Journal: beginner 10g planted tank

[alter40]

Ohh I know haha. I'm sure they will probably keep changing till the fish are in the tank too.

[d3sc3n7]

I still think about 5 tetras is good. With a gourami or a chiclid would be great. Just a touch over stocked, but not bad.

[alter40]

I would probably put a ghost shrimp or two in there as well.

[d3sc3n7]

Sounds good!! I love the ghost shrimp...but mine turned into a midnight snack for my old catfish.

[alter40]

Alright so I went on a shopping trip today and probably spent too much but I have a tendency of doing that

I got some rocks from the LFS for only $0.50 each. Since she didn't charge very much I got 7 or 8 decent sized rocks so I can kinda pick and choose which ones I want in there. She ended up only charging me $3.00 for all the rock so not a bad deal at all there.

I bought a whisper air pump, 25 feet of air tube, an airstone, and 2 airline check valves. I decided last night that once I do put my plants in there I'm going to run a DIY CO2 and have it go right to the intake for the filter. I'm also going to have O2 coming into the tank with the air pump that I'm going to set on a timer. I'm going to set the rocks or driftwood up so the air stone is hidden either under rocks or kind of behind them.

I also went out looking for a different light hood for my tank so I could have more light coming in. I wasn't able to find anything like this, but I did decide to get a different 15 watt bulb that is supposed to be better for plants. Its an 18" Coralife Nutri Grow plant lamp. This bulb will replace the one that came with the tank and hopefully help the plants some and not be a waste of money. Anybody else ever use one of these lights and know if I have wasted my money?

I purchased a new 5 gallon bucket. I also decided that instead of really getting into my tank and scrubbing hard and trying to get the glass super clean that I would just buy a new 10 gallon tank from Walmart since its only about $10. This will also allow me to have either a QT or fry tank (all I need is a hood and heater for this to be all setup). I got a background for my tank that it black on one side and blue on the other. I'm leaning towards using the black for this tank though. The lady at the LFS didn't have the roll in the correct height for a 10 gallon with the black background so she gave me a larger size and it looks like there is enough for me to do 2 10gal tanks.

The last thing that I got is ammonia and it doesn't say 100% on it. I couldn't find that anywhere I went so I got the one that seemed to be the most pure. Its Shur Fine brand ammonia and on the back it says it has ammonium hydroxide and surfactant in it. Is this going to be ok to add to the tank for the cycle or is the surfactant bad?

I'm not posting any pictures of this stuff right now because I should be getting the rest of my stuff through Fedex tomorrow, but if people think I should update with pictures of everything that I got today I can take some pics and update with pictures as well.

[cchase85]

I believe you want to avoid surfactants.

[alter40]

Thats what I was afraid of. I can't find anything that is 100% ammonia anywhere. I have been to 4 or 5 different grocery stores and they all seem to have similar stuff. I'm not really sure where to look to find the ammonia

[cchase85]

Actually, now I am not so sure anymore. Maybe it is alright. For some reason in my head surfactants were related to fragrances and now I don't think they have anything to do with each other.

Wait for someone else to chime in, I guess. Surfactants are used to lower the surface tension of liquids apparently, so do with that what you will.

[alter40]

haha yeah I did look it up on google but I wasn't sure if it was ok or not. I decided to start a new thread with the question so it gets noticed and answered faster for me.

[FishGeek]

Ive ordered tons of fish online. Its ususally just fine. Ive experienced only one DOA. And yes they are cichlids, they have the same personality as a Ram.