10 Gallon Community And 5 Gallon Betta Planted Tanks

Here's first tank!

Set up 1/1/19 but gone through some changes to be what it is now.


10 gallon tank


Substrate: Seachem flourite and flourite black with top later of flourite sand for my java loaches. Has seachem flourish tabs placed in substrate

Light: Current LED +

Heater: Aqueon adjustable 50W. Stays at around 74-75 degrees fahrenheit.

Filter: Aquaclear 20 with 1 sponge and 2 bags of biomedia. 1 sponge is on the filter intake. In next week I'll be getting a corner sponge filter for extra/backup filtration. I just put in a small airstone to help gently increase water circulation.

Plants: 2 amazon swords, 1 aponogeton boivinianus, 2 marimo balls, 1 windelov java fern, 1 planted water sprite, java moss, 1 banana plant, 1 microsword broken up to grow to provide a bit of carpet, 1 bucephalandra on driftwood. I also just added a pothos plant cutting to the top of the tank and am waiting for it to root.

Fish: 1 male dwarf gourami, 8 dwarf gold barbs, 4 java loaches, 4 amano shrimp, 3 nerite snails.


Right now I'm learning all I can about algae since I seem to have a pretty significant (for me) outbreak. I believe I have a mixture of staghorn, hair, bush, green dust. I'm leaving the green dust alone to see if it'll get patchy and fall off like I read about. I'm still trying to figure out my dosing schedule and that's next on the research. I have seachem flourish comp and leaf zone but I'm thinking of just using the flourish based on what I started reading about in Diana Walstad's book. I've also been having a problem keeping the nitrate down. I've regularly been between 20-40 ppm. My water sprite is really starting to grow but so far, it's not making a dent in the nitrates. It's why I added the pothos cutting but I took it from a plant and it's gonna take awhile before it starts to grow roots. Until then, I'm trying to get what plant debris I can to decrease any decay. With PWC, I'm trying to get the substrate as much as I can. I feed the fish 1x a day in evening. I gotta sit down and actually put all the info I've found together and fill in the holes because I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with this.


As you can see, I have some beautiful plants to go with my algae. Also, what tank is complete without a TARDIS?



5 gallon betta tank:

Filter: sponge filter with airstone attached as well running at lower rate for betta.

Light: Aqueon planted clip on LED

Heater: Penn-plax running at a toasty 77-78 degrees

Substrate: Seachem flourite and flourite black

Plants: 1 amazon sword, 1 crypt (I think it's undulata but I forget), 1 parva crypt spread around to carpet, 1 microsword spread around to carpet, 2 marimo balls, 1 anubias nana, 1 bucephalandra, 1 dwarf lily, 1 floating water sprite, almond leaf

Fish: 1 betta, 1 nerite snail.


This is a newer tank, maybe a month old. I have some diatom algae which I expect. Starting to get some dust algae on tank glass and ... I think it's fuzz algae on slow growing plants. Again, dosing with flourish comp and trying to figure out best way to do it.

Betta tank:




Puck Bucky Bardly - halfmoon. might have some combtail in him? Not sure






My lazy nerite that I never see move but always seems to be in a different spot in the tank. And never on the glass.

 

So I think I found the source of the .25 ammonia in my tank. I just did a water change and clean of my 10 gallon tank to try to remove some more of the algae manually and the mulm. My nitrates this morning were at 40 ppm. Turns out I lost one of my dwarf golden barbs. it had died near the filter behind like, all my plants and stuff. I didn't see it until I moved most of my decorations. It looks like it's been dead at least a day. I wonder if it was the one I noticed separating iteself from the school. it had been doing that since I had gotten it some time ago. none of the other fish seem to be showing any signs of distress so I'm just gonna wait and see if anything else develops. Also. my a.bovinianus bulb was starting to become soft and had a bad smell so I had to get rid of it. I'm going to consider if I wanna try another bulb species or not. I've also decided to try floating bacopa. I've placed some in both the 10 and the 5 gallon tanksto help add some shade, decrease nitrates, and provide some cover for my, my dwarf gourami, and my betta.

In looking through the forum, I'm considering working towards a low tech liquid carbon tank. I'm going to read the article on liquid carbon tomorrow to get a better understanding of it.