fish keeping & aquatic plant care

I manage to get most of the materials that I needed last Sunday (Oct. 5, 2008) and started aquascaping my 10g tank at that same day. Here’s some of the materials that I’ve managed to prepare, most of them are quite far from the sketch that I’ve drawn but the most appealing (IMO) I could find.

1. Driftwood. Got this driftwood from Aquarium Services Kitchener (a.k.a. Big Als Canada).
2. Rocks. Found them on our backyard.
3. Flourite Substrate (black). Bought this from Aquarium Services (a.k.a. Big Als Canada) as well.
4. Compact Flourescent Light. I couldn’t find CFL 20watts bulbs so I just bought Two 6,500k 15 watts CFL bulbs.
5. Cabomba Green, Coffeefolia (anubias), Java Moss and Java Fern. Have them already and still waiting for my groundcover plants that I bought from AquariumPlants.com

Since most of the materials that I need are ready, I started setting up the stage:

While looking for the stone that fits to my liking I tried setting up the stage in our backyard first and here’s what I came up with (see fig. 1).

And when I was certain and satisfied with the positioning I then applied the layout in to my tank (fig. 2 and fig. 3)

(fig. 1)

(fig. 2)

(fig. 3)

4 more plants will arrive tommorow (hopefully) to be added in this 10g tank, these are Pelia (Monosolenium Tenerum), Aponogeton crispus, Dwarf Hairgrass (Eleocharis acicularis), and Myriophyllum tuberculatum. There are 2 more plants that I forgot to order though, one is Riccia Fluitans and HC Cuba (Hemianthus callitrichoides cuba) and since this is most likely the last month of shipments due to winter I may not be able to get those plants till next year spring by then I wonder how will my 10g tank going to look like.

I’m planning to turn my 10 gallon tank into a masterpiece and so planned things out a bit and this is my first post for my  “Aquascaping 10G Tank Journal“.

Here are some of the list that I’ve prepared and need to prepare:

1) Aquascape Sketch

I made two sketches to serve as my reference when I start aquascaping my tank.

2) Tank, Lighting, Substrate & other stuff

• 10 Gallon Aquarium (37.85 liters) [Have it Already and Cycled]
• Flourite Substrate [Still need to buy some]
• DIY CO2 System [Done, needs some ingredients]
• CO2 Reactor 100 (reactor pic) [Gotta buy it from aquariumplants.com]
• Rocks [gotta find good looking ones in our backyard]
• Bogwood [gotta find good ones in the backyard, cure/sterelize it and waterlogged it]
• Big Als’ Plant Food Supplement
• Heater [Have it Already]
• Filtration - Still undecided if I will use or leave it no filter at all
• Air Pump [Have it Already]

3) Plants (of course)

• Tiger Lotus, Red (Nymphaea zenkeri
• Aponogeton crispus
• CLOVER, FOUR LEAF (Marsilea quadrifolia
• Pelia (Monosolenium Tenerum) or Riccia
• Dwarf Hairgrass
• Java Moss
• Java Fern
• Bolbitus (Bolbitus heudelotii)
• Coffeefolia Anubias
• Cabomba green (and purple)
• Ludwidgia Repens (maybe) or Bacopa

4) Test Kits

• Master Test Kits (pH, Hardness, Ammonia, Nitrite) [Have it Already]
• Iron Test Kit [Have it Already]

With all those list I could probably start aquascaping in 1 - 2 wks time and probably post new entries whenever I get some of the materials that I need.

It’s Saturday and as usual… time for tank maintenance.. adios for now =D