Today, I've got ideas for a 10 Gallon Tropical Fish Tank.I call this one the Centerpiece Tank.
Means you've got like one fish in there, that it's gonna draw your attention, when everyone looks at it, that's what they're gonna see mostly, and then you want to build the tank around it.
So, I like to use like a gourami.
So, maybe a Honey Dwarf Gourami or a Powder-Blue or Dwarf Neon you can get those at Petsmart, Petco.
The Honey Gourami, he's a little bit tougher to find.
You might have to go to a local pet store.
But you get that one fish a lot of personality in this 10 gallon tank and then you want to accentuate it with a schooling fish.
Now, if you pick out a Powder-Blue Gourami or a Flame Dwarf Gourami.
They're both gonna be, one's gonna be blue, one's gonna be kind of red and blue.
You don't necessarily want to pair it with Neon Tetras.
If you pair with Neon Tetras, are gonna kind of look the same.
You're not gonna get that look you're going for.
So, maybe with a Powder-Blue you go with Ember Tetras.
So, you get that Red Tetra versus the blue fish.
If you do pick a Flame Gourami, maybe you go with an Espei Rasbora and that's a little more oranger than anything else.
But you want to definitely get different colors.
So, you get those two things going.
And then you want to go in with a bottom dweller
So, you've got kind of the centerpiece fish gonna go all around.
Then you've got the schooling fish.
And maybe you go with six to eight of those, depending on what you picked.
And then, down below, you're gonna go with maybe a Corydoras or snails.
I wouldn't go a shrimp, because the gouramis will kind of hunting their antennas and that kind of stuff.
But, you might go with a group of 4 or 5 Panda Corydorases.
Maybe you go with a group of 6 to 8 Pygmy Cories, or Habrosus Cories.
You could also do just a snail cleanup crew.
Maybe Malaysian Trumpet Snails.
Maybe it's some Nerite Snail.
Depends on what your waters gonna be for.
This tank a more kind of like this neutral zone.
Like 7 to 7,5 would be a great one.
Maybe even as low as 6-8.
Maybe not go with the snails down to 6-8.
But, in that zone would be great if your waters come out of the tap.
This would be a great idea for you.
And then it's always a good idea to add plants for fish that will not eat them
And the gourami and the schooling fish won't eat them.
And it will help consume waste for you.
So, that adds another level you could go with the plastic plant.
So you could have a great looking tank.
But, with this 10 gallon if you really want to make it involved, start using a little bit of fertilizer.
You get a decent like roll those plants.
And you can use the plants to get some that color as well.
So maybe you gonna bring in some reds or you gonna bring in some lime green plant. You get a bunch of textures too.
So think about that when you're planning it as well.
You don't want just all stem stuff or vertical stuff.
You want some stuff it's gonna stay low.
Maybe some Browns, maybe some Reds.
Like an emerald-green and then a light-green.
And then maybe you get some curly leaves.
All that can accentuate it.
Now obviously if you have a Red Gourami, a Flamed Gourami, maybe you go pretty light on those red plants.
So you gotta kind of think about it a little bit.
But the centerpiece tank is great for those that want that big fish, even though they got
the smaller 10 gallon (37.85 liters) aquarium.
The Nano Tank
Now, this is kind of another name for the highly aquascape tank.
So, this usually has CO2 injection, carpeting plants.
A real attention to detail when it comes to rock and wood placement, and plant placement.
So, you've got the main aquascape.
That's the feature of the tank.
Like your 10 gallon is “I am doing a ton of gardening”, and then what fish
accentuate that.
So a lot of times, that'll be Celestia Pearl Danios, maybe it's Brigittae Rasbora, maybe it's a shrimp.
All these little guys that are unlikely to disturb the plants and have very low bio load. Which just means you feed them only a little bit and they only make a little bit of waste. Now, you might be using snails in there for some algae control.
You might be using Amano Shrimp for some algae control.
You can do little corydoras to get in between the little pockets, because these little nano
fish don't like to eat off the bottom, typically.
So, you might use Habrosus Corydoras, Pygmaeus, maybe you can find them and you get hard status, which is a rare Dwarf Cory.
You don't want to use things that burrow.
So, maybe not the Kuhli Loaches.
Maybe not Malaysian Trumpet Snails and that type of thing.
You're really focusing on that CO2 and the plants, and then the fish are the decorations. It's the opposite.
Usually we do the fish, and then we decorate outside of that.
So, it's a different mindset.
And you know you gotta kind of be careful if you've never done before.
It's easy to go overboard on lighting, easy to go overboard on CO2, and really get things kind of upside down.
And it can be a very delicate balance, because a lot of these plants are very demanding.
And it can go from looks great to...
I left the light on over the weekend, while I was at my fiance's house.
And all of a sudden, It is just melted down.
When I say melt it down, just covered an allergy you got to start over.
