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My 5 Gallon Planted


creekbottom
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You could try a regular cleaning sponge and use circular motions. A toothbrush is handy too. I'm really not sure what would work with those tanks. I haven't cleaned mine yet. Kinda want algae growing in it since it has daphnia.

Tanks looking great! :)

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  • 1 month later...

Well it's been a while and life has finally calmed down a bit... I made it! The tank has been having some problems and I've held off on putting anything in it. I added a few more plants, it was looking kinda bare and I couldn't wait any longer for things to fill in.

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I put in a cyprus and some crispus. I'm sure these will get way too big for this size of tank but I have other places I can put them if that happens.

I added a moss wall on the back. I got the black stuff from Michael's put some moss in between and then spent some time sowing it shut! I couldn't think of a bette way to attach it to the tank so I just glued it on with some cyanoacrylate.

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The tank is definitely cycled now, I've been testing water weekly to make sure and everything looks fine. I haven't been fertilizing yet but maybe I should start. There is a layer of something growing on everything but I think it is starting to come under control. I'm limiting light right now in hopes that it will go away.

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This was before I cleaned the plastic! I couldn't see in anymore!

Now to my problem... I'm not sure if it's the sand I used or maybe the lace rock but the pH is pretty high. Last week it was at least 8.4, today I see it has come down a bit to 8.2 Because it is a sand bottom I put some MTS in the tank to help stir it up but they all died within hours of putting them in! This was after testing the water to make sure there was no ammonia or nitrite, and even nitrates are pretty low. I haven't tried adding more yet, that was at least 2 months ago. I've been throwing in pond snails and ramshorns from my other tanks. These are making it in this tank, and laying eggs everywhere!

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I don't really mind cause hopefully they'll start eating all that purple stuff and now I can at least keep something alive in the tank! This is supposed to be a shrimp tank but I'm not sure I want to put them in here if I can't even keep snails alive.

Curiously, the fissidens fontanus that I had attached to the rock all died, along with the hornwort I had in at the beginning. The hornwort lost its leaves and fell apart, not sure what caused it. The Fissidens splachnobryoides is doing great and I'm really happy with it.

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Well I think high ph is good for those crystal shrimps? So that could be good?? A bit more than a health dose of algea in there, but should settle down as the plants get traction. Hornwort dieing - w/e , its not that nice of a plant to begin with. Maybe get an algea wiper magnet for the acrylic?

Looks like a good start.

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Don't use a magnet on acrylic tanks, did that on my1.5G and it scratched, I use eye glass cleaner cloths, super soft but get the job done obviously not used, till I added ottos to the tank, if there isnt going to be a heater maybe add a hillstream loach the zebras stay tiny and leave shrimp alone plus keep glass clean and are fine with cooler temps

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have shrimp in the tank! and they're living! lol. I've been moving them over from a different tank for the last week and they are doing well. Molting even. I've decided not to put any fish in this tank, I'm going to just grow shrimp in this one. And snails... The pond snails are exploding in here, It's getting a little crazy but I'm sure once they've eaten everything they'll level off.

The Lileaopsis mauritiana is doing well, and spreading a bit. I have since added more MTS to replace the ones I killed but I think they are uprooting the L. mauritiana? I keep finding bits floating in the tank. Is it possible to have a ground cover like this with MTS?

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  • 1 year later...

Time for an update!!! That old thing up there was torn down months ago and sold, I'm on to bigger and better things. Can I change the title of this journal? lol

I have/had a 2.5 gallon tank with a betta in it, betta died. So I started looking around for what might go in there that wasn't a betta, killifish!!! So I got some eggs and hatched them and I'm still growing the little buggers, seems like it's taking forever. However, I was going to need a tank for them cause they aren't all going to fit in a 2.5. Off to kijiji!!! Where I stumble upon, attached in a one line sentence at the end of an ad for a 120 gallon, "free 20 gallon with stand if you'll come pick it up." I'm SOLD!!! It also came with about 3 boxes of miscellaneous stuff which has been distributed throughout AA.

Then, the dresser my original 10 gallon was sitting on was going to be sold, I better tear it down and move everything into the new 20 lol. So now I'm down 12.5 gallons, oh wait, no I'm not, still have a new 20. I get the 20 set up and the 6 fish moved over and voila:

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It's mostly planted now, waiting for things to fill in, some moss to attach to rocks, and to remove that rock on the driftwood. There are actually about 20 cardinals in there but they really like to hide in the back, it's going to suck trying to get them all out so they can live in my next project. Cause remember this one is for killifish.

