My 10 Gallon Dirt Convert "Mezza Luna"

Here is a 10 gallon that i converted to a dirt substrate over the weekend. I chose to name it, Mezza Luna (italian for "half moon")

Let me know what you think of the scape, any critiques? As far as equipment goes I am using a zoo med 501 for filtration(which I had to return to one petco cuz it was defective) Archaea 27w cfl fixture. Substrate is MGOCPM and Eco complete as cap. Only black gravel I could find that was the close to the size that needed, black and natural. After I planted I quickly realized how light eco was and some plants kept floating up. Very frustrating. I had better luck with super naturals gravel that I used in my 3.5. It's unfortunate that these companies do not make a fine black natural gravel(thats not sand) in 1-3mm. That would be ideal. Anyway, hope you enjoy. As it was a struggle to re-do it, especially with fish. I'm really happy with the outcome. And it is by no means finished. I want to added a few more species of stem plants and I have knock off lily pipes on order as I don't care for the intake and outflow.l on the zoo med. And I am going to ad a black backround as well. to make the greens pop out even more. Big thanks to Dustin for the bumpin' Vals! so many roots and very long... they kinda took a beating when they got here..but im sure they'll come back stronger...

Dirt is awesome! ;)

Plants:

Jungle Val

Crypt Wendtii 'Tropica' (bronze)

Crypt Wendtii Red

Dwarf Sag

Dwarf Harigrass

Hornwort

Amazon Frogbit

Salvinia

Duckweed

Wood: Manzanita

Fish

2 Gold Twin bar platies

1 orange glofish

2 ottos

1 Veiltail Betta

Malaysian Trumpet Snails

Anyway, here are some pics of my setup...

1. Before

2. Dirt setup

3. Final Planting

thanks for looking!

frroK

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Permalink Reply by frroK on August 8, 2011 at 11:17pm

wow! thanks! our wall is painted blue... so I just left it.. i was planning on adding a black backround. but I may not now. I guess your right. Ill just think of a clever way to hide the cable from the light fixture. I went online and found a a 2m black fine gravel/sand from substrate source.com. it was pretty cheap and im thinking of just laying a coating of it down by where the hairgrass is. just so it stays in place a little better. some of the blades are starting to float up.

thanks for the reply on the light... I think this fixture is a power compact. but im not really sure.

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Permalink Reply by frroK on August 8, 2011 at 11:28pm

thanks for the warning...i know all about it. thats why it was so hard to settle on something...its very hard to find the right size grain in black. eco complete works but its very light. I'm only going to put a very thin layer of it on top the harigrass to keep it place. but I will leave it open everywhere else.

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Permalink Reply by Keith the Aquatard on August 9, 2011 at 7:18pm

Tank looks tight buddy! Well designed, nice sense of space in the framework. Well done my friend!

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Permalink Reply by frroK on August 10, 2011 at 1:40pm

Hey thanks Keith. This is super fun. I'm looking forward to see how this tank progresses. I have a few things to tweak once I'm done il post another pic. Then wait for the magic to happen. :)

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Permalink Reply by frroK on August 10, 2011 at 3:26pm

Here is a quick vid. Sorry about the orientation. I took it from my iPhone and forgot to shoot it landscape.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1Al3Ec8syo&sns=em

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Permalink Reply by JMG on August 10, 2011 at 10:21pm

Oh wow!! It looks really great, love the layout! Can't wait to see it as the plants grow!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Stevens on August 11, 2011 at 7:01pm

That tank is awesome way to go :)

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Permalink Reply by frroK on September 14, 2011 at 8:01pm

UPDATE TIME> HEre is the latest shot on my tank. Updated fauna. 3 Goldbar Platies, 2 Ottos, 1 orange glofish, 1 veiltail betta and 1 Amano shrimp. Flora update, added Bacopa Caroliniana, Rotala Rotundofolia(indica), Java Fern "Philippine" Its taking its time but I have a feeling pretty soon the Vals will take off.

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Permalink Reply by Katie (kdv9tb) on September 15, 2011 at 1:34pm

So did you ever put sand over the eco? I was just wondering because I just bought 5 bags of eco complete to put over dirt, and am very worried it is going to kill everything. Just wanted your honest opinon on how you felt the plants were doing!

Tank looks awesome! Hope mine can look that good when I am done! Good inspiration!

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Permalink Reply by frroK on September 15, 2011 at 2:00pm

I did try to put some fine gravel over the Eco but it just sank below it. I probably would have had to put alot more but I was worried about making the cap too deep. Eco is a good substrate and I don't think your plants will die if you use it with dirt. Just make sure to do some big water changes for the first few days after you set up your tank. Plenty of people have used it with dirt

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Permalink Reply by frroK on September 27, 2011 at 9:56pm

quick update on this tank, realized I have soft water! my plants are not doing that great....surviving but really not spreading or looking that great. except for dwarf sag and moss... I added crushed coral to my filter and my ph went up in 2 days. thankfully my fish dont seem to mind all that much... Im hoping my vals will finally start to use the micros and start to grow already... pic is pretty much the same...I will post a shot in a week or two to compare to see if anything changed for the better ...stay tuned.

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Permalink Reply by frroK on November 14, 2011 at 9:58pm

here is a new update, my tank is still doing okay. but some of my plants are taking forever to get going here. I think its because I have some anaerobic pockets in the substrate. I am using eco-complete as cap. I probably wont ever use it again, its not that black, it has too many fine grains which settle below the larger ones and its super light! plants are always floating up. anyway, there are alot of bubbles that get released if I touch the gravel or my driftwood. and it smells like sulfur! so thats how I know. I am going to stick it out anyway and hopefully this phase will pass. the fish are fine and even had babies! endler fry. here are some updated pics...