2.5g Shrimp Tank

[bevoholic]

The TrueLumen bulb costs the same as the Ray 2, but the power adapter is 40 bucks. I think I'll stick with just the Ray 2 and if that's not good enough, I'll grab another one.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Sounds good.. Let me know when it's all setup.. Love to watch new tank builds... especially with awesome fixtures I'm a bit biased towards

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Coralline, what lights do you have on your 20g? I was looking at the TrueLumen 24" 8000K strips, but I can't justify spending the price they want for the lights plus the power supply and splitter.

I'm looking to grow Dwarf Baby Tears across the bottom so I need high light.

I actually use 6000K 20 and 10 watt LED floodlights and get amazing HC growth. I just wanted to try something different and at 40 bucks for the whole thing I couldn't be happier. If I didn't have a hood I would've gone with either the Ray 2 or the TruLumen Pro fixtures. I tried a 10 watt floodlight on my 5.5 but it was just to strong and burned a bunch of my anubias. The FugeRay is perfect for 5.5.

I have some pictures of them on my profile and build thread. I need to post a few fresh pics to show new growth. My last pic was leas than a month after planting and it's only been up for 6 weeks now. Still, the floodlights are shockingly suited to growing every plant in the tank.

 

[bevoholic]

Sounds good.. Let me know when it's all setup.. Love to watch new tank builds... especially with awesome fixtures I'm a bit biased towards

Will do man. One final question. Any idea for a hood for this? I would like a full hood, but I'm not sure if the Ray 2 will mount in it. If I can find one that it will mount in that would be awesome.

I also don't want to go the way of the glass hood. I just don't like the way they hinge.

Talking about my 20g again. The 2.5g has a solid glass top.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'm pretty sure the Finnex would fit on a standard hood. The fixture is so slim that, depending on the type of hood you have, you can just set it where the old florescent fixture would go or I can imagine using a rotary tool to make it fit inside the housing of an older fixture. I was going to do that to the fixture that came in the kit of my new 26g. That is until i brought the tank home and unboxed it to discover that there's a glass splash shield built in the hood and not to the original fixture. So i basically just placed the fixture on the glass part of the stock hood.. Worked (unexpectedly) like a charm. Not sure what options you have for a 20g. I'm sure it's doable... Here's mine.

 

[bevoholic]

Here is my 2.5g! Just finished getting it set up. Do you guys see anything that looks wrong?

Also, the Chain Sword was a lot taller than the description that I was told it would be. Can I trim it down or should I just put the lid on anyway.

Right now, I have a crappy filter just sitting on it to pull some of the floating debris out. It will eventually come off, and then on Monday, I'll be getting the FugeRay.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah my pygmy chain sword doesn't look like that at all. I wonder if that could be something else? Can i see a close-up shot of that?

 

[bevoholic]

That's the best shot I can do. It is a PCS though. I've seen multiple pics elsewhere and it looks the same.

Does the Anubias and Banana Plant look alright though?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah they all look fine. The PCS you have still looks different than mine... Unless there's multiple sub-species of PCS like there is of DHG?

Here's my PCS right next to the rock. I had a bunch in the back of my 6g but i removed them because they were causing me problems by melting leaves which gave me phosphate issues.. But that's a whole other story... The surviving PCS is pictured here:

 

[bevoholic]

Next to the rock on the left or the rock on the right?

This is what my PCS looks like...here.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

The narrow leaf PCS to the right of the large rock that looks "grassy." I think i solved the reason why both our plants look different but were sold to us under the same name..

Mine is a narrow leaf PCS called scientifically as Echinodorus tenellus.

While yours is a broad leaf version called Echinodorus quadricostatus..

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

This is what my PCS looks like...here.

Yeah since Live Aquaria doesn't provide the scientific name and they include a disclaimer under the picture saying "Due to variations within species, your item may not look identical to the image provided," leads me to the conclusion that we have variations of the species.. LOL

 

[bevoholic]

I'm still trying to decide if mine is big enough to be split into two. It's about 1 inch in diameter at the roots.

As soon as my Eco complete gets here Monday, the sand and soil are coming out and I'm going to plant straight into that. My plants just got here before I was ready, and I didn't want to leave them in the bags.

I actually bought mine off of Aquabid, but I had a picture of what I was bidding on and they both matched.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

You can probably wait till the mother plant starts shooting off runners. When the baby plants get larger you can separate them by snipping the joining runner and replanting.

EC is a great substrate but IMO/IME the plants, especially any heavy root feeders (which I'm guessing would at least be the PCS) would benefit from some strategically placed Flourish tabs.

 

[bevoholic]

Thanks Brian. I'll be sure to keep pics up as it progresses. Hopefully I'll eventually have enough growth that I can plant some in my 20g.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

You're welcome.. Hope i helped some. Keep us posted and Good luck to you

 

[bevoholic]

Do you think my PCS is planted far enough? I read that you were supposed to not plant the roots all the way down.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I'm no expert in planting but i just planted my chain sword all the way in the substrate to the point to base and the roots are buried.

 

[bevoholic]

I'm no expert in planting but i just planted my chain sword all the way in the substrate to the point to base and the roots are buried.

Well, that sand is coming out tomorrow when I get my eco-complete. I'm not even sure if I will leave the PCS in that tank, or put it in my 20g since it's so tall.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Yeah if it's too tall it would be a good idea to place it in your larger tank. I find that using large tweezers great for planting. Are you going to place some flourish tabs in the EC?