5.5G planted nano
 

I thought I was moving away from FW but now I'm thinking of starting a 5G planted nano with shrimp only. I seen some pictures and they are very nice.

But my only experience with FW plants were the plastic kind so I need some help. I know that people have a Co2 bottle but I would like to do without it.
What equipment would I need to start a 5G planted nano? Filter, Light, suppliments, substrate to make this happen?

Light will be your biggest issue to get away from using CO2. For lower light plants (a. nana, a. barteri, java fern, java moss etc) go for around 2 watts per gallon

I guess all I need is a light. This should be fairly cheap compared to my reef!!

also it would be good to use maybe some fertilizers, like flourish excel and such

Should be okay as far as fertilizer if you feed the shrimp?

well if you want to get technical it will depend on what type of plants you want to keep. I have a 90 gallon discus tank that I DON"T run Co2 on. I have 1 48" Hagen Glo fixture and I am trimming the tank weekly. I keep a. nana, a. barteri, amazon swords, jungle val, Hornwort, Rotalla, Ludwigia...other stuff..

I have a bottle of flourish iron. I picked up a desk lamp with a 13w 6400K bulb. I bought Onion, grass and some other plant. I don't know anything about plants so I just bought 3 kinds to learn with. I have a bottle of flourish iron and I'm going to get some excel.

lighting will be fairly simple on a tank that size a couple of 13w cf bulbs would let you grow a variety of plants
I would recommend a quality substrate such as flourite or eco-complete these substrates IMO allow your stem plants to root and also adds nutrients to the plants

avoid excel unless it is a heavily planted tank required huge ammounts of CO2. Iron will help if you are keeping red plants. Best bet, get Flourish. That's it, it's just called flourish

Well I must be blind because the 5G tank I have is actually a 2.5G tank. Anyways I changed the name of the thread. I also went and bought a piece of driftwood for the tank which was really cheap it only cost me $2.50 which is a nice change from my costly reef.

Well I feel like and idiot after I broke the 2.5G tank. I was banging... I mean tapping the glass to get the sand off it and I broke a pane. I went back to the fish store AGAIN and bought a 5.5G tank. I'll rename the thread again.:mrgreen:

LOL!


too funny :)

I look forward to seeing this progress, I've been eyeballing the FW shrimp at the store a lot lately, they are really neat. What kind of filter do you need? Do they need a heater too?

I'm going to take the chance and not run a filter or heater. My apartment is very warm because they crank the heat in the winter to prevent water lines from freezing. I have some powerheads that have been sitting around for a long time. I'll finally get to use one again.

I'm still slowly filling the tank. 24GPD RO units are slowwwww, it's a painful wait.

Watching this one closely... I might do a small planted cube with native plants from the lakes around here, with LED lighting to keep the heat down, my interest in planted tanks has grown again :lol: I just don't want to have to get my plants from the city, too much of a pain.

Finally got it filled with water.
Here are a couple pictures

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...nted1small.jpg
I'm returning this light for obvious reasons. They have a 27w(I think) fixture that is taller.

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...nted2small.jpg
I already don't like the green plant behind the green plant? I don't have a clue what these plants names are. There's little bits of the plant are flying around the tank. I forgot about these plants, I had these in my 55G and I hated them.

right side plants are i believe : in front java fern. which is good low maintanece and reasonably fast grower. in back think it looks like cabomba. i tried it and had a hard time with it. i could never get it to anchor. if not cabomba it may also be hornwart, but i dont think it is as it looks bushier, there for i think cabomba

I'm fairly new to planted tanks too, but in my experience (which is 7 months now lol) I have screwed around with fertilizers, CO2, algae outbreaks, you name it. So far, I have found that you either need a super technical tank with all the bells and whistles, or you need a KISS tank...it seems there's no happy medium. I don't dose ANYTHING to my tank anymore (no CO2 anymore either), and it is doing quite well:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...2/Jan52009.jpg

When I tried adding Fluorish Iron or Excel or ferts or CO2, I just got algae. It seems like it's a fine line of a balance between ferts/light/CO2/plant growth. If you want a list of the plants and stuff in my tank, or want to read the journey my tank has taken and what I have learned so far, click on the "10g" in my signature. :) Oh and as far as lights go...I have (2) 23w clip on lamps on my tank, and it is too much light. I can only run one light for about 6 hours a day or I get algae. I'm going to change the bulbs to (2) 13w, and see if that will be ok. One more thing...cram as many plants in there as fast as you can so it will out-compete the algae. Algae is your worst enemy. I fought it tooth and nail.

Off to a good start! You should throw some low-maintenance moss in there like java moss, it will look nice.

Myca i get best results wit half doses of iron only. i cant believe your red rotunda is still kicking with no fertz. i tried it and had no luck at all. i thik its the flourish excell. i have heard it can "melt " plants.

I'm not sure which plant you're referring to as "rotunda"? I Googled it, and didn't come up with anything. I'm thinking you mean the Tiger Lotus? It hasn't been in there very long yet, so the jury is still out on that one. I was told that lots of light is the key to keeping them, not so much the CO2. Excel does tend to melt some plants, and some plants really dislike it.

Anyway...sorry it's off topic. I just wanted to post a photo of my tank to show that you can do it with pretty much nothing. :)

rotunda is what i have seen called locally. its the plant in the back left.

Anyways bignose i like the substrate you chose.

