# The Wife's 10 gallon



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Quick link to last update: HERE! march 16th
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So with my wife's bday approaching, i picked up a 10 gallon rimless from lamyfung. The tank was in awesome shape, not a scratch and still with its warranty sticker untouched inside. Took around 2 1/2 hours on transit there and back.... It sucked in this heat.

So last night we cleared part of the kitchen counter off heres how the tank looks:









i started by filling it half empty (i know, pessimist) and waited a long while and inspected the seams, no water in the seams and no water trickling out. The water was half from my tank, and half fresh, it happened to be water change day.

I grabbed my stingray 5 circulation pump from my 29 gallon, as the new scape really opened up the flow and its not needed in there anyways. I jammed it full of filter floss and left its own sponges alone so theres already some bacteria established. Then i grabbed the only lamp i could use in the slim space atm.









I wont be placing a background in her tank as i like the look of the kitchen tiles behind the tank, and it met her approval.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice start, resealing a 10gal (wish it was rimless) myself to start up, was thinking of putting it in the kitchen as well. And I agree the Kitchen tiles will make a nice background.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Day 2 (today):

I started the morning by taking a walk to rona with my son (25 min each way) Browsed around for a new lamp, no luck they were all too short and improper orientation or socket. But the main reason i went there was simply to find her a substrate. I wanted pea pebbles, but they didn't have it, their bagged traction sand looked perfect for planting, but it would be a pain in the arse to wash and my wife wanted something a bit larger grade. So pea gravel it was.... Its way more than i need, but it never hurts to have leftover substrate.

As much as i appreciate quality aquarium substrates, the cost doesn't add up, when in most cases (for innert) they just wash it more and/or polish and ensure its aquarium safe. As expected, at rona there were a couple bags broken open, so i took a small handful, threw them in a water bottle shook the hell out of it, then i drained them off and used a packet of vinegar, no sizzle and foaming, good enough for a tank 









walked home with that, my son in the stroller cause he was tired (30 lb) and 15 lbs of potatos from safeway.... that was some fun uphill

on to washing, the part i expected to take a while.

























Only took 30 minutes for the large batch and about 10 for the smaller one i did. Took longer because i tried to grind the pea gravel together as much as possible to get off any debris.

I dumped the substrate into the tank, and it was barely cloudy at all, but still a bit, so i got the idea... hmmm i got a packet of unused carbon, i have a powerhead (rio 1400), and i got tons of filter floss, why make a cheap temp filter until i get an Aquaclear 30 or 50. This way i can have much more established media to toss into the filter when i get it. But man is it powerful even with all that media....

heres my temp filter:









and the full shot...









The color temp from the halogen lamp sucks... and the gravel looks a lot whiter than it actually :/ Also the filter will be on the right side of the aquarium so no wires will be in the back when it comes to the final display. Tomorrow we'll head to IPU to get 2 fishies to aid in the cycling.


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

WOW, very creative idea once again, thanks! =)
And very impressive how you got all of it back home! LOL! When i read 25 minutes back and 25 minutes there... and then read rona and gravel.. OMG!


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

nice start up. love 10 gallons!
so what's the plan for the type of fish?


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## pisces (Apr 22, 2010)

gret joB & setup!
Neven


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## skabooya (Jun 15, 2010)

nice start.


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## AvianAquatics (Apr 29, 2010)

Nice idea with the carbon! So are you planning on added a lot of plants?


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

originally she wanted a betta, then she realised how much it limits other selections, so it'll be focused on a few guppies and a small school of bleeding hearts, with shrimpies.

It'll be planted, my best book i own for aquatic plants is filled with red stars, the plants she wants. Luckily i own two of the plant species so i can give the fishies for cycling some cover, but i want the aquaclear filter first before planting anything, the current is insanely strong atm with that powerhead in there


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/fres...eds-27/fs-sealed-new-box-aquaclear-20-a-5186/
thats a nice price for a new ac20 if your in the market


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Today we made a trip to IPU and My wife purchased 2 supermixed female guppies and 1 male tequila sunrise guppy. I stressed the fact that the tank could need a cycle and they may not survive so don't get attatched. IPU had no natural decor in for some strange reason :/

I got home and started testing the tank to see how much i'd need to adjust the KH to make these guys life a lil easier at first. PH was above 7.6... That i wasn't happy with, so i redid the vinegar test on my substrate, no fizzing still. Then i researched the source of the pea gravel, PH for the river was 7.0 to 8.0, so i cant be too much higher.

