# 5g bowfront: Finding a way to avoid melting HC



## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

This is my first try on a planted tank.
Any suggestions/comments are very welcome and appreciated.

Tank size: 5 gallons
Substrate: 2kg of GEX shrimp and plants
Filter: Started with a 3w HOB filter, but replaced it with a Resun Cyclone 20 canister filter. It is rated at 200l/hour
CO2: DIY with diffuser
Fertilizer: Mr. Aqua LiquidFertilizer+ Mineral Substances
Light: 3pcs 14w T5 bulbs 


June 27

Put substrate and water in the tank. HOB filter.








Here is the substrate I use. People tell me this is great stuff. 








This is what my lighting system looks like. It used to be from the 20 gallon tank I had, and it's a little too big for my tank.








Here is where it is placed, beside my PC. As you can see, the lights look terrible. I'm still waiting for my Mr. Aqua clip-on light to arrive (27 watts only, but will look better aesthetically).










June 29

I added Anubias Golden, some moss, 2 unknown floating plants which my LFS gave for free, and a few lava rocks.








There are no inhabitants in the tank. The little danio was from the bigger tank. Just placed him there for a photo op.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

July 1

Lots of changes and additions.
Replaced the HOB filter with Resun Cyclone 20 canister filter. It is rated at 200 liters / hour, do you guys think this is overboard?
Added DIY CO2 and diffuser.
Added Myriophyllum, Bacopa, HC, HM, Alternanthera
Added 5 cherry shrimps

This is the diffuser and the unknown floating plant








Overhead picture of the tank








Front view








Anubias pearling








The shrimp










July 4
Sold the Anubias to a friend since it is too big for my nano tank.
Removed the huge lava rock, added Didiplis, Wendelov, Christmas moss, and Limnophila Aromatica (i love how they look like cornstalks)

The new plants haven't straightened up yet in these pictures. Now the only ones left crooked are the Didiplis, but they are starting to expand their leaves.










I planned my tank to be very spacious and just have a few plants. Guess that won;t happen now. The floating plant I got for free grows at a ridiculous rate. I started with 2 small ones. Now there are 3 huge ones and 2 small ones. The roots have grown long, so I had to cut a bit.

I lost a shrimp, now there are only 4 shrimps. no other inhabitants except for hitch hiker snails.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

The "Shrimp Number 1 Sand" substrate looks like good stuff. Let us know how it works out for you.
You're off to a great start in that you seem to have a lot of light but no visible algae. Tank's still new so keep an eye out and cut down the lighting to two of those bulbs if it starts to be a problem.
Anyway, good start.
The hedgehog's cool, too.


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## deondrec (Sep 30, 2008)

I saw that substrate on a website called aqua-charming.com. I emailed them to see if they would ship me some and a tank but never got a return. Do you happen to know of any places over there with websites that might ship to the U.S.? and nice tank.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Thanks, ugly genius.
I actually am starting to have some brown stuff grow on the leaves of the Bacopa and some HC. I tried using 1 bulb only and it looks bright still.

There are some gunk growing on the glass too.

The reason why I have so much light is because the LFS lady told me the HC needs a lot of light. These little plants are my fave of the bunch, and I want them to multiply. That reminds me, I've read that HC are supposed to grow horizontally. Mine is growing taller but not thicker. Am I doing something wrong? There are also no signs of multiplying that I can see.. it's been 4 days.

Regarding the substrate, it does look like good stuff. The stem plants are growing fast. It also seems like my shrimps prefer filtering the substrate than the moss. Out of the 4 shrimps I have, only 1 goes to the moss from time to time. The others are always on the substrate behind the plants. 

I think I need some Otos quick. How many in a 5 gallon tank? 1 or 2?


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

deondrec said:


> I saw that substrate on a website called aqua-charming.com. I emailed them to see if they would ship me some and a tank but never got a return. Do you happen to know of any places over there with websites that might ship to the U.S.? and nice tank.


Thank you.
I live in the Philippines. The price of the substrate here is around $20 converted. Shipping is more than $100 so I don't recommend it.

That reminds me, I wanted to buy something from drsfosterandsmith, and they made me a quote. I saw the delivery using FedEx economy is around $110 and FedEx 2-3 business days is around $130+ if I remember correctly.


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## deondrec (Sep 30, 2008)

crazy. i was just look at some pictures from i think its called aquarama. man! they had so many amazing products that ill never see for at least 5 years here in america. i think 2 otos would be fine.