Yup the feathery stuff is Cabomba... It takes a long time to root and will need something to feed on, also it requires very high light... but once it starts growing it looks GOOD! And fills space well. The key is to give it enough light to actually get growing. There is a red variety of this plant also, which is even more demanding in regards to light, though both are easily kept otherwise.

You should consider some Cryptocoryne, they come in a huge variety and like low light. I used to collect them :mrgreen: Though I would plant them somewhere that will be quite shaded, or where taller plants will keep any bright light off them.

that plant in the back looks like water sprite a very fast growing plant
that stuff will even grow with the lights off

Cambomba. I used to buy a few sprigs and feed it to my goldfish LOL.

For being such a small tank I would avoid dosing anything just yet, at least until you get your stocking list and photoperiod down.

I also really like the substrate I chose, its Geosystem extra fine river gravel. Actually my son chose it for his hermit crab tank and I used some of it for this tank. I like the different colors and size of the gravel.

I'd like to get some different plants but the pet stores here all sell the same thing. Does anyone have some java moss they would like to sale? or some plants that grow close to the gravel for ground coverage? Do I take the rubber bands of the plants before I put them in the gravel?:redface:

I was thinking 10 hrs a day just like my reef, but that's just a thought. I don't know anything about photoperiod so I'm going to research today. I'm also going to look at Shrimp. Woo!:lol:

Also what kind of flow am I supposed to have in there? I put a pump labelled PH101. I googled it and I can't find anything on it's specs. They must of stopped making it or something.

Also thanks for all the help everyone :wink:

the flow should be fine. Keep in mind, as with reefs, too much light will cause plants to loose colour...so will too much LOL. Plants that grow along the bottom usually require more light, but you can get some java moss to spread (although it usually goes on driftwood...) There's something (think it was called dwarf sword or something) that looks like grass. I've had good success with that

i can hook you up with a small free amount of java moss if you know anyone coming or going to town. grows like crazy you wont need much. its a great source of food aswell.

I returned the desk lamp and picked up a coralife 2x9w 6700k pc fixture. It's still too small but it works better than the desk lamp. I have to figure out how to get the light a little higher up off the tank.

I also picked up my shrimp. I got two orange bee shrimp and a cherry red shrimp. I'll get a pic up when they are in their new home.

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...lantednano.jpg

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...angeshrimp.jpg
orange bee shrimp

Neat shrimp :biggrin:

The orange bee looks to be a bamboo/flower shrimp. Very cool. They're filter feeders. I used to have 4 in a 10 gallon tank and they would stand atop the driftwood (very similar to the one you have actually) and face towards the output of the HOB filter. Get about 3 inches..I had one that was nearly 4 though...

I'm going to look on Albertaaquatica for some plants. Thats where I got my inspiration. I started a similar thread there called 5G planted nano. Check it out if you like.

I picked up some plants today Anubias, Hemianthus and Pogostemon. Here is a updated picture.

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...nted3small.jpg

So I've had a bad first week with this tank. Bringing back some memories of past FW tanks. They may not be the best memories but I'm determined to get this to work this time.

I've had temperature problems and it seems my apartment isn't warm enough. My shrimp were starting to act funny so I checked the temp and it was at 64F! :redface: I put a heater into the tank and set it for 74F.

I also noticed scum and plant floating on the surface. When I went to net it out there was alot more than it seemed. I did a 50% water change to be safe and dosed 0.4mL excel and iron.
Some of the plants are turning clear and others are just fine, I don't know why.

I hope the shrimp pull through but if they don't I'll just run it planted for a month or two then try again.

http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...dnanosmall.jpg
Once I have the tank stabalized @ 74F I'm going to hide the heater behind the plants.

The little clumps of green stuff (too lazy to read back in the thread) look like they're filling in nicely, too bad you're having temp. problems. Hope your little shrimp pulls through!

If you go to "the krib" site, and do a search on PMDD, Poor mans dosing drops, you'll find some articles on making your own fertilizer for planted tanks. You can pick up the ingredients between a drug store and hydroponics shop. It seems like a lot of work but you can control the amounts of each ingredient so if you need less iron you can mix it with half the iron etc.

There should also be an article about making fertilizer balls. Red clay powder from an art supplies store works wonders but if you are going to try this WEAR RUBBER GLOVES while rolling the balls, your hands will be red for a week.

And finally, one thing I tried when I had planted tanks is to use sterilized garden soil on the bottom, cover it with unbleached paper (like the paper grocery bags used to be made from). Cover the paper with your gravel, then when you put your plants in simply poke a hole in the paper and your plants have access to an amazing substrate. If you try this make sure your soil is unfertilized, sterilized, clean, natural soil. Never hurts to bake it in the oven for a couple hours at 350 just to make sure it's sterile.

Douglas

Thanks for the link BCOrchidGuy I'll check it out.

I recently started a 2 Gallon planted tank. Here is some picture.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...2022009555.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...8022009526.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...8022009515.jpg

Good looking Tank...looks alot bigger than 2 gallons, but I LOVE baby tears...

Looking good Rbacchiega. Did you wrap that material around the wood to hold that plant on? I tried stapling the plant with horrible results. I really like the baby tears too. I think those are what I planted in in my gravel.
What kind of fish is that?

Here is a updated picture of my tank.
http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/o...antedfeb28.jpg

I put some kind of plant on the wood hoping it will root to it. My tank has stabalized and no more casualites since the one shrimp.
I dosed .1ml of iron and flourish a couple of times and I'm happy to see that my plants aren't degrading. I think I may be doing something right this time!