I also did a KH test, came out around 5-6 dKH, not bad. i figured since I was blasting the tank with a 420 GPH powerhead, the values are probably a bit higher than they normally would be. So i did a 60% water change to be on the safe side. I double dosed the water conditioner as recommended for new fishies. I'll be water changing 30 % daily just in case the gravel is leeching something besides a bit of carbonates into the water column.

Because i was unsure of how high the PH was, i acclimatized them over a period of 3 hours. During which, one of the females (orange tailed) jumped out of the container, between the fridge and the cupboard. I noticed pretty quickly luckily, pull out the fridge and found her still alive, but her tail got stuck to a piece of paper. Managed to prod her gently back in the tank with only minimal tail damage.

During the evening i went to pick up the AC30, bad traffic for transit... a 25 minute trip turned into over 40 minutes thx to a major road being dug up and causing me to miss a transfer. Got home eventually, gave the filter a good rinse, and started packing in the media. Managed to fit all the floss from the red cup and the stingray in there, and the Activated carbon. In two weeks i'll remove the carbon, any impurities should be gone by then. started the filter up and it worked perfectly, just had to get a bit of 3/8" hose to wedge the filter more level, since the rimless is a lot thinner than a rim would be.

To give the guppies something for cover, i threw in a couple small anubias nanas i have from my 29 gallon ( i got tons of the stuff). I wont do much more with plants atm, cause the lighting sucks, once i get a cfl lamp, i'll start stocking her tank as she wanted. I gave the guppies a feeding just so i could test the nitrogen cycle later on.

I did the tests, im pretty happy with the results.
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5 ppm

Looks like the media from my old tank may have been enough  Still time will tell so i'll keep a close eye on it

the guppies and anubias









AC30 with the pvc hose wedged to level it 









and yet another tank shot:


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

nice, i like the tequilla sunrise one


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Nice set-up  I would suggest uprooting the Anubias and tying it to a piece of driftwood or rock. Otherwize the rhizhome will probably rot and the plants may die. I do have a curvy piece of Manzanita that would be awesome for the job if your interested . It is kind of U shaped. PM me if interested. 

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

the rhizomes are mostly exposed, but they can be buried a bit despite common belief, their nutrient uptake slows a bit if light isnt hitting the rhizome it slows down the growth greatly. I've succesfully been growing and propagating them your years now at the substrate level, love the look of them a foreground. these ones are likely temporary in this tank though.

as for the Manzanita,i was hoping to get a hold of some for this tank, as i said ipu was totally out of all natural wood :/

right after water change, ph is 7.4 and hardness is 2dkh, i'll measure tomorrow before next water change to see how much it buffered it up, if its around the same i'll delay a day. With luck it could have been dust in the gravel raising the PH/KH. Checked ammonia aswell before the change, 0 ppm still


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

CRS fan was kind enough to let me know he had a nice piece of manzanita for my tank. So today i rushed over there to pick it up, and he threw in some nice clippings of Hygrophyla corymbosa var. salicifolia and a plantlet of Anubias nana 'petite' attached to the wood.

When i got home it was tank layout time, how does she want the wood to be oriented. She figured one way looked like a leo sign, and since thats her sign she was sold  Next i grabbed a lotus from my tank, one of the plantlets i grew out for long time now, can't really call it a plantlet, but its the second of which to leave my tank *shed tear.* also decided to throw in some clippings of glosso i missed on clean up day.

Also i placed a piece of 5/8" hose slit open around the outtake of the aquaclear, much less turbulence below surface but still some decent agitation at the surface. Now i popped into petcetera the other day because my bank is next door, clearance on filter sponges, so i bought what i thought was a block of sponge, ends up it was split in half. I tried sewing it together, but it looks like crap (an understatement) so i'll hold off on the sponge filter in this tank for now.

heres some pics on how it looks. I left the right side open since it'll likely get 1 or 2 large rocks

heres some pics of the set up now (left to right). Starting to look like a tank now  Just in time for her bday tomorrow


















































and the fishies, they're slowly gettin their colour back, im sure the plants will help now









the female who took the dive to the floor between the counter and the fridge, notice the tail damage from the ordeal.









the only pick that really showed the petrol yellow orange colouring of the male. he's a hell of a lot brighter than this though.









