Idea for 10 gal, thoughts?

[Pidge1992]

My wife might kill me but I’m considering trying to do a heavily planted 10 gal nano tank but wanted some opinions...
First off, water. Would you use spring water, RO water, or just tap? My tap has a very high PH and is incredibly soft so I don’t think it will be suited.
Second, what are your favorite fertilizers? Also substrate... I was considering using fluval stratum as it was recommended by a friend.
Lastly, as a stocking list I was considering a school of 6-8 ember tetras and possibly 2-3 fancy male guppies.
Thoughts? Thanks!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

First off, water. Would you use spring water, RO water, or just tap? My tap has a very high PH and is incredibly soft so I don’t think it will be suited.
Second, what are your favorite fertilizers? Also substrate... I was considering using fluval stratum as it was recommended by a friend.
Lastly, as a stocking list I was considering a school of 6-8 ember tetras and possibly 2-3 fancy male guppies.
Thoughts? Thanks!

1)The water depends on what you are trying to keep. RO water is usually used to soften the water for Tetras and such. (If you have hard tap water)

What is your water hardness? (pH and GH)

2) Seachem Flourish is the best liquid fert, although I’ve never used it before.

Fluval stratum is a nice substrate, but I would look into Seachem fluorite as well. Just play around with what you like the look of.

3) A 10g would be ok for the school of Ember Tetras, but not the guppies.

Ember Tetras and shrimp would be cool.

 

[Pidge1992]

1)The water depends on what you are trying to keep. RO water is usually used to soften the water for Tetras and such. (If you have hard tap water)

What is your water hardness? (pH and GH)

2) Seachem Flourish is the best liquid fert, although I’ve never used it before.

Fluval stratum is a nice substrate, but I would look into Seachem fluorite as well. Just play around with what you like the look of.

3) A 10g would be ok for the school of Ember Tetras, but not the guppies.

Ember Tetras and shrimp would be cool.

Ok cool! I may just do a larger school of ember tetras. I originally considered 5-6 maybe I’ll do 8 or so. They are cool looking in their own right.

The fluval stratum is what’s available at my local shops and I like the look. I use the seachem flourish already in my big tank.

As for my water... so from the tap my ph is 8.5 but my GH is like 0-30 on a strip. (My strips go 0,30,60,90,120,150) so it’s super soft. My big tank full of tetras is doing great and they all seem very healthy and happy. I’m just worried my water will lack minerals needed for the plants given the low GH. The plants in my big tank do so-so but it’s very lightly planted. I’m also not using root tabs which I’m considering getting some and I’ll for sure need them for a heavy planted nano tank I think.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Ok cool! I may just do a larger school of ember tetras. I originally considered 5-6 maybe I’ll do 8 or so. They are cool looking in their own right.

The fluval stratum is what’s available at my local shops and I like the look. I use the seachem flourish already in my big tank.

As for my water... so from the tap my ph is 8.5 but my GH is like 0-30 on a strip. (My strips go 0,30,60,90,120,150) so it’s super soft. My big tank full of tetras is doing great and they all seem very healthy and happy. I’m just worried my water will lack minerals needed for the plants given the low GH. The plants in my big tank do so-so but it’s very lightly planted. I’m also not using root tabs which I’m considering getting some and I’ll for sure need them for a heavy planted nano tank I think.

Perfect! The bigger the group, the better.

Your hardness if perfect for the Embers. (Don’t get any guppies)

 

[QiQi]

My personal experience with seachem flourish and flourite.
Seachem flourish is not a complete fertilizer. It's more like 95% micro 5% macro. I did that mistake thinking that it is a complete fert. I have only very few plants at the moment (more being delivered the next few days) and the tank seems to be understocked cause my plants were starving. Also, if you go the seachem route, you need to buy each macro separately which can cost quite a bit but on the other hand you can dose as much of your plants will need.
Seachem flourite, needs tons of rinsing before you put it in the tank. I thought I rinsed mine well enough, well, I was wrong. It can be quite sharp in my opinion.
I might have done something wrong, I am not sure but once I swapped to TNC complete my plants recovered.

 

[Pidge1992]

My personal experience with seachem flourish and flourite.
Seachem flourish is not a complete fertilizer. It's more like 95% micro 5% macro. I did that mistake thinking that it is a complete fert. I have only very few plants at the moment (more being delivered the next few days) and the tank seems to be understocked cause my plants were starving. Also, if you go the seachem route, you need to buy each macro separately which can cost quite a bit but on the other hand you can dose as much of your plants will need.
Seachem flourite, needs tons of rinsing before you put it in the tank. I thought I rinsed mine well enough, well, I was wrong. It can be quite sharp in my opinion.
I might have done something wrong, I am not sure but once I swapped to TNC complete my plants recovered.

Ok good info! I’ve never seen seachem fluorite so I think I’ll be using the fluval stratum instead. As for the ferts, I’ll look into the TNC complete! If I can find it I may compare it to the flourish and see what results I have with both!

 

[QiQi]

I heard nilocg thrive is really good too, that will be the next one I try once I run out of TNC.