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## deondrec (Sep 30, 2008)

and the unknown plant is frogbit


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## zerojoe0917 (Apr 29, 2009)

man i use that substrate too!! which is very good!!


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

Pretty! That tank is amazing!


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Thank you, but I have a problem now.
It seems there are a few HC stems that are melting.. and they don't seem to be spreading.
Any ideas as to that?

The other plants are doing well, except for the HC and HM.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Quick update:

Today I went to another local hobbyist and got some stuff from him at a very very low price.

First are some local tanay shrimps. I guess these are the counterparts of the Amano shrimp.. which I haven't seen yet here. These are hardworking shrimps! Much more so than my Cherry Reds who are always hiding. These guys are active and they come in lots of colors. Although they are all transparent, some are greenish, some are yellowish, some bluish, and some blackish.









I also asked for some snails, and he gave me some. I like them because they help clean the glass. Here are two of them, are they mating?









I also saw 3 of these guys on my tank. Some type of Ramshorn snail? Anyhow, I removed them because I was told these are the worst kinds of snails in the tank.









One of the type of plants he gave me are these guys. As you can see, it is infested with a certain type of algae. Will otos eat these? What kind of algae is this?









Here's a tank shot.









This bacopa stem has almost doubled its height in the 5 days I've had him. Too bad his leaves are covered with diatoms


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## crimsonbull57 (Jan 7, 2009)

Awesome tank! that doesn't look like a 5 gallon at all, keep up the good work


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

Regarding your question about the HC and HM dying, it's too soon to tell if you're doing something wrong. It takes about a month for HC to start spreading in earnest. It's possible during this acclimation period that the HC does nothing or even appears to die. Just be cool, though. Eventually, it will root and spread. 
As long as all your other plants are doing well, your HC will bounce back.
BTW, HC needs only moderate light to carpet. I find it to be less light-demanding than Glosso -- which only needs around twenty-five watts (medium-high) in a five gallon tank to carpet.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Thank you. I am hoping this works out well, but it might be hard to find balance especially since this is my first time.

UG: Thanks for your input. Greatly appreciated. Have been checking out your tanks and I admire the way you balance everything. As a result, I followed your suggestion in case of algae signs and turned off 1 bulb. Now the lights are at 28watts. 


I have lots of diatoms on the leaves of my plants, and then as can be seen the pic above of the Micranthemum Umbrosum (not sure on this one). What type of algae is this? Would an oto eat this? I'm planning to get an oto or two before going to work before algae takes over my tank.

I'm also checking out CPDs or Microrasbora Zebras. Would 6 CPDs OR 6 Zebras fit in my 5 gallon tank with 1-2 otos?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

that tank is great. it looks like its at least 10 gallons!
great job!

CPDs dont do so well in small tanks. they tend to hide too much and be stressed. id reccomend 10 gallons at least for them, but 20 would be better.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Thank you for pointing that out.
Seems that it's hard to find a colorful nano fish that is shrimp safe.

By the way, can anyone answer what type of algae it is?
I'm on my way to work in a while and I will drop by the LFS to get otos if they could eat that.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

It looks like fuzz algae to me. Otos will eat it. It's usually attributed to a nutrient imbalance.

That said, algae eaters are not really all that good at curing algae woes. The best defense is to balance light, CO2, and ferts. 
As your tank is less than two weeks old, you're going to see quite a few different types of algae in the coming weeks. The tank's bio-filter has yet to rev up to speed and the plants are still adapting after the replanting.
My recommendation would be to let things settle before you react to any given perceived problem.
With twenty-eight watts, CO2, and a good substrate, you're pretty much right where you want to be. Things will get ugly for a little bit -- it happens to all of us -- but the balance is there.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Okay, I will try to balance the three. 
Anyway, since I've reduced the light by 1 bulb, I don't see much algae or diatoms in the plants anymore.

My problem is the tank walls. I'm a bit OC on that 
Also, the fuzz algae as you identified was there on the Umbrosum when I got it. I don't want it to spread so i might remove it for now.

I think my tank is fully cycled as the test showed: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5ppm.
I'd like to add an oto or two to see some movement in my tank that helps in algae extermination. Thank you so much UG.


Anyway, I think something spawned in my tank.
At first I was wondering why the water looked so fuzzy, but upon closer examination I saw lots of hair-like strands that are less than 1mm long. 
Some are moving, but majority are absolutely still.










