Hi!
It's been a long time since I updated or started a journal. I had set up this 10g previously with CO2 and different plants last year and things were going well until I started the Spring term at the university where I teach. Huge teaching load plus some opera roles and professional gigs. I removed the CO2 in December of last year, and because of the demands from my job, I swapped out demanding species for tougher ones. Then I just left things alone. I went without water changes for months (only top-offs) and let the frogbit overun the tank, it's roots extended down into the substrate. Surprisingly the fish were fine, but this tank was never heavily stocked, only the dwarf catfish. Of course, I had algae, mostly hair algae, and some spot algae on the glass, but it wasn't a complete disaster like I thought it would be. Mainly the roots of the frogbit were an eyesore and the surface leaves of the frogbit shut out light from the aponogetons. The anubias did well under the circumstances and had no algae. I started cleaning things up this past May by just doing large water changes and removing frogbit. I have ended up with this.
Tank: 10g 20"x10"x12" with a glass cover.
Lighting: 28W T5 Fixture, giving me about 2.8WPG. May seem high, but it really isn't.
Substrate: thin layer of laterite mixed with small grain gravel, or just a thin layer of laterite, topped with a thicker layer of sand. I'd like to have bare stretches of substrate
Filtration: 3 HOB filters
Fertilisation: None
CO2: None
Hardscape: Wood, including some nice ADA blackwood from my dismantled 2.5g.
Plants: Aponogeton species, E. tennelus, anubias, one or two tiny frogbit plants. I also have several pothos cuttings which are developing roots. You can't see since the photo was taken at night, but there is a small crown of pothos leaves obscuring the filters.
Livestock: Corydoras habrosus, Corydoras pygmaeus, and some dwarf platies that were in my 20g for color. I prefered an all-corydora tank, but mother wanted color. I'll be adding some more habrosus to even things out.
Thanks for reading, look forward to hearing your comments. This is a much simpler tank to maintain , especially with my busy schedule. I don't think it looks too bad. Similar things happened with my other two aquariums.
llj
It's been a long time since I updated or started a journal. I had set up this 10g previously with CO2 and different plants last year and things were going well until I started the Spring term at the university where I teach. Huge teaching load plus some opera roles and professional gigs. I removed the CO2 in December of last year, and because of the demands from my job, I swapped out demanding species for tougher ones. Then I just left things alone. I went without water changes for months (only top-offs) and let the frogbit overun the tank, it's roots extended down into the substrate. Surprisingly the fish were fine, but this tank was never heavily stocked, only the dwarf catfish. Of course, I had algae, mostly hair algae, and some spot algae on the glass, but it wasn't a complete disaster like I thought it would be. Mainly the roots of the frogbit were an eyesore and the surface leaves of the frogbit shut out light from the aponogetons. The anubias did well under the circumstances and had no algae. I started cleaning things up this past May by just doing large water changes and removing frogbit. I have ended up with this.
Tank: 10g 20"x10"x12" with a glass cover.
Lighting: 28W T5 Fixture, giving me about 2.8WPG. May seem high, but it really isn't.
Substrate: thin layer of laterite mixed with small grain gravel, or just a thin layer of laterite, topped with a thicker layer of sand. I'd like to have bare stretches of substrate
Filtration: 3 HOB filters
Fertilisation: None
CO2: None
Hardscape: Wood, including some nice ADA blackwood from my dismantled 2.5g.
Plants: Aponogeton species, E. tennelus, anubias, one or two tiny frogbit plants. I also have several pothos cuttings which are developing roots. You can't see since the photo was taken at night, but there is a small crown of pothos leaves obscuring the filters.
Livestock: Corydoras habrosus, Corydoras pygmaeus, and some dwarf platies that were in my 20g for color. I prefered an all-corydora tank, but mother wanted color. I'll be adding some more habrosus to even things out.
Thanks for reading, look forward to hearing your comments. This is a much simpler tank to maintain , especially with my busy schedule. I don't think it looks too bad. Similar things happened with my other two aquariums.
llj
One is a bit off, but he's still moving around the tank, so we'll see. A really tiny male, about half an inch or so. I'll post pictures when they are settled. They are a good foil to the dwarf platies. Did a water change yesterday. 
but I think my corydoras would prefer the sand substrate, and I'd like to let the E. tennelus spread on its own. It will look better to me and serve the fish better. 