Parameter wise, the PH rose much slower this time to 7.6, ammonia still low. I've started metricide and trace for now, i may add nitrates twice a week


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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

Those are nice pics. It will look really good when the plants grow more.


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## clintgv (May 6, 2010)

Great tank. I agree it will get better when the plants grow


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## lamyfung (Jul 26, 2010)

Nice setup ! I'm glad you like the tank


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

the orange tail female is in rough shape, half her body looks like dropsy. I expected her to not survive when i first picked her off the ground, but it just seemed to not happen, but when lights came on today it looks like it'll be a sure death for her. I'll wait and see though, she's still eating and swimming fine and the male isn't harassing her


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

those lotus are looking really red and healthy. enjoy looking at the pictures. stuart's got some really great plants. that glosso is going to give some good ground covering.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

thank you, i enjoyed growing the lotus from a small plantlet from the mother plant.

I'm hoping the glosso will spread a bit, i plan trimming some more out of my 29 gallon next week and planting more in this tank.

I'll be really needing to change the lighting soon, i'll probably make it myself. Pick up some L brackets, electrical box/cover, light socket, and something to act as a reflector.

The wife had me shift things around a bit to be more what she envisioned and i threw in some java fern i'll fasten tomorrow


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

I was true to my word and did make a visit Rona. I purchased a 4 inch corner brace, an octagon outlet box, and some 5/8x#10 wood screws. What i had at home was a plastic socket and a 6500K phillips CFL and a cut off electrical cord (when i trash things i always keep the plug ends  ). Everything went together fine, but as i was moving the tank back into position i heard a very loud pop, dribbled in my pants a bit thinking i blew the bottom of the tank out. Luckily it was just the grout attatched to the counter top splash guard that went, nothing big. Now i got to make some sort of enclosure around the light until i figure out a proper reflector.

Update on the guppy who jumped from the tank. Today it finally succumbed to dropsy.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

The cheap "hood" for the aquarium (leftover material from my 29 gallon's "hood"









The simple light fixture i spoke of.









The full tank shot. The lotus didn't like the PH change coupled with the low intensity lighting, so it should perk up with the new lighting. Java ferns finally fastened to the wood


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Just an update. The remaining female made a jump for it, and made it out of the tank. Probably the male harassing her. So i enclosed the tank all around with the black plastic board, easy enough to do. Went and picked up 3 more females so the male had his own harem. Well i got ich with them.

Through the ordeal i lost 2 females and the male :/ To combat it, i raised the tank temperature up to 30ish degrees, i greatly increased the crushed coral to drive the hardness up, and i dosed heavier on the metricide. Looks to be gone now as the last guppy left has no blemishes for days now.

Scape wise, i added a lot more glosso and just keep trimmin a stem at a time and replanting to build up the plant mass, nothing worth a picture yet


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

VERY nice DIY Neven!!! Thanks for sharing!

Sorry to hear bout the lost of the few fish!


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Well the wife and I took a walk to a safeway nearby and stopped at a pet shop nearby (i wont name it) since they have a small selection of fish. Their tanks dont have dead fish, but the water there is always a slight tinge of green, but i purchased a king cobra guppy thats been doing great in my 29 gallon for quite some time.

anywho, They had a few guppies left in stock, and offered to order more if the selection was too limited. The wife spotted a guppy that looked just like the black moscow we had years ago, and quickly chose that one. i chose a sponge for her filter intake and we got home asap.

I drip acclimatized him to the tank over 2 hours, and he went right for the female, so i figured it would be best if i put that sponge on in case fry start popping out soon. Under the 6500K light, it ended up the fish was more dark blue than black, looks exactly like a dark blue moscow but a bit shorter tail with a couple smudges of light colours near its head. I can't believe the fish only cost $3.99.

Also at 2 am i decided, hmmm sponge is on, screw waiting till monday, i'll finally get some cherry shrimp in the tank, so i got 4 cherry's in an ice cream bucket getting drip acclimatized. I'll place them in the tank after i give my son his late night feeding. If these survive a few weeks, i'll introduce more


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Tank is looking great Neven! Is that un-named petstore the one up off Austin & blue mountain rd area?


