My medium-light, low-tech 5 gallon

[Church]

Okay, it's been a long time, so I figured I'd post an update. Some things have changed recently. First of all, I lost all of my hengeli due to a mishap with Fluorish Excel. I'm not happy about it, but you have to keep on keeping on, right? So I ended up buying a male and female Honey Gourami. They are now married, and are trying to have children. I also took apart the desk lamp, so I could retrofit it inside the original hood, and I thinned out a lot of the plants in there. The C. ciliata was overgrowing everything else, so I focused on it, but everything else had a haircut too. I also planted some dwarf sag as a foreground, but I don't have any pics of that just yet.

Here are my latest pics:

[ALIFER]

[quote=Church;705039]O I also took apart the desk lamp, so I could retrofit it inside the original hood/QUOTE]
The tank pics do look better with the hood. Was it easy to retrofit the light fixture into the hood? Any problems with heat?
-Rick

[Church]

Yeah, it was easy once I learned that the proper adhesive to use is Liquid Nails. I had a few mishaps with various adhesives not working, but after a little trial and error, I can safely say that liquid nails is all you need. As far as wiring and all the other stuff, it's not really hard in the first place, but I'm no stranger to that sort of thing, so it's easy for me. All you have to do is take everything apart slowly, and you'll see the circuit that is being created. All you have to do is keep the circuit exactly the same way it is, just splice in some extra wire here and there to extend things.

I definitely like having the top back on. I was losing about 6-8 oz of water a day from evaporation! It's nice not watching the water line get lower by the day...

[luckydud13]

Hey what ank is that? And got the url for that light????

[Church]

The tank is just a 5g kit I got from Walmart. It's called the Aqua-Tech 5, but I think it's just a ripoff of the Eclipse 6. It looks basically the same. The light is a desklamp I got from Home Depot. If you do a search, you'll see several threads about it. Hampton Bay makes it.

Thanks for looking!

[demosthenes]

you didnt say how much dwarf sag you got for a foreground, but if you still want some parva, i could send you some. i divided up my mother plant a few weeks ago, and all the new little plants are shooting up new leaves all the time. i think if you added a medium-sized crypt to the back-middle and parva to the front, it could look pretty good. btw, i love the tall crypts on either side. theyre the ciliata, right?

oh, and also good luck with the honey gouramis, im planning on breeding some in my 5g soon, too.

[fishbguy1]

Looks really nice! I really want to set up a small, easy to grow, little to no maitinence tank one day...lol

That book shelf looks like it's sagging from the tank...lol Or is it just the picture?

[EdTheEdge]

Vey interesting progression on a wonderful tank! Thanks for sharing!

[Church]

Hey thanks for bumping this thread, guys!

It's been a while since I've updated this one. A lot has happened since I moved. First of all, yes, the bookshelf this tank was on was sagging. During the move I pitched it. It's now on the kitchen counter, backed up against a corner. The scape was able to be saved when I moved! It still looks basically the same! Everything is still nice and low maintenance. Still do small water change once a month. The only problem is that I recently had nowhere to store some fontanus moss, so I threw it in this tank, and it now wants to be the carpet. So I'm going to yank out the sag and move it to another tank real soon. I will take pics when the lights come on today, to show progress!

On a sad note, during the move the female honey died. The male is doing okay, but I can tell he would like some company. As for right now, he's a bachelor, and this is his bachelor pad.

[Church]

(I never said I was a photographer)

[fishboy87]

The plants are so green they're white!! jk. Sorry about the female honey gourami . . . It'll look great when it fills in!

[Homer_Simpson]

Any updates, Church??

[Church]

Thanks for the bump! Yeah I guess it is time to update this thread... Well, the gourami is doing fine all by his lonesome. But the tank in general is not doing so well, because I've been dedicating my time to my 10g and getting the new 45g up and running. I'm going to be dismantling this tank very soon, maybe even this weekend.

The gourami will temporarily go into the 45g, until I get my whiskey barrel pond going in a few months. And the crypts in this tank will move into the 20 long I'm about to start setting up. This tank is going to be completely redone, and I already have a vision of how I will scape it.

If anyone has Amano's Book 2, check out the tank called In a Corner of the Forest on pages 32-33. That is the inspiration for this tank's next scape. I'll be using the piece of driftwood from my very first planted 10g which I still have, and I'll be creating a "cave" like feature with it, by growing baby tears up and over the back of it.

I just want to say, this 5g tank has been a dream!! I was pretty much able to just set it and forget it, and it pretty much always remained healthy and beautiful, as long as I cleaned out the nano filter once a month or so. This tank opened my eyes to low-tech, for sure. It also helped me to learn about various crypts and how hardy they are!

I will take a picture later today, to show what this tank looks like now, after the neglect. It's really not bad at all! It's just time for a change. I want this tank to have CO2 to match the high light, so that means less crypts and more delicate plants!

Stay tuned...

[Church]

This tank is no longer. See my 45g thread for an update, but basically stuff happened that caused me to stop paying attention to my tanks, and it was time to put this one to rest. I'm giving the actual tank and modified hood/light assembly to a friend of mine who wants to get into the hobby, so it isn't for naught.

Thanks to everyone who checked in here and posted comments. As always, they mean a lot.