College 5g NPT Build

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Galligak

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jun 20, 2011
Messages
20,585
Location
Oxford, OH
So, I'm moving into college in less than a month and am allowed to have a small aquarium, which my dorm mate is thrilled about having one! This is my first attempt with rocks as the aquascape instead of my usual driftwood, we'll see how this goes...

Specs:

Tank: 5g Aquarium

Lighting: TBD--currently using a crappy LED from a Marineland 3g aquarium

Filter: Aqueon 10

Substrate: Mineralized Soil with black sand cap

Aquascape: Red Lava Rocks

Flora:
Dwarf Sag
Rotala rotundifolia
Anubia Nana
Crypt Wendtii "Bronze"

Fauna:
TBD (thinking shrimp or DER/CPDs/Chili Rasboras)--any ideas?

Tank:
ry6y6yhu.jpg

Rocks:
vume6yvu.jpg

Sand:
pybupe2u.jpg

Dirting Tank:
ajuby4er.jpg


More to come!!!
 
Looks awesome! I'm excited to see it when it's finished. Be sure to post some updates. Good luck! :)


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Looks awesome! I'm excited to see it when it's finished. Be sure to post some updates. Good luck! :)


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Thank you! I'm excited to see what it'll look like when it's done because I have absolutely no clue which direction I'm going!

I put the sand in and did a small Aquascape. I've never used rock before so we'll see how it goes. I kinda like the layout of it as it is.
FTS:
zada9uge.jpg

Top view:
ymu9e2ad.jpg


I'm going to try to rearrange the rocks as well to give it some height.
 
Looking good! Can't wait to see it when you get all the plants in. Think of any ideas for stocking? Maybe a Beta? Or some shrimp like you were saying. I wouldn't suggest the danios because they need at least 10 gallons.


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Looks good but I think it needs to be oriented left (my left) a bit more. Try moving the 2nd stone from the right a bit to the left and a bit back. Say 2 inches left 2 inches back. Everything else sounds/looks great! Any ideas on lighting?
 
Looks good but I think it needs to be oriented left (my left) a bit more. Try moving the 2nd stone from the right a bit to the left and a bit back. Say 2 inches left 2 inches back. Everything else sounds/looks great! Any ideas on lighting?

Thanks! I will definitely try that out.

Here's my most recent redo:
veme8asa.jpg


I like this one the most, but I will try moving everything more left.

I have no clue for lighting. I don't want something that'll force me to be dosing EVERY day on routine and needing CO2, but I don't want the lighting that I have... I'll have to look around.
 
It looks a bit better now. Remember with iwagumi scapes an odd number of rocks is usually used so as not to show symmetry. I know yours isn't iwagumi but it's still a good rule. You could take one out and see how it looks or just angle it differently. The important thing is to make it look natural, and to have one side relatively empty of rocks and the other one with lots. Like this scape:

ImageUploadedByAquarium Advice1406667568.785732.jpg
 
I like that. Yeah, I'll try to move things that way and build up a "hill" on that side. I thought about doing an iwagumi but I'd rather not deal with CO2, but someday:angel:
 
I like that. Yeah, I'll try to move things that way and build up a "hill" on that side. I thought about doing an iwagumi but I'd rather not deal with CO2, but someday:angel:


Maybe you could get a few more rocks and stack them. I don't know for sure, but I think that would also look nice.


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I like that. Yeah, I'll try to move things that way and build up a "hill" on that side. I thought about doing an iwagumi but I'd rather not deal with CO2, but someday:angel:

Yeah that would be a good idea. Try to picture it once the plants have all grown in. It looks great if you put plants between the rocks, so make sure that you leave space in between to put whichever plants you decide on.

Do you know what the dimensions of the tank are? That would be helpful in determining what light you should use.
 
It's 16" long, 8" wide and 10" deep but I have about 1.5-2" of substrate.

Here's what I've done to kind of create the iwagumi look:



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It's 16" long, 8" wide and 10" deep but I have about 1.5-2" of substrate.

Here's what I've done to kind of create the iwagumi look:



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Me gusta mucho! :D

I like it. The only thing you might want to try is pushing the leftmost rock down under the substrate more, it seems a bit too prominent. Other than that it looks great.
 
Me gusta mucho! :D

I like it. The only thing you might want to try is pushing the leftmost rock down under the substrate more, it seems a bit too prominent. Other than that it looks great.

I might try to find more black sand to put in to dig it down, and it's my favorite setup thus far. I might try to dry start this thing with the remnants of my 1g shrimp bowl.

Have any ideas for lighting? I've always kind of wanted to try the Finnex Fugeray, but I think that might be overkill.
 
I might try to find more black sand to put in to dig it down, and it's my favorite setup thus far. I might try to dry start this thing with the remnants of my 1g shrimp bowl.

Have any ideas for lighting? I've always kind of wanted to try the Finnex Fugeray, but I think that might be overkill.

DSM could be cool but I think its only/mostly for carpeting plants like HC and UG.

A 16" Fugeray would NOT be overkill. At 10" it would give you medium light, around 35-40 PAR based on this.
 
DSM could be cool but I think its only/mostly for carpeting plants like HC and UG.

A 16" Fugeray would NOT be overkill. At 10" it would give you medium light, around 35-40 PAR based on this.

Just an idea... I will for sure look into the Fugeray.

Here's what I've got for layout:


The green around the rocks on the left is the dwarf sag, the dark green spots are the anubias nana, and the yellow-green is the rotala. I'm still deciding on the front what to do...

Thank you so much for your input!

Also, I'm thinking about a nice fancy betta for the tank. It won't be for a while but I'm starting to look:D
 
One more littler rock in the center if you can find one ... Odd numbers are good!

I have plants doing well under that same crappy led...


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Looks good. I'm thinking some staurogyne repens for the front/middle area. It would look great with some AR mini in a ring from the left most rock to the one second from the right, but I don't know if you can grow AR mini well with a fugeray. You'll have to get someone else's input on that. If you do do that, and put star repens in front of it it would look great.
 
This is awesome!


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Thank you!

One more littler rock in the center if you can find one ... Odd numbers are good!

I have plants doing well under that same crappy led...


Sent from my iPhone with three hands tied behind my back.
I was thinking about getting another one when I go to the store again. What kind of plants are you growing? I like the look of it, but I'm not sure how it's going to hold up for growing plants.

Looks good. I'm thinking some staurogyne repens for the front/middle area. It would look great with some AR mini in a ring from the left most rock to the one second from the right, but I don't know if you can grow AR mini well with a fugeray. You'll have to get someone else's input on that. If you do do that, and put star repens in front of it it would look great.

I was looking into staurogyne repens for the front, I really like the look of it and I could try to get a carpet out of it with some attention and dosing. I could try to grow the AR mini, and if it dies well, it's not like it would be the end of the world. I'll look at some other plants as well because I could trim them to be short like the mini. I definitely want to look at a different color or texture to break up everything and give it some more depth.

I'm pretty much settled on getting a beautiful betta. Honestly I'm between a HM and HMPK. I like the HMPK a bit more, but if I found the right HM...
 
I just picked up some staurogyne repents from PetSmart since I'm up here (half price cheesecake!!!). I also found some beautiful bettas to get some ideas flowing!
 
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