# New 10-Gallon Tank Progress



## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

I've had a 3-gallon with one betta for awhile and I finally decided I wanted more, so I got this 10-gallon to be divided once and currently I'm working on getting it cycling. I wanted to start a journal to keep track of the progress because it's my first time 1. Having this size tank 2. Growing a planted tank (hopefully...assuming I don't somehow kill all my plants and give up!) and 3. Doing a proper fishless cycle.

Here's the tank just after I got it, set up almost how I want it except with some stand-in plants









I didn't do my research before buying the mopani wood pictured and was horrified when it leaked tannins and turned my water very dark, lol! I don't like the look so they're currently out soaking. I only changed a small amount of the water because I had some trouble getting my ammonia level perfect (I'm using the fish food method) so I'm just going to let it stay yella' until my beautiful bacteria are starting to grow. This is what it looks like as of right now










I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with my plants. I have 6500K lamps (now) on about 10hrs/day and fertilize weekly with Leaf Zone, and I know I need to get root tabs for my swords, but the dwarf sword is still really happy despite being the first in the tank (the picture makes it look yellow but it's green in person...the rest are accurate). My tiny java fern (which I accidentally bought half-dead) is doing really well too. The amazon swords started yellowing the same day I put them in, and it was suggested to me that they were probably grown above water and need adjustment time, so I'm hoping that's all it is. I have no clue what's wrong with my anacharis though. Did I maybe clump them too close together? Or do they maybe just dislike my gravel? I'm really not ready to commit to getting sand.

Will update soon...the mopani should be done soaking in the next few days and I'm excited to get it back in there.


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## Betaphototramp (Apr 13, 2014)

Ok, Your lighting is good But did you resurch the lighting needs for your plants? Some of your plants require lower lighting and some require higher lighting . Also what is the PH level in the tank? Some plants require a higher PH. and some require a PH of 7.0.
Also Get your self some API CO2 boost and add 1 ML to the tank daily. Plants require CO2. Some plants will loose their leaves once transplanted, but the root system is still alive and the plant will start to bloom again in a few weeks.

Your planting looks nice and I like the effect you have going.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Thank you!! They require different lighting? Which ones? I have a dwarf sword, amazon swords, anacharis, and a java fern. When I looked online I read that they all needed moderate lighting, and since I have 2 10-watt lights in a 10 gallon I thought that was perfect as I read that for moderate lighting you want about 2 watts per gallon. Now I'm really confused!
I also chose them because none of them said they required CO2 supplementation, especially the anacharis which is doing increasingly worse...???

The one thing I haven't looked into as deeply as I should is the pH, I'm going to test that right now. ... OK, my pH is about 7.2-7.5 which...also should be just fine for all of my plants according to what I'm reading.

My other readings are around 4ppm ammonia, still 0 on nitrites&nitrates, 25 on hardness, 0 on chlorine, 180ish on KH. The temp is around 83F. Any other red flags?

Here's the tank today, with driftwood replaced! but plants looking not-too-happy. I think I also might have accidentally displaced/smushed my java fern while I was moving things around, too... which is unfortunate because it looked like it was doing well.


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

The temp is kind of high. My plants don't do well when it's that warm. I would turn your heater down to 78 unless there is some reason you have it at 83.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

I had turned it up because I read that it encourages the BB to grow faster, but if it's what's killing the plants I'll set it back down...forgot about that. Guess we'll see what happens!


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Water test finally came up with a teeny amount of nitrites, just over a week into cycling! Still barely anything but it's a start.
Working on getting the temp down for the plants...I turned the heater way down after last night but it hardly dropped. Today I poured a bunch of ice cubes in there and that helped some, lol. It's finally hovering around 79.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Woke up to this face this morning:









There are a LOT of bladder snails. I've ordered a pair of assassin snails from Aquabid, which I've already named Gravedigger and Maximum Overkill (Gravy and Max for short). So much for fishless cycling! I guess now I'm going to have to do a snail-in cycle.









Tank is doing well. Still reading super teeny amount of nitrites...seems like it should have gone up more by now? It's been around 10 days, ammonia maintained around 4ppm, no chlorine at all. Hmmm...


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Finally got the new divider in! It took a weirdly long amount of time to find black report binders...but now I got me a pack of 10 
I'm pretty happy with it. I also got my shipment in of two small Marimos, a Red Flame Sword, and a water sprite, as well as some root fertilizer for my swords.

