Lily's first 10 gallon aquarium

[justin003]

I've been pondering on setting up a simple freshwater aquarium in my daughters' room for her to enjoy, and me to enjoy also. I finally did it this weekend and it looks great! Its a simple rectangular glass aquarium I purchased from Petco for $10 and with it I got the Hagen/Aquaclear 20 (3 stage filtration HOB unit), 15w Sleath Pro heater and various artifitial plants and decor. For lighting I purchased the new 18-24" Marineland Double Bright LED system with 6 6K 1w LED's and 3 60mW 1w blue lunar LED's. The shimmer from the LED's is amazing. Black gravel was used for the substrate and black polished river stones arranged to compliment the gravel. For livestock we have three 3 stripe fluorescent Danios, three neon stripe Danios, three Bleeding Heart Tetras and 1 snail. I had the water, gravel and some fish cycling in another tank a month before I set this one up so most of the system is cycled already. The only thing I lack is a cover for the top. I better get that done soon or who knows what will end up in there. It's a good looking little nano that requires little maintenance. Check it out.
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[markl]

Looks nice.

 

[justin003]

Thanks Mark. This is just a little side project I did to see how I could turn inexpensive store bought equipment and livestock into a low maintenance and good looking freshwater nano.

 

[justin003]

Total costs, under $200.

 

[morganatlanta]

I just did a similar thing with my 10 year old. We put up a 15 gallon from a Petco starter kit. It was on sale around Christmas for around $40. I upgraded the filter to a Biowheel 150 gph, and replaced the two incandescent bulbs in the hood with 6500K 13W CFLs. We added some black gravel and some Greek ruins decorations, java fern and anubias, and it looks great. We've got gold platys, a couple tetras, an upside down catfish, an African frog and a couple shrimp. We're in for a similar total. I think the setup would work great as a nano reef.

 

[jcook54]

That's awesome. I can't wait to set up a tank for my 5 year old Daughter. I told her we could do it when she started helping me with mine. She wasn't all that interested until she saw SpongeBod decorations they have at Petsmart!

 

[acroholic]

Justin,
Your attached pics are not enlarging when I click on them. It is very nice from what I can see. Is anyone else having the same problem?

 

[KrisDeitz]

Acroholic;600901 wrote: Justin,
Your attached pics are not enlarging when I click on them. It is very nice from what I can see. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Yeah i cant either

 

[dawgface]

looks great

 

[justin003]

Yea I see that now. I'll see what I can do to fix the pictures.

 

[redpacus]

great looking first tank. my 4 year old son help me set up a 50 gallon breeder for his first tank he picked out all the plants and the fish I was very proud that he shows an interest in the hobby. heck now he talk me into breaking down my 75 gallon reef and letting him do that tank too! his logic was but daddy you have more than 1 tank so I need at least 2. hehe