5G Low Tech, Rocks and Stems...Updated 6-8-2012

[FriendsNotFood]

What's the other red plant to the right of the wood?

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by FriendsNotFood

What's the other red plant to the right of the wood?

Ludwigia glandulosa.

[sugarbyte]

What a stunning tank!
Are you using dirt? Im wondering how your plants are doing so well!..and with that light, how are you avoiding algae? What is your secret?

[bl4nket]

you have a marvelous looking tank. Very nice aquascape.

[moonshinetheslacker]

I know you already have the guppies, but have you thought about kuhli loaches? There are three types that I've seen. There's Albino, all black, and a striped version. I personally have 5 of the striped kind. As long as you have 6 or more, they are very active, even during the day. They look like little eels, but they are scavengers. Read "scavengers, NOT bottom feeders" They swim all over the tank, and act pretty funny. I'm not really sure if you would be overstocking with 6. You wouldn't have to worry about overstocking, except for bio load. They all like to wiggle up next to eachother, and they are very social together. My 10 gallon was a guppy-kuhli tank for a while.

Another "rare" fish would be a dwarf puffer. There are several types of freshwater dwarf puffers, and they are pretty neat fish to keep. They recognize you, and their food. They beg, and they'll watch you as you walk around the kitchen.

I'm sure you are probably already set with your "tequila sunrise" guppies, but I figured I'd throw in my two cents.

Also, guppies get along great with shrimps... Just sayin...

BTW, your tank looks great. I'm diggin it.

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by sugarbyte

What a stunning tank!
Are you using dirt? Im wondering how your plants are doing so well!..and with that light, how are you avoiding algae? What is your secret?

I am actually using Petco gravel (or Petsmart). It's an older tank so there is quite a bit of old food and what not. It's suprising how much roots some of my stems have. My tiger lotus has roots about 5x5in, crazy.

I really don't have algae, just a little on the glass. So, I don't really know how I deal with it lol.

Remember that I have a screen on top, since I had a frog. That cuts down the lights. I may go open top with my guppies. I have had mixed experiences in the short time I have kept them. Some jump, some don't. I only have had jumpers when cycling though. I may or may not change, I like the look of open top but since everything is working, I am hesitant to change.


One thing bad happened though. I don't use excel much so when I do, sometimes I over do it, especially as I have never had a tank this small. I have some melting going on with both my lotus (not bad), and the green plant on the right back corner (common but I don't know the name). I really don't like the plant much though, it doesn't respond well to trimming so I may replace it if it doesn't grow back well. I pretty much melted it all as it is right where I does the excel in.

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by moonshinetheslacker

I know you already have the guppies, but have you thought about kuhli loaches? There are three types that I've seen. There's Albino, all black, and a striped version. I personally have 5 of the striped kind. As long as you have 6 or more, they are very active, even during the day. They look like little eels, but they are scavengers. Read "scavengers, NOT bottom feeders" They swim all over the tank, and act pretty funny. I'm not really sure if you would be overstocking with 6. You wouldn't have to worry about overstocking, except for bio load. They all like to wiggle up next to eachother, and they are very social together. My 10 gallon was a guppy-kuhli tank for a while.

Another "rare" fish would be a dwarf puffer. There are several types of freshwater dwarf puffers, and they are pretty neat fish to keep. They recognize you, and their food. They beg, and they'll watch you as you walk around the kitchen.

I'm sure you are probably already set with your "tequila sunrise" guppies, but I figured I'd throw in my two cents.

Also, guppies get along great with shrimps... Just sayin...

BTW, your tank looks great. I'm diggin it.

Thanks. I have to say, I love these guppies. I have done rare fish (nothing extremely rare) and just never kept this species until recently. Guppies are really cool. They add a bunch of life to this tank. For $1.25, I could not be happier. I really have found that most my favorite fish are really common species that get looked over for the next trend. I love Cherry Barbs, Gold Barbs, regular RCS, and now guppies.

[xjasminex]

Hi, i was wondering what light fixture you have on top, looks like its some kind of light strip on top of a grate of some kind, i have a five gallon to and i havent found and light strips made for the small length.
Thanks!

