Planted 10 Gallon Shallow Pond

[Edward]

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.

 

[absolutecarrot]

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.
Really cool tank
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.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Again, love the tank! It’s growing in nicely. Here’s some of the same tank. Mine is seriously in shambles right now. In desperate need of some tlc.

 

[Edward]

Again, love the tank! It’s growing in nicely. Here’s some of the same tank. Mine is seriously in shambles right now. In desperate need of some tlc.

Love the bigger leafed plants coming out of your tank. If I could find some sort of slow growing, high moisture tolerant, vine plant I'd definitely add it to one of the logs in this tank.

I did forget something in my initial post, the 5 gallon rimless cube I'm starting as a shrimp tank.

I'll be using an old LED pendant, cool driftwood and a few large leaf aquatic plants with a heavy leaf litter bottom. Have yet to set this tank up because I have a very specific design in mind...that and I need to find a place to keep it

 

[Jbissell1289]

Love the bigger leafed plants coming out of your tank. If I could find some sort of slow growing, high moisture tolerant, vine plant I'd definitely add it to one of the logs in this tank.

I did forget something in my initial post, the 5 gallon rimless cube I'm starting as a shrimp tank.

I'll be using an old LED pendant, cool driftwood and a few large leaf aquatic plants with a heavy leaf litter bottom. Have yet to set this tank up because I have a very specific design in mind...that and I need to find a place to keep it

I forget what it’s called but that is a vine. Just a common house plant too. If you want to swing by Woburn, I can give you some trimmings from my main plant in the living room. You just put the cut edge into the shallowest water into the substrate. as long as the leaves don’t stay wet, it does well.

 

[Spooky]

I forget what it’s called but that is a vine. Just a common house plant too. If you want to swing by Woburn, I can give you some trimmings from my main plant in the living room. You just put the cut edge into the shallowest water into the substrate. as long as the leaves don’t stay wet, it does well.

I may be wrong but I think that plant is a Phildendron. Beautiful tanks either way!

 

[Jbissell1289]

I may be wrong but I think that plant is a Phildendron. Beautiful tanks either way!

That sounds familiar!

 

[Edward]

I added a piece of Malaysian driftwood to break up the flow a bit so the front of the display would be calmer. I also added 4x panda cory cats who seem to be doing a great job of stirring up the debris still on the bottom of the tank.

I had posted something last August or September about a shelf I was going to build for this tank and my 5 gallon so they could be surrounded by my house plants but due to opening my business that project never was finished. Hopefully it will be finished in the next two weeks now.

The plan I finally decided on going with for the 5 gallon is going to be pretty cool and unique, I can't wait for the pieces to get here! There will be terrestrial plants in this tank as well but I'm going the predatory plant route this time.

 

[Edward]

A little update to this tank...its getting a major overhaul.

I've rescaped it a few times because I just can't get it to look right in my living room. I also had a massive crash and lost every single fish one day and could not for the life of me figure out why. One day I lost my pleco, the next day all of my cory cats and then the next day my apistos were gone =(.

By the end of this week I'll post an updated picture and a picture of my 2 gallon and 5 gallon tanks as well. All three are undergoing massive rescapes and a few lighting/filtration upgrades.

 

[Edward]

Unfortunately I had a bad work injury a few months back and could not change the water and monitor the CO2 or nutrient levels as religiously as I had been so algae started reigning supreme. Since I'm completely rescaping all three tanks I wanted to share a picture of each of them.

This tank has 6 Black King Kong Shrimp, one of which is very pregnant. I have the algae undercontrol now. The size and my injury are making it very difficult to clean properly hence why I'm going to completely rescape it, hopefully making maintenance easier.

More land, no more fish, all shrimp for this rebuild. Finally think I have the pieces of hardscape collected to make something I'll be ok with looking at every day.

This tank is at my desk, it holds 6 bumblebee gobies and a honey gourami. This tank suffered a nutrient imbalance but not nearly as bad as the other two tanks. The biggest problem here is that the pendant LED bulb I have on it has dramatically lost its strength over the past two months causing hair algae. It is now going to be replaced by a brand nee ONF Flat Nano+ .The stock will stay the same after the rescape although I may add some shrimp or some dwarf cory cats to help stir up the sediment.