This is my first tank in several years. I used to have a 10 gallon low tech betta tank. The most I ever did was tie some java moss to drift wood, so I'm quite excited to delve a little more in the world of planted tanks.
Specs:
-The tank is a Marineland portrait 5 gallon
-Filter is stock with a couple modifications
-Aqueon pro 50W heater
-Aqua soil amazonia, splurged on the powder type
-Wavepoint 12" LED
Plants:
1. flame moss
2. vallisneria nana
3. lilaeopsis mauritiana
4. anubias nana petite
5. cryptocoryne wendtii red
6. cryptocoryne undulata (I think)
7. cryptocoryne parva
Plans for livestock:
1.one male betta
2. one nerite snail
3. a couple of amano shrimp
4. possibly a variety of other shrimp
Day 1:
Whew! This tank is harder to work with than it looks! I'd be a little surprised if no more than a couple plants die, I think I really mangled some of the anubias and vals.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Still a lot of work to do. Need some more plants for the back left corner. Flame moss didn't exactly turn out as I imagined. Hopefully it'll get more of that nice vertical look as it grows out. ATM it just looks kinda unruly.
Really liking the cryptocoryne parva, not too sure about the larger cryptocoryne wendtii.
Ammonia is reading 2ppm right after filling.
Bump: Day 2
Water is clearing up. Ammonia was reading 8ppm! Did a water change and brought it down to 2ppm. Thinking about filling the background with more vals. Feedback is appreciated!
Bump: Here's another day 2 pic, the last one looks a little funky.
This looks amazing so far! That driftwood is super nice. Once that flame moss grows in it will have a lovely tree effect. I agree in more plants in the back left corner. It's going to grow in nicely.
Day 3
Ammonia was reading 4ppm, so I did a water change. Some leaves on my crypt parvas seem to be melting . An anubias got detached from the driftwood, was a pain to reattach it. Water is cloudy again since I was fiddling around with things, maybe a little too much.
Good news: nitrites are reading between 0.25ppm and 0.5ppm! There's a cloudy film on the surface, I'm guessing that's from the bacteria bloom. Crypts seem to be melting a lot. Wasn't really feeling the crypt. wendtii so I moved it into a fish bowl that I started (journal for that coming soon!). Replaced it with some blyxa japonica that I got from a forum member . Really going to try to not mess with things anymore until the cycle finishes.
update: there are pond snails in the tank!! looks like a bunch of baby ones that hatched and one big one that somehow made it in. Should I leave them be or try to get rid of them?
Up to you. They are hard to eliminate entirely, basically that's just impossible without assassin snails or puffers. If you want to remove them as you find them you can, but you can use it as a gage if you are overfeeding. I have them in mine and they don't seem to be populating heavily. I sort of like them, personally.
It seems like my tank is already cycled! Ammonia is reading 0.25ppm, but I'm using the API test kit which seems to sometimes have false positives. Nitries are 0ppm. The plan is to start with some shrimp and then a betta. I might go to the LFS tomorrow to find some a couple of amanos and cherries. Seems like my tank is already producing some of its own livestock :surprise:. There are a bunch of tiny little worms on the glass.
Things are going pretty well. Crypts seemed to have stopped melting and are showing new leaves. The vals seem to be growing a bunch of new leaves and sending off runners. Can't wait to have them fill in the back of the tank, that part is kind of lacking at the moment. I did add some baby vals of some other variety (maybe jungle?) and those seem to also be doing well. Maybe I added too many...
I moved the crypt parvas around a bit. Also replanted a bunch of the lilaeopsis mauritius. Some of them totally melted away during the cycle. I'm guessing because of the way they were positioned under the driftwood, they didn't get enough light. A lot of the dead plant material got caught in between the healthy leaves and were hard to remove, so I literally pulled them out and rinsed them a container of tank water. Figured this was providing the pond snails with a big source of food. This seems to have really helped, I no longer have to squish a dozen or so snails everyday.
Really surprised at how quickly this tank cycled. I've been adding 2-3ppm every couple of days to keep the beneficial bacteria going since there's no livestock yet. Ammonia level basically reaches 0 the next day, nitrite seems to lag a tiny bit.
Going to visit the LFS tomorrow. Was planning on stocking with some shrimp first and then a betta later, but I might not wait to add the betta. The LFS just has so many nice ones at the moment! Also, this has the potential of avoiding a mini cycle later on. The plan is to add the shrimp first and let the betta float in a cup or breeder container for a little bit.
Bonus: attached is a picture of a couple of snails having fun together
Finally got a betta! Still haven't given him a name. Had a really tough time deciding on one at the LFS. I was probably standing there for at least 30 minutes or so. Ultimately, I picked this guy because he was a bit smaller in size and seemed like a real scaredy cat-- I'm hoping these things would mean he'll be less likely to eat the shrimp I ended up getting...
The plan was to start with a couple of big amanos, but the LFS didn't have any. They did, however, have a bunch of really nice red cherries, so I got 8 of them. I know, risky move. Also got a nerite snail, but I realized it was just an empty shell when I got home. Probably had something to do with the assassin snails that were kept in the same tank.
After acclimating, I first introduced the red cherries. After about 45 minutes, I introduced the betta. This was all done while the lights were off to reduce stress. He quickly got to exploring everything. So far so good! Everyone has been getting along nicely. There was a funny moment when the betta got quite hesitant while swimming by a shrimp, it was kinda like a dog too scared to walk by a cat. None of the shrimp seem to be the least bit afraid of the betta. He seems to really enjoy swimming through the vallisneria leaves.
Also added some awesome lace leaf java fern. Shout out to Econde for those! At the moment, they're just kind of floating behind the driftwood. Don't want to mess with things too much while the new inhabitants are getting settled in. I realized that some of the crypt parvas are growing pretty flat and this is because they're receiving a good amount of light. The hydrocotyle japan that's floating is getting kinda pale. I'm considering dosing fertilizers to keep the non root feeders nice and healthy.
I'm very pleased with things right now.
These pictures aren't the greatest quality, so I'll try to get better ones soon.
Pretty and unique looking Betta, congrats! I added red cherry shrimp to my tank yesterday and the Betta picked at them a little at first, but as of this morning he seemed to be ignoring them, so hopefully they will survive the experience.
I am so late in the game, but oooohhhh new betta! He is beautiful, and his colors really shine in that tank. How is it coming along 5 weeks after having him settled?
Haha, thank you! His personality is interesting. He will hang around the shrimp when they're gathered around a piece of boiled veggie. He had a bit of fin rot when I got him so he went into a bucket for a week with salt and stress coat. His fins are still a bit frayed on the edges, but it hasn't gotten any worse.
This is my first tank in several years. I used to have a 10 gallon low tech betta tank. The most I ever did was tie some java moss to drift wood, so I'm quite excited to delve a little more in the world of planted tanks.
Specs:
-The tank is a Marineland portrait 5 gallon
-Filter is stock with a couple modifications
-Aqueon pro 50W heater
-Aqua soil amazonia, splurged on the powder type
-Wavepoint 12" LED
Plants:
1. flame moss
2. vallisneria nana
3. lilaeopsis mauritiana
4. anubias nana petite
5. cryptocoryne wendtii red
6. cryptocoryne undulata (I think)
7. cryptocoryne parva
Was wondering how this tank is doing. I just got one and am going to set it up this weekend for eventual CRS. Also what mods did you do for the filter, very interested in that
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