# My 5.5 gallon nano project



## Kolkri (Dec 9, 2006)

I really like your set up one the left. Won't that stuff on the right need a lot of trimming?
Sorry I don't know all the hard to spell names of any plants. lol


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Kolkri said:


> I really like your set up one the left. Won't that stuff on the right need a lot of trimming?
> Sorry I don't know all the hard to spell names of any plants. lol


LOL, no prob. It`s rotala indica (um, I think) and I saw something from Amano that said with frequent trimming it will become bushier, shorter, with smaller leaves so that`s what I`m aiming for!


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Is that needle leaf java fern? If so, trim off the brown leaves, if the rhizome is still green, it will grow new ones


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

clwatkins10 said:


> Is that needle leaf java fern? If so, trim off the brown leaves, if the rhizome is still green, it will grow new ones


Yes, it is, and I will do that, thanks! I can`t tell if the rhizome is green but some of it shows promise. Yay!


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## demosthenes (Aug 23, 2008)

this is a great looking tank, the plants look great!
does rotala generally take in more nutrients through its roots or its leaves? im looking at filling up my 5g with it, i've got some in a bigger tank.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

sunnyday said:


> Yes, it is, and I will do that, thanks! I can`t tell if the rhizome is green but some of it shows promise. Yay!


As long as the rhizome isn't mushy, it'll sprout new leaves.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

epicfish said:


> As long as the rhizome isn't mushy, it'll sprout new leaves.


Oh, I am so glad I posted, I had no hope earlier this afternoon! :thumbsup:



demosthenes said:


> this is a great looking tank, the plants look great!
> does rotala generally take in more nutrients through its roots or its leaves? im looking at filling up my 5g with it, i've got some in a bigger tank.


Thanks! I am under the impression that rotala is not a heavy root feeder. I wasn`t going to add root tabs to it (while I think I will with the wisteria.) I`m still a novice though, so take that with a grain of salt and I`ll let you know if I learn otherwise! :biggrin:


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Today ammonia is 0 ppm, nitrite 1.0 ppm, nitrate 10 ppm.

Shockingly to me, pH is still 7.2 despite the addition of driftwood! Either the buffering capacity of my RO water is more than expected (I only added GH booster!) or the tannins mostly leached out already (it was soggy when I bought it.)

The breeder got back to me, and I think I am going to stick with the betta plan. I think I will pick him up two weeks from today. (He`s only 7.5 weeks old today!) Any guesses on whether my tank will be OK without a fishy ammonia source for that long?


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## FrostyNYC (Nov 5, 2007)

If you're trying to grow branchy rotala quickly, let it reach the water surface. Mine starts branching heavily once it's at the surface, at which point I clip and replant the multi-stemmed tops. My experience is with R.rotifundiola but I assume it holds true with the similar indica as well.

Some additional driftwood to the right would be attractive, but is not necessary. It's extra space to plant.  

Have you considered a foreground plant, or do you want to leave the gravel bare?


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

FrostyNYC said:


> If you're trying to grow branchy rotala quickly, let it reach the water surface. Mine starts branching heavily once it's at the surface, at which point I clip and replant the multi-stemmed tops. My experience is with R.rotifundiola but I assume it holds true with the similar indica as well.


Ah, yes, I see it doing that in my tank. I`ve already trimmed most of the stems once but I`ll stop for a bit and see what it does!



> Have you considered a foreground plant, or do you want to leave the gravel bare?


I`m worried that my skills and my setup aren`t up to growing a nice low compact carpet, so I was working on some options there. Probably leaning toward growing midground type plants almost to the glass but keeping an inch or two of gravel bare? I could be convinced to try a carpet though!


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

I think the reason you see it starting to get bushy is that you're trimming it when it hits the water's surface. 

Even if it hasn't reached the surface, you can still clip it and new stems will grow from the nodes where you clipped it, giving a bushy appearance.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

OK, I haven't done much trimming except removing the dead leaves from the java fern. I'll snip and shape the rotala a bit more soon, but I love that it is throwing off new growth at the base! I always heard stem plants get leggy at the bottom!


