Cheap 10G planted log

[skinni]

Ok so i purchased a 10 gallon tank to start planning a planted tank to see what i can do. I have recently been researching alot of aquascaping and i am seriously intrigued by it and cant wait to get started on mine. so we will start it with a list of what i have bought and how much i have spent then i will update this thread slowly as the build and the growing progesses.

10G aquarium - $10

Rena Top Light Heater - $12

Up to 30g Sponge Filter - $6

Air Pump - $6

Shipping - $10

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Total so far $44

[donvichu]

Good deal...looking forward to see pics of your planted aquarium :c12:

[gm72]

Just to give you a heads-up, a sponge filter will agitate the water surface significantly, thereby reducing available CO2 for the plants. Not the best scenario for a planted tank, but it may still work.

[skinni]

well there is time to change my mind i havent finished my order yet.... i guess maybe a whisper HOB may be a better idea... although i plan on doing a DIY co2... any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated

[gm72]

Using CO2 and a sponge filter is not going to be very effective. The bubbling action of the sponge filter will kill off most if not all of the CO2.

[skinni]

ok so a hob it is.... scratch the air pump and the sponge filter

hrm actually i really like the look of this!
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[squirt_12]

ok so a hob it is.... scratch the air pump and the sponge filter

hrm actually i really like the look of this!
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That would be your best bet. A canister wouldn't let any CO2 get displaced unless you have the powerhead/spray bar pointing at the surface rippling the water. You sound like your off to a good start.
Do you know what you are planning for lighting yet??

[skinni]

yeah i have a little cheapo idea for lights... I make alot of stuff out of lexan... (fog lights / top for my other 10 gallon) im going to go alittle thicker then normal but im going to cut out a piece of lexan for a top. There are these undercabnet florecent lights that are like 8$ for an 18 inch 65 watts or so, I was planning on doing 1 or 2 of those with aquarium/plant bulbs although i havent decided what type of bulb for sure yet.

[skinni]

ok so since i cant edit my first post i will go ahead and redo the list here. I decided against the sponge filter thanks to the guidance from the above posts.

10G aquarium - $10

Rena Top Light Heater - $12

Rapids Mini Canister Filter - $21

Shipping - $10
--------------------

total so far = $53

order has been placed no changing my mind now lol

[squirt_12]

Thats a good order. Almost everything you need.

Since this is going to be a planted tank, are you going to be going with something like flourite (sp?) for substrate??

[cocoa_pleco]

I have the mini canister, its a awesome filter

[skinni]

I have the mini canister, its a awesome filter

wow thats great to hear!! i was wondering if anyone had used one... i think ima get another 1 for my other 10 gallon on down the road.

as for substrate yeah im trying to decide what kind.. i havent done a ton of research on it yet but from what i have read seems like Aqua Soil or Flourite are gonna be the 2 to choose from.

[smoochxoxo]

cocoa I posted about this and you had said that the spray bar made it so it didn't circulate well? I guess now I am confused? It is awesome but not a good unit to circulate to filter? This was one of my reasons for wanting a canister to filter well and I would assume for it to filter stuff from the tank there would need to be sufficient circulation?

ive got one of those, it doesnt circulate well because it has a spraybar

[digital3]

cocoa I posted about this and you had said that the spray bar made it so it didn't circulate well? I guess now I am confused? It is awesome but not a good unit to circulate to filter? This was one of my reasons for wanting a canister to filter well and I would assume for it to filter stuff from the tank there would need to be sufficient circulation?

I think you should be OK with a 10 gallon, since there isn't as much water volume. I had a spray bar on my 55 and definitely had circulation problems. I needed to use the spray jet instead.

Also Skinni, if you supplement your tank with Flourish Excel, that should take care of your Co2 and you shouldn't have to worry too much about the "outgassing" problem.

Are you going to just do low-light plants or are you looking for something with a little more? If you just stick with the "big low-light three," (Anubias, Java Fern, Java Moss), you can actually cut some corners with lighting and substrate.

On my 10 I dose trace elements (1 ml), once a week, Excel (5 ml), once a week and my Java Fern and Java Moss look great! I stuck in some Anubias and it seems to be doing good as well. I also use a 15 watt 6700k spectrum lamp and just normal gravel. And that's it! It's a nice low-tech setup.

