# 5 gallon planted hex tank *Journal*



## mizu-chan (May 13, 2008)

Looks nice but kind of cramped. Love the little decoration you have in there though. Very Asian looking :hihi:
Is that java moss tied tot he little building thing and pot? If so you might want to spread it out a little more. It fills in faster when you only have a thin layer covering it.
Great so far. Can't wait to see some updates. Seen a lot of great stuff come from these kinds of tanks.


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## Aquarist_Fist (Jul 22, 2008)

Welcome to planted aquaria! Congratulations! The most important step of your life as an aquarist you have already taken. roud:

You will want to move the zebras to a bigger tank as soons as possible. The same goes for the rainbow sharks. 

When these guys are gone, add a Colisa lalia female and three more cories. This way you will have a truly happy tank. Slightly overstocked, but with 30% water changes weekly, you'll be fine.

You'll also need some more low-tech plants. In the Swap 'n Shop area, you'll find tons of stuff suitable for a low light/no CO2 tank.


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

*Replanted the tank*

So I woke up this morning and decided to move things around my tank... I agree that it did look pretty crowded; really noticed after looking at my pictures... so here's what I did; I think it looks more open now  

Full Tank Shot









another front view... the shark decided to come out of his lantern









BTW: Does anyone know what the little plants I have in the front are? I got them as a potted plant from Petsmart, but it was missing the plant tag. I figured it was some sort of dwarf sword-like thing.


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## plantoon (Jun 24, 2008)

maybe some stem plants will be nice on your tank, cabomba or egeria densa

oh and it will be great if you can find a way to place submersible lamp on that lantern


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

*hex tank is now a 5.5 gal standard*

LOL! After getting my hex looking just right I've taken it apart and moved everything into a 5.5 gal standard tank.
My boyfriend and I are planning on starting a RCS tank... so we went out and got the standard tank. Well, after thinking we decided that our fish would have more swimming room in the standard rather than the hex... so the hex is going to be our future RCS tank!

Gravel, plants, and all decor was moved from the hex to the standard... I will post pictures when I get a chance :icon_cool


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

you should probably get a 10 or 20 so that poor shark will have more room to swim. they get pretty big in large tanks and should really be housed in something with adequate swimming room or they'll get pretty aggressive and die early..


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

chris127 said:


> you should probably get a 10 or 20 so that poor shark will have more room to swim. they get pretty big in large tanks and should really be housed in something with adequate swimming room or they'll get pretty aggressive and die early..


 
For now the shark is still pretty small, but when it gets bigger I will definitely move to a bigger tank. And like I said before, the standard gave it a bit more room to move around  For the most part it likes to hang out in the lantern thing... treats it like a house! The shark is surprisingly passive... dwarf gourami has been the aggressive one!


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

good  make sure to moss up that hex for the shrimp, they love it!


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

*5 gallon hex turned into a standard*

So here's a picture of the new 5.5 gallon standard that got everything from the hex (picture taken 8.12.08)










and here's the start of the hex tank as a shrimp tank 







(day 4)

from the side








right now I've got a paradise fish in there.. but just until the shrimp arrive on Wednesday!
i'm not really sure what else to add... aside from the java moss
also, any tips for keeping the moneywort down until it roots?


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

So today after work I went by petsmart to check out what plants they had. Ended up with a pot of glosso and a pot of dwarf baby tears (HC, right?). Not really sure if I planted it right... hehe
Petsmart guy told me to cut off most of the stuff they use in the pot and leave a little bit to act as a weight to put into my substrate (at least for the HC). I figured the same could work for the glosso.

I've also decided to start dosing with some ferts. So far all I'm using is API Leaf Zone; has anyone else used this? What would you suggest? I'm am also going to start using Excel, which I plan to pick up tomorrow after work.

I'm soo excited since my RCS are supposed to be coming this week!

Here's the pics....
Full tank shot









RIght side









Left side


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## Ugly Genius (Sep 27, 2003)

I had no idea that Petsmart sold HC and Glosso.

How many watts on the hex?


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

Ugly Genius said:


> I had no idea that Petsmart sold HC and Glosso.
> 
> How many watts on the hex?


Yeah, every so often they have it as one of the potted plants. Right now I have a 15W GE Daylight CF bulb, but now that I have the HC and glosso I'm wondering if I need more... how high should i go?

