12 gallons(was 10)

[Sponge bob]

Hmmm. I dont know if I have this in the right spot or not.
I have a empty 10 gallon, thinking on do 3 dwarf puffers, some ottos and planted.
I love this tank


I wanna do it just like that.
few questions.
-Is that a real bonzi tree?
-Would it survive under water?
-What happens if you put dirt on the bottom of tank, then sand, then gravel?Would it hold of plants?
-DIY your self tree?Drift would and some moss?

[julianchan]

That is an Amano design. The substate is a mixture of soils from ADA design. The plant is probably driftwood and moss. Depending on the plants in there, you are looking at about 3-4 wpg, which also means CO2 in there. I am in the process of setting up a 20g like that.

[Sponge bob]

That is an Amano design. The substate is a mixture of soils from ADA design. The plant is probably driftwood and moss. Depending on the plants in there, you are looking at about 3-4 wpg, which also means CO2 in there. I am in the process of setting up a 20g like that.

Ok, I can get CO2 tablets and liquid. I have a dual light hood.(its from the ones at walmart) I was thinking putting to eclipse 5 gallon hex lights on there. There so bright.
What is ADA? Sorry

[julianchan]

CO2 tablets dont work as well as either DIY CO2 or pressurized CO2, it kind of fizzes out really quickly, and is hard to monitor.

ADA design is a company started and owned by Takashi Amano, and specializes in planted tanks. Its not the only way of doing planted aquariums, but is one of the most beautiful I have seen.

This is their webpage

http://www.adana.co.jp/index_e.php

I am lucky I have a guy at one of my LFS's who loves doing Amano designed aquariums. Problem is most the stuff is pretty expensive. I just got soil for my tank and it cost me about $80.

Figure out how much wattage the light in your hex is, and do the calculations on how much light you will need for your tank. For a 10 gallon, you are looking at about between 20-30 w, since they are not extremely deep.

[Sponge bob]

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/213954/product.web
This is the light I wanna put in the 10gallon. Two of them.

[julianchan]

Works out to be about 2 wpg, should be able to do a bit with that...

[Sponge bob]

YAY, All I want is some java moss and moss balls(lol moss balls)

[julianchan]

oh, you can get away with a little less lighting with moss

[Sponge bob]

Ok, Thank you. What kind of dirt/Soil would I need?

[julianchan]

i only know about the ada stuff, i am sure other cheaper stuff will work too, but i dont know about em.

[Sponge bob]

i only know about the ada stuff, i am sure other cheaper stuff will work too, but i dont know about em.

Soil from home depot?

[CaptainMorgan_SOS]

black argonite gravel/sand mixture is great for plants... and it keeps the pH right at 8.0

[puffertt77]

Hey Sponge Bob

I was asking people about Low-light plants and Moss a little while ago and wanted to do exactly as you have chosen to do

I was going to get root/wood and turn it upside down and add moss to the ends of the branches, it looks to me that this is what's been done in the photo

The moss I was recomended is as follows:-

flame moss grows upwards (I think using this you'll get the effect of the tree in that pic you posted)
weeping moss droops down (I also wanted to have a tree with this stuff hanging down from it's branches, would look quality)
fissidens fontanus grows quite compact and bushy. (you could also creat a kind of rounded bushy look to the ends of the branches with this moss)

Everone I spoke to said if I use these mosses I would'nt need much light at all (and that was for the 4ft high 1200g to!)

In a 10g tank the moss is going to be so close to the lights (especially if it's 3 1/4 of the way up the tank on the end of the tree branches) that you wont need anything special in the way of lighting. Plus if the moss has less light it will grow slower which means you don't keep having to trim the tree. I think so long as you've got enough light for the moss to live that would be better than trying to add loads of light and Co2 to make it grow.

So I wouldn't worry about Co2 if it were me setting up a 10g tank, If you do decide to add it DIY Co2 bottles work well for a tank that size



Here's a list of other low-light plants that should be ok at 1WPG I got given
Ceratophyllum demersum
Egeria sp.
Elodea densa
Mosses
Aponogeton crispus
Anubia barteri nana
Anubia afzelli
Cabomba caroliniana
Ceratopteris cornuta
Cryptocorynes (all of them)
Heteranthera zosterifolia
Hemianthus micrantemoides
Hygrophila (all of them)
Limnophila aquatica
Limnophila sessiliflora
Lysimachia nummularia
Microsorum (all of them)
Myriophylum sp
Najas indica
Nymphaea sp.
Nymphaea sp rubra
Nymphoides aquatica
Sagittarias (all of them)

[DRRT]

this tank won in a competion, i read it in tropical fish magazine. most of the winning tanks had some specs on the tank size, inhabitants, additives, etc. if you can find the article, you can probably trace back to the specs and set up your own.

[Sponge bob]

I think I'll go with the last one, its $32.00 U.S dollars