# Rescape of 5 Gallon Eclipse Corner



## Sticky230 (Mar 30, 2008)

Looks good. Seems like you have some dwarf sag on the left side. You could also grow some wisteria in there successfully if you wanted. it makes a great background plant.


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## dlawlor (Oct 30, 2007)

Liking the new look, I remember when you set up your old tank, this is a great new direction I think


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## Gianne00 (May 15, 2008)

Sticky: The stuff on the left side are actually italian vals...they're wimpy right now because when I moved from the dorm to an apartment for the summer, a lot of their long leaves were broken halfway  I saw some wisteria for sale at the LFS, I might swing by when I have time and pick up some. It's such a pretty fine leaved plant!

dlawlor: Thanks! I like the new look too  The ottos are a lot braver because they have two caves to hide in (which they never do, lol) and the betta likes the extra swimming room in the front  The stinker ate my amano and ghost shrimp though, after living peacefully with them for over 5 months.


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## dlawlor (Oct 30, 2007)

probably because he could find them now :wink:

It's pretty ironic that you just re-scaped this though, I actually have an eclipse 5g-corner exactly like yours that I just re-did yesterday, that I had set up in like october or november, and I just logged on here for the first time in months and saw your post. maybe if I get a camera I'll put some pics up


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

Gianne00 said:


> I saw some wisteria for sale at the LFS, I might swing by when I have time and pick up some. It's such a pretty fine leaved plant!


wisteria leaves actually change shape depending on how much light they get , hence the name _hygrophila *difformis*_


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## denrama (Nov 2, 2007)

*Haaaaa.....*

I have the exact same time which was setup in the Month of November, 2007. 
Look at my planted nano.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/54144-newbies-nano-tank-5-gallons-2.html


I even have a lesser wattage. Only 10 Gallons, but I could able to get a dense coverage of plants. Thanks to Dwarf sag(I transferred it to my other betta bowl. Amazingly, it is still thriving in it without any light!! more that 20 days). I moved the Java fern, which out grew my tank. It is now slowly dying in my other bowl. I got sick of trimming the dwarf hygro...


PS: It used to house my other red crown tail betta, but unfortunately it is dead because of ick. It was too late for me to save it(I am a culprit! )


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

why is that shell in there? I would remove it unless it is used as shelter for some fish that cant part with it. Also, a way to get rid of the glare from flash: dont use flash, you might need to hold the camera really still, but it will look better:thumbsup:


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## denrama (Nov 2, 2007)

Why your plants don't look healthy though you have 15 watts on it?


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## Gianne00 (May 15, 2008)

dlawlor: Nice! I really like this tank. It's funny when things occur at similar times, despite great distance and not knowing each other. Some kind of "5 gallon corner tank rescape vibes?" lol!

clwatkins: I didn't know they changed shape  The latin names are always very descriptive, lol. What different shapes do they exhibit under different light conditions?

Oh, and the little shell...it's a little ceramic turtle I thought was adorable >,< It really shouldn't be in there, it destroys the stump/root thing, but...argh ok I'll take it out hahaha. The turtle is actually halfway in a cave that would benefit the ottos more I think.

denrama: Nice tank! Lots of growth in there  I am sorry about your betta though  Icky ick  The plants in my tank are actually pretty healthy, the anubias were half the size they were when I got them, and I trimmed away a lot of the bacopa and threw it out. The crypt shoots up a lot of leaves, but they tend to get a covering of algae that my ottos don't like to eat >.> The java ferns were originally one plant, then I split it into two. Maybe I need to play around with fertilizing and flourish excel to help my plants get a bigger boost...do you have any suggestions? The vals were a lot thicker and longer but a lot of their leaves were broken off when I moved, and it still hasn't recovered :/


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## CL (Mar 13, 2008)

the leaves lose the deep ridges in them and they start to look more like the leaves of a birch


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## denrama (Nov 2, 2007)

Gianne00 said:


> dlawlor: Nice! I really like this tank. It's funny when things occur at similar times, despite great distance and not knowing each other. Some kind of "5 gallon corner tank rescape vibes?" lol!
> 
> clwatkins: I didn't know they changed shape  The latin names are always very descriptive, lol. What different shapes do they exhibit under different light conditions?
> 
> ...



Oh Ok. Yeah, I forgot to inform you that I dose the tank with Flourish Excel, Flourish and Flourish Iron couple of times a week. I have one suggestion : if you need a thick growth, I would suggest you to get the dwarf hygro; it grows like a weed. I used to have a very healthy java fern, but I took it out as it is taking a lot of space in my tank. I need to trim my plants as they are already reached the top of my tank.


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## Gianne00 (May 15, 2008)

clwatkins: Thank you, very interesting...I wonder if they do this to increase photosynthesizing surface area without expending more energy in making a single leaf? Hmm...

denrama: I think I will implement a better fertilizing regime (inspired by your tank, lol!), and keep an eye out for dwarf hygro. It's going to take a while to get into the habit of it, lol. Thanks so much for your help!


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## Sticky230 (Mar 30, 2008)

wisteria will definately get bushy with ferts in that tank without a problem.

you could also look into pygmy chain swords(e.tenellus) for ground cover. I have a twelve gallon eclipse and have used excel, but it gets tiresome. i have started using the hagen co2 system with great results. even in low light. it also helps keeping algae down(do does an oto!)


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## Gianne00 (May 15, 2008)

hey guys, quick update on the tank...

Everything seems to be settling in nicely. The plants are rebounding, and the bacopa especially is straightening out into their places. The crypt in the back is fuller with a couple of new leaves and the java ferns and anubias have all grown a bit. However, there seems to be a weird white fungus thing on the new wood. A quick search of PT yielded that this seems to be a common occurrence of new wood, not many people know exactly what it is, and most recommend boiling/scrubbing/bleaching the wood prior to use. I boiled the darned thing for 4-5 hours...I can conclude that this didn't help >.>

It started looking so nasty that I pulled it out of the tank and scrubbed it all off. It STANK. I then noticed that the flow of my filter was much reduced, and I pulled that out and scrubbed out the intake tubes. It was filled with the slime! I replaced the filter media and even pulled up some of the bacopa stems that appeared to have the stuff on it too, and washed them gently.

All this was a couple of days ago and the slime/fungus/whatever it is appears to be receding. My tank still smells though. None of the inhabitants appear bothered. I started dosing it more regularly with ferts and I think there is a lot of improvement. I've been having difficulty tearing myself away to get to the LFS to buy that wisteria for the back of the tank, lol. I took the turtle out and put it in my friend's fish-only tank that I'm taking care of for the summer. 

I'm still in a toss-up as to what groundcover I want. Anyone have experience with four-leaf clover in a low-light tank? How tall does it get? Also in the cards are anchored mosses (not sure what kind) or pygmy chain swords (which I am afraid may get too tall).

Thanks all!


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## dlawlor (Oct 30, 2007)

You might be able to go with something like dwarf sag, I've got it in my tank and it seems to be doing OK with low-light and I imagine with your substrate you'd get pretty good results


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## Gianne00 (May 15, 2008)

Update!! It's been a while  The poor tank had to live through the summer then just two days ago was moved back in to the college dorm. I never did put in a groundcover, but I really like it the way it is...I think it's just going to slowly mature in this state for a while. Everything is growing like crazy.



























Winston flaring at my finger. Don't worry, Efiasatche is still alive, but in a bowl. I like to rotate them so they can all play in the 5 gallon


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