I'm going to search the net for info on this but I'm running late to work.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Just a quick update. Changed the plants layout a little bit.
The stem plants have nearly doubled in length since I got them. 

Although the one on the rightmost (Alternanthera sp?) is turning yellowish. The base of the plant is still red, but the new leaves are yellowish green.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

probably because it wants more light. its hard to keep plants really red in nanos, since there are just less watts overall. if you think about it, when a stem is right under the surface of a 100 gallon tank, it may be getting over 300 watts; in a 1 gallon tank it reaches the surface and gets maybe 5 or 6 watts.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

I have 3 14w bulbs on my 5 gallon tank. I thought that would be enough for most plants but I did not realize plants need a high watt output light.

Here is an updated FTS.
I trimmed some plants - the red-turned-green plants on the right (Nesaea) and the ones on the left background (Limnophila Mini). Looking at previous pictures though, it seems the Myriophyllum of some sort grew about an inch in 2 or 3 days.









I am still waiting for my light fixtures to come. It hasn't arrived and I have been waiting for it even before I set up my tank.


Is this star moss? Got some from a friend and I placed a very small portion into the tank. Hope it's not star moss, since those guys are not true aquatic plants. FWIW, these plants are most likely taken within the Philippines.









Anyone know what shrimp this is? Got 10 of these guys and they all have different hues. It's a local shrimp here called Tanay, but I can't find any info about it.


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## Phoenix-cry (Dec 25, 2008)

Perhaps a malaysian rainbow shirmp...I hear they can change their hue.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

Woah... your tank looks like a 20+ gallon bowfront tank.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Phoenix: They don't change colors. They just come in different hues (mostly brownish-green though)

ddtran46: Thanks. It's a 4.+ gallon bowfront. 


Well well well. Since 4 of my previous cherries died, yesterday I decided to buy more cherry shrimps to test out before I get Sulawesi shrimps. I noticed these guys are bolder. They're always out in the open. My previous cherries was never seen until their carcasses showed up. I guess my water is not good back then. Maybe it has something to do with me not moving things around lately that causes dirt in the water column. I am thrilled with these shrimps as they ate the fuzz algae on my Umbrosum. I was contemplating to get a molly for that but good thing the shrimps ate it.

I decided to move the out-of-place driftwood with the small anubias and placed it in a different tank. I also covered the other driftwood with moss, and trimmed the myriophyllum.

FTS









Here are pics of a berried shrimp. I think there are 2 of them berried or 3.

















For some reason i just love the looks of the Bacopa mini. I started with 4 stems, now there are 8. These guys grow quick! The rotalas (nanjenshi, green, hippuris, walichi) are all starting to take off as new shoots emerge. Some pictures of my Otobots as well. Diligient workers, although they don't clean algae from the Rotalas,


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

My tank looks like it's filled with Sprite right now.
So many bubbles like I've never seen before.

All the plants seem to be pearling.










































At the top of this page you can see that I complained about the water - which seemed like something spawned. I added activated carbon to my filter that day and since a day ago I noticed that my water has been crystal clear aside from the micro bubbles. Is this the effect of carbon or did the tank's water mature? All the shrimps are always out in the open now. My otos and shrimps have eaten all the algae I could see. All that's remaining is the GSA which none can seem to eat.

Here's an overhead shot.










Got a guppy today. For weeks I was thinking what fish to put.. and the guppy is a logical choice for me. First of all, it's not a schooling fish (which my tank can't house), it's not an active swimmer, it's small, it can be housed individually, and it's a surface dweller.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Another update.. though I look quite silly posting again and again.

I added Iron a day ago, and noticed the difference in just 1 day. I didn't realize it plays this big of a role.

Only the top leaves of this Limnophila are reddish. Its body is entirely green.









Myriophyllum 









The Alternanthera shoots are red! The previous shoots were always green.









This is the first time I've seen this Rotala species like this. For a while there I thought it was a different plant. It looked so different when I got it.









The bacopa.. still cute in my eyes.









This plant, sold to me as Didiplis (?), is also looking nice now. It looked terrible the first week I had it.









Then there's this plant that grew from nowhere. I have no idea what it is. 










All the plants have been doing well except for the HC, and Christmas moss under the Windelov. For soem reason I just can't grow HC. It always melts. Then there's the moss.. for some reason this moss turned brown while the others have been really green.

