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by xjasminex

Hi, i was wondering what light fixture you have on top, looks like its some kind of light strip on top of a grate of some kind, i have a five gallon to and i havent found and light strips made for the small length.
Thanks!

It was DIY. I bought a Marina 10 gallon way back but found out the top was rimless. So, I took the hood apart and took out the actual lighting from the plastic. I then took my old stock light housing from my 29 gallon, cut it down to size and the plastic welded it back together. It was originally for my 10 gallon but happened to fit my 5 gallon perfectly about a year after I tore my other tank down.


It wouldn't be a hard DIY. You just need to make a light fixture with 2 incandescent sockets. You could either find a 10 gallon hook and use that (and may not have to do any wiring), or get the parts from home depot or similar. Then make a housing for it out of wood or plastic, whatever you want.

But yeah, it was just repurposing things I had.

And the mesh top is a "critter cage" top you can get at Petco. I needed it as I had a Dwarf African Frog and they have a tendency to jump out.

[xjasminex]

Oh great, thanks!

That should help me in the future when i decided to change my light!

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by xjasminex

Oh great, thanks!

That should help me in the future when i decided to change my light!

Check the DIY section, may people have done similar, just had everything I needed so I didn't have to do much more than unscrew some things.

Not that I have really looked but I haven't seen a great florescent light for these tanks. I do see bulbs at the hardware store that are the right size. Maybe there is something out there. I only seem them in T5. I think 1 T5 would be doable with enough plant mass, without CO2, but I am not going to say that is certain.

I like the screw ins because you can change your light tremendously. I have bulbs ranging from 7 watts to 26 watts so I could go very low to extremely high light without changing the fixture and the bulbs are cheap, often cheaper on sale.

[xjasminex]

Very true, id eventually like to go rimless, though i have a betta and i want the top covered, im thinking of getting a plate of glass the same EXACT size of the top of my tank then using a screw in CF bulb in a modified desk lamp.

[talontsiawd]

Originally Posted by xjasminex

Very true, id eventually like to go rimless, though i have a betta and i want the top covered, im thinking of getting a plate of glass the same EXACT size of the top of my tank then using a screw in CF bulb in a modified desk lamp.

This tank actually started out with just a desk lamp. I used a 26 watt bulb and supposedly they put more light out if they are upright, rather than horizontal to the tank. Everything grew well. The main reason I ditched that was it was a pain with both the top, and moving the light to really see what you were doing. I just happened to have this from another tank so I switched. If it was open top, I may be able to get the same results I have now out of one bulb. The screen does mask light.


My experience with bettas has been weird. I have had 2 jump out of tanks with a generic 10 gallon hood and I don't even get how they found where to jump, much less fit through the tiny gaps. I have also had them in open tops (but much bigger than a 10 gallon), never jumped. I know the size of the tank probably made a difference but it's ironic that I have had much better luck with an open top with betta's.

[talontsiawd]

Non picture update....

My GF was out of town for a few weeks. I had luckily removed all livestock after accidentally over feeding (I mistakenly poured in WAY too much food). The tank was cycling so I didn't want to harm anything. Because there was no livestock, I did not check up on the tank a frequently as I should have. We I returned, I found many of the plants had melted. I also looked at the temp and found out that the tank was at over 95 degrees. Basically the heater was sticking on.

Between the two, the plants really suffered, not sure what the cause was. There was also no food being added at the time due to no livestock. That could be another cause. Anyway, it really disrupted the tank. Therefore, I decided to just redo the tank.

It is not much to see but I made a major change. I decided to use soil for the first time. I just used regular potting soil, did not mineralize it or anything. I only used a very small amount, about 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch.

My other change is that I am going to try to make this more "dutch" than "jungle". That is a challenge due to tank size so it will probably get a little "loose" and "jungly" but I am being more organized in my layout. I plan to go slow and pay attention to growth as one fast growing plant easily takes over the tank due to its size. I want to keep those plants to a minimum.

I will get pics up when I can, but not much to see as of yet.

[talontsiawd]

I don't really plan to keep updating but I thought it would be cool to throw out an update. The glass heart is what my GF wanted (it's her tank though she hasn't ever got her hands wet really). I just added the Glosso about a week ago so that will need some time.