zeldar

Alright, I have spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to take pictures and upload them to this thread. This is honestly the first time I have used a camera in 15 years. Bear with me, I hope these pics get posted correctly.

Anyway, this is my first planted tank. It is a standard 10gallon with a cheap hood that has two screw in light fixtures. I started this tank on July 31st and the tank finished cycling a couple weeks ago since my filter was running on another tank for a couple months. Its obviously my first time with Aquasoil and its stillllll leaking tannins. The water stays pretty yellow, the pics are clear because I just drained it to add some more plants and stones and then refilled it. I have been looking for good aquascaping stones forever and finally got some from Jiddle here on SnS. I really like the stones, they aren't ADA but they look like it and I didn't have to pay the ADA price. Just today I put 10 of my RCS and 2 amanos in the tank so hopefully they will do alright. Anyway, let me get to the specs.

Tank: 10gallon with 2 screw in light hood
Light: 2x 26watt 6700k daylight CF
Filter: AquaClear 20
CO2: Hagen DIY canister with DIY bubble counter and glass mini diffuser. Going to start lightly dosing Excel to help since I only get about 15 bpm with the DIY co2
Ferts: Flourish NPK, Pfertz Micro
Substrate: ADA Amazonia I
Hardscape: stones similar to ryuoh/seiryu
Plants: HC, Riccia, HM, dwarf hairgrass, lilaeopsis brasiliensis
Fauna: presently has 10 RCS and 2 amanos, will soon add 5 S+ CRS and 5 CBS, also add 10 boraras brigittae and either a nerite or assassin snail

My HM died off quite a bit since I took it out to rescape. So the pics you can't see it at all but it will be in front of the stones, so I'll keep it trimmed pretty low. The HC has only been in the tank less than a week. As you can see the Riccia has been in there a while and is growing like crazy. I know its not a true iwagumi since I have so many plant types but oh well I'll see where this tank goes and make changes if needed. Let me know what ya'll think I should do to make the tank better. Any suggestions and critiques are appreciated. Now to the pics.

Full tank shot


Left side


right side


side view


RCS


Well, the rocks look a little small to me. Maybe once the background plants grow it won't look so empty in the top of the tank. Also, I don't really like how the rocks are positioned, it needs to be more natural. Please give me some ideas of how to make this scape better.

zeldar

i repositioned the rocks a little better and added a small one in the back between the middle rock and the one on the right.

murdocmason

looks good man, I'm on my first attempt at a planted tank and might i say its no where near as elegant as yours lol, whats your dosing schedule?? also for your DIY Co2 did you mean you have 15 ppm if so how much excel are you adding in addition to the DIY Co2? also whats your photoperiod? and honestly your scape looks great man you should let it fill in I'm sure it will look closer to what you want once its all grown in and you dive in and do some trimming to make it look good =) keep it up man your doing great according to the thousands of threads and pictures ive read and seen xXDOCXx

zeldar

I appreciate it murdoc. I just started dosing the other day. I found a seachem dosing chart online and have started to follow that. I think its like a "squrit" of micro three times a week, N P & K like twice a week but on different days. As for the excel, I am going to start with 1mL a day and see how that goes. I mainly need it for algae control but the extra carbon can only help the plants.

For my co2, I don't really know what ppm means. haha I just have 15 bubbles per minute. It will be a little higher the first week of the diy mixture but then drops down to 15 or so. I have been making a fresh mixture every 11 days or so. I thought it should last longer than that, but the bpm will drop below 10 after 11 days.

My photoperiod is 8 hrs a day. Yea, I think the scape will look better when the background plants fill in, it just looks so bare in the upper half of the tank.

zeldar

I decided to take out the middle and right stone and replaced them with some larger ones. They seem to fit the tank better. I'll get some more pics up this weekend.

murdocmason

pics definately man, as for the Co2 what I was saying is that most DIY setups will produce around 15 ppm Diffused Co2 without to much help which is a good level for DIY in a tank like that since your also dosing with excel I would say you have a nice amount of available carbon in there for the plants, now for a little comparision in my 29 gallon I have a DIY setup in a gallon jug with another 1 litre T'd in, and I would say I'm putting out about 30 bpm or 1 bubble per 2 seconds and I dont have enough Co2 lol so just to kinda throw that out there but mine also decreases over the course of two weeks, what mixture for the yeast are you using also are you using brown sugar or white, baking soda or not? also with the glass diffusers they require alot of pressure to flow right so maybe that is cutting down on your bpm since it requires so much to push it through, I've had that problem before but with a clogged powerhead sponge that I use as a diffuser since I'm running DIY and not pressurized but yea get pics lol cant wait =) OO yea photoperiod sounds great just be sure to keep it like that algae hates controlled light cycles since they are a opportunist organism
xXDOCXx

P.S as for ppm it ='s parts per million used mostly to describe the amount of a soluable solution contained in aquariums Ie.

No3=1.45 ppm
Co2=30ppm
ect ect and so on =)

zeldar

Time for a couple updated pics. Changed two rocks for a couple bigger ones. I think the new rocks make the scale seem better.

As you can see, water is pretty yellow. Its been over a month and a half and still leeching tannins. Its getting old. I can't do daily waterchanges anymore because the shrimp don't seem to like it. I've lost two cherries and the water parameters are fine so I'm blaming it on all the constant waterchanges. Alright pic time.

full tank


stone close up


HC

murdocmason

well my tank is going through the same process but mine is due to Co2,ferts,light regime being out of whack but now I run pressurized Co2,with timed lighting,weekly W/C atleast 25% so I think my biggest thing was my schedule for my tank was outta whack , but hopefully your tannins clear up those things really kill the tanks inner beauty lol but hey its a learning process and maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in and state some good advice for ya =)
xXDOCXx

zeldar

I added 6 SS/S+ CRS and 6 S+ CBS to the tank on Thursday. I got them from a dealer in California for a great price, the 12 shrimp for $55 shipped. If you want to know his email send me a PM, they were great people to deal with. To my amazement I have not lost any. I need to get some pictures up but I don't have a camera so I'll have to borrow a friends sometime.

The pH is still reading too high at 7.6. I don't understand why its so high when I have Aquasoil. It used to be 6.5 but somehow raised to 7.6. The shrimp don't seem to mind, hopefully.

This weekend I ordered 10 boraras brigittae, 3 assassin snails, and 2 nerites from Invertz Factory. I won't put all the snails in this tank, prob 2 assassins and maybe a nerite if algae gets bad.

Plants are showing decent growth. It seems like the HC is spreading finally and the riccia is crazy. I trimmed it a couple weeks ago and it needs another trim.

Tex Gal

Looking good. Activated charcoal will take the tannins out for you.