# plant advice for a 5 gallon hex



## hmls (Oct 11, 2007)

Hello,

I have a 5 gallon hex tank that I'd like to set up el natural. It is an Eclipse tank with a 10 watt, 5500K compact fluorescent bulb in the hood. It is in a room that gets a lot of light, but it isn't all that close to a window. I have been looking at a lot of plants trying to figure out what to put in there and I must say, I'm a bit overwhelmed (I'm really new to fish and haven't done any plants). I'm having a hard time figuring out what stays short and what would get too tall for my tank. I like dwarf sag and hemianthus micranthemoides and think they would work for the front of the tank although I am not clear on how tall the dwarf sag gets. Otherwise, I am looking at anubias, ludwiga repens, corkscrew val, java fern, and sunset hygro. I like limnophila sessiliflora too but it seems like it might be hard to get?

So, I'm getting to a question here, really. Of the plants I mentioned, will any of them get to tall for my tank? I figure I've got about 12" to work with. Will they all do OK with the amount of light? Are any of them not good beginner plants? And finally, any suggestions on what to put where? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Heather


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

All plants grow and will eventually need to be pruned, some sooner than others. So I am not quite sure how to answer your question. The V. spiralis, I would not use with that tank since it naturally is a tall plant. Otherwise, the stems will all eventually need pruning. The Anubias, some get tall, others don't - petite nanas are quite short, nanas can eventually take up quite a large footprint as well. You might want to look through the plantfinder here on the site to get some more info on particular plants you're interested in. HTH.


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## j_m_lizard (Oct 16, 2007)

I'm a huge fan of Crypt balansae... and it would look good in that tank. Streaming up through the water column, and floating across the top just a bit... oh yeah, that'd be nice. Beautiful plant, and it can do well in almost any conditions, I've found.

Also, I'd go with some driftwood with some javafern, some type of moss, and/or Anubius on it.

Just some ideas. Good luck!

-Jared


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## SimplyOrange (Oct 5, 2007)

(narrow leaf) chain swords are around 4inches at least mine are. grows fairly fast. i see a new runner every few days. 

checkout plantgeek.com for some info.

but i do love the look of crypts in bunches and running along the surface. it reminds me of a kelp forest.


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## Mud Pie Mama (Jul 30, 2006)

Hello, I have the Eclipse 5g Hex and I've been growing plants in it for around a year. I've changed the scape probably four times.

The light that comes with it will grow plants; HOWEVER only low light plants. The light is also forced over the front half of the hex due to the top mounted filter and bio-wheel. I've found this makes the back area hard for anything but very low light plants. Front: low light. Back: very low light. It really is true that the watts per gallon rule breaks down on smaller tanks. Generally you need much more light over anything 10g and under. There will be no need to change this bulb to anything lower.

Eventually I became unhappy of the limitations because of the uneven and low light that I've totally trashed the top. I now have the hex tank with an Aquaclear 20 HOB filter and a 27w daylight (quad tube CF 6500k) desk-top lamp over the open top. Now mostly the whole area is open for for planting and I can grow more varieties of plants.

With just the stock bulb the only stems I found did well were _Bacopa australis_ and _Hemianthus micranthemoides_. The Hm slowly grew tall enough to use mid-level or in the back. However, I did better with upright driftwood and growing Java moss (especially Singapore Moss - regular java gets straggly so fast) for a tall background due to the low light level. Regular Java fern also is a bit too large, I liked the Lace-leaf Java Fern - _Microsorum pteropus _'Windelov'. The same with many of the various Cryptocorynes growing too large. I really like _Cryptocoryne x willisii_ 'lucens' and _Cryptocoryne wendtii _'Green Gecko'.


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## j_m_lizard (Oct 16, 2007)

I'd suggest you listen to MudPieMama, and just use one of those great little $20 Home Depot 27 watt CF desk lamps. Really, it might sound like overkill, but it's not... it would be a great light source even without CO2. You might need to add Excel, but not much, and it's petty cheep when dosing a nano - I know you want to go El Natural, but even Walstead has said that she's cool with Excel.

Keep in mind, with nano plant tanks, you kind of have to toss the Watts Per Gallon idea (not that it was ever that great of a gauge anyway). 27 watt CF is high light on a 1-3 gallon aquarium, but only moderate light on a tall 5 gallon hex. Anyway, i think it'd be a good investment, at $20, to ensure you can actually grow plants, and not just keep them alive for a few weeks at a time.

-Jared


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## mikenas102 (Feb 8, 2006)

You could always just stick with those lights and do a moss only or a moss/petite nana tank. Simplicity can be a beautiful thing. Besides, constant trimming is not all it's cracked up to be.


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## gheitman (Aug 18, 2007)

I've grown plants in the Eclipse Hex 5 using the 10W CF bulb. The plants I had do well for me include dwarf sags, Cryptocoryne wendtii and sunset hygro. I suspect that some of the smaller Anubias as well as Java fern would do well too. I used sand as a substrate and I did dose with Flourish Tabs, Flourish and Flourish Excel. As Mud Pie Mama said, the back of the tank gets much lower light because it is obstructed by the filter mechanism in the hood. I've attached a pic for your reference.


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## hmls (Oct 11, 2007)

Wow, thank you for the replies, you've given me much to think about. I had decided on dwarf hairgrass, echinodorus tenellus, hemianthus micranthemoides, rotala indica, bacopa caroliniana, and nuphar japonica but I'm not dead set on any of them. I saw a picture of a tank I liked and was trying to adapt the look to my own tank.

SimplyOrange - Thanks for the plantgeek.com reference! I wish I had found that a few weeks ago, very helpful.

Mud Pie Mama - It is nice to hear from someone that has the same tank. I kinda figured that the hood configuration would cause some problems in the back but I didn't realize that the watts/gallon thing breaks down for small tanks so it's even worse than I thought. Do you have a top on the tank at all now? It seems like there would be a lot of evaporation without a top. Any chance of getting a picture of your setup?

mikenas102 - I like the idea of a moss/petite nana tank but I kinda want plants for the fish to swim in too.


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