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## Bugman (Jan 7, 2008)

Moss looks great in a 5.5. Tie it to a rock or diftwood. A flat rock with moss makes a great foreground and on driftwood it makes a good midground. Here are a couple of pics of moss in one of my 5.5. They have grown in a lot since these pictures. I really need to update my tank profiles. The first pic shows a rock with moss and driftwood with moss behind it. The second pic shows a rock with moss and behind it is upright rocks that are half buried in the substrate with moss on the top part making a rock wall.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Bugman said:


> Moss looks great in a 5.5. Tie it to a rock or diftwood. A flat rock with moss makes a great foreground and on driftwood it makes a good midground. Here are a couple of pics of moss in one of my 5.5. They have grown in a lot since these pictures. I really need to update my tank profiles. The first pic shows a rock with moss and driftwood with moss behind it. The second pic shows a rock with moss and behind it is upright rocks that are half buried in the substrate with moss on the top part making a rock wall.


Ah, cool, I was thinking of incorporating moss but didn't know where to affix it since my driftwood is getting pretty full (well, if/when the java fern bounces back.) A rock to form a rounded midground or foreground moss mound sounds great!


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## Bugman (Jan 7, 2008)

At the first of the thread below I have pics of the rock and tying the moss. You can attach it to almost anything. This was a rock that was polished and I was worried about it eventually attaching but it did. Here is another trick. I actually used super glue and glued the fishing line to the bottom of the rock, no tying.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/70695-bugmans-5-5-first-nano-3wk.html


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Looks great! I'm thinking flame moss or fissidens...hm.

Today my water parameters were ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10. I guess...my tank is cycled! I just don't know how it is going to stay that way for a week and a half before I get my fish.

Also I had little thread-like worms in my tank today. I guess these are planaria, but the only cause I could find for them is overfeeding -- and I don't have anything in there to feed! Curiouser and curiouser.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

I got my fish today! He's a beautiful betta and he loves his home.

I also got a ton of Blyxa japonica and some flame moss, the Blyxa filled out behind the driftwood and in front of the rotala; the flame moss will be affixed to a rock and placed in the midground. I still want more wisteria for the background, maybe some fissidens for the top of the driftwood (the java fern is definitely kaput, sigh) and a low groundcover for the rest of the foreground -- maybe.

I tested the nitrates before adding the fishy and they were still at about 10 ppm. I did about a 25% water change during the drip acclimation process, so it'll be lower now.

Another photo of the updated scape soon!


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

With the Blyxa and flame moss. The LFS was out of wisteria, so I'll be scoping out the swap 'n' shop I think.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

It definitely looks a lot better  :thumbsup:


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## confuted (Jan 31, 2007)

I like the blyxa a lot


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

confuted said:


> I like the blyxa a lot


Thanks, me too! At first I was afraid the very generous package from a TPT member was going to be too much Blyxa for my little tank, but now I love how it balances the right and left sides.


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## confuted (Jan 31, 2007)

sunnyday said:


> Thanks, me too! At first I was afraid the very generous package from a TPT member was going to be too much Blyxa for my little tank, but now I love how it balances the right and left sides.


You could always send some to me if you have too much


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

After flipping through the AGA contest entries for inspiration (as usual), I think I might want to inject a bit of red color with a background stem plant like Limnophila aromatica or Rotala wallichii. Should I replace the wisteria or leave it where it is and add another plant alongside it? Or stick with the original plan of filling in more wisteria and allow the variation in greens and textures elsewhere in the tank carry it for visual interest?

Also, if I get a few plants of downoi to fill in in front of the driftwood (still not sure if I want a carpet) will it stay small for this size tank? I see cute little downoi plants in several nano tanks in the competition, but I'm not sure if they're just young or what.

Is this getting to be too many species of plant? I think I'm going to leave the driftwood as it is, I kind of like having the hardscape visible and anyway it'd be a huge pain to get anything affixed to it now that the anubias is settling in, partially in the substrate and partially on the wood.

