Another planted 5 gallon hex! (4 pics, 404KB)

[CaysE]

OK... well you don't see many of them, but here it is! It's an Eclipse Hex5 which comes with a built-in bio-wheel filter and a 10W compact flourescent. I added a pre-filter to the intake tube, a 25W heater, some Eco-Complete, and then went to town.

Plants are 3 small java ferns, anubias nana petite on the driftwood, and java moss on the other end of the driftwood. Initially, I placed some ludwigia repens as a background plant, but wasn't comfortable with the lighting for them and they didn't fill out the tank very well. These are in the first two pictures.

In the last picture, I replaced the l.repens with elodea, which I liked for a short while until they refused to root. The elodea grows like crazy, it just won't stay put in the substrate. I may replace them with wisteria or a similar bushy-leafed plant.

I also added 3 neon blue Endler's livebearers in the last pic, and there are a few ramshorns.

 

[newfound77951]

Very nice! I have the same tank on my desk at work and I love it....I was actually thinking of getting another one to upgrade my betta from a 2 gallon. Nice piece of driftwood, too!

 

[rich311k]

Very pretty. Nice and serene.

 

[CaysE]

Thanks! ^_^ The driftwood was an awesome find at my local LFS; it just barely fits in there.

I replaced the elodea with wisteria today. I'll have pics tomorrow after I tie down the anubias; it keeps floating off of the wood.

 

[CaysE]

I'll have new pics soon, but do have a question... what would be a good red plant to go in here? The wisteria, anubias, and java plants are plenty of green, and the fish give a great blue color, but it definitely needs a little bit of red in there.

 

[CaysE]

The latest pic... now with wisteria and a lot of snails.

 

[drobertson]

Filling in nicely, going to be a great looking tank. Nice Job