Hey everyone, while I let my 20H reef fully cycle before the fun of adding coral begins I thought I'd show everyone a little more about my planted pond as it evolves and share my plans for the immediate future when it comes to freshwater tanks.
My current setup is a shallow 10 gallon with the following features:
-I have a shallow section in the back left corner which I'll be adding more substrate to make it nearly a land section. This portion is already inhabited by a water celery but I think these plants would benefit from an even shallower environment. I eventually will plant some sort of grass here too.
-I have half of a terracotta pot making a step down from the shallow area to deeper water and this has become home to a semi-aquatic Java fern.
-2 logs creating an arch that is half out of the water. One of the logs is much larger than the other but both have terrestrial moss growing on them in and out of the water. The smaller log has about 12 leaves of a Bucephalandra sp. specimen I'm trying to root to it and the larger one has a single Phalaenopsis sp. (Moth Orchid) I'm training to root around the log.
-Random small grass-like foreground plants and a large red leafed plant I have no idea the species of that I bought from European Aquatics in Malden and it has really started to become red over the past few weeks.
-A pair of "Triple Red" Apistogramma cacatuoides , a clown Plecostomus, a large nerite snail and a male halfmoon Betta fish
-Constantly rotating supply of oak leaves behind the logs
I've been playing around with filtration to get the right mix between flow for the plants, fish and settling debris so I apologize for the debris in the pictures but my current, as of today, filtration setup is seeming to be promising. I believe I've finally beat the battle against hair algae too, which has been quite satisfying. Since all of the light demanding plants are in the foreground I have a cheap LED fixture I got at Petco going over 1/4 of the tank but I am looking to upgrade this to a hanging pendant that will also reach the terrestrial section.
I'm currently planning a breeding setup for Apistogramma sp. because I love this genus of fish and want to study them more as well as give fellow hobbyists a better chance at owning these wonderful dwarf cichlids. I'll get into that project more as it develops.
My current setup is a shallow 10 gallon with the following features:
-I have a shallow section in the back left corner which I'll be adding more substrate to make it nearly a land section. This portion is already inhabited by a water celery but I think these plants would benefit from an even shallower environment. I eventually will plant some sort of grass here too.
-I have half of a terracotta pot making a step down from the shallow area to deeper water and this has become home to a semi-aquatic Java fern.
-2 logs creating an arch that is half out of the water. One of the logs is much larger than the other but both have terrestrial moss growing on them in and out of the water. The smaller log has about 12 leaves of a Bucephalandra sp. specimen I'm trying to root to it and the larger one has a single Phalaenopsis sp. (Moth Orchid) I'm training to root around the log.
-Random small grass-like foreground plants and a large red leafed plant I have no idea the species of that I bought from European Aquatics in Malden and it has really started to become red over the past few weeks.
-A pair of "Triple Red" Apistogramma cacatuoides , a clown Plecostomus, a large nerite snail and a male halfmoon Betta fish
-Constantly rotating supply of oak leaves behind the logs
I've been playing around with filtration to get the right mix between flow for the plants, fish and settling debris so I apologize for the debris in the pictures but my current, as of today, filtration setup is seeming to be promising. I believe I've finally beat the battle against hair algae too, which has been quite satisfying. Since all of the light demanding plants are in the foreground I have a cheap LED fixture I got at Petco going over 1/4 of the tank but I am looking to upgrade this to a hanging pendant that will also reach the terrestrial section.
I'm currently planning a breeding setup for Apistogramma sp. because I love this genus of fish and want to study them more as well as give fellow hobbyists a better chance at owning these wonderful dwarf cichlids. I'll get into that project more as it develops.
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