I have an empty 5 1/2 gal and was thinking about making it a planted tank. It will have two 10 watt cf bulbs from walmart aquarium section, a whisper hob filter and either play sand or black tahitian moon sand. I know I want to have it be a low tech tank with no co2. Im thinking about some cherry algae shrimp, maybe some sort of snails and six galaxy rasboras. What are some good plants I could use for this setup? Also does this stock sound fine or any other recomendations? Thanks for any help.
What to put in my 5 1/2 gallon??
- Thread starter Scottyk1217
- Start date
If you want to plant things in the substrate, I'd recommend against the sand idea. It compacts together and will choke out the stems of your plants.
I use top soil (plain top soil, you can buy it at walmart or lowes) with pea gravel (also bought at lowes or on top. It's much cheaper and nice looking too.
Anubias, wisteria, water sprite, small vals, sagitarrian grass. Hornwort would work too, just let it free-float, and then you could use your sand like you want, and jsut have a huge mass of hornwort.
I use top soil (plain top soil, you can buy it at walmart or lowes) with pea gravel (also bought at lowes or on top. It's much cheaper and nice looking too.
Anubias, wisteria, water sprite, small vals, sagitarrian grass. Hornwort would work too, just let it free-float, and then you could use your sand like you want, and jsut have a huge mass of hornwort.
anubias and java fern are always a good place to start with a low-light tank, and so is cryptocoryne ... and I agree with above, not a fan of sand as a plant substrate ...
Thanks for the input. Do you just put the top soil in then pea gravel on top of it?What do you think about the stock ive picked?
Well, if you want the shrimp to be active and breed, I'd dedicate the tank to just the shrimp and maybe one mystery snail but wait until the tank is well established before adding the snail.
I use top soil (about 2 inches) and then pea gravel over top of it (just enough to cover the soil well enough to prevent it from being kicked up by the filter flow.) I put in the top soil, in sections, putting the plants in and filling in the soil around it, then laying the pea gravel around it (all while the tank is dry, this makes it much easier to plant.)
If you want fish, then go with the raspboras, but honestly, I have a 10 gallon planted tank that is very active and good looking with just the shrimp. I enjoy it very much, maybe even more than my 90 or 125 gallon!
I use top soil (about 2 inches) and then pea gravel over top of it (just enough to cover the soil well enough to prevent it from being kicked up by the filter flow.) I put in the top soil, in sections, putting the plants in and filling in the soil around it, then laying the pea gravel around it (all while the tank is dry, this makes it much easier to plant.)
If you want fish, then go with the raspboras, but honestly, I have a 10 gallon planted tank that is very active and good looking with just the shrimp. I enjoy it very much, maybe even more than my 90 or 125 gallon!
I have better luck putting my pea gravel on top of plant-specific substrates ... this is often called "capping"
as an example, I had a planted tank using flourite ... there was constant disturbance of the flourite, and red dust got on the plant leaves and driftwood ... I recently "capped" the flourite with pea gravel, and problem solved ...
as an example, I had a planted tank using flourite ... there was constant disturbance of the flourite, and red dust got on the plant leaves and driftwood ... I recently "capped" the flourite with pea gravel, and problem solved ...
Christmas moss, Taiwan moss, Phenoix moss, java moss....
Anubias nana (peite)
Baby Tears (NOT DWARF)
Banana plant
Anubias nana (peite)
Baby Tears (NOT DWARF)
Banana plant