FTS:

















Do you guys have any idea why the plants on the right are swaying to the right? I'm thinking it's the flow... but how come they weren't like that days ago.


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

jourdy said:


> Do you guys have any idea why the plants on the right are swaying to the right? I'm thinking it's the flow... but how come they weren't like that days ago.


I'd wager it's the light. Plants can feel light in ways we can't. The light on the right hand side of the tank may be stronger in way imperceptible to the human eye. Perhaps the light is subtly brighter towards the ballast over there.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

UG you are right. 
Over the past few days I have experimented with the positioning of the lights and they do follow where there is most light output.

Anyway, it has been 1 week since I last updated, some changes were made.
The lights I'm expecting were not shipped. I ran out of patience and bought two clamp-on lamps at 13 watts each. Since using these lamps, I don't see GSA on the glass anymore; but there is significantly less light as it is harder to focus the camera without flash.

Also, one day I cam back from work I found our my guppy jumped. I didn't know guppies jumped.. and that's quite a bummer since I liked the yellow fins. Anyhow, I saw forktail rainbows from an LFS so I got them. They were relatively inexpensive so I got 6. Absolute beauties, yellow fins, blue eyes, and red on their cheeks. Only problem is the males seem to chase away the female.

I set up a bigger tank and moved my Windelov there since it takes up too much space and I think it's getting burned by the high light output of my previous light system. The fish now have more room to swim.

I think all the stem plants have doubled in number, especially the Bacopa which now have 16 individual stems (I started with 4). The HC is also multiplying, but at a slow rate and a few melting ones are noticeable. The only plant not doing well is the Christmas moss, which turned brown (it was shaded by the Windelov), hoping for a recovery.

Tank shot:










By the way I found 3 of these guys on my tank:









They are about half an inch long; they swim slow and by wiggling movements
I think the eyes are yellow, which reminds me of a praying mantis
The body is white; it has pincers or something that resembles a mantis shrimp's claws
It has a lyre tail that is horizontally parallel; and I see it mostly on plants. 
I tried checking the Bug thread but there's nothing there. Are these dangerous? I'm thinking these could probably kill smaller shrimps.


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## crimsonbull57 (Jan 7, 2009)

Wow everything looks Great. Your guppy is really pretty I sure bet he likes it in there. No clue on your pest problem, it may be a larva of somekind but im not sure. If it is a larva your guppy will probably eat them when they're in a smaller stage.
Oh and what type of Sulawesi shrimp are you going to get?


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

You missed the part where guppy has been replaced by Fortail Rainbows, since the guppy jumped.

I was about to order different types of Sulawesi shrimp but there's a restriction on live prawns so I can't import any shrimp as of the moment. 


Update after a week:
The HC are turning ugly. Seems I still can't keep these guys.
I changed the bulbs to daylight and stronger ones. 22 watts each for a total of 44watts.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

Why wont you try planting the hc instead of using mesh?


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

I tried it before and it was even harder.
It turned brown and uprooted.

At least with the mesh, it dies at a slower rate.
Actually these guys are not dead but very unhealthy looking.


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## jourdy (Jul 2, 2009)

Updated FTS.
Lights were just turned on when pics were taken so some plants are not yet open.









































I'm getting bored with this tank.
Shrimps don't provide any excitement, and the single otocinclus is on one spot most of the day. 

-_-

I think it's time I get some colorful, active fish.


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## Vladdy (May 6, 2008)

Yeah, my shrimp are boring too, and I have not had any baby shrimp yet. As for exciting, colorful fish, I would get some type of tetras; maybe neon or glowlight tetras. Tiger barbs are very active and fun to watch but they need to be kept in a school of at least 5 fish in at least a 30 gallon tank from what I've heard. I would stick with getting some tetras.Nice tank. I need to update my tank journal.


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## crimsonbull57 (Jan 7, 2009)

Your tank it looking excelent as usual!
What happened to you Fortail Rainbows? did they jump out too?


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## punkytin (Aug 24, 2009)

Hi Jourdy, 
I, too, am a beginner aquarist, although from the looks of your tank, you don't look much like a beginner anymore! I just wanted to ask where in the Philippines do you get your plants? I've been to Cartimar, but maybe you know of other sources of aquatic plants and mosses for reasonable prices!


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## justin182 (Aug 19, 2009)

how's the tank doing? did you quit this forum all together?


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