# My 5 gallon low tech



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

Hi Everyone,

I just re-entered the hobby after close to 3 years of absence. I would like to share my new planted tank. Low tech - low light this time. Too busy with work and i just got married  

Specs are

- 5 gallon tank 20cm x 40cm x 30cm
- Lights: 16 watts (iam using Amano's rule of lighting based on surface area)
- No filtration
- constant air curtain
*- plants*
- swords 
- Christmas moss (Philippine moss)
- water sprite i think (its called indian fern here) the back ground plant
- Bacopa Monieri
- Anubias tiny.. errr petite right?
- 11 hours of light
- I do tiny doses of trace elements twice to once a week, no macro ferts
*- Fauna*
- 7 serpaes
- 2 dwarf gouramis
- and some 10 odd or so shrimps... which grow big ... and have to be 
transferred to my pond when they do... 








3/4 view









frontal









feeder shrimps! tiny! but they are pets now.. not food!!!




















I do tiny doses of trace elements twice to once a week, no macro ferts

The Wisteria are growing like mad though... but not as mad as my old co2 highlight tank before... 

Thanks for looking!


Cheers

Benedict


----------



## Trallen44 (Dec 10, 2008)

Looks great!!


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

*tank update.. more plants!*

added Windelov and more anubias petite and drift woods!


----------



## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

Looking even better..a good scale of rock for the tank; the windelov against the dark wood is a nice highlight...pretty large scale fish for the space? How have the serpae been with the other fish as things get more filled in? They might appreciate a take down of the wisteria in the middle to give them another space to school...

Would you please explain the "constant air curtain"? Thanks


----------



## Alastair (Apr 20, 2009)

Looks nice..

I think the "constant air curtain" is the bubble curtain you can see at the rear of the tank.


----------



## cwinson85 (May 22, 2009)

nice little set up there. I was always under the impression that you didnt want to use air in a planted tank? seems to be working well for you! very cool little set up, i also love that its filter free!


----------



## oldpunk78 (Nov 1, 2008)

your tank looks good. maybe try some rocks that are a bit more jagged for a little bit more interest. also, ditch the air and get a AC 20. everyone will be happier.


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

Thanks guys 

@Fishydaze

The serpaes are a nusiance among themselves only. They are doing ok with the others.. yeah.. it is beyond the normal fishkeeping limit, I did this before though, overstocking as long as the tank is densely planted. they all seem happy and all their colors are glowing including the ramirezi's  The water sprite will be trimmed soon. its not as dense as the pic shows hehe

@ Oldpunk and cwinson85

Well, the air bubbles/curtain are more of an experiment. Since i am on low light and no co2, i pre-supposed that a diffused air bubble would be able to provide constant co2, albeit really really small quantities. I read somewhere that a constant bubble like that should give bewteen 5-10 ppm co2. I have yet to confirm it with a test.. will do around next week and post the result.


----------



## cwinson85 (May 22, 2009)

cool. ill be checking back let me know how it works out for ya.


----------



## Kayen (Oct 14, 2007)

nytowl83 said:


> Thanks guys
> 
> @Fishydaze
> 
> ...


An Aquaclear 20 filter, seeing as how you don't have a filter in there.


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

Oh i already have a canister filter running at the back resun cy-20 awfully effective for small tanks


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

cwinson85 said:


> cool. ill be checking back let me know how it works out for ya.


@cwinson
I tested my co2, its pretty much non existen, 2ppm max . Hehe. Plants are growing though. Iam shutting off the air bubble now. And recheck co2
@c


----------



## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

I would think an air curtain primarily also adds lots to surface circulation (pulling up from the bottom), increasing the whole tanks exposure: particularly good if pushing the overstocking just a little.

I think in your description, you only mentioned weekly ferts. People do tend to add a little Flourish Excel (carbon) daily to these little tanks, and something like Flourish Comprehensive or another full spectrum plant nutrient daily. But don't forget your original goal: low light/less work...

and, one more thought.... I am not sure if those are the smallest anubias, though of course it is hard to judge scale in photos of nano....maybe you have the 'mini', which I found in my tank to be a chunk larger then the 'nana petite'? If so, you might take advantage of that, and consider adding a few of the nana petites (leaves are generally the size of the tip of your pinky, smaller than a penny), and then play a little with the 'larger leaved plants in front' and 'smaller leaved plants in back' adding to a sense of depth in a small space...(like the fine grained wisteria in the back adds to that sense in what you have now, you could put some nana petites along the driftwood in the back and keep some of the slightly larger anubias in the front)


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

Hi Fishydaze,


The Anubias are supposedly all petite, but were grown emersed, hence the larger leaves, all of it came from 2 pots. The new leaves that are popping out are penny sizes... so far... hmmmm 

also an interesting thing, i had an anubias rhizome tucked under a drift wood (the middle green thing near the center bottom) it now has 4 tiny leaves that are growing by the daw.. and a few more sprouting out... i was expecting these guys to grow slower 

I was confident in taking out the air curtain coz my canister filter (small) is able to give a pretty good current all throughout the tank.

I am contemplating on dosing liquid carbon via gluraraldehyde, Liquid co2 from where iam at is quite expensive. But then it means i have to dose 3 times a week.

However according to Tom Bar, plants can adapt to low co2 environment by ummmm doing something to concentrate the available co2 thingy (paraphrasing here). Hence i dont wanna mess the plants adaption with adding liquid carbs unless iam sure i can do it on a regular basis

I am itching to rescape the tank and will do your suggestions.. but will wait for 2 more months, first time i did low light, i wanna compare shots from weeks apart 

Cheers

Ben


----------



## kvntran (Feb 16, 2008)

That's a great looking tank! I agree with Oldpunk, should use rocks that have a more features to make it more interesting.


