newbie 5 gallon tank journal

[saiofsais]

hey guys, i have just started my first real planted tank 2 weeks ago!

before this i started with normal gravel and only liquid fertiliser for close to 2 years. Plants just keep dying except for anubias nana and other hardy leavy plants. fishes also suffered and only the ever hardy white cloud minnows and cardinal tetras survived. after chancing upon Amano's tanks, i just got to have my own planted tank to give my fishes and plants the best environment to live in and of cos, for the pure enjoyment of such intricate balance of nature in a small glass tank right in my living room.

My Tank specs:

Tank Size: 35cm x 23cm x 25cm
Substrate: GeX soil
Lights: 9W PL
Filtration: Ocean Free hang by side
CO2: 1 Tablet every other day

here are the pics:

30aug


at first this tank was to be viewed by 2 sides and would act as a partition between my front door and my living room, hopefully to distract neighbours who pass by my door and preventing them from seeing straight into my living room.

I started with only the driftwood by the left side and i love the gnarled lines and curvature of the wood, looking like a mountain range. However I had difficulty visualizing how to balance the composition with plants at the right. luckily i have another 2 pieces of driftwood and i placed them such that they slightly overlap from front to back, giving a bit more depth. the curvature of the driftwoods just right creates a concave shape which is quite pleasing for me. ;p

i wanted a low lying foreground but could not find HC at my LFS, so i bought a taiwan moss tied to a stainless steel netting.

i also bought some blyxa japonica to plant around the driftwood to try to make it look more natural.

then i also got riccia and tied them to the driftwood in front, love the way they would bubble!

i also had some java moss and tied those to the driftwood at the back too. some moss from a mossball was also tied to the same driftwood. dunno if this is goin to work aesthetically, so please give me some pointers!!

i wanted some tall stem plants at the back but could not find any nice ones, so i just bought some unidentified ones and planted them at the back. i read that stem plants can help cycle the tank faster too.. dunno y that is so, can anyone enlighten me?

oh and the last would be the lotus in the middle.. it came from my old tank and looks very weak and i hope it would grow stronger but alas it is not goin to be so as i found out later..

lastly after everythin is up, i realised there was focus missing and decided to add a path from the gravel i had last time.. the effect turned out great! what do u guys think??

[saiofsais]

04Sep



sorry guys i found out AQ only recently, so i will continue updating my journal here eh! please still give me the critiques for the above entry eh?

i was looking at my LFS for some nice bushy stem plants and wow, i saw these 2 bunches of great looking plants that look rustic and bronze.. just the type i was looking for as i felt my overall feel was too green last time.

only after i planted them nicely b4 i went online and found out that they are the cabomba furcata and watermilfoil, both which requires high light.

now i am concerned about the wattage i need and the poor coverage i have from my old 9 watt light, which left a huge chunk of the tank on the left side not illuminated.

and being impatient, i started adding 2 otos only 2 days after setup and then 5 white clouds a day later and subsequently 5 cardinal tetras a further additional day later. luckily they all survived..

as u can see, my lotus rotted away, leaving only small shoots. i wonder wat happened to it.. ;(

more in the next post!

[saiofsais]

08Sep


i went to my LFS and decided to buy a 11watt PL light that seems to light up my tank much much better, pushing my light to 2.2watt/gallon. i thought that would be enough but little did i know wat i was to find out later on.

at the same time, i went to this LFS at Thomson and fell in love with the HC, which he was selling at 3 bucks. I decided to splurge and bought it together with the tiger lotus which i wanted to place it at the end of the white gravel path to provide a focal point.

the HC was indeed hard to plant and i planted them in bunches but they are not very carpeting like wat i envisioned eh, so i did some changes which i will update in the next entry.

the blyxa japonica was also too bushy for my liking and i decided to trim it down to get this, however i think i was too heavy with my trimming so early on and they looks like they are struggling to settle down. considering changing to dwarf hairgrass to better give the illusion of a bigger tank due to its smaller leave size, do u guys think it will work?

meanwhile my fishes are adapting quite well.

and then disaster struck.