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

Hey Neven! If you're looking for guppies, I got quite a few babies!
Some of them are lyretail endlers (like scissors), if you're interested, let me know, compeltely free if you want to stock some in your tank! I have a alot of mixed baby guppies in my 5 gallon breeder tank~


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Great job, neven, seems the situation with your tank is under control now.
Good luck with the cherries and new guppy. Hope you'll post some new pictures!
Oh, and PM me the store name/location if you can, you know I had issues as well  Hope my tank is clean and safe now and I am looking for some new fish to add.

P.S. eternity, will that be too much if I ask for some of these lyretail endlers? They are just awesome fish and I LOVE endlers! Lost a bunch due to the sick guppy I introduces (same story as neven and same store  )


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

InfraredDream said:


> Great job, neven, seems the situation with your tank is under control now.
> Good luck with the cherries and new guppy. Hope you'll post some new pictures!
> Oh, and PM me the store name/location if you can, you know I had issues as well  Hope my tank is clean and safe now and I am looking for some new fish to add.
> 
> P.S. eternity, will that be too much if I ask for some of these lyretail endlers? They are just awesome fish and I LOVE endlers! Lost a bunch due to the sick guppy I introduces (same story as neven and same store  )


I got a few! Let me count tonite!
Somehow... guppies do not survive in any of my tanks! All the adults died! The ratio was 2 males and 6 or 7 females... they got wiped out somehow, absolutely NO clue!
But i thin i got around 30-50 babies! Some are lyretail color showing already (FINALLY)


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

No worries. I wonder what happened though? I get to the idea that guppies from the stores are very delicate and have issues too often. That's why I would rather get some babies from members then buy some anymore. That outbreak I got that wiped my endlers was heartbreaking


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

I PM'd you back! =) If neven and you both want some! You guys can take my whole crowd of babies! Better to survive with you guys than die in my tank!


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

Btw Neven!

If you need free plants, ramshorn or malaysian trumpet snails, let me know =)


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Thanks for the reply, but I wouldn't get so many, you better keep some. According to my experience that one that are born in your tank has much higher chance of survival. I guess because they are used to the conditions of the tank.
Thanks a lot!


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

they'll do great eternity if you get the tank hardness above 10 degrees slowly. and only do 30% water changes if you dont buffer the added water. its not that they are fragile, its that most of our fishkeeping is done outside their native water parameters.

Normally the temperature, hardness and the PH in our community tanks are all on the low side for their ideal conditions and they fluctuate even lower on water change days, which stress them out. But when you maintain a stable system outside those ideal parameters, with little to no fluctuation on water change days, they thrive, as was the case in my 29 gallon or the 10 gallon heavy planted, high light tank i had before it.

As for the offer of plants and fishies, i appreciate it  But plant wise i don't want to disturb the substrate when i have new livestock adjusting to the tank. As for the fishies, theres no guarantee that the sickness is gone or this store doesn't have it either, so i'd much rather wait and see how things go from where its at now


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

=) I offer so u dun need to waste money on fish~ HAHA~
I'll try raising the hardness, lets see how it works!


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

neven said:


> t As for the fishies, theres no guarantee that the sickness is gone or this store doesn't have it either, so i'd much rather wait and see how things go from where its at now


No worries, I was just wondering if there was another pet store close to us that I didn't know about, other than the 3 well known ones


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

In the matter of LFS. I remember, and if you're able to validate this, that there use to be a LFS inside lougheed mall near the bottom floor exit where the $2 cinemas are/were. I remember going there as a kid to look at the nice lush green plants and the fish.

