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No, my grandmother is not THAT cool. I built her a tank and I also maintain it for her, gives her something to look at living alone. I bet you thought my grandmother planted a tank right? haha anyway...I will continue to update this thread as we progress.
I had a spare 5 gallon tank I was able to give her, but I had stripped the LED lights from the hood for another project. I am in the process of building a custom lighting hood but for the time being I have this fluorescent gooseneck reading lamp over it. The HOB filter that this 5 gallon came with was quite weak so I had replaced it a while back with a Marineland Penguin 75 (bio-wheel) so the tank is being over filtered. I added a Purigen packet to the HOB rated for 100 gallons so the water will remain nice and clear! I also keep the thermometer in the HOB just under the lid for a cleaner appearance.
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The rock cave was pulled from another established tank with plants already attached to it, the cave hides the intake tube and heater. The driftwood was also pulled from an established tank, it was made from a blueberry bush branch. My air stone is a glass diffuser with a glass U tube for the top lip..but I need to extend the hose between the U tube and diffuser. Most the plants also came from a friend for free with the substrate, along the back left I have some sort of a sword in the left corner with an unidentified thick stem plant that grow tea shape leaves to its right. Moving forward is a large patch of I think Bacopa/Moneywort, and I had a bunch of spare dwarf hairgrass I put in front of that. On the right side is some sort of an Elodea-like plant that I am not sure is going to make it since it is so fragile, I have two types of Java Fern I need to find a way to plant in the back right corner however I need something to tie them to since they can not be planted in the substrate? I do not want to find a rock because it will not match the fake rock cave so I am currently looking for another piece of driftwood. I also tossed in a few floaters from my tank, Amazon Frogbit and some sort of non-rooting Parrots Feather.
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As for stocking this tank I have drilled the no-fish factor into her head but she still thinks I am crazy for it. I will use a pair or possibly 3 Amano shrimp since they are social, then a bunch of red cherry shrimp which will eat algae but not as well s the Amanos. I will also add 3-4 Nerite snails, keeping them well fed with homemade snail jello. Would be nice if I could find the red and white bee shrimp or red painted shrimp.
I had a spare 5 gallon tank I was able to give her, but I had stripped the LED lights from the hood for another project. I am in the process of building a custom lighting hood but for the time being I have this fluorescent gooseneck reading lamp over it. The HOB filter that this 5 gallon came with was quite weak so I had replaced it a while back with a Marineland Penguin 75 (bio-wheel) so the tank is being over filtered. I added a Purigen packet to the HOB rated for 100 gallons so the water will remain nice and clear! I also keep the thermometer in the HOB just under the lid for a cleaner appearance.
The rock cave was pulled from another established tank with plants already attached to it, the cave hides the intake tube and heater. The driftwood was also pulled from an established tank, it was made from a blueberry bush branch. My air stone is a glass diffuser with a glass U tube for the top lip..but I need to extend the hose between the U tube and diffuser. Most the plants also came from a friend for free with the substrate, along the back left I have some sort of a sword in the left corner with an unidentified thick stem plant that grow tea shape leaves to its right. Moving forward is a large patch of I think Bacopa/Moneywort, and I had a bunch of spare dwarf hairgrass I put in front of that. On the right side is some sort of an Elodea-like plant that I am not sure is going to make it since it is so fragile, I have two types of Java Fern I need to find a way to plant in the back right corner however I need something to tie them to since they can not be planted in the substrate? I do not want to find a rock because it will not match the fake rock cave so I am currently looking for another piece of driftwood. I also tossed in a few floaters from my tank, Amazon Frogbit and some sort of non-rooting Parrots Feather.
As for stocking this tank I have drilled the no-fish factor into her head but she still thinks I am crazy for it. I will use a pair or possibly 3 Amano shrimp since they are social, then a bunch of red cherry shrimp which will eat algae but not as well s the Amanos. I will also add 3-4 Nerite snails, keeping them well fed with homemade snail jello. Would be nice if I could find the red and white bee shrimp or red painted shrimp.
