My 10 gallon planted RCS tank

11642 Views 33 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Chris., Sep 2, 2009

Chris.

Discussion Starter · Feb 11, 2009

3

I don't have my RCS yet, but they will soon be here from epicfish. I can't wait!

Here are a few pics of the 10gallon I just took. For now I only have my bully, Molly in there with several plants.

This is a "goldfish crackers" plant that I pulled from my yard, along with the cave that I made for the shrimp to hide in; at least until the plants fill in.

To the left of the cracker plant is another from my yard. In the back-center is another small plant from my yard that has leaves shaped like hearts. We'll see how these plants do submersed. Money wort plantlet on the edge of the front. E. Tennellus pink just above it and another piece of e. tenn. just above that algae wafer. (Apparently the molly doesn't like the wafers so much.) Java Fern is tied to the artificial rock.

And the Amazon sword with the bully taking a glamor shot.

Hopefully my shrimp will be here soon to give some more life to this tank! Gonna hook up a diy co2 reactor soon to encourage plant growth. Lighting is done by two 15W spiral CF bulbs rated at 6500K for 10 hours a day. Trying to keep the water temp around 80 degrees. Substrate is Flourite Black. I'm in the process of moving my 20 gallon tank from my girlfriend's house (the reason I set up the 10 g). Used about 6 gallons of water from the 20 gallon along with a filter I had running on a 5 gallon to get it cycled quicker. Everything is stable. I also used the substrate from the 5 gallon, so that had plenty of bacteria in it for the new tank. I will eventually set the 5 back up as an isolation/hospital tank. Let me know what ya think! I'll be updating this thread as my tank changes! Hopefully within a couple days there will be 6 amano shrimp and 20 RCS in there!

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Chris.

Discussion Starter · #21 · Mar 31, 2009

I would say that too, but there has never been an adult guppy in this tank...Time will tell though. I've never seen a neon fry. I was hoping these guys would breed eventually. I only have one female in the bunch...lol

So my fabco needle valves came in yesterday. One of them screwed all the way down and now it wont adjust at all. the knob just turns, but doesn't open or close the valve. Are there any remedies for this before I contact aqua botanic?

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #22 · Apr 2, 2009

the Nv seems to have fixed itself...maybe cause I got it wet to check for leaks from the nipples?? the other one worked fine though after I did that. Oh well.

Now I have my paintball co2 tank split between my 20g and my 10g shrimp tank. No more leaks either after battling with it for about 3 tanks worth!

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #23 · Apr 11, 2009

2

small update: The e. tenellus is really starting to fill in since I got pressurized co2 on it. Here are a few of my reddest shrimp. Recently I had a berried(very red) and another very red shrimp die for no apparent reason. One of these three shrimp is berried now though. w00t!

And some of the new inhabitants.

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Chris.

Discussion Starter · #24 · Apr 28, 2009

2

Okay, all of the guppies have been removed so I can take them to my LFS. I have no need for 15 female guppies that ll look alike, lol! They are constanly putting out fry! even after being isolated from the males. It's driving me crazy, lol.

Somehow 3 of my neons all died at the same time so I'm down to four of those guys. All other inhabitants seem fine and my water tested out fine as well. I discovered them during a water change yesterday, otherwise I would have never found them(hidden under leaves and stuff). Here are some new pics.

The tenellus is filling pretty quickly!

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Chris.

Discussion Starter · #25 · Apr 28, 2009

oh and the black dot in front of the filter intake, is a baby Thiara Winteri on the glass.

It's only about 1mm wide.

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #26 · Apr 30, 2009

Found a second baby snail yesterday also! I'm excited to see them breeding! the more the merrier(the less algae scrubbing I have to do), lol! Here is a pic of one of 3 amano shrimp in this tank.

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Chris.

Discussion Starter · #27 · May 4, 2009

3

Heres a littel update. I came home after lights out, to plant some newly acquired ludwigia and a couple others into my 20g, and I put some of the Ariculata in the 10g as well. I used a clamp on light for lighting to do this so I wouldnt shock the fish or plants too much. Well, after looking around for a minute, I noticed a bunch of new TW snail babies! Also found my first 'litter' of RCS babies!! I'm very happy about that! I've been waiting for these guys to have babies for a few months now. Here is a pic of a berried rcs and one of the babies near by.

And something quite strange. I found a red worm poking around under the substrate! This is the best picture I could get of it. It looks just like a frozen blood worm, but it's alive! I think there is another on also, unless this thing is about an inch long...

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Chris.

Discussion Starter · #28 · May 10, 2009

A little update. Added a couple new stem plants, including the blyxa in the corner. RCS colony has doubled and I have a couple more berried ones. I have two berried Amano shrimp. I'm going to attempt to raise their larva in a 1 gallon tank of full salt water. If all goes well, I might have 100+ amano shrimp for sale in a couple months! The Thaira Winteri snails have multiplied like crazy! I moved a few into my 20H just to see if they will multiply in there like they did in here.

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ZooTycoonMaster

· #29 · May 11, 2009

Woah I like the E. Tennelus 'Pink'!

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #30 · May 12, 2009

yea, I really like it too. I love that it turns red in med-high light. It grows like crazy too! It just takes a little while to establish itself before it starts spreading.

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #31 · May 13, 2009

well, crap. Yesterday I had a little issue. I think I must have overdosed some ferts in the tank. I'm not sure which though. It was Macro and Fe day. I think I put too much Fe in it. A lot of the shrimp were acting very lethargic. They would even let me hold them in my hand inside the tank. I changed 25% of the water, and they seemed to bounce back within an hour.

I just looked through the tank and found a dead RCS(berried), and one of my berried amanos is dead as well! Sooo disappointing. I really hope the other amano makes it so I can try to raise her larvae...

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #32 · Sep 1, 2009

Small update. I took out the 4 big pygmy cory cats and put them in my 20g to live with my 3 peppered corys and guppies. I left the 4 tiny corys in here, hoping they don't disturb the few RCS that I have left so they will breed and restock the tank. The plants have REALLY filled in! I need to get rid of the amazon sword in the left. It blocks 98% of the light on that side. The java fern is getting VERY bushy as well. If you look closely you can see one of the pygmys in the center being a camera whore.

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mudboots

· #33 · Sep 2, 2009

That sword looks great=D>; it was funny watching it slowly take over through the pic sequences. I started out 3 of them in a 20 gallon once and in very short order had to move them into the 125 npt, where they now look like nothing compared to the relative size of the tank.

I thought I recalled that you received some E.ang.vesuvias. If so you can stick it in the place of the big sword and it will utilize the space nicely without becoming a menace.

Chris.

Discussion Starter · #34 · Sep 2, 2009

LOL that sword kinda crept up on me to get that big! I just looked through the pages again and I forgot all about it being as small as it was! The parent shoot has a baby sword on it right now. Leaves of it are about 1" long so far. It's hard to believe they get so big from such tiny plants!

I guess this last update was a big one considering I haven't posted any pics in ages and the plants are MUCH more dense and I've added some new ones to it.

What i really want to do is sell the sword and the artificial rock with the Java fern on it, to make more room for an HC carpet over there and to let a lot more light into the tank. I have a small carpet of HC in a 2.5g tank that just doesn't seem to be doing very well for some reason, so I really want to put it in here before it dies...

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