Aside from IPU, JL, Blue Mountain, are there any other LFS in that area? 
I really do want to see if I've visited ALL the LFS in the lower mainland.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

other than Petcetera which hardly ever even have any fish, I think thats all of them in this area Ming. I don't think there in one at Lougheed mall anymore, if there is I have not seen it there in the 3 years I have lived here & it's lot listied in their store list. There is one at Brentwood tho


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

The one at Brentwood Mall is small but decent. Not that many kind of fish but I've never seen a death one there. Sometime they have some nice sells on equipmet. It was a chain store, I am trying to remember the name, it was Pet..something (not "smart")


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Neven, are you using just a point and shoot camera for your photos? The photos turn out really clear.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i use a crappy Sony DSC-S650 point and shoot. Also have to clean the kids finger prints from the lense every time i use it. i've just grown used to fine tuning the settings for the tank shots. Close ups are a real pain, where normally i take 2 of each shot, i need to play with the auto, focus settings, ISO, EV and white balance in hopes to get it to work. i tend to shoot with flash off aswell

Even then its a challenge. The other night the wife and i tried taking shots of the two guppies, both of us gave up after each spent a half hour trying to atleast get a clear shot of the blue/black male guppy... lets just say after a few hundred shots i gave up. 

Speaking of the guppy though. Man is he active and he wont stop harassing the female. I have never seen a male this persistant, even at night if she gets in sight of him its a half hour of her trying to hide. So my wife made a trip to king ed's with our toddler to pick him out another lady friend, she came home with 2 females which are drip acclimatizing as i type this.

Maybe with the male having 3 mates instead of the 1, he'll swim slow enough to get a picture


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

InfraredDream said:


> The one at Brentwood Mall is small but decent. Not that many kind of fish but I've never seen a death one there. Sometime they have some nice sells on equipmet. It was a chain store, I am trying to remember the name, it was Pet..something (not "smart")


pet habitat I think is the name



neven said:


> i use a crappy Sony DSC-S650 point and shoot. Also have to clean the kids finger prints from the lense every time i use it. i've just grown used to fine tuning the settings for the tank shots. Close ups are a real pain, where normally i take 2 of each shot, i need to play with the auto, focus settings, ISO, EV and white balance in hopes to get it to work. i tend to shoot with flash off aswell
> 
> Even then its a challenge. The other night the wife and i tried taking shots of the two guppies, both of us gave up after each spent a half hour trying to atleast get a clear shot of the blue/black male guppy... lets just say after a few hundred shots i gave up.


I feel your pain when it comes to getting a good pic, between my shark and loaches it's literally impossible to get a good shot as they are always on the move or in a cave.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

I thought neven was using a nice expensive SLR camera to get his pics!
i'm working on the photography aspect of taking photos of my tank. my blackberry camera is poor. i'm using a canon. 1 out of 10 pictures i take of my corydoras come out perfect but if you ask me to take pic of the danios or rasboras....good luck. they're looking like a blur in mid motion.


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

IMO 1 out of 10 is a good ratio lol I have a nice little 10 mp Canon digital camera and I have to take approx. 200 shots to get 10- 20 good ones lol . Thank God for the continuous shot function or I'd prolly have to take alot more lol


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i never thought to use continuous shot >.<


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

neven said:


> i never thought to use continuous shot >.<


It really helps with moving fish, etc. though 

The name is Pet Habitat indeed, thanks


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

ah. i've learnt something new on this thread also. Continuous shots....and take the best one out of them.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

oh my god! continuous shot!!!! of course.... those danios wont know what hit them!


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Guppy fry and guppy fry and guppy fry..... thats all i can say. My god these these breed worse than rabbits do. The downside was i lost two females both after they gave birth, soon after the fry arrived they started to bloat and eventually died :/ The last female seems to be doing fine after the 16 or so fry she let out yesterday.

Tank wise, i've been tweaking the photo period and adjusting the EI dosing, and fish feedings. I overfed when i first had the fry show up, but the planaria outbreak let me know to stop it and its under control and shrinking daily, i think the guppy fry like em. Theres a bit of algae on the wood, but as its a new tank i dont want to battle it now as it doesn't spread elsewhere. Also due to the food pond snails got out of hand so i had to get a couple assassin snails and will be baiting them out to speed up their removal.

Plants, a lot more plant mass, through trades i got my hands on a couple more species that were on my wife's list of wants, and soon i should be able to replace the lotus and thin the grouping of Hygrophila polysperma 'Ceylon,' the latter takes almost half the tank up.

the crappy point and shoot i had, has been toast for a while, my son threw it off the kitchen table. So today i picked up a samsung es73 $139 point and shoot. For a dirt cheap camera i've been quite impressed, especially comparing it to mid range compacts from a couple years ago, it blows them out of the water it seems.