Here it is today!









Side shot of the divider....don't mind the snails









I also started floating my anacharis, following lilnaugrim's advice. They even look a little bit happier already just having moved around and shaken off some dead parts, lol.
I also found my poor little java fern that I thought I'd lost. I accidentally buried it and then looked all over for it and couldn't find it anywhere so I thought it was a goner, but it looks like there's a chance it might still make it...that's it all the way over on the right in the first picture, with two leaves.

I think things are looking up! 

I think I'm going to try putting an anubias or something in where the fake purple plant is. It's kind of standing as a placeholder for now because I like the thought of having a plant in the tall cube but I'm not sure the fake plant really fits in with all the real ones lol


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## taquitos (Jun 27, 2013)

Looks nice! I really like your square/rectangular decorations. Where did you get them?


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Thank you! They come from Petco actually! They're a little unnecessarily overpriced lol but I just love them so it's worth it.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Trying to decide if I should preserve some of the bladder snails to breed in one of my .5 gallons with some small bits of floating anacharis, in case my assassins (arriving tomorrow, yay!) totally decimate their population...I'd kind of like to have some around for the assassins to snack on but I have no idea if they'll be able to sustain a population with the assassins in there. I don't know if that would just be way too small for them to breed though. I don't know if I want to commit to introducing them into my 3 gallon...if anyone has any thoughts, please share!

Ammonia level is still the same, reading 4ppm...going to have to change most of the water tomorrow before the snails arrive though.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Did the big almost 100% water change today in preparation for the assassin snails' arrival today! It's looking so much better in there.










The snails all arrived intact. I had ordered two, but they sent an extra, and since I was hoping to keep them separated in hopes that they wouldn't breed, I tossed one in with Karvel in his 3-gallon tank, along with two of the bladder snails. Karvel immediately took interest and started prodding at all three snails, he mostly just looked curious though. He didn't even flare. Then all of the sudden, the little assassin was minding his own business, checking things out, and Karvel grabbed it by the head and shook it like a dog! We couldn't believe it. Luckily I had set up one of my half-gallons with some of the bladder snails, I grabbed the little guy and set him in there in hopes that maybe he would live. He's moved just a tiny bit since then, I haven't witnessed him poking his head out again though. I hope he's okay! I'm gonna test the ammonia tomorrow to see if I need to change the water every day or every other day, until I can figure out what to do with him. No clue what the next move will be. This is the little fella in his new digs.










As for the other little guys, they seem to be settling in. Well, the one on the right side, Max, seems to be pretty active. Gravy wandered around on my driftwood long enough for me to grab a picture, but went down the backside of it and I haven't seen him since. Hoping to see some signs of him soon!


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Killer moved around quite a bit last night. I'm thinking I'm probably going to divide the tank one more time if I can work it out...That way I could keep the snails separate and maybe swing for just one more betta.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Wellp, I did it!










I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I prefer the look with just the one divider, but I really can't afford another tank so I think it's the best option. I like it!

Here's Killer, the injured assassin, in his new section. He's doing much better. I can see now that a lot of his siphon was bitten off. I'm not sure how well he will do this way. I'm wondering if maybe it will grow back. This evening he was wandering around slowly and checking things out.


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## PrettyInPinkFloyd (May 22, 2014)

I just wanted to say that your tank looks amazing! Your snails look great too!


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Thank you so much! It's my pride and joy lately lol


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## Betaphototramp (Apr 13, 2014)

Pony, You should be very proud of your tank it really looks great. and your guys will love it. Have fun with it and watch your levels.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Thank you so much! 

I still wasn't seeing any change in nitrites...decided to buy some API quick start and give that a shot. Will update once I test again...


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Everything's looking pretty good! The plants are super happy- some of the anubias started growing like two inches a day the last few days! Yay!










Tank still won't show any signs of cycling though...dumping lots of Quick Start in to no avail. It worked great on my 3-gallon, I'm not sure why but I've had that tank a long time and it didn't cycle either, but after putting in Quick Start it started right up and has been testing perfectly. Bah!


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Aaagh, getting this cyle going is driving me crazy. My pH suddenly shot up and my cycle is going nowhere. I'm going to just start over and just put the fish in along with quick start and some substrate from my now established tank and see what happens.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Okay, here are the boys in their new digs. So far they seem to be leaving the snails alone which is good. Hunter (formerly Kili, thanks so much to lilnaugrim, I would have left his name but all of my fish have Bjork-themed names!) has flared about everything except the snail. I know he's seen the snail because I watched him look right at him, but doesn't seem to be offended by his presence despite feeling threatened by the presence of plants, driftwood, rocks, the divider, the moss ball, and of course his own reflection.


