How deep can you plant tiger lotus? They are not attached to the bulb and the roots are kinda short. So far I have buried the crown in order to keep them down but that one on the left has popped up again.

I painted the background and was going to backlight it but that hasn't worked out quite like I planned so I'm hoping the vals and guppy grass take off to help cover it a bit.

Now on to other larger things. I found a 28 gallon on kijiji for cheap so I picked it up cause I'm going to have room in my living room. So I built this:

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Seriously, I built this ALL BY MYSELF!!! I still can't quite believe it. Even my carpenterish brother was impressed how solid it is. And this is what is sitting on it:

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I waited long enough to get some moss to attach to the wood, and plants should be arriving tomorrow. This is where the fish currently in the 20 will come to live.

I finally found a cheap $10/50lb bag of black substrate, I can't believe it took me that long, I think it's been a year looking for it. But the best thing about this tank is this:

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Instead of painting like I usually do I got rice paper window film and put that on the back. Backlit with a multicolored string of LED lights. It doesn't look like much when the tank is lit up so I might add another strip in the light bar but I'm not sure yet.

Anyway, I've been busy!!!

Edited by creekbottom
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  • 4 weeks later...

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It's all planted in now. The dwarf sag is spreading already, I think it only took a week for it to start moving lol. I've been fighting the brown algae but now that I'm getting some fish moved into this hopefully that part of the experience will be done.

I have 1 sunblaster light on top of this. It's about 16" to the substrate, how do I know if I have enough light? The lotus is supposed to be a red variety, and the sag is growing tall. Is that a pretty good indicator that I need more light?

Still looking for some habrosus cories... if anyone has 1 or 10 they'd like to get rid of just let me know.

I derimmed a cheap 5 gallon I got and was contemplating what to do with it. Then I just lost patience lol

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I have crypt wendtii planted at the back of the stone on the left. I'm not sure what or if I should put anymore plants in here. I always go crazy and my tanks get collectoritis so I'm keeping this to only a few species but that's an awful lot of unused space ;) I'm not doing an HC carpet but I could throw some moss down. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to spout them off.

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I would move the sunblaster closer to the top tank - definitely needs a bit more light, and probably some Excel/Metricide . Given time, the C. wendtii will fill in the bottom tank for you! :)

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Crap! Now I've forgotten the name of the place I got it lol. I was calling around to places like Manus abrasives and Target in Morinville. Target was the only place I found that actually carried Black Diamond/Beauty blasting grit. But you need to buy at least 10 bags, they wouldn't even let me have a damaged bag. The lovely lady on the phone did recommend I try this forgotten place in the west end. They were so helpful that they went into the back and bagged 50lbs for me cause all they had was bulk.

It's nice stuff, really consistent and shiny black. I didn't notice any sharpness or weird extra pieces like some people have found in their bags.

I'd be putting the cory's in the 28 gallon.

I went to Lee Valley yesterday and picked up another sunblaster light and got it installed next to the other one. I can't lower the light anymore as it's already on the top of the tank. Hopefully this solves the problem, I guess I better get my CO2 figured out.

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If the black sand is called copper slag, I've heard mixed reviews on it. It seems to be the most commonly available black sand at a decent price - some people say it'll rip the gills of sand-sifters and damage barbels on cats; others say they've used it for years and never noticed any damage on their cichlids or corys. After using some black sand (may have been generic Tahitian Moon) from an LFS, I'm not sure anything could be more gritty - it definitely isn't as fine as Playsand; but, I bought it for a tank that specifically had Geophagus, so I wasn't quite prepared to risk copper slag, which I could of had for about 1/3 the price (even tho I got a screaming discount at the LFS!!).

Let us know how your black sand works out - I think that store will get a run from the aquarium hobby in Edmonton!!

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I looked through a ton of threads on TPT about this, its actually coal slag. Of course everyone has an opinion but most people that HAD ACTUALLY USED IT (as opposed to those who were just speculating) said it was fine for their cory's and whatever else they had in there including sand sifters.

I'll let you know how it goes, and if I remember the name of the place.

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