here is my start on a mini planted tank. I am working on getting some clippings from a local I made friends with. There are currently 20 cherries of various sizes, a cory, dwarf frog and 2 snails.

nice dan. wouldnt the dwarf frog make lunch out of those shrimps?

umm crap...

Yeah, Cheken beat me to it. I was just thinking as I was reading this thread that that Dwarf Frog is gonna have a blast chasing those Cherries down for a midnight snack. Other than that it looks pretty neat though. That's a high fin Cory too. I saw one at WalMart the other day. I was soooo tempted to buy him but I don't like buying fish from there.

This post has been edited by Katt66: Apr 18 2008, 10:54 PM

OK frog is out :)

I have 3 cories in with the discus and man are they good at cleaning up!

Great start Dan.
I got a feeling you're going to expand your planted tank.
They always do.
The sword looks like it is deficient of something.
You might want to give it a root tab but look for one without copper for the sake of the cherry shrimps.

Ya I had it in another tank and it wasnt doing so well. I just added it int her for now so the cherries had a place to hide and they love it. I enjoy planted tanks and I will prob expand it to a 10 then 20g.

I'm in the same boat Danz; look what I had lately

Looks cool!! What are your plans for it?

My shrimp are thriving and are very red. Amazing to watch, cant wait to upgrade them!

gl on this bro. I always wanted to try one, same with marine.

That's a nice little tank you have there That sword definately needs some food, what ferts are you adding at the moment? If you haven't already got a nutritious planted substrate such as eco complete or aquasoil or such then I'd suggest getting some sort of root tabs to place under the sword as they are heavy root feeders. JBL balls are very good as are API root tabs. Copper is present in most plant foods and I as well as lot of other plant enthusiasts add ferts that contain copper to tank with shrimp with no long term health problems. Cherries are slightly mores sensitive then say the alrger amanos but they should be fine. One thing to be careful of when adding new plants is that alot of suppliers treat their plants with anti snail treatments which contain higher levels of copper so always give new plants a very good soak / wash before adding to a shrimp tank.

Gilbert the plants you have look very healthy and that sword looks nice and big, did you pay alot for it? Unfortunately the plant on the far right isn't an aquatic plant and will rot very quickly in a tank so i'd remove it asap.

The sword came out of a neglected tank so was in bad shape but over the course of a couple of weeks I have a ton of new growth so will trim off the fugly stuff and move into the 10g and get some more.

Thanks Azaezl, Actually the Amazon sword cost me $3.99 at Petland Discount.

I’m looking for a good substrate like you mention (ECO COMPLETE – AQUASOIL – FLORABASE).

I didn't know about the plant you said isn't an aquatic plant, but as soon as start to rot I will remove it.

About Co2 Im thinking in something small like Turbo CO2 Bio-System since is just a 30 gallon tank. I will complement with some Liquid aquatic plant supplement and obviously good lighting. I have a T5 light fixture ( 1 bulb - 10k) Do you think I'll need a 2 bulb fixture? Or it will depend on how many plantls will be in the tank?

I'm thinking in some groundcover like Riccia or any kind of Moss, what do you suggest? I like thisone


Thanks again

This post has been edited by Gilbert: Apr 26 2008, 12:05 PM

Danz - I'd pull the dying leaves off asap, they will encourage algae growth

Gilbert - $3.99, That's roughly £2 over here, bargain from a shop! Usually they charge twice as much for a sword that size.

Yes the non aquatic plant is called a dracaena, it's very commonly sold as a plant for fish tanks but it's not suitable, it's just an ordinary house plant. Really annoys me the way shops sell them because then people can't figure out why the plant keeps dying think it's too difficult to have a planted tank and give up.

I haven't heard of the turbo C02 Bio System, is it a yeast based or pressurized system? What wattage is your bulb? Lighting & Co2 is dependant on the plants & amount of watts per gallon, some plants need high lighting and with high lighting you need Co2 as the nutrient uptake increases which means more plant food as well. What type are you going for? A good all rounder is Tropica plant nutrition if your heavily stocked, if your understocked then best to go for tropica plant nutrition + as it contains nitrate & phospate which the plants need.

If you want a riccia carpet your going to need high lighting, pressurized Co2 and a good plant food. I wouldn't really recommend riccia, it looks nice but it's only a temporary carpet and requires a fair bit of maintenance to keep it looking good / fixed to the slate, wood or whatever you attach it to.

There are plenty of other carpeting plants such as hairgrass & glossostigma, if you want a very very low light carpet that can be moved around to suit your scape then how about using moss balls? It's quite common for people to break them up and lay them flat as a ready made carpet, much like in my signature below. Also with it being an algae it helps to inhibit the growth of unwanted algae by taking in any excess nutrients.

Looks like we have another hardcore planting freak.

I wouldn't say I was hardcore, I'm still a newbie

I'm gettin' some nice ideas here. Keep discussin' and I'll keep readin'

Good point about the carpet Azaezl.


Well maybe I'll use Java Moss or Willow Moss, they looks nice attached to driftwood and use any type of grass-like as a groundcover. I like Java Fern on driftwood too. I don't want nothing complicatd and demanding

This is the Co2 I'm talking about:


Light Fixture = Aqualight Light Fixture with Fluorescent T-5 Lamp (1 bulb) - 10,000k - 21W - 36 in, so a two bulb fxture will be 42W, correct? Do you think I'll need a (2) two bulb fixture?

I can buy a 2 bulb T5- no problem, but it won't cause an algae problem?

I want to keep livebearers like Platies, Mollies and Neon Tetras, a couple of Cory Catfish and 1 Hammers Cobalt Blue crayfish, everything small that's it.

In a 30 Gallon tank a 21W bulb is only going to give you 0.7WPG(watts per gallon) which is very very low lighting and will limit your plant choice, I would recommend getting the second bulb because that will give you 1.4WPG and will enable you to grow a more varied range of plants. Co2 isn't necassary until you get to 2WPG but if you already have the Co2 system then there's no harm in using it, it will help with growth. Something I will recommend is Seachem flourish excel, it's an organic form of carbon that the plants can absorb very easily and is commonly used as an alternative(as well as in conjunction with) to Co2 injection, it also kills algae so you might not wnat to use it if you have moss balls in the tank.

Mosses are very easy to grow as are java fern, java ferns are very low light plants so they'll be fine in the tank. If you just want to keep java fern, java moss and other low light plants such as anubias then you won't need to upgrade the lighting.

The Co2 system pictured looks like a yeast system, I've not used it / heard of it but if you find your not getting many bubbles with whatever mix you get included then let me know and I'll give you a DIY mix that I use in my nutrafin cannisters.

I feel I must warn you about the blue crayfish(Procamberus alleni) with small fish, if it's the crayfish I'm thinking of it will more then likely kill all of the fish, starting with the bottom dwellers, the only times I've heard of it working out is when they were in with larger fish in a very large tank and even then the larger fish can be subject to attack, esp. at night when they are resting. If it's a totally different species to the one I mentioned then disregard what I just said

My experience is, if you have to use CO2, then just get a pressurized system.
Too many people get sucked into the cool description of other CO2 reactors but sooner or later 99% of them will go with pressurized CO2.
It is very simple no hassle. Just a bit expensive to start out but if you are determined to have plants for a while, it is worth it.
Moreover, you can run multiple tanks/diffusers on 1 CO2 cylinder.