Happy Fish, Happy Life! 5 Gal Planted with Scarlet Badis & Galaxy Rasbora

Looks nice. I'm starting a tank right now and am planning pretty much the same livestock as you, although a different planting. What are you running in terms of lighting? Any CO2?

Thanks, redchaser. I am using a Finnex Ray Planted+ 12" lamp. As for CO2, I don't use any but use Flourish Excel once a week. Hope that helps.

Moygoodness said:

Thanks, redchaser. I am using a Finnex Ray Planted+ 12" lamp. As for CO2, I don't use any but use Flourish Excel once a week. Hope that helps.

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Those black crystal shrimp look amazing, as do your CPD's. I hope to fill my tank tomorrow to start is cycling, then maybe get some plants in it within a week or two.

Fun video with some great looking fish.

Don't you Scarlet's hunt baby shrimpies, though?

Thanks redchaser and Kindafishy!

Kindafishy, yes they do hunt the shrimp fry but they constantly breed so I don't mind them snacking. Lol. Also, I have a separate shrimp only tank. Check out the videos at my YouTube channel when you get the chance!

redchaser said:

Those black crystal shrimp look amazing, as do your CPD's. I hope to fill my tank tomorrow to start is cycling, then maybe get some plants in it within a week or two.

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Can't wait to see the setup of your tank. Best of luck!

cool video, the scarlet badis are really cool

Thanks, andrewss! They are very interesting but super picky eaters.

Moygoodness said:

Thanks, redchaser. I am using a Finnex Ray Planted+ 12" lamp. As for CO2, I don't use any but use Flourish Excel once a week. Hope that helps.

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Do you dose any ferts? I have a 12" Planted+ over a 7.5g 12" cube, and I dose excel daily and flourish weekly, plus have a layer of salvinia floaters to diffuse the light. Otherwise I feel like I would have all sorts of algae.

Falcoooo, I only use Flourish Excel once a week right after I do a 20% water change. I only dose when the new water is in and the filter is still off. I've been dealing with a crazy algae break, as you can see in my video its all over the rocks. Since that video I only leave the light on for maybe 5 hours a day, 1 hour in the morning before work and 3-4 hours after work. I've been doing this for a week and the algae is going away. The plants are actually growing better so I will probably stick to this plan.

How long do you leave on the light for yours? I had floaters to break up the light but the floater growth was just too much to manage after. Plus it defeats the purpose of having a planted lamp.

8 hours each day. Two 4 hour sessions with a 2 hour siesta. When my floaters are thinned out, I use a piece of window screen to diffuse the light, and remove it when my floaters cover the whole tank.

I have not yet had any algae issues and tanks been setup for about 6 months. I also have very minimal bioload.

Falcooo, you have a great looking tank!

My Rotala macrandra? (well, some sort of Rotala) and the mini reineckii require a bit of light so I used to have it on as long as 8 hours which might have led to the algae breakout. I never thought of using a piece of a window screen so I will borrow your idea. Thanks.

Thank! And yea the window screen works great. Just cut a little piece and put it on top of your glass below the fixture.

If you want salvinia floaters, let me know. I usually offer a RAOK once a month or so with enough to cover a 8x8 area.

Pretty tank with 2 of my favorite fish. Are they breeding for you? My badis will only eat live foods. What are you feeding yours? Do you know the tds or conductivity of the water you are keeping them in?

Thanks Jaxfisher!

The Galaxys breed quite often, but I was given 3 males badis when I was told they were 2 female and 1 male, lol. Working on getting a few females when available.

My badis eats flake and frozen brine shrimp. I didn't want to take any chances of them being super picky so I starved them the first 3 days of being in the tank. Sounds cruel but they eventually gave into flake foods and then I slowly introduced frozen brine shrimp.

As for the water, I have no clue. I live in NYC and the tap water is pretty good. I fill up a 10 gallon bucket and let it sit out for two weeks and just take from there for upcoming water changes.

My shrimp colony got out of control with over 300-500+ new fry the past few weeks. I had to transfer my scarlet badis into the shrimp tank for population control. Lol! They went crazy like it was a steak dinner everyday

Nice tank and thanks for posting that video of your fish! I also have similar fish species as you in my Fluval 5 gallon tanks. However, I realized that my 'scarlet badis' is actually a Myanmar Black Tiger Dario.

My current Fluval 5 gallon tanks and fish pics
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=880713

Great looking tank! Simple and beautiful just the way I like them. Honestly, if the algae upsets you that much, an otto would clean that up in no time. I also loved the happy-go-lucky music you used. It fit mood of the tank perfectly.

Thanks geealexg and loachguy, glad you guys enjoyed it!!!

I solved the algae issue by reducing the light time to 2 hours each day and just let the algae crew do their work.