----------



## fishydaze (May 1, 2009)

since you are contemplating the rescaping, here are some of the pnts that I have been gathering for consideration in my rescape; most are from the planted tank forum threads plus a little of my terra gardening experience; I will only note here the tips that I have gathered that are directed at increasing sense of depth/distance in nano...

1)think scale of the leaves for every plant choice...large leaved plants make it difficult to make the tiny space feel large (hygro sunset considered too large in one thread)
2)Hiding parts of rocks/plant groupings; having part of each rock hidden, having a plant grouping partially out of sight behind a rock (like your moss): this kind of layering adds to depth; One thread even said that you work the hardscape so that from whatever angle you are at, only part of each main rock should be seen; I am not sure about this one, but certainly like having plants lead out of sight behind rocks
3) smaller leaved, finer grained, and lighter colored things in the background fool our brains and add to sense of distance (like your swords being forward, maybe your anubias on the wood and the wisteria in back) 
4) sloping the substrate itself from low in front (some do 1 inch) up to high in back (4 inches) adds a lot to sense of depth (maybe should move this one to number one, it comes up pretty often)
5) having a clearing (stream bed type, or beach of gravel along the front), then layer plants from there gives you the most rise top to bottom, which you can divide into more layers, which will all add to the impression of depth/distance

Sorry for book :icon_eek:

Looking forward to seeing picture updates


----------



## Eclipse390 (Feb 9, 2009)

That tank is beautiful!


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

@Eclipes

thanks! 

@Fishydaze,

The tips make perfect sense. I will have to list my plants down and source it this time. what i did before was just grab a bunch of readily available plants and then make do with what i have  

I really shouldve sloped the substrate.... but i was LAZY... no. 5.) will be hard but makes great sense.

I will be rescaping this after two months. I have been dosing the tank with glutaraldehyde for a week and a half to see any difference... The water sprites are growing crazy (not that it hasnt) but grew a different leaf structure... i dont like it. I will revamp this tank after 2 months once iam happy that i can familiarize my self with a low light setup.

Iam doing a 20 gallon low light low tech now... will post it in this forum as well 

Thanks for the tips Fishydaze !


----------



## mdfa.ca (Apr 27, 2009)

Thank you for posting your tank - it looks lovely and gives the impression of a lot of space. I'll be following your rescaping with abated breath - I too have a low tech 5 Gal with 6 Serpaes in it, but have to shamefully admit the landscaping in it, well, sucks big time. I really need some pointers. 

Margaret.


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

I took out one amazon sword and cut the bottom halves of the dwarf bacopa to create some space.. Was having trouble with diatoms due in part to me not measuring my dry doses (once per 2 weeks) now that ive got a proper formulation i'am doing it once per week.



















I am kinda lazy in doing a full rescape  will do little changes from time to time.

I have a favoritism with water sprites, they are like a loyal and tough dog... they never fail you! 

And i shall replace the rock with something more suitable soon


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

rock change!


----------



## m189 (Apr 27, 2009)

*Overstocked???*

I can't help but keep thinking your tank is overstocked. I have a very similar heavily planted low light tank with one female betta and 3 tiny glowlight tetras and I felt I was pushing it. I always wanted to add some snails (MTS for substrate + ramshorns for algae and other cleanup), but I was afraid I'd be overstocked. Is everything still going well with your tank? If so, your tank gives me new hope that I could add a few more critters or maybe increase my school of glowlights up to 5 or 6 fish. 

At first you wrote that the tank is filterless, but in a later post you said you had a cannister attached (and I'm pretty sure I see a return tube on the right side). Mine is filterless. I Just plants for me ...so on second thought I probably shouldn't add to my tank unless yours really is filterless. Hmmm. 

Almost forgot....love your tank. I love these heavily small+planted+low light=cheap + gorgeous tanks.


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

it is overstocked!! 

7 serpaes
2 dwarf gouramis
1 bristlenose 
1 blue ram
7 shrimps... they arent the algae eating type, they are feeder shrimps that i decided to become my pets, hence larger than your average RCS

yup i added a canister filter when i decided to add fish, initially i didnt want fish but since i was on a non-co2 method and very low ferts i thought the fish waste would help the plants

they are all healthy no sign of ammonia poisoning (as in the paranoid fish reactions). but aside from that i base my "heathly" status on eyeballing only.

Thanks for the compliment


----------



## Aquarist_Fist (Jul 22, 2008)

Surface agitation should not make in the CO2 level if any difference if there is no CO2 feed. If this were the case, there'd be no CO2 left in the tank at some point, which is clearly not the case.

This tank looks good. But it is seriously overstocked. You can't have a bristlenose OR the tetras OR a ram in a tank like this.


----------



## Strick (Apr 6, 2009)

That is beautiful! I wouldn't change a thing!


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

Aquarist_Fist said:


> Surface agitation should not make in the CO2 level if any difference if there is no CO2 feed. If this were the case, there'd be no CO2 left in the tank at some point, which is clearly not the case.
> 
> This tank looks good. But it is seriously overstocked. You can't have a bristlenose OR the tetras OR a ram in a tank like this.


Thanks for the compliment

hmmm i might just leave the serpaes in and pluck out the ram and the bristlenose and plop in an oto instead. 

I might also take out the bacopas to have an open space at the right side


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

reduced the water sprite... it has grown several time over its original size even with no co2 and once per 2 weeks of few ferts.

Also added a few driftwoods


----------



## nytowl83 (Jan 15, 2006)

placed gex subastrate on the foreground to contrast the rocks ive placed


----------