Lots of fry hidden in the pic









tank shot


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

Awesome!!! WOW, the tank looks great, neven!! And the fry is cuuuute!! BTW, I have endler fry, so it seems all the problems that we had are gone now! VERY happy.
Great job on the tank! Sorry you lost the moms but hope the fry will grow fast and healthy


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## Fishkeeper (Apr 21, 2010)

Looks great....very nice set up.....


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## Kanesska (Oct 7, 2010)

Wow!! Looks awesome!! You've inspired me to set up a 10g lol 

Thanks


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## Teewa (May 24, 2010)

I enjoyed your thread, and the pictures! The tank looks great.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Update!

The Lighting has changed! well not by much. The 23 Watt CFL twister was a bit overkill and to maintain algae control, you got to have light as the limiting factor. Easy fix, Screw in Y adapter in the socket, Placed two 9Watt bulbs instead. Visually no different, but it raised the bulbs about a half inch higher due to the diameter change and the lumen drop is significant, about 600 Lumens, if it proves to be too low, i'll swap out the left bulb for a 15 watt since it has much more dense plants on that side.

Water parameters are shifting. I have tossed the crushed coral, as no co2, greatly reduces its use (carbonic acid helps break it down, plus also adds to KH itself). I got my hands on equilibrium and have cranking the GH up slowly, currently its at 7 degrees, aiming for above 10. KH i'll keep at around 3-4 degrees via baking soda.

Fishie news.... The first guppy fry have finally entered the stage where their colors start to show, i may have guplers but its hard to tell from this point. I've had 2 more broods of fry pop out of females. Due to lack of hardness in the tank, the females that gave birth didn't survive longer than a week after birth. That is fixed now, as the latest female gave birth a couple weeks ago is still very active. The male did die though, after adjusting the KH, he croaked but all of the fry seems fine, so must have weak genetics.

And the plants.... It has all changed, well half the tank changed, the left side. I bought CRS Fans's red package as it was filled with species my wife had to have in here tank (ones she picked prior to us getting the tank). So Lotus has been removed, the Hygro ceylon also. both are sittin on my counter in bags for a week now against the tank (fish tank water in the bag every day).
Plants added were:
Pogostemon stellatus 'Broadleaf'
Ammania gracilis
Alternanthera reineckii 'roseafolia'
Ludwigia ovalis
Hygrophila corymobosa 'Siamensis 53b' (thought i had this, but i guess i identified the other plant wrong)


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Update! After nicely planting everything, my wife decides she wants a new substrate, something less white, and in smaller grain... Yippiee!

So like a bandaid i pulled it off quick. Got new substrate from IPU (big suprise on the store  ) She chose their bulk darker gravel. I then got home and Uprooted everything, then tried to find the assassin snails. Only found one.... Moved her driftwood to my tank, figured my cleanup crew can have a treat while i work on her tank.

All the old substrate was scooped out and sifted through for assassin snails, no luck, 3 missing so far, Peak over at her driftwood and it had 4 cherry shrimps, 9 amano shrimp, 6 otocs and my bristlenose eating away in my tank, lol.

I take a break to put the kids to bed and turn the filter on so the prefilter gets out a lot of the debris.

Then the fun begins, replanting it... I hate planting glosso and here i was doing it again. The advantage with the smaller grain gravel is i can use my fert sticks again without worrying about extra nitrates or carbonates being added outside of my ei regiment.

Needless to say, its done! yay! After i took the wood out, i found an assassin snail in my tank the next day, so i moved it back to its home, there may be more though, we'll see.

first is a pic of the first guppy baby to colour, i suspect its a gupler but we shall see.










lastly, the new scape, still needs the back left corner to grow out. left room for another plant right in the middle, thinking a red flame or something


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

WOW, awesome work! And such a hard one, to rebuild it all! Your wife must have been very happy!
And I love your baby, it looks like it has some strong endler genes in it  Let me know if you want to add some pure endlers over there 
Wonderful tank!


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i dotn even have any endlers, the female must have met up with a homewrecker at the lfs


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Your wife is so lucky! Imagine having someone who plants and replants tanks for you! You did a wonderful job. Are those mostly Stuart's plants in your new 'scape? They look very healthy.