on seeing my fishes doing well, i thought it would be alright to go ahead with adding cherry shrimps as they would help clean up some algae on the java moss which my otos are not really taking care off. and right after i added them in, all of them died within 3 min. a sad sad day for me. they were struggling and twitched like crazy. i knew something was wrong with my water and rushed down to my LFS to get testing kits. And it was true, my nitrite was at 3mg/l!!

i did not read up the cycling process enough and did not know that shrimps cannot tolerate any ammonia and nitrite. alas, due to my lack of knowledge and my impulse to populate my tank, i sacrificed the life of 11 cherry shrimps. its indeed a steep learning curve and i made a promise to make sure my tank has the best environment for my flora and fauna so they do not suffer any more than they should.

so with that i got myself a thermometer and fan to cool my tank to average 26C, the sweet spot for my white clouds, cardinal, mosses and of cos shrimps.. quite broke now.. ;p and with renewed efforts, i changed water daily to make sure i keep the nitrite below 2mg/l to alleviate the silent suffering of my fishes before my bacteria colonies can start to multiply..

sorry for the long post guys!!

a shot of my tank with fan!

[saiofsais]

13Sep


hey the last update for today, i decided to retie my taiwan moss onto rocks to promote them to the midground and to allow more HC to cover the foreground.. the HC was looking very untidy in clumps so i decided to plant them singly, after a few days some new leaves are appearing but they are not spreading yet and quite a few leaves are starting to melt..

which is when i found out that the watt per gallon works only for larger tanks and for my size, watt per area is more apt. i analysed several of ur tanks and found that the sweet spot is mostly around o.o4watt/cm2. which means i would need to get a 30watt light, equal to 6watt/gallon!

do u guys think i should upgrade to that lighting? advice needed!! i wouldn't want my HC to all die off or grow desperately upward, spoiling the carpeting effect i had in mind.

[Quixotic]

which is when i found out that the watt per gallon works only for larger tanks and for my size, watt per area is more apt. i analysed several of ur tanks and found that the sweet spot is mostly around o.o4watt/cm2. which means i would need to get a 30watt light, equal to 6watt/gallon!

If you want to go for higher lighting, I think it would be better to invest in a CO2 tank. Using CO2 tablets are difficult to ensure good constant CO2 throughout and you will end up with algae issues instead.

[saiofsais]

thanks Quixotic! hm, ya i was thinking of starting with diy co2 supply but sometimes when i calculated my co2 amt, it went to above 40ppm eh, dunno if it is becos my dipstick test kit for the KH and pH was off..

k think i will go ahead with the diy co2!

any comments on my scaping ah? how can i improve on it! ;p

i was thinking the dark spot under the driftwood to the left is quite distracting, what do u guys think i shd do abt it?

[brianclaw]

You might want to do swap out your moss for Fissidens instead. In a tank that small, you'll find mosses will quickly grow into a mess. As for the dark spot under the wood, I'd suggest to make another moss/fissidens pebble and place it there. You could also place some Nana Petite in there.

30W might be a little too high if you want to keep it simple and not use CO2. You want to try an 18W light out instead? I've got an Ocean Free set for sale. PM for details.

[saiofsais]

hm, fissiden really a much better choice hor? i only discovered it after i have tied my christmas and java moss so now i am a bit reluctant to take them out and retie.. think i will let them grow first and maybe next time when they grow out of hand then i will change to fissidens..

ha, i am thinking of injecting co2 ah, so maybe i will still wanna go for the 30watt.. anyways can i take a look at ur light too? will pm ya.. ;p

[zenscape]

I like 8 Sept picture. Very neat and well composed.

I wonder why your tank still has nitrite spike. The background plants are fast grower and they clear ammonia fast. Shrimps are sensitive to water parameters. Be patient and wait for a while before you add them in.

[saiofsais]

hey thanks a lot for ur comment, its very encouraging!

yah i am closely monitoring my water parameters now, the nitrite level is still hovering at about 0.5-0.8mg/l.. dunno if it is because i drop my co2 tablet into my hang-on filter and thus causing a build up of carbonic acid and killing the bacteria colonies in my filter media.. do u guys think that's the reason?

oh zenscape, congrats on ur excellent performance for the ADA Seventh International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest!