stray guppies

Stray Guppies – Day 3, Plants!

Time to plant! The ammania gracilis and the Christmas Moss were both taken from the home tank but everything else was bought online! I got the lucky bamboo from amazon and the other plants from this seller on eBay. Everything showed up in great condition and I highly recommend them!

https://ebay.com/usr/plantsfactory

Ammania gracilis
Moneywort (bacopa monnieri)
Dwarf Water Lily (nymphaea helvola)
Water lily bulb.

These three plants are the ones I put in the background of the left side of the tank. The gracilis and moneywort are interspersed around the water lily in the center. The water lily bulb is not fully buried in the substrate, as that’s how most other aquatic bulbs are planted. My other nymphaea bulb in the home tank isn’t buried in the substrate at all. Then in the foreground I have some dwarf sagittaria subulata. I didn’t really include a mid ground plant as I wanted it to look more foresty and highlight the decoration.

Dwarf sagittaria subulata
Left side of the tank.

On the right side I added lucky bamboo I had cut down to size. It looks a bit too short now, but once the nodes grow leaves it will look better.

Right side of the tank.

Against the side of the tank I have lobelia cardinalis, a mid ground plant. I also added a couple stems of it to the left of the temple. Then in front I have alternathera reineckii as little accent bushes. And I didn’t get a good picture of it but I put a tiny bit of Christmas Moss on a rock in the front right corner.

Lobelia cardinalis
Alternathera reineckii
Full tank a couple hours after planting.

For the next 3-4 weeks I’ll just update every few days. There won’t be much to do while I wait for the tank to cycle and for the plants to start growing. I’ll do occasional 20% water changes but I’ll mostly just be leaving it alone. I have the light set to full spectrum at medium-high brightness for 13 hours a day. I’ll be keeping a close eye on all the plants and taking pictures so stay tuned and wish me luck!

stray guppies

Stray Guppies – Days 1 & 2

This is the start of my planted, self-sufficient, experimental, 10-gallon, guppy tank! I have big plans for this little tank, including some things I couldn’t find info for on online. That’s the reason I started this blog! I thought I would document my experiences in case anyone else wanted to try the things I’m trying.

So my main experiment here will be to grow a dwarf water lily! Specifically, nymphaea helvola. I couldn’t find any accounts of growing one in an aquarium, mostly just in dedicated containers. There are plenty of other species under nymphaea that are grown in fish aquariums, but not this specific type that flowers on the surface. So I’m giving it a try!

Now let’s start with the equipment! I got a pretty standard heater, air pump and stone, and filter. I’m pretty fond of the light I got, though. It has a few different modes and a built-in timer.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X9T9PV6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

For my aquarium lid I measured the dimensions of the indented area the lid would sit on. Then I accounted for a half inch gap in the back for the tubing and wires. I took those dimensions to my local hardware store and got a custom cut of 1/4” thick glass for $9. Then I sanded the rough edges and added some cute command hooks and we were done! A cheap, effective aquarium lid that will contain any evaporation.

For substrate I started with Flourite Dark, varying from an inch to an inch and a half deep. Then in half of the tank I added another half inch of white aquarium gravel.

From there I filled the tank with dechlorinated water using Seachem Prime. As well as 2 1/2 cups of water from the Home tank. It was pretty cloudy but the filter went to work!

Just after adding water.
A day and a half after.

On the second day I drained half the water, added my decorations, and replaced the drained water entirely with water from the home aquarium. Now it’s back to being a cloudy mess.

My lucky bamboo came in the mail from amazon early today! So I’ll be adding that tonight after the water clears up a bit. And that’s it for the first two days with the Stray Guppies aquarium!

Oh, the meaning of the name! I love Stray Kids, the kpop group, so I’m getting 9 guppies named after the original members. Don’t judge me I’m just here to create a little ecosystem.