Thanks for any input!


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

OMG did the Blyxa ever melt! I have about 50% of the plant mass I started with, LOL, but today I did a major clean-out of the dead leaves and roots, and there's lots of healthy root and new leaves starting so I'm relieved. Fishy is blowing a bubble nest in some of the floating dead leaves so there's a silver lining, too.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Added DIY CO2 today! In a 1.89 L bottle I did 1.5 cups sugar, a rounded 1/4 tsp yeast, and a 1/4 tsp baking soda. It's already picking up, really fast -- I'm shocked. :icon_eek: It was about 1 bubble per second before I stuck a chopstick in there for a diffuser. I wonder when I'll get noticeable results with my plants? The Blyxa is still melting, but slower, and although some plants have turned completely to mush many are putting out new leaf and root growth.

I can't remember when I dosed NPK. :icon_redf I think it was almost a week ago, so I'm thinking I'll dose again when I do my water change tomorrow. I'm going to start keeping a calendar to help me eyeball when I last did these kinds of routine things like fertilizing my tank, my garden, vacuuming my house!


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

OK, trying to fine tune my plant conditions. I think my Blyxa has already stopped melting and my rotala is growing even faster than ever so that's cool! I'm going to add some root tabs and see if they improve the growth at all. I think I want something with NPK and iron, at least, so I'm going to check out pond fertilizers and Flourish tabs.

The CO2 is going even faster than before. This morning the pH reads 6.0 but as that's the low end of the scale for this test kit I don't know how accurate it is. I've left a cup of water out and will re-test tomorrow.

My camera battery is dead, I'll get a photo of the current tank after it charges.


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

I like how the petite looks. Good luck with that co2


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

clwatkins10 said:


> I like how the petite looks. Good luck with that co2


Thanks, me too.  I don't even regret the loss of the dwarf java fern that was on top of the driftwood!


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

OK, photo update!










Today I've been noticing bubbles coming from the corner with my wisteria, or occasionally from other plants. I think...I have pearling! Whoo!


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

sunnyday said:


> Today I've been noticing bubbles coming from the corner with my wisteria, or occasionally from other plants. I think...I have pearling! Whoo!


Sounds like it


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

OK, after 24 hours my water pH reads 7.2 again! So the CO2 is dropping the pH by more than one full point. I'd better find the calculator that tells me how that corresponds to ppm CO2.

Oh, and yesterday I chunked up a pond fertilizer tablet and pushed small pieces into the substrate by most of the Blyxa, the rotala, and the wisteria. I'm probably imagining it but I think after the CO2 and ferts, the rotala is getting a red tinge and the Blyxa's new growth is greener and noticeably larger! I'm probably imagining it though -- it's probably more to do with the plants settling in after the Great Meltdown.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Pearling! (And algae, boo.)










Once the lights had been on for 4-5 hours today there began a steady stream of bubbles from the rotala and wisteria (occasionally the bubbles clump up and produce one big one from the wisteria!) as well as a few individual bubbles on the anubias and Blyxa. It's so exciting! (Can anyone tell me if this means anything about the nutrient dosing levels? I'm assuming they must be optimal or close to it for the plants to photosynthesize so well but maybe I'm just reading too much into the pearling phenomenon, LOL.)

I re-tested my KH today, it's 40 ppm. According to the calculators I found I've got over 60 ppm CO2? :icon_eek: I've turned my filter down so fewer of the bubbles are being sucked into the intake (although it's a catch-22 as that means less agitation is present to dissipate the CO2 that does get in there), and I'm hoping that the yeast culture will slow down soon. (I'm sure it will as the weather starts to change and we start keeping the house frugally cold, LOL.) My fish and snail seem unaffected so I guess that's all I have to watch for, right?

The rotala needs a trim. I've been trying to prune it in a graduated lower-to-higher shape but the middle-height plants are shading the tallest plants. I'm thinking of cutting back the uglier spindly plants in the back corner and trying to let those ones re-grow from the ground up. Maybe I should be looking for a single, tall plant that will reach the surface there. (An aponogeton maybe, or a crypt, since it's sort of a shady corner?) Or thin out the rotala clump and add a different stem plant behind/beside it. Hm.


