2.5 Planted Journal

[atmmachine816]

Sorry up front there will be no pictures due to no digital camera, sorry. Anyways I got my mom to let me setup my sisters 2.5 gallon mini-bowl Pic, except her's is green. I took out the whisper filter and put in a Lee's Corner Filter which so far works nicely. I then took out the 15w incadescent bulb and put in a 10w compact fluescent bulb. Then from the bulbing of the filter I took the lid to my floating breeding box and floated it right were the bulbles come up so they no longer pop and the hood no longer collects the moisture. I honestly like the bulbing but don't like the moisture collecting in the hood. I added green and black gravel to match the tank (sister's choice), added a sunken anchor (again sister's choice), and so far have some anarchis floating and in the gravel. I leave the light on for about hours a day and liquid ferts weekly and water changes daily. Wednsday I'm going up to my lfs and seeing if they got a cryps or anubias in or some other plant that I could grow, hopefully they do. As soon as I have it the way I want it I'm getting a betta for my sister then either a few ghost shrimp, a adf, or a mystery snail. What do you think? Any questions?

Any suggestions, comments?

Austin

 

[Ginge]

Sorry up front there will be no pictures due to no digital camera, sorry. Anyways I got my mom to let me setup my sisters 2.5 gallon mini-bowl Pic, except her's is green. I took out the whisper filter and put in a Lee's Corner Filter which so far works nicely. I then took out the 15w incadescent bulb and put in a 10w compact fluescent bulb. Then from the bulbing of the filter I took the lid to my floating breeding box and floated it right were the bulbles come up so they no longer pop and the hood no longer collects the moisture. I honestly like the bulbing but don't like the moisture collecting in the hood. I added green and black gravel to match the tank (sister's choice), added a sunken anchor (again sister's choice), and so far have some anarchis floating and in the gravel. I leave the light on for about hours a day and liquid ferts weekly and water changes daily. Wednsday I'm going up to my lfs and seeing if they got a cryps or anubias in or some other plant that I could grow, hopefully they do. As soon as I have it the way I want it I'm getting a betta for my sister then either a few ghost shrimp, a adf, or a mystery snail. What do you think? Any questions?

Any suggestions, comments?

Austin

You have 4wpg dont you, shouldnt you be using Co2?

 

[Themuleous]

With 4WPG over a 2.5g tank I dont think CO2 is 100% necessary but its always worth adding it anyway.

 

[atmmachine816]

I had tried co2 earlier on a 10 gallon and I had a leak and kept getting the recipe wrong since I always found different ones. So far I haven't had any algae growth except on the air line tubing.

 

[atmmachine816]

Today I got a gold mystery snail and a crypt for it. They had banana plants and water hycanth (spelling). I'm going to research them, can anybody tell me anything about them?

Austin

 

[atmmachine816]

When I did my daily water change today I notice less than 1/4 inch small white worm like things swimming in my tank. What are these? Please help

 

[unspoken930]

The banana plants shoot up lily pads that will soon dominate the surface of the tank. Mine produces 2 lilypads per week (one gets fully grown, the other is just starting to open up) so 2 lilypads in your 2.5 (i have the tank your talkin about) is going to completely cover the surface... i loveee the plants though. I duno about theother plant. And the worms are planaria and i dont believe that hurt anything and the fish like to eat them.
Hope i could help

 

[atmmachine816]

Ok yes you helped a lot thanks. My nitrites are still to high but I got my ammonia down. I was told they won't go away with just water changes so I was wondering if you know of any good water conditioners to remove it. Also can somebody tell me a good co2 recipe.

Thanks

Austin

 

[unspoken930]

Is there anyway you can take the snail out and just cycle the tank (fishless) becuase water changes arent going to remove anything when you have something creating ammonia every time you take it out, and as for as i know, ammonia is poisen to all animals, so basically your slowly killing the snail. Move the snail to another tank (if youve got one) and leave a 1-2 inch gap at the top so the snail can get out of the water (many websites tell people to do this) but be carefull, snails escape out of everything.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=73365
That link tells you how to fishless cycle.

 

[Jen]

A little off topic here... I have that tank, but in a 5g. I want to plant mine up too. How did you get a pc light into that hood?!?

 

[atmmachine816]

Jen do you mean a compact fluescent bulb because if you do that's the type I have but you can also buy cheaper ones at wal-mart(cost that is, maybe quality too I don't know). Unspoken, the ammonia was at 0 for over a week after I added the snail and the nitrites are down now too, I believe my cycle is finally done too. Is it absolutely necesarry to leave a 1-2 inch gap because if I do then the water won't be up the the water line on my heater and being a kid I don't have the money to go and buy a 30$ fully submergible heater at the moment so that's not an option. O and I found out about the other plant and I'm definatly not going to get it. Jen what type of plants do you plan on planing in your tank.

 

[atmmachine816]

Ok I have a crypt that's growing massive now and my anarchis is taking over but all of a sudden I'm getting a ton of algae, any idea why this is because for a long time, no algae and all of a sudden ALGAE. I'm looking for different plants but so far no such luck. Just out of curiosity some of my anarchis sends out little runners half way up my plant down into the gravel, why is this? Is it to get more nutrients?

Austin

 

[voo]

How long do you leave the light on for each day?
Are you using any fertilisers?

What's you're ammonia levels? Have you added any fish recently?

 

[atmmachine816]

6-7 Hours each day, I don't have a timer for it yet working on getting one. Yes I use tetra pride liquid fertiliser because it's cheap and comes in large quantities by me but I dose every other week since I don't have any demanding plants in there yet since I can't find any. Ammonia is zero. Just added some sick neon tetras in it recently.