# My medium-light, low-tech 5 gallon



## SeaSerpant (Feb 20, 2008)

Looks very nice. are you thinking of getting a ground covering plant?


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Yes, I am hoping people can give me some suggestions... I was thinking maybe some marsilea spp. or something. And I plan on, actually in the next couple of days, attaching some java moss to the petrified wood.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Bump?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

what i would do is instead of moss on the petrified wood (it is a shame to cover it up), make a moss carpet in front as a foreground.


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## SeaSerpant (Feb 20, 2008)

That sounds great. i think youd get your carpet and the moss in one.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

That's a pretty good idea, actually... what moss should I use for this? Willow? Java? Taiwan?


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

i have java, but most people say it works best with willow. some like taiwan also, but any moss would work. 
also, you dont have to use mess with moss inside, it works very well just attaching it to flat peices of slate.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

*Update Time!!!*

So I've been slowly adding to this tank, and trying to keep everything in balance, since I upgraded the light and never bothered with any CO2 of any kind. So far it's doing pretty well. There has been more algae growth, but I can keep it at bay with regular acrylic scrapings. Also, the filter was removed so I could quickly cycle my new 2.5 gallon nano tank, and in its place was put the Whisper filter that came with the 2.5 gallon. Please ignore this ugly honking filter, as it is temporary. I was going to just buy another red sea filter, but I think I've decided instead to go with a Zoomed 501. I just have to wait til next paycheck. 

At any rate, ON WITH THE PICS!!!!














































Here's one of the lonely oto who survived. I originally had 3, but 2 didn't make it. I plan on getting him some buddies soon:










And lastly, this is my favorite angle to view the tank from:











I am still wondering what I should do for the groundcover, and would appreciate any more suggestions. I'm still considering the moss idea as mentioned above, but lately I've been thinking about maybe trying to use that small crypt, I think it's called Parva? I know it stays small and makes a good groundcover, but I don't know how available it is.

As always, thanks for looking, and if you have any criticisms or compliments, please post away!!


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## lekyiscool (May 27, 2008)

i think it looks great 
some dwarf hairgrass at the back would be nice and some shorter carpet at the front. THis would great great depth, i think

btw is that bowfront


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## fishboy87 (Feb 19, 2008)

I'd recommend to try glosso


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I think C. parva would be a good choice, and in keeping with the rest of the tank.

Or you might try E. tenellus 'narrow' - though I think Marsilea minuta would probably be the best foreground in scale with the crypts.

I really like this tank- it's just lovely!


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## thejoie (Apr 13, 2008)

Can i just say that I LOVE that light, I can't wait to get it for my tank!! Are you happy with it?!!?


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Lekyiscool, I agree with your suggestion. I've already pretty much decided to do something along those lines. I don't know if I'll go with dwarf hairgrass specifically, or something similar. But I like the idea of kind of "filling in the gap" in the back with something like that. Maybe even dwarf sag. Then the foreground would be something different.

Laura, thanks for picking up on my whole reason for thinking c. parva: it's already a mostly crypt tank so why not try to keep it that way?!  As far as the E. tenellus... do you know if it grows well in our hard water? Thanks for your compliments on my tank! 

Thejoie, I absolutely DO love this light! It's easily one of the best $20 I've spent on planted tank supplies. Highly recommend it!

Thanks again everyone!


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## Ozymandias (Jan 17, 2008)

Church what are the fish in there thay have to be pretty small for a 5 gal?


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

^ Yeah they're Trigonostigma hengeli (Hengel's Rasboras). They ARE pretty small. I'd say about maybe 1/2 inch or so? Not as tiny as Celestial Pearl Danios, and not as large as Neon Tetras.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I'm on well water, and I know it's pretty hard (need new test kits so no actual stats). E. tenellus for me acts like crypts- all the old growth melts off, but if you trim off the yellowed leaves new ones quickly replace them.

Mine stay much lower to the ground overall than the way they came in the mail, despite being in low-tech tanks, not sure what that's all about?


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## ColeMan (Mar 9, 2008)

hey man! love the tank! 