[skinni]

i dunno exactly what plants im going to do (due to not having a ton of money i have plenty of time to research things) but my real goal here is to create a setup that will support a range of plants and still be cheap. I really appreciate your input, every bit of knowledge i can get i will gladly take and throw it into the equation. :19:

[skinni]

Made a few additions today.

currently $55

piece of clear arcrylic $15 (Cut it to fit myself)

18" Florecent Light Fixture $7

Total = $84

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18" Florecent Plant & Aquarium Bulb $7

[Sasquatch]

Looking good there.

A few things to watch out for:
What's the light spectrum/Kelvin rating on the fluorescent light?

Watch out for bending on the acrylic. I did a similar DIY job for my 10 and I've noticed that the acrylic is warping under the weight of my light fixture. It's bigger than yours and isn't as wide as the tank, so the weight isn't supported by the frame ... but watch out on yours anyway.

As for plants, you're biggest problem will be the size of the plants. Most will quickly outgrow a 10g tank. Relatively small and slow growing plants would be ideal though. Cryptocoryns would be good choices with those mentionned above.

I've also got Hygrophila and Pennywort, but they grow quickly and I've constantly trimming them down.

[skinni]

thanks for the compliment!

The light i guess isnt going to work, its only like 3200k... freaking says its a plant and aquarium bulb though. Im gonna take it back and see if i can find a couple of bulbs online in the 6500k area.

Thanks for the heads up on the bending, I made a similar lid on my other 10 gallon to seperate the lights in the hood from the water and i made it out of a thin piece and i saw the bending you are talking about, so when i did this one since i knew it would have to support the light i went with 1/8" thick, and its really sturdy, but i will keep an eye out as well.

[Incredulous_Ed]

thanks for the compliment!

The light i guess isnt going to work, its only like 3200k... freaking says its a plant and aquarium bulb though. Im gonna take it back and see if i can find a couple of bulbs online in the 6500k area.

Thanks for the heads up on the bending, I made a similar lid on my other 10 gallon to seperate the lights in the hood from the water and i made it out of a thin piece and i saw the bending you are talking about, so when i did this one since i knew it would have to support the light i went with 1/8" thick, and its really sturdy, but i will keep an eye out as well.
Or, you can go down to Wal Mart and get the GE 9325k bulb, which is supposedly the best for plant growth. I hate the color of it, but it does give great plant growth.

[skinni]

thanks for the heads up when i buy the 2nd fixture from there ill pick up one of those bulbs. What color does it give off?

[Incredulous_Ed]

Kind of purpleish blueish. Some people like it, some dont. But plant sseem to love it.

[skinni]

recieved my heater and mini canister today.... no joke i like the filter but those flexable plastic tubes that come with it are serious junk, i went to the home depot and picked up some 3/8" id vynle tube and re-worked all the plumbing. Its working like a charm! I have it on my 55 gallon seeding as we speak. I have the heater in my freshly cycled 10 gallon that the shrimp are going in. I used some media from the 55 gallon which recently had the ick outbreak so im gonna use the heater to run the temp up to 90 or so before anything goes in there to help take care of anything that might have been left over.

[skinni]

here are some pics of the DIY hose change on the rapid mini canister:

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[skinni]

guess i should add the $4 i spent to replace the hoses

total = $88

[xoolooxunny]

8,000k bulbs work well too, and they are a little more whiter in color than the 9325k. but since there are so many suggestions here for the light spectrum (which will all grow plants well anywhere from 6700k to 9325k) your best bet would be to research each spectrum and find pictures to see which one gives the color you like best.

btw, a dark substrate helps bring out color in the fish and plants.

[skinni]

picked up a bag of schultz aquatic soil today for $7

total: $95

[Algenco]

it will take a few days for all of the air to come out of the Shultz

[skinni]

hardscape is finished:
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[skinni]

added the water

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[gm72]

Looking great!

[skinni]

thanks! im pretty happy with the way the hardscape turned out... soon it will be time for plants!

[Augus]

Skinni,
I don't know if you want to take on DIY rimless at this stage, but I found this procedure to remove the rim and make a rimless tank.

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I am planing to set up a copy of NACU PASS 10 gal rimless (somewhat similiar like your).

How did you get the curve on the vinyl tube you modfy to your filter hose?

[skinni]

wow thats an awesome write up thanks for posting that. The bends actually came with the filter, they are small clear plasitc U bends. The bends are about 3/8 id so when using my 3/8 id tubing i had to heat the tubeing up and stretch it out with a pair of needle nose pliers to get it to go over the U bends. I heated it up under some hot water.

