I decided I needed another tank for overflow purposes, or in case I have a fish or invert that needs to be moved out for whatever reason. So I dug out my 5g and basically threw it together. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. Other than the driftwood, everything else in it is unwanted or leftover stuff from other tanks.
The substrate is a mix of sand that I never used, plus some leftover gravel. I've never tried to plant in sand before, so we'll see.
The plants are ones that haven't worked out in other tanks. The wisteria was close to death after I yanked it out of another tank and left it floating in unheated water for over a month. Dwarf hairgrass drives me insane. The snails and cories are always uprooting it. Every morning I find clumps floating on the surface. Recently it got attacked by black beard algae. So I pulled out the infected clumps, dipped them in peroxide, and stuck them in the 5g. It's getting one last chance to wow me.
For the driftwood, I collected java moss and java fern leaves from other tanks. I can't bring myself to use glue, so I rubberbanded them on for now. I used a piece of cork to wedge in the java fern, which worked surprisingly well. More plants will be added later.
The tank cover actually belongs to a 10g tank, so it's a little big. It is super old and uses fluorescent bulbs, which I still happened to have. Do they even make these anymore? It will have to do for now.
The tank is cycled with media from another tank. So far, no inhabitants except a few ramshorn babies that were stuck in the hairgrass. Hopefully they survived the peroxide dip.
I thought I'd start a journal to track the progression. I figure it can't get much worse. Note the sad hairgrass and wisteria.
The substrate is a mix of sand that I never used, plus some leftover gravel. I've never tried to plant in sand before, so we'll see.
The plants are ones that haven't worked out in other tanks. The wisteria was close to death after I yanked it out of another tank and left it floating in unheated water for over a month. Dwarf hairgrass drives me insane. The snails and cories are always uprooting it. Every morning I find clumps floating on the surface. Recently it got attacked by black beard algae. So I pulled out the infected clumps, dipped them in peroxide, and stuck them in the 5g. It's getting one last chance to wow me.
For the driftwood, I collected java moss and java fern leaves from other tanks. I can't bring myself to use glue, so I rubberbanded them on for now. I used a piece of cork to wedge in the java fern, which worked surprisingly well. More plants will be added later.
The tank cover actually belongs to a 10g tank, so it's a little big. It is super old and uses fluorescent bulbs, which I still happened to have. Do they even make these anymore? It will have to do for now.
The tank is cycled with media from another tank. So far, no inhabitants except a few ramshorn babies that were stuck in the hairgrass. Hopefully they survived the peroxide dip.
I thought I'd start a journal to track the progression. I figure it can't get much worse. Note the sad hairgrass and wisteria.
