5.5G planted nano

bignose · #1 02-12-2009, 04:34 PM

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?

Rbacchiega · #2 02-12-2009, 05:28 PM

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

bignose · #3 02-12-2009, 06:44 PM

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

karazy · #4 02-12-2009, 06:58 PM

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

BlueAbyss · #5 02-12-2009, 07:09 PM

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

Rbacchiega · #6 02-12-2009, 07:18 PM

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..

bignose · #7 02-12-2009, 10:23 PM

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.

hershey · #8 02-12-2009, 11:06 PM

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

Rbacchiega · #9 02-12-2009, 11:55 PM

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

bignose · #10 02-13-2009, 01:01 AM

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.