[Augus]

That is great.
I was going to use the same filter but plan to add lily pipe to it. Now if it come with clear tubing I might not use lily pipe cause that alone is $50 less for my project :)

I will post what I have plan for my tank.

[skinni]

here are a couple of pics where you can kinda tell whats clear and whats not:

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[skinni]

ok so i posted a picture of my tank on an aquascaping forum to get some comments and feed back and everyone pretty much agreed (including me) that the drift wood was too big so i removed it and made some little trees out of some branches i found out in the woods today:

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[skinni]

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[Minderella83]

I think those limbs are neat. You are very clever.

[Tigerbarb]

Those look sort of like coral heads. I really love that design you made with the substrate and rocks, and I think the aquascape would look great with live plants.

[skinni]

thanks for the kind words! i got some plants on the way but i got a deal on them and dont really know what kind. since this is the cheap tank i decided to just work with what i get!

[sktadood13]

wow kool set up.....loved reading this tread.....can wait for the updates

[skinni]

added the first plants today:

Plants $5
Seachem Flourish $9

total $109

i also added another light that i had on my 18g since it really didnt need the extra light and im trying to do this cheaply.

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thats moneywort on the left and frill on the right.

[skinni]

added a thermometer cheap stick on kind $2

total $111

[Tolley]

looks good but are sure those branches will be safe? im not really sure but i wouldnt use branches frm the woods.

[skinni]

no im not sure, but there arent gonna be any fish in this tank, and i would imagine the plants can handle the sticks, i boiled them for a while and also scrubbed them down with a tooth brush.

[skinni]

6500k daylight bulb $7

total $118


im now running 2 15 watt florecent bulbs one plant bulb at 3300k and the daylight bulb at 6500k

[Sasquatch]

no im not sure, but there arent gonna be any fish in this tank, and i would imagine the plants can handle the sticks, i boiled them for a while and also scrubbed them down with a tooth brush.

That should be fine. It'll take care of any bacteria and leach out most of the potential nasties.

Just keep an eye on them if they start to rot inside the tank, but they shouldn't.

[skinni]

just wanted to show the lpant growth over the last week. the moneywort (left) hasnt gotten much bushier but has def grown a bit taller. On this plant from my reading it says that i should let it grow untill it get to the suface then it will start to grow accross the surface and will have shooters come out at every leaf conjunction which can be trimmed and planted.

On the right the fril plant has gotten alot thicker and if you look in the middle i have trimmed a small section and replanted it to see if it will grow.

All and all im pretty happy with the plant growth in just 1 week. I do have a bit of an algea bloom going on :( not to awful bad but it is visible. I will be adding a ton of plants provided that they are not dead when i pick them up from the post office monday morning

first day
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one week
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[Sasquatch]

Lookin' good, the pics are getting better too. :ezpi_wink1:

[sktadood13]

just a sugestion....you may want to put a SAE in there to control algae

[Tolley]

very nice, i bet you'll end up with a nice school of colourful tetras in ther :)

[skinni]

ok so the plants Mr. prototype sent me i finally got today. i planted them asap to get them some light and nutrients. also a ton of tiny snails and 4 big ram horn snails where in the plants. The plants arent in the best condition due to being held at the post office for an extra 2 days... but most look like they will bounce back.

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[skinni]

after some reading and some discussion i decided to move the plants around and trim all the bad leaves from the amazon sword. here is the new pic. doesnt look as good but now we must wait for it to grow :)

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plant list:
Amazon Sword
Anacharis
Fril
Java Moss
Moneywort
and one more that i havent identified yet:

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[squirt_12]

Looks good! Is that some moss in the front of the tank in the white sand?

[skinni]

yup thats the java moss, i tied it to a rock and just stuck it down in the sand. this may just be my imagination but it seems that the moss has already doubled in size since this morning.

[kaoticice]

Great looking tank you have there!! :)

If i can suggest, adding a large piece of rock as a center-piece will be great. Kinda like iwagumi style, such as: (NO this is not my tank, found it in google) LOLX
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[skinni]

looks like my un-identified plant is parrot feather

[Incredulous_Ed]

Personally I think it looks beter, lol. It may not look so good now, but n a few weeks when teh planst grow in more it will look better, and when they start to grow more bushy, it will look even better!

[skinni]

thanks ed!