I kind of like mark's idea about not covering the rocks - i think they're application is very successful in this tank. I like this idea even more because you can grow the moss in the shady little nooks where other foreground plants won't grow, plus I think the dark green will really look great and maybe even help make the tank look bigger...


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

I really like this idea too, and I'm very happy that others (beside myself) like the look of the petrified wood. I absolutely LOVE petrified wood, and so knowing that I can sort of "feature" it makes me happy. What kind of moss would you recommend? I'm thinking willow moss, but java moss is much more accessible to me...

Thanks for your comments, and keep 'em coming folks! I need all the help I can get!!!!!


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## ADDICTED2BUBBLES (Jun 20, 2008)

I would think flame moss in the back tied on a few rocls, and then some tTW moss in the frount on a few rocks, or small pcs of wood .... that would give good contrast of the moss look, and I LOOVVVEEEE flame moss, its a bright green , and goes straight up !! I am looking for some myself !! I just put another flouresent light over my 5 gal I need to make a journal of it !! also I need more plants that arent so big ~~~ ..


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Ok, I took some recent crappy pics of the tank, and I forgot to upload them. I might as well do that now, even though I'm gonna have some hi-res pics to post later on tonight! (yay!)

So I just wanted to update a bit and show that I finally got another nano-filter, so I could take the big honkin' whisper filter out. And I also added a few c. balansae and c. retrospiralis. OH YEAH and I also added a new inhabitant, the lovely honey gourami!

Here they are, and once again, sorry for the crappy pics. Stay tuned later tonight for some good pics!














































YUCK these pictures are AWFUL! :redface:


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Haven't updated in a while, so I figure now's a good time. Here are 3 new pics:




























Not much going on, but at least everything is healthy. I don't do much of anything with this tank. It's reached a balance, for the most part. I feed the fish, but not the plants. I don't add Excel. I just change about 20% water every two weeks.

It's much more stunning in real life. Pictures don't do it justice. I love this tank. It just takes care of itself.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

how do you prevent your fish from jumping out?


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

It's never been a problem for me, so I don't worry about it. I guess a better answer would be "I keep them happy so they don't want to go anywhere else."

But seriously, they've never even looked like they have the inclination to jump out.


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## ddtran46 (Jul 8, 2008)

haha. thanks Church. im thinking about buy those fish for my 7 gallon. how many would you recommend? it looks so nice in your tank.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

There's a school of 11 in here, and they seem to be okay. Even with the honey gourami, everyone seems to get along fine and have room to swim.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Looking awesome!

I still think it needs come C. parva, though.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

nice! You should do a Christmas moss carpet


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

I was thinking fontanus moss, but I'm gonna get on that real soon! Laura, I gave up on the parva idea, since no one ever seems to have more than a few plantlets at a time to sell.


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## Saraja87 (Jul 18, 2007)

Those crypts look really lush and I love the unique rocks. Seeing the same rock scape over and over can get really boring so it's always nice to see a different positioning. It kind of looks like a forest path. 

I'd like to see some kind of lower plant, doesn't have to be carpeting if that's not what you're going for. Just something to fill in between the substrate and the lush crypt leaves to make it look a little thicker.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Okay, it's been a long time, so I figured I'd post an update. Some things have changed recently. First of all, I lost all of my hengeli due to a mishap with Fluorish Excel. I'm not happy about it, but you have to keep on keeping on, right? So I ended up buying a male and female Honey Gourami. They are now married, and are trying to have children. I also took apart the desk lamp, so I could retrofit it inside the original hood, and I thinned out a lot of the plants in there. The C. ciliata was overgrowing everything else, so I focused on it, but everything else had a haircut too. I also planted some dwarf sag as a foreground, but I don't have any pics of that just yet. 

Here are my latest pics:


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## ALIFER (Jul 22, 2005)

Church said:


> O I also took apart the desk lamp, so I could retrofit it inside the original hood/QUOTE]
> The tank pics do look better with the hood. Was it easy to retrofit the light fixture into the hood? Any problems with heat?
> -Rick


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Yeah, it was easy once I learned that the proper adhesive to use is Liquid Nails. I had a few mishaps with various adhesives not working, but after a little trial and error, I can safely say that liquid nails is all you need. As far as wiring and all the other stuff, it's not really hard in the first place, but I'm no stranger to that sort of thing, so it's easy for me. All you have to do is take everything apart slowly, and you'll see the circuit that is being created. All you have to do is keep the circuit exactly the same way it is, just splice in some extra wire here and there to extend things.