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## chase127 (Jun 8, 2008)

bettas wont be affected by a CO2 overdose, theyre air breathers. congrats on the pearling lol


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

chris127 said:


> bettas wont be affected by a CO2 overdose, theyre air breathers. congrats on the pearling lol


Well, they do have gills and I'm pretty sure they use 'em.  But yes, knowing he can get a breath of fresh air when he needs it is exactly why I am going ahead with the "experiment" and not worrying too much about the fish! :icon_lol:

I'm still excited about the pearling, my rotala has closed up for the night but it's still covered in bubbles. So pretty!


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## deleted_user_16 (Jan 20, 2008)

they breath vboth air from and not from water, just mainly from outside tank, how do you think they stay at bottom so long when they "sleep"?


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## fish_fasinated (Mar 30, 2006)

congrats on the pearling, the only thing taht pearls in y nano right now is the algea lol


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

Um...I decided to get brave and do a major trimming of my rotala today. But with all the weird growth from the small trimming I've been doing before now, I'm afraid I *seriously* botched it. I'll see how it grows back but I am kind of itching to rip it out and start fresh. :icon_redf Ugh.


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## fish_fasinated (Mar 30, 2006)

rotala is really simple and hard to kill, its probably just going to send out side shoots now


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

fish_fasinated said:


> rotala is really simple and hard to kill, its probably just going to send out side shoots now


Oh, I don't think I killed it, but it's all bare stems and the bunch is really uneven because I pulled some plants from the middle but then had trouble replanting the trimmings because they wouldn't anchor in the substrate. :\ I just fear it'll look crappy. At least the remaining stems are upright again (they were leaning every-which-way after I messed with them and that made it look extra bad!)


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## fish_fasinated (Mar 30, 2006)

lol mine did the lean thing, i just trimmed it right back to almost nothing and planted the nice clippings witht he leaves back in the substrate. i just kinda push the gravel that gets moved back over little hole thats there after i move it to plant. hope that helps.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

I let the rotala grow back for a week before I got brave enough to take a pic. I think it's bouncing back.


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## seAdams (Jun 2, 2008)

That looks amazing! Have you thought about putting a background on it?

So nice to see someone keeping a betta in such a great tank!:thumbsup:

He's beautiful too, btw!


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

seAdams said:


> That looks amazing! Have you thought about putting a background on it?
> 
> So nice to see someone keeping a betta in such a great tank!:thumbsup:
> 
> He's beautiful too, btw!


Thanks! Verdi seems to love his home which makes it worth it. 

I need to put a background on and cover up those wires and things, but I'm afraid that if I choose the wrong color or affix it poorly it'll look worse than it does now, LOL.


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## sunnyday (Aug 7, 2008)

I just spent close to an hour trimming my wisteria, rotala, and moss. My hand is pruney! I uprooted the wisteria and replanted the tops and some side shoots. I hope that was the right choice, I felt awful tossing such pretty well-developed roots, but I was really sick of the way it blocked the light by growing sideways, and I didn't want to deal with the growth pattern you usually get if you cut off a stem.

Unfortunately the anubias will be unprotected until the wisteria grows up a little more. And it was just shedding its algae problem. Oh, well.

Speaking of algae, I've got a few unsightly types, but for now I'm just mechanically removing what I can to keep the population down and leaving the rest to my snail. I've got some Excel on order and I might try dosing with that, but I also need to get my ferts regimen under control. I'm not dosing nearly regularly enough I don't think, and when I do it's super imprecise because I'm dealing with such a small water volume. I should probably track down a dropper or syringe or make a stock solution; but, maybe imprecise is OK as long as I'm regular about it!

Hope to get some photos in the next day or two when the water clears.  Soon I need to think about finalizing the 'scape with a few more plants! The weather is cooling down here but not yet too cold elsewhere so the time is probably perfect to stalk the swap n shop.


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