zeldar

Finally, a picture update.

The riccia was starting to come off the rocks they were tied to so I pulled all of it. It was really becoming a pain trimming it every week anyway. I'm sure the shrimp will miss it but the other plants are starting to take off.

I added some marsilea minuta to the tank where the riccia used to be. Once it fills in, I think it would look great in contrast to the HC.

In the picture you can see the new boraras briggitae I received from Invertz Factory. They are so tiny, even with 10 of them in the tank they take up no room at all. I also added 2 assassain snails so hopefully they will slow down the rapidly increasing number of pest snails.

O, and almost forgot, I switched to a pressurized paintball co2 setup. Hopefully this will give a little more co2 since I was only getting 25 bubbles per second with diy. On to the pics.

full tank shot


a little closer up, you can see the HM growing right in front of the rocks


one side of the newly planted marsilea minuta


a couple SS CRS and a S+ CBS


more CBS


finally got a berried cherry although you can't really tell

zeldar

is activated charcoal the same as activated carbon? I just replaced the carbon in the AquaClear and it hasn't cleared up much at all.

Tex Gal

I think it's the same thing. It should work. Maybe there is just so much to absorb that it will take a while.

mythin

If you're still having tannin problems, I had the same issues, literally 24 hours with a bag of purigen in my hob cleared it up.

zeldar

Yep still having problems with tannins. I threw the purigen bag back in a couple days ago. Still yellow.

Well, the riccia was coming off the stones they were tied to so I decided to pull all of it. I want to replace it with glosso, so if anyone has some for sale, I'd love to buy it off your hands.

All my shrimp are still alive. with a pH of 7.6. I don't know why its staying so high but since the shrimp are still alive I guess I can't complain too much.

I got my stuff from Invertz factory last week and they are all doing fine in the tank. I added 10 boraras briggitae, 2 assassin snails, and another amano.

I finally got hold of a camera so I'll snap some pics even though the substrate on the sides are bare.

Seagul

i love my 10g cherry tank.

CRS, sweet!

zeldar

alright snapped some pics of the tank today.

I added some Hydrocotyle verticillata and a little bit of Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides and Ranunculus inundatus courtesy of Crispino Ramos.

A got the HC trimmed a couple days ago hoping to get it growing lower to the soil. I have noticed some nice growth underneath the tall stringy HC.

I noticed some string algae starting to form on the hairgrass. I removed the majority of it manually. It was also starting to grow on the tall HC which was removed. I have since stopped using the extra hour burst of 80watts. Here are the current specs of the tank since I have changed alot since the initial post.

lighting: current fixture on legs sitting about 4 inches above water. Uses two 40watt 6700/10000k bulbs but I use only one with the occasional midday burst
filter: still the AquaClear 20, with a cutup sponge over the intake since I have found 2 briggittaes swimming in the filter. haha
co2: upgraded to paintball co2 with selinoid. I have it set at 1 bubble every 2 seconds running for 9 hrs a day. I put in a drop checker but its still blue colored. I have the proper solution and all in there so I don't know why the its not green. pH is 7.4 and kH was 13degrees so that comes out to about 15ppm. So i have gone back to adding 1mL of Excel a day.

left side


close up of hydros

jocky

nice progress Zeldar, maybe you should let it fill more and once the HC has covered most of the ground you can take the rest out and make it a full iwagumi tank.

Just what I might do, however its your tank and its looking good.
Let us know what you decide to do.

vanscheck

hey..nice tank...i have a 10g too. im planning to make a DIY 2litre co2 and attaching it to a glass diffuser and maybe a bubble counter...how do i stop the co2 at night, do i just unplug it during the evening? nice tank by the way i cant seem to get that grass carpet look.

zeldar

well with DIY co2 there are no plugs. You can't stop the co2 at all, just have to let it go all night. You may want to seriously consider pressurized co2. I started with the DIY but it gets old changing the mixture every couple of weeks. You also have to deal with the "co2 snot" that gathers on the glass diffuser after a while. I went with paintball co2 since its a little cheaper. Its great because you can turn the co2 off at night to conserve. Good luck with your co2 adventures.

I also need to mention that I added 6 blue tiger shrimp to the tank. There are 3 blues and 3 blondes. They look better than the pictures you see, especially the orange eyes. I'll get some pics up sometime soon.

Not much else has happened with the tank. The HC is really starting to carpet now. There is some staghorn algae on the background plants especially the hairgrass. I added a powerhead to get some aeriation going through the back plants. What else can you do to combat staghorn?