I definitely like having the top back on. I was losing about 6-8 oz of water a day from evaporation! It's nice not watching the water line get lower by the day...


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## luckydud13 (Jun 21, 2008)

Hey what ank is that? And got the url for that light????


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

The tank is just a 5g kit I got from Walmart. It's called the Aqua-Tech 5, but I think it's just a ripoff of the Eclipse 6. It looks basically the same. The light is a desklamp I got from Home Depot. If you do a search, you'll see several threads about it. Hampton Bay makes it.

Thanks for looking!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

you didnt say how much dwarf sag you got for a foreground, but if you still want some parva, i could send you some. i divided up my mother plant a few weeks ago, and all the new little plants are shooting up new leaves all the time. i think if you added a medium-sized crypt to the back-middle and parva to the front, it could look pretty good. btw, i love the tall crypts on either side. theyre the ciliata, right?

oh, and also good luck with the honey gouramis, im planning on breeding some in my 5g soon, too.


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## fishbguy1 (Feb 29, 2008)

Looks really nice! I really want to set up a small, easy to grow, little to no maitinence tank one day...lol

That book shelf looks like it's sagging from the tank...lol Or is it just the picture?


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## EdTheEdge (Jan 25, 2007)

Vey interesting progression on a wonderful tank! Thanks for sharing!


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Hey thanks for bumping this thread, guys! 

It's been a while since I've updated this one. A lot has happened since I moved. First of all, yes, the bookshelf this tank was on was sagging. During the move I pitched it. It's now on the kitchen counter, backed up against a corner. The scape was able to be saved when I moved! It still looks basically the same! Everything is still nice and low maintenance. Still do small water change once a month. The only problem is that I recently had nowhere to store some fontanus moss, so I threw it in this tank, and it now wants to be the carpet. So I'm going to yank out the sag and move it to another tank real soon. I will take pics when the lights come on today, to show progress!

On a sad note, during the move the female honey died.  The male is doing okay, but I can tell he would like some company. As for right now, he's a bachelor, and this is his bachelor pad.


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

roud:

(I never said I was a photographer)


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## fishboy87 (Feb 19, 2008)

The plants are so green they're white!! jk. Sorry about the female honey gourami . . . It'll look great when it fills in!


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

Any updates, Church??


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

Thanks for the bump! Yeah I guess it is time to update this thread... Well, the gourami is doing fine all by his lonesome. But the tank in general is not doing so well, because I've been dedicating my time to my 10g and getting the new 45g up and running. I'm going to be dismantling this tank very soon, maybe even this weekend.

The gourami will temporarily go into the 45g, until I get my whiskey barrel pond going in a few months. And the crypts in this tank will move into the 20 long I'm about to start setting up. This tank is going to be completely redone, and I already have a vision of how I will scape it.

If anyone has Amano's Book 2, check out the tank called _In a Corner of the Forest_ on pages 32-33. That is the inspiration for this tank's next scape. I'll be using the piece of driftwood from my very first planted 10g which I still have, and I'll be creating a "cave" like feature with it, by growing baby tears up and over the back of it.

I just want to say, this 5g tank has been a dream!! I was pretty much able to just set it and forget it, and it pretty much always remained healthy and beautiful, as long as I cleaned out the nano filter once a month or so. This tank opened my eyes to low-tech, for sure. It also helped me to learn about various crypts and how hardy they are!

I will take a picture later today, to show what this tank looks like now, after the neglect. It's really not bad at all! It's just time for a change. I want this tank to have CO2 to match the high light, so that means less crypts and more delicate plants!

Stay tuned...


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## Church (Sep 14, 2004)

This tank is no longer. See my 45g thread for an update, but basically stuff happened that caused me to stop paying attention to my tanks, and it was time to put this one to rest. I'm giving the actual tank and modified hood/light assembly to a friend of mine who wants to get into the hobby, so it isn't for naught.

Thanks to everyone who checked in here and posted comments. As always, they mean a lot.


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