*edit*
forgot to mention that this tank is near a window and does get light from there too


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

so today I went by petco and pickup a couple stems of anacharis... 
The moneywort in my 5.5 standard was starting to melt (probably due to shading/lack of light) so I moved it all to this tank and replaced it with the anacharis.
I had 2 stems left over so I put those into here too.
Nothing much has really changed... HC and glosso seem to be holding up alright (but i'm still unsure about my lighting).

RCS are postponed until next week... issues with USPS

Here's full tank shot... looks a little more filled in








After adding root tabs and taking out the carbon from the filter the other day the water turned a light tea color and cloudy... I put the carbon back in and the tea color went away but water is still kinda cloudy


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## FrostyNYC (Nov 5, 2007)

Very nice tank, but I think you're starting to veer away from low-tech plants!  Unfortunately, I'll be surprised if the HC/Baby's tears survives under those conditions. There's no exact science to how much light a plant needs, but I dont think 15 watts is enough. Plus, your gravel is somewhat large for HC to properly root itself in. Glosso isnt the best choice for a low-tech tank either. I'd increase lighting to 27 watts or so if you want a better chance of them surviving. Also consider adding excel to your dosing regimine, if you arent adding CO2. There's varying accounts of how excel affects shrimp though, so take that into account.

Also, you may already know, but the carbon in your filter will absorb micronutrients that your plants need. You'd be better off buying purigen if you're looking for something to absorb tanins, or re-boil your driftwood. However, those 5 gallon hex's dont have much room in their filters for additions.

I definitely like this new version of your tank more than the original version. Nice job.


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

so my cherry shrimp arrived today....
in the process of getting the fish out (2 guppies and 3 neon tetras) I pretty much destoryed the tank! plants all uprooted and just a big mess.

hopefully the shrimp survived the devastation.....


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

*RCS tank didn't work out....*

so my RCS tank didn't work out... it was going good for a couple of monthsm even had a couple of berried females. BUT ultimately it wasn't meant to be.... the snails started to take over, no babies were ever seen, and the shrimp slowly died away (I have 2 left) :icon_cry:

I've decided to redo the tank... don't think I'm gonna do a shrimp tank though. Probably gonna let my boyfriend pick out some fish at the store... i dunno...
anyways, here's how I got it set up this morning. still pretty low-tech... 13 watt CFL, gravel, API Leaf Zone, Flourish excel
plants are pretty simple too (just left overs I had lying around): Java Fern, Java moss, Anubias, some sort of grassy thing, two surviving stems of ludwigia repens.

Suggestion?


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

this tank is going pretty steady.. but i'm getting kinda bored with it and am getting tired of maintaining both 5 gallon tanks.

so in a couple of weeks i'm going to be taking down both 5 gallon tanks and setting up a 10 gallon. but since i still want a small tank in my room i'm planning on setting up a 2.5 gallon Natural Planted tank using the Walstead method! I'm really excited!
Will probably start up a new thread for the 2.5 gallon


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## Eileen (May 31, 2009)

Maybe your RCS died because they like a older tank that is cycled. Dwarf shrimps are sensitive. It could have been the stress of shipping. I recently bought some Tiger shrimp on Aqua bid and the shipping box got damaged and some water leaked out. All the shrimps were dead when I got them. I did get a refund on the shrimps. Your best bet is to get the shrimps at a LFS ask when they got them. If it was a recent shipment wait about 1-2 weeks then get the survivors. The weak ones die first in a shipment. Looking for some small fish to keep in the 5 Hex. I have Tiger/Hybrid endlers in mine babies now. Endlers are really cute. I would stick with males only as you will have millions in no time with a pair. Black Bar endlers are nice also. My Tiger endlers have neon colors. Here is a picture of what my Tigers look like I found on-line:
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p148/yimes/Tiger Endler/
Sometimes at tropical fish stores they sell them as feeders. You can't find these at the Petsmart or Petco though. They stay really small so a nice group of them 7-10 would be perfect for a 5 gal. and those pygmy cory would be great to put in with the endlers. I also bought some dwarf rasboras at the fish store 6 for $10 they are way smaller in size then the reg. Rasboras and have a neon color to them.


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## graciegrapes (Aug 6, 2008)

As of this past Monday this tank was broken down and combined with my 5.5 gallon standard to setup a 10 gallon standard planted.

Here's the link for the 10 gallon: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/l...wo-5-gallon-tanks-broken-down.html#post905516

:hihi:


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