Andi, on the other hand, seems a little bit interested in his snail buddy, who is currently hiding out under the lip of the filter where Andi can't seem to stay. Other than that he's just wiggling around checking stuff out:


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Finally!!! Tested this morning and we have nitrates, ladies and gentlemen!! Quick Start is a godsend!

Everybody seems to still be getting along great, too.


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## Betaphototramp (Apr 13, 2014)

I will always swear by Quick start The boys look real good and so do the tanks. best of luck.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Not much interesting happening...the Quick Start continues to work well. Tests are looking good. Plants are starting to grow a lot more. The boys are doing great too.

I think the last big change eradicated most of the bladder snails and my assassins got the rest. Wellp, there goes that! Will be working on another source of food for them in the meantime and keeping an eye out for good opportunities to get more pest snails for them.










I'm considering changing out my white mesh for my dividers in favor of black. I think it might look more subtle that way, plus it wouldn't get so dirty-looking. They did carry black at Michael's. I'm probably going to stop by there tomorrow and just pick some up.

Also working on obtaining the fish for the middle section. I'm really liking this guy:








And plan to try to get him if I can.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

I decided to put the tank back today because I helped my friend pick out a tank, bettas, and supplies today and decided to donate one of my snails to her tank, plus I changed out the mesh for my dividers for black and they look so much better black but it was super dark in the middle section and I really liked it a lot better with just the two sections so I said oh well and put it back.

I figure I'll just find a new tank for the arrival of my new fish. If I don't find one soon I'm sure someone will be okay hanging out in a quarantine jug until I can find a good deal on one. I'd like to find a good deal on a 3-5 gallon because I already have all the equipment for one that size, but maybe a nice set for a 10 gallon will pop up and I'll end up with two more fish....5 is a nice round number!


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Rather than going to another 10 gallon tank, I'm thinking I might try to get this 20L someone is selling locally









Then that way I could move everything in my current 10 gallon into two sections of this tank and I'd have easier maintenance which is always useful since I'm very busy with school...plus someday when I had the time and money I could fill my 10 gallon back up ;-) will update when I know if that's happening!


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## Betaphototramp (Apr 13, 2014)

Pony, you really have it going on. The tank looks great and I like your way of thinking about the justification of a new tank. I tried that on my wife and she wouldn't go for a new tank. I have had my eye on a new 300 gallon that I want to do in salt Reef. She said NO. But it didn't drop on my end and I pouted for a few days. She couldn't stand it and now I have a new 300 gallon setup cycling. I figure if all else fails pout or shed some tears. LOL Grovel works well also. LOL Keep us informed about your new baby and new tank.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Thanks so much! Lol..It worked and I have the 20 gallon up and running! I'm super excited about it and I've ordered a new LED light fixture for it. Will update with pictures when I get home!

Just one problem...I have it divided into three sections, with my two current bettas in two of them. It has the little glass top that covers most of the top but leaves some room in the back for the filter and heater, it doesn't have a cutout it just cuts off all the way across the length of it.
Well, I didn't even think about that, stupid, stupid me! It cuts really close to the divider so there's no room to squeeze over the top but there's plenty of room to hop right over the top in the back where the glass isn't there.

I arrived home late last night to my two fish in together, one of them looking pretty tattered but ultimately both okay. It scared the living daylight out of me. I immediately scooped one of them out and put him back in his little section and investigated thoroughly to realize my dumb mistake. :-( I feel so terrible, it was totally my fault for not checking more thoroughly. I'm just really lucky nobody ended up dead, who knows how long they could have been like that!!

So I got that fixed temporarily for now and am working out how I'm going to permanently fix it. I threw extra Stress Coat in there along with a dose of aquarium salt. Hunter, the one that got the worst of it, is still pretty much okay, just has some fin damage. He was still acting totally normal. I got really lucky!


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Oh, and I won the auction for the fish I posted a little bit ago. I'm really excited! But I haven't heard from the seller or transhipper yet...though I paid them both. Hmm.


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## Pony (Apr 26, 2014)

Here's the tank as it currently is...waiting on my new light fixture to arrive next week!


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