Alot of times you can run it pretty acidic water, because you'll run like an ADA Aquasoil or a Fluval Stratum or an Eco-Complete and that pH might be at 6,4.
Then you're injecting co2 and now it's a 6,2 and you can start killing off bacteria and that kind of stuff.
But, as far as fish goes, there's a wide variety.
Maybe you're doing Clown Killifish.
Maybe you're doing Norman's Lampeye Killies.
There's a ton of little nano fish that are really cool.
And once you get your scape set up, then you'll know what fish looked good.
Because you don't want to put fish that look just like your scape because then you won't see them.
The goal is if you've done a nano tank correctly, or an aquascape tank correctly, the fish look like they're Birds.
So, you've got your mountains and/or you've got your trees that you've made and then the birds are flying back and forth as a flock.
So, usually you want a schooling fish.
That's how you know you've done it right.
It's a hard thing to pull off.
But you got to start somewhere.
You got to put your first tank together and go, “Oh, I learned so much.”
And then the next one, pretty soon, you're getting compliments.
You're taking pictures and everyone loves it.
Maybe you're really artistic to begin with.
And that happens your first try, but don't get discouraged.
It's really easy to go from “I keep fish” to “I really want to do this very specialized”
thing.
And then also know when you're comparing yourself to pictures on the internet, know that they may be very temporary.
They might be using separate lighting to light the tank.
They might be using a hairdryer to get the ripple effect.
They might be doing all these outside parameters.
They might..., a lot of times..., when you see these beautiful tanks, they've taken out all the equipment to take the picture.
And they put that equipment right back in, when they're not taking the picture.
So, know all these tips and tricks.
And so, that you're not comparing to the impossible.
Try and compare to, “Oh, that's actually running all the time. This person is actually running it like I run it.”
And you know, get somebody's online. And talk tips and tricks. And keep trying stuff. And it'll keep you engaged.
So, you don't have a heater? Well, there's still a tank you can do, the unheated aquarium.
I like to mix a lot of types of Danios.
It's gonna be a super active tank, and so if you don't like stuff darting around really fast, and this might not be the tank for you, but it is action-packed and it can just go at room temperature. So, that's the great part about it.
There's a lot of Danios to choose from.
You could go with like the Common Zebra Danio.
There's Long Fin Zebra Danio, there's the Leopard Danio, there's the Blue Danio, Blue Leopard, all the long fin varieties.
Then, there's a few less well-known, maybe you like the Celestial Pearl Danio.
Oh, those gonna be really shy. So, you might not see him a whole lot and they really need the planted tank.
So, you want to think about that.
But, all of these can live basically like 67 degrees, maybe as high as 80.
And a lot of people keep their homes in that range.
So, you wouldn't necessarily have to buy a dedicated heater.
You want to keep them in groups of at least 6.
And you can kind of mix and match all those Danios out of the first group and not so much.
You wouldn't want to mix them with The Celestial Pearl Danio.
So you might get like 3 long fin leopards, you get 3 long fin blues and then you get 3 of the zebra stripes, you got 9 fish in there.
It's going crazy.
They're gonna be very fast to feed.
You could feed them flake food.
You can feed them freeze-dried
They're mostly gonna inhabit that top 1/3, and so that leaves the bottom a little bit open. You don't have a huge amount of options with no heat.
With no heat you kind of have the option of shrimp and snails.
But, those Danios might go after a bit.
So, I go with snails.
You might do some colorful Nerite Snails.
Maybe you go with a Mystery Snail.
Maybe you go with Malaysian Trumpet Snails, little burrow through your gravel.
And then since you've got that wide open down low, you're gonna want to fill it in with either plastic plants or live plants.
I'm always a fan of live plants.
But maybe you don't have that green thumb yet.
You're just getting started.
You can bring that on later.
Cuz it is a layer of complexity.
But do know that the live plants will clean your water and it makes it a little bit easier? Plus, plants like to be cooler.
So, we usually keep them in that tropical temperature.
They actually prefer to be a little bit cooler.
And so it makes it a little bit easier.
But, if you can't afford a heater yet, you're still had those options.
And good news is that first group of Danio is very-very tough and Hardy, widely
available at almost any pet store.
Celestial Pearls Danio knows more expenses, are gonna be like 5-6 bucks a piece. You're gonna have to go to a specialty like mom-and-pop store.
They need like frozen food stuff that stays in that water column.
So, there's a little bit more maintenance I would say.
Whereas all those other Danios are gonna be anywhere from like 2 to 3 dollars, maybe 3.50 for some those long fin varieties.
And it's a great tank for kids, and that kind of stuff, because they're very active, pretty colorful, and they can withstand kind of being new.
So what I mean that if you're new to the Hobby, they can withstand, like a little bit over feeding and you know learning the ropes better than some of the more exotic fish.
So, good luck!