# 5 gallon stereotypical low light tank.



## KeIgO86 (Jun 23, 2005)

Yes, its another one of those low light (9W PC), no CO2, lazy man tanks. What a cliche. Its set up beside my computer. Its home to 10 cherry shrimps and 4 oto cats. Hopefully the shrimp babies will be coming soon.

Enjoy.


----------



## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

That is beautiful!

Is that in your office or in your house? What do you do to keep the algae away? 

I would love to hear the details. It looks like a perfect planted aquarium!
:yo:


----------



## KeIgO86 (Jun 23, 2005)

Thanks for the compliments. Its at home. Its just started for a week or so, so I can't really say how I keep algae away. 

Anyway, I'm running 9W over 5 gallons for 12hours per day. That's pretty little light. Also, with only shrimps and otos, bioload is pretty low. I'm also feeding very little. Perhaps only a tiny pice of algae waffer a week to keep ammonia levels at bay. So I won't be expecting much algae. Any small amount of them will be handled by my otos and shrimps. Of course, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I've added the recommended dosage of seachem flourish and roughly 10ppm nitrate and 3ppm phosphate into the tank on day 1. I don't intend to add any more until the next water change, which would be in about a month's time. With that low amount of light and slow growing plants, I don't expect the plants to grow much anyway. Its my intention for this tank to withstand weeks or perhaps even months of neglect and still remain algae free and have no need for any trimming.

You may observe some algae on the anubias. That is because I got them from another planted tank. Cheers.


----------



## joephys (May 9, 2006)

Looks great, any chance you give a plant list?


----------



## KeIgO86 (Jun 23, 2005)

Here's the plants:
-Anubias barteri var. nana
-Microsorum pteropus
-Echinodorus tenellus 'mini' (Not sure. That's what the shop owner told me.)
-Cladophora aegagropila
-Unknown algae on wood. Looks similar to Cladophora aegagropila though.


----------



## joephys (May 9, 2006)

Thanks!


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Sometimes simple is the best... Looks great!... Keep us updated on the progress.


----------



## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

On a tank so small, why do you need to do a water change or a filter? 
Don't the plants clean the water? 
And if your house is like mine it is warm in the summer and cold in the winter. In the winter I can see circulating the water to keep the plants warm with a heater, but other than that - why do you need it?

Just curious.
:yo:


----------



## KeIgO86 (Jun 23, 2005)

Jimbo205 said:


> On a tank so small, why do you need to do a water change or a filter?
> Don't the plants clean the water?
> And if your house is like mine it is warm in the summer and cold in the winter. In the winter I can see circulating the water to keep the plants warm with a heater, but other than that - why do you need it?
> 
> ...


Well, let's just say I prefer to be on the safe side. There's a saying "Singaporeans are 'kiasu'". The direct translation for the singaporean dialect term "kiasu" is scared to lose. Well, I'm a Singaporean. 

Any ammonia occuring from any deaths in the tank will be quickly dealt with by the filter before any algae can kick in. I'm also assured that aeration will not be an issue. It will also enable the tank to withstand more neglect as compared to if its running without a filter. Furthermore, it isn't much trouble or cost at all setting up a HOB filter.

As for the water change, again, on the safe side. Shrimps are very sensitive especially to heavy metals like copper in flourish. So I'll have a water change before each dose to "reset" any unused nutrients in the water.



trenac said:


> Sometimes simple is the best... Looks great!... Keep us updated on the progress.


Thanks. It would be my pleasure to do so.


----------



## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

Keep an eye on the ottos and make sure they're getting enough to eat. Four ottos that are constantly grazing in a 5 gallon tank are sure to run out of food fast. Sticking in boiled cucumber or zucchini for about 4-5 hours a day and then taking it out shouldn't mess with your water, and you'll ensure that the ottos aren't going hungry.


----------



## Jubs (Mar 24, 2006)

Looks great!


----------



## KeIgO86 (Jun 23, 2005)

erijnal said:


> Keep an eye on the ottos and make sure they're getting enough to eat. Four ottos that are constantly grazing in a 5 gallon tank are sure to run out of food fast. Sticking in boiled cucumber or zucchini for about 4-5 hours a day and then taking it out shouldn't mess with your water, and you'll ensure that the ottos aren't going hungry.


Not to worry. I regularly dump in algae waffers into the tank to make sure the otos and many many shrimplets are well fed.

Anyway, I'm starting to get a little bba on my anubias.  Guess its excel spot treatment time.


----------



## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

> Sticking in boiled cucumber or zucchini for about 4-5 hours a day and then taking it out shouldn't mess with your water, and you'll ensure that the ottos aren't going hungry.


I have never heard of such a thing before in a tank. Please teach me something new!

Keig086 - when you say spot treatment. How do you do it?


----------



## KeIgO86 (Jun 23, 2005)

get those cheap n soft plastic syringes found in school chemical labs. If i'm not wrong, seachem excel now does provide a syringe within its bottle. suck up some excel, aim directly onto the bba and squirt! should turn bba into rba (red beard algae) in 2 days. It'll then die off in another few days.

this way I do not need to endanger the lives of the fauna by excessive overdosing of excel to kill algae.


----------



## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

Do you remove the plant from the aquarium before doing that I assume? Do you wrap it in wet newspaper? 

And what's the thing with cuccumber or zucchini?


----------

