Planted 5 Gallon Video/Picture Diary.

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January 1st, 2009.

Well for starters, if you have noticed in the older post of the thread, it might say I have removed the photo or video. On my photobucket account I just wanted to organize it so can thing I moved to a new album was disconnected from where it was being used. If you want to see the photos still, you can go to my 5 Gallon planted aquarium Log album.


Now to get on to the real stuff, today I woke up at around like 11:30 and there was a package on my bed. My mom must have brought it in and I opened it and it was all my new plants from a friend on the forum sent me. I was excited ha-ha.

I got the plants all washed up and planted so I’ll get some pictures up looking at that stuff. The plan for the plant placement had to be rearranged because my cichlids in the tank current wrecked the white sand river. The cichlids did get moved into the 60G across the room with a bunch of other cichlids, that seem pretty happy. Now I have a trio of Harlequin Rasboras in the tank, they seem very playful and happy. Right before I shot the video, one of them went and hid and then came out right after I stop filming, so I guess he is camera shy. I did also take out one of the front rocks with java moss on it to have the moss retied again, will be put back in after a week.

Inhabits:
Trio of Harlequin Rasboras.
Some small snails.
And Algae :D Ha-ha.

Plants:
Dwarf Hairgrass
Corkscrew Val
Dwarf Chainsword
Lubelia
Ludwigia “Narrow-leaf”
Litte Javamoss

Plants that might, or will, be coming to the tank:
Hornwort - Might
Christmas Moss - Will





Here is the Video, Tell me what you think.
<<<<Click to Watch Video.




Quick Questions:

1.) I am wanting to remove the filter on the back, when can I do so?
2.) I am wanting to get some sort of floating plant for the top of the tank, what do you sugget besides hornwort?

If you have any other suggestions on anything, don't hesitate to speak up.
 
Nice job! Now it only needs to grow out and fill in.


1.) I am wanting to remove the filter on the back, when can I do so?

Since the filter plays a major role in housing the denitrification bacteria, you can't remove the filter in an aquarium that has fish unless you have exceptionally heavy plant growth. Anyway, as your background plants fill in, they will hide the single tube of an HOB filter. - Besides, it's your heater that stands out... not the filter so much. You might consider getting a "stealth" heaters - one that is all black. Stealth heater are much less of an eye sore.

2.) I am wanting to get some sort of floating plant for the top of the tank, what do you sugget besides hornwort?

Do you want a plant that truly floats without being rooted in the substrate, or do you want a plant that grows tall and droops over at the top of the tank? In either case, where do you want to place it? You need to plan on the light blocking effect of such plants and how that will effect the plants whose light is impeded by the tall and/or floating plants.
 
Thanks.

I have a solid black and very small heater, the only prob. I have with it is that I cannot control the temp. It just stays at like 70 something degrees. I could always use it again though.

I just want some type of floating them to kind of frame the front of the aquarium. Some kind of small or something.
 
looking good crazyben... nice rock work on the 60 too.

Thanks, yeah i'm actually happy about that tank now, like before it looked alright, but now it looks good. Which I could have done the whole rock work with the rocks on the far right side, but those 4 huge rocks cost me almost 10 bucks lol.

Yeah but i'm getting this 5 gallon to look good, now I got to wait till stuff grows out and such, get a few more plants here and there then i'm set.
 
Updates - January 25th, 2009.

Well, recently i've had some troubles with blue/green smear algae. Yesterday, I removed the tree decro, removed the fish into a bigger tank. I removed some of the plants and washed them under water to get rid of the algae, it was just getting way to bad.

I'm now going to go a different way with my aquascaping.

I'm going to try to make a dwarf hairgrass river, 1in wide, maybe bigger, and let it flow to the front, then frame off the bottum front of the tank. I'll then let the rest of the plants do whatever until I have an idea for them.

Hopefully I will be able to get that x-mas wall going once it starts growing normally.

I'm also planning on replacing the filter I have with a smaller nano filter.


Once I get my dwarf hairgrass all setup for the river, i'll get a video up.
 