That glosso looks very finicky to plant, though. How do you get it to stay in the gravel while you add water? Also, what are fert sticks? I might be rescaping my 25 tall this week (if I don't immediately rehome it). Do you recommend fert sticks? My tanks tend to run on hope and benign neglect, which seems to work pretty well for most of them, but the 25 tall clearly needs a bit more TLC. Maybe fert sticks.


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## InfraredDream (Jun 24, 2010)

No, I got it that the baby have it in its genes from somebody along the way. But as I have babies, I offered you some to add to your wonderful tank


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

If you are starting from scratch, its easier to plant it with little to no water, and pour the water in the tank onto a plate or container resting elsewhere on the substrate. that way it doesn't uproot half the tank. But i had all the uprooted plants floating around and lots of fry in the tank so it remained nearly full.

as to where things came from:
10g Tank from lamyfung
AC 30filter is from gklaw
Manzanita wood is from CRS Fan
original substrate rona, new one IPU
Shrimp from my other tank
Snails/Fish from IPU
couple stones my son picked out walking around
The plants.... Mostly CRS fan's plants, then its split up between my own plants, david j's and robert luongo's

Its all in the plants  Once you get the plants, its only a matter of grouping them together and arranging them to contrast the plants around them so their differences are showcased, whether they are subtle or not. My first few scapes looked like someone puked plants into my tank. After seeing quite a few tanks and reading into amano style tanks amongst others, i was make my tanks somewhat presentable. I still won't attain the level of scaping seen by the experienced on planted tank though


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

the road to recovery is finally happening. The hardness hiked up wrecked havoc on the plants, many weren't suited for it, and the tank was always cloudy and everything dusted. So now all my tanks are at around 5 degrees. I just use the same bucket to fill all the tanks, fill it to the same point, add 1/4 tsp of baking soda and 1tsp of equillibrium and the fishies love it and the cloudiness fades quickly. Theres been a lot of tweaking to the plants to try to get them to rebound, the last to do so was the Pogostemon stellatus 'Broadleaf', i was about to throw it out and figured one last try. By next week or the week after i'll be able to trim the scrawny bottoms of the stems and replant so it looks a lot healthier 

excuse the blurry pic, i had 10 minutes before all my tank timers went off for the night


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

redid the cover/light valence for this tank. As both my children knew how to lift the old way i had the cover, i figured its time to enjoy the rimless the way it should be. So i cut up my old cover and heres how it looks now



















and these two fishies are engaging in round 2 of "who's the alpha male." Round 1 ended up with 2 of them hopping into a bucket next to the tank, 1 of the competitors seems to have backed off.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

Since theres been no update since the move i figured i'd finally snap some photos and share the changes.

First the lighting has changed, the valence that i made is now used on the 5 gallon tank and the lamp i used on the 5 gallon is now used over this tank as a temporary measure. Finding the right height has been a pain, but i think i found the sweet spot for now so the colours should improve over time. The stellatus is an indicator that the lighting was too close as it loses a lot of colour and becomes really pale when its limited by carbon and/or nutrients.

All my tanks have had their metricide dosing topped to the max im willing to go 2.5ppm until i get more airline cables and check valves to set up new batches of jello co2.

I recently added willow moss to the manzanita wood. On the plus side the crypt parva is starting to grow finally. I filled in the middle with a crypt, added a grass, removed the ludwiga ovalis, and shifted the plants around to even out the scape more. Still needs work, but i think the solution to filling out the tank more would be more manzanita with mosses to further define the plant zones.

I've had 2 guppies jump from the tank and not make it, since then theres been no aggression between the guppies (down to 4). I added 4 otocs aswell, one of them actually chases the guppies around the tank and is the aggressor of the tank.

anyways the pictures
an above shot of the floating plants and my HoB flow deflector 









front left of the tank









Stellatus from above









willow moss that i added a bit ago









Full tank shot, crypt parva is starting to kick off on the right









Guppies









and more guppies









one year old eating cake on his first bday


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

lol nice tank and hungry looking kid!


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## mysticalnet (Apr 22, 2010)

*The Wife's 10 gallon - March 16 updated*

Nice tank! Plants look great! What substrate is it?


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## globali (May 1, 2011)

Very good journey with very nice result.


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