just got some and was wondering how it does best.

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea I planted mine in the substrate but I’ve had it growing weighted down and even floating. It doesn’t really care, it just need some light, to be in water and nutrients do make sure you fertilize your tank.

[Solstice_Lacer]

Do you still have your stiphodon goby? 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 8/3/2022 at 12:08 PM, Solstice_Lacer said:

Do you still have your stiphodon goby? 

Yea I have him still and he’s doing great!

[Solstice_Lacer]

On 8/3/2022 at 5:19 PM, Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics said:

Yea I have him still and he’s doing great!

I recently got a stiphodon ornatus and love it. Based on the info I found I think mine is female, and yours looks the same (striped). Either way gorgeous fish

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

On 8/3/2022 at 3:56 PM, Solstice_Lacer said:

I recently got a stiphodon ornatus and love it. Based on the info I found I think mine is female, and yours looks the same (striped). Either way gorgeous fish

Yeah I think if mine was a male it would be more blue.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics

[redfish]

@Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics Thanks for sharing your journey.  I'm on a planted tank path and it's been an interesting journey so far.

[Patrick_G]

Many of us consider our planted tank hobby a journey, but your entire tank went on a journey! 

 

[Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics]

@Patrick_G @redfish yeah planted tanks can have their ups and downs but they usually end up working out in the end and when they do it makes me so happy and makes me want another tank. Lol