Ben,

I have an AZOO Mignon 60 on my 5 gal tank and it works great. It is very small and inconspicuous, but definitely moves water. Price is good on it too. $4 from fish.com
 
February 05, 2009. - UpdateZors :D

Well here is what has happened basically since i've last updated:
-Moved plants around, did some rescaping.
-Moved filter over to the side of the tank.
-New plants added.
-All fish removed.
-Bigger heater removed, smaller heater added into my filter.
-Corkscrew Vals have been growing like crazy, can't send out to anyone though do to the fact I have no heat packs yet.

In progress:
-Upgrading a fixture with 2 ballast to have 2x 15W CFL 6500K bulbs in it, for more lighting. It'll be rated most likely medium, maybe a wee bit higher.
-I have to add a black background to the tank.


Inhabitants:
Small Gilled Snails
Small Ramshorn Snails

Plants:
Dwarf Hairgrass
Dwarf Chainswords
Javamoss
Christmas Moss
Lubelia
Ludwigia
Rotala Rotundifolia
Corkscrew Val
2x Unidentified Stem Plants
1x Unidentified Very small plant
1x Unidentified Floating Plant (Think it was eaten by the fish that were in there)

In Need Of:
-Some kind of floating plant.




Help from you that I need:
-Suggestion On Plant Placement.
-Suggestion On Any Fish I Should Get. (No Schooling Fish Please. For example: Tetras, hasboras, ect.)



Will upload a video as soon as I can, finally got batteries for the camera.


Thanks for taking your time to keep intouch with this log, hope you all enjoyed it so far, a lot more to come.
 
Feb. 9th, 2009. - Finally, some visual.

Well, I finally got some pictures, and a video, so those will be posted at the bottom of the post. Happy Fort? Haha.

Updates Since Last post:
-Got a fish for the aquarium, a gudgeon. Don't know the exact sp. yet though. Can't find it.
-My new plants I got from Fort are already growing great, atleast an inch or two already.
-Corkscrew Val is still growing very fast.
-Got my fixture on their. It is a custom light fixture, a Ben original (I think.) I took apart an old clamp on lamp and took it apart, took the ballast and wiring out of it. I have an old fixture with a ballast on one side already, so I just drilled a hole and put my other ballast on the other side. I was going to split the wires so I would only need one plug-in and one turn on switch, but my parents suggested not to do that. It's not to big of deal having two plug-ins and two turn on switches. I'll have pictures of that aswell. I only came out with on injury during this process aswell. Haha.

I think that is it for the updates, now for your favorite part. PICTURES!

Here is my custom light fixture, fun making it haha.
img_952526_0_1b8e8302e5c21147d0647c7f9a507881.jpg


Here are a couple close-ups of my new gudgeon.

Can somone help me get an exact sp. of this gudgeon?
img_952526_1_f2408a5bf0e93e03c416393838acbc1d.jpg

img_952526_2_2fbf3f77272ac130fed190f2d2e72862.jpg


Full Tank Shot
img_952526_3_838f694d2a97e105843ee59aa31ed613.jpg



VIDEO!!! :D (Sorry it is a direct link, can't figure out how I use to put vids on here)
5 Gallon Planted Aquarium Picture Log :: 5GPlantedAquariumFeb92009.flv video by FishCrazyBenBOMB - Photobucket


Over All Questions:
-Can you help me get an exact sp. of my gudgeon fish?
-Do you have any suggestions on plant placement? If so please speak up, don't be scared.
-Have any other comments you would like to say? Post away. :)


Thanks for taking your time to view my logs, and thanks ahead for answering these questions I have.
 
looking good ben! I like those compact red crypts you have on the bottom... what are those called?
 
Cool... mine doesn't grow that compact... grows more up than out. I thought that's what it looked like.
 
HOLY MACKEREL... Ben, that tank looks 150,000 times nicer than it did when you started it. You're really smokin' man. It's a real beauty now. All you need do is to let it grow out a little. You've gotta be proud of that one.

:BIG:
 
Cool... mine doesn't grow that compact... grows more up than out. I thought that's what it looked like.

Crypt appearance is extremely variable based on growing conditions. This is why it can be extremely difficult to ID crypts without a flower.
 
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