2.5 Gallon, take 2
Well I became a little lazy with the trimming in my 2.5 gallon and the HC got out of control. The whole carpet started lifting up in the corners of the tank. Coincidentally, I found a nice little light at Home Depot last week and I wound up thinking to myself, "why not just start all over again?"
Yesterday I ripped everything out, fixed up the horrible paint job I did with the black background, picked up some rocks and needle rotala at my LFS and now we have this:
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Here's the 27w light I bought for $20:
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Shrimpy:
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And Puffer, who was a little camera shy at the time:
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Things that stayed same are the Eco-complete substrate, Red Sea nano filter, HC and my DIY CO2. The only inhabitants are still the one DP and two cherry shrimp which have gotten HUGE, they're actually bigger than the puffer now. The Marineland heater was reduced in price from my last LFS visit so I decided to pick it up along with the rocks and rotala.
I'll post some more pics once everything starts growing in. Also, if anyone knows what the plant in the back right corner is, I would like to know. It came out of my other tank and I have no idea what the name is, but it grows like mad. The needle rotala is the plant in the middle and on the left.
Yesterday I ripped everything out, fixed up the horrible paint job I did with the black background, picked up some rocks and needle rotala at my LFS and now we have this:
Here's the 27w light I bought for $20:
Shrimpy:
And Puffer, who was a little camera shy at the time:
Things that stayed same are the Eco-complete substrate, Red Sea nano filter, HC and my DIY CO2. The only inhabitants are still the one DP and two cherry shrimp which have gotten HUGE, they're actually bigger than the puffer now. The Marineland heater was reduced in price from my last LFS visit so I decided to pick it up along with the rocks and rotala.
I'll post some more pics once everything starts growing in. Also, if anyone knows what the plant in the back right corner is, I would like to know. It came out of my other tank and I have no idea what the name is, but it grows like mad. The needle rotala is the plant in the middle and on the left.
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Nice lay out! How long has puffer being living with shrimp? I hear they like to eat little shirmps! Of course with the shrimp being bigger than puffer maybe he's safe. 
They've been living together happily for at least 6 months now...he never bothered them aside from the first few days, after which he decided they were too fast to be food. I think it helps that they were in there first and then I introduced the puffer.Nice lay out! How long has puffer being living with shrimp? I hear they like to eat little shirmps! Of course with the shrimp being bigger than puffer maybe he's safe.
On a side note, that Marineland heater really isn't doing the job, and I'm thinking it was a waste of 20 bucks. It said 2-5 gallons on the label but it's barely keeping the temp at 75 and it's factory set at 79. I might have to go back to my old reliable HOB cheapo heater which has done the job the best out of the three heaters I've used in this tank so far.
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nice tank. thats a really red shrimp.
and by old reliable hob cheapo heater, you mean that small flat heater they sell at drsfostersmith for like 7 dollars?
marineland heater as in the one thats supposed to be shatter proof?
and by old reliable hob cheapo heater, you mean that small flat heater they sell at drsfostersmith for like 7 dollars?
Yes, the shatterproof Marineland one. The cheap one was a Hagen "Elite" 25 watt heater. The out-of-water part was made of the junkiest looking plastic you can imagine, but it did a great job of keeping the temperature where I wanted it. It too was about 7 dollars when I bought it, the price may have gone up.
I have some bad news though; I woke up this morning to a dead shrimp, and my puffer seems to be sick (again). He was sick before with similar symptoms, he isn't responding to me waving my hand in front of the glass, spends most of his time floating listlessly near the surface, and has no interest in food. I don't think there are contaminants in the water as I used water from the same bucket in my 5.5 gallon and everybody in there is fine. I rinsed out the gravel when I changed the tank to get rid of all the poo but my ammonia is reading 0 ppm at the moment. I'm just really confused.
Hopefully I won't wake up to a ghost tank tomorrow.
I've only had it a week and I love it already. It's growing like crazy, some stems are already twice as big as in the first pics. I'll post some new pics some time next week, although there isn't really much growth yet besides that.
My puffer bought the farm a couple days ago :'( I don't think I'll be getting any fish for this tank for at least a month or two until the HC grows out and things stabilize. My LFS has these neat little tiny rasboras every once in a while, Boraras maculatus I believe, maybe they'll be in stock when I finally decide to get fish again.
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Rotala green 'needle leaf' maybe?....
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Looks like Mayaca fluviatilis to me.
Your tank looks nice. I hope you'll post updates as it fills in.
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