2.5 Planted

[Basil]

So I have a 2.5 gal tank just begging to be started. Here's what I have so far.

Tank- 2.5 gal
Lighting- 13 watt Fluval PC Fixture or Modded 9x2 watt Coralife PC Fixture
Substrate- Flourite
Filtration- Red Sea Nano HOB
Flora-
Fauna-


So, how do I stand? I'm still debating on plants. If I can find DHG Belem I would prefer that for a carpet. Otherwise I'd like to do mini micro sword for the foreground. I've also got a nice piece of driftwood from SnS that fits perfectly in the 2.5 so I'll put up a picture later today of that. As far as other plants probably some Anubius Petitie on the driftwood plus some ludwigia arcuata. I might also do Blyxa japonica as the background plant, since it does get thick and beautiful. Other suggestions are welcome.

As far fish I'll probably be moving my betta from his one gallon into this. I know he'll appreciate the increase in swimming space and the great change in scenery. I've also got a question for all those running azoo palm or red sea nano filters: what do you run in them? I've seen home made filter packs for them or people run just filter floss or filter pads. I'd like to run both a filter pad and maybe some form of biological filtration like Fluval's Biomax.

Thanks for reading and I'll get pics posted.

[gnod]

you will have a LOT of fun with the 2.5G.
one of my favorite size tanks... for me I have 13W, DIY co2, AS with HOB filter.
enough to grow glosso, and fissidens well. not too fast, not too slow

i had 23W before, with 2 2L DIY Co2... i had m.p. in there which grew crazy fast!
i got some algae so i changed light intensity and duration of light.

I don't know if 2.5G is enough for 1 betta. Def better than the 1 gallon but i never kept a betta before.

For my filter, I got ceramic rings, small bag of purigen i made and those foam filter that you put into Aqua clear filters. I just cut the foam up to fit into my filter. But the purigen..works wonders. My water is seriously crystal clear, I highly recommend it.

[AquaKai]

I agree with gnod! I love my 2.5g, it's a great size to plant! I think you have enough light for the plants you want. Listen to gnod with everything else, he's right on! For the betta, I think that the 2.5g would be great! Some people say that 5g is the min, but I have some bettas that just hate tanks bigger than 2.5g! Just make sure you have a heater for the tank, they love 80F tanks. Good luck, can't wait to see what you do

[Basil]

Ah yeah, forgot to mention heating. Ive got a Marina C10 preset heater in my fluval spec and it keeps it 79~80 all day long, no fluctuations. I'll be running one in this tank too.

[radioman]

I used the red sea filterfor my 2.5g I just use the sponge it came with and then cut filter floss the size. In the back of the filter I put ceramic rings.

[@marko@]

in my palm filter i put some biomedia in a mesh bag, and then on top put cut-to-size filter floss pad, and cut a slit in it to put a touch of carbon (its a low tech tank, so i cant count on the plants to remove stuff).

[Basil]

Radio and Marko,

Thanks for the input. I will be going with some ceramic rings plus cutting filter pads to fit the filter. It's pretty cool that we can have any number of filter media in this little guy, it's pretty versatile.

Now, on to the pictures. All DW came from toofazt in SnS.
Empty Tank


First piece of DW




Some other pieces of DW.




Some DW placements.






So, I'd say I've got some thinking to do about hard scape. I love the first piece of DW except it is almost as tall as the tank without substrate. I may use it in my Spec instead. How do the other pieces look? This is all still a work in progress. Thanks!

[AquaKai]

Those are great pieces of driftwood! I really like the one in the back right of the pictures. It's great! The one you like is pretty awesome too, so many patterns in one piece is gorgeous! Oh decisions:P

[gogi]

Awesome. I am doing a 2.5 g too. And i got alot of info from this thread thanks for posting it. I really like hat first piece of drift wood. It looks like a bonsai stock.

[Basil]

Gogi,

That's great! I hope this thread will help you, I know it is helping me alot. I"m currently boiling the wood to get as many of the tannins out as possible. The first piece is almost good to go while all those smaller ones are still leaching like crazy.

Here's another question for anyone reading this. Is there a way to mount the Fluval fixture to this tank without making it rimless? As it is, the black plastic is too thick for the Fluval to attach. Thanks.

[gogi]

I have a similar tank with the same type of rim. What i did was i used a small hacksaw to cut two notches on the horizantal lip where the light was going and then i used a very sharp utility knife and ran it flush against the vertical part of the rim over and over again until it cut all the way. It is hard to explain but i ll post a pic of it tonigt. BE VERY CARFUL AND DONT RUSH!!!

[Basil]

Sounds like you'd have to be careful to not crack the glass. I've read threads where they crack the glass just cleaning the silly tank. I'd like to see the picture.

As it stands the tank is still dry. I'll be rinsing the Flourite today and maybe getting the tank set up with the driftwood.
Since the DW will still leach some I'll probably run a very small amount of purigen to help keep the water clear, but I think that will not allow my cycle to even begin. We'll see. What can I place loose purigen in so it doesn't get all over? Thanks.

[gogi]

here is a pic of how the rim looks like after I cut it and with the light fixture installed. I just finished the tank like 10 mins ago.

[@marko@]

that substrate sure doesnt look like flourite... lol

what are you doing for macros? flourite is ok in micros, but has 0 N P or K. it doesnt have S either. you may want to stick some (quality) root tabs in.

[Basil]

For root tabs I've got Seachem's. I bet I could take a look at some other kinds, since I have yet to use other tabs. Oh and Gogi, this is my fixture. The clear mount it has is just slightly too narrow to fit over the black rim of the tank.