Will a 5 Gallon be too small for what I want?

[szidlon]

Well, since I have all these great plants I picked up today, I've decided to try a very small, planted tank. One of the plants is a Cardamine lyrata, which from what I've can find out, needs high light. I have a five gallon sitting around that has an incandescent bulb that can be replaced with a compact fluorescent. I did that once, but it almost blinded the fish , so I took it out.

I'm thinking about black sand, the cardamine, some narrow leaf java and maybe some yellow shrimp. Since you could put all of my plant and shrimp knowledge on the tip of a pin, I really don't know where to start, except by asking beginner questions .

[mahoro]

home depot sells this full spec light.. i call it the robocop light... its 27 watts... perfect for tank 5 - 10g and its only 20 bucks... you could try that... you going to use co2? most high light plant will need co2... and high light without co2 will cost a lot of algea problem in the near future as well.. what filter will be used? if this is shirmp only tank.. you can go for one of those mini cascade internal powerfilter/sponge and you can hook the co2 into that...

[szidlon]

I had not planned on using co2, as of yet. This is more of an experimental tank for me to see if I do better with plants in a smaller environment. The only high light plant in there as of now will be the cardamine and I'm still thinking about rehoming it.

I was going to use a small sponge filter but I do have a small hob that is for a 10 I can us as well. What about a heater? I have one, but would it be necessary with plants and shrimp only. I keep my house about 73 in the winter.

[eklikewhoa]

I would try and use a heater but when I had my 5g running there was no heater and I kept the house at 70-71f.

For lighting I would go with the shop light or desk lamp from either Home Depot or other hardware store which is a mini quad bulb at 27w. Then does with Excel. I kept RCS and moss in my tank and it grew plants great!

[wesleydnunder]

If you keep your home above 70 degrees you won't need a heater. If you decide to go with the HOB you'll need to put a sponge on the intake. I don't use excel or co2 in either of my shrimp tanks...only low to med lt plants in them.

Mark

[Astex]

home depot sells this full spec light.. i call it the robocop light... its 27 watts... perfect for tank 5 - 10g and its only 20 bucks...

Can you give more specific details on this light? I have a 10g I would like to get a stronger light on.

[szidlon]

Yes, can either mahoro or ek, give me a more expanded description of the light at Home Depot? I was planning on using Excel since it will be a small tank. I'm breaking my self made rule when I moved to not have any tanks beyond the common area. This one will be in my office, so once the rule falls, there will be no going back.

If it will be an open tank I will need to put some eggcrate on the top. If not, I will have cats playing in it all day long. For some reason they think they are natural born fishermen. I'm always running them off the top of my bowfronts for playing in the hob flow.

[mahoro]

i can't find it on their website.. but hampton makes it... it kind of looks like robo cop, bulkyish... but it does the job... 20 bucks.. full spectrum... walmart also has the 27watt desk lamp.. it does look better but it cost around 8 bucks more... theres whole bunch full spec desk lamps out there it just depends on how much you want to dish out...

[eklikewhoa]

I wouldn't use it on anything bigger then a 5g IME.

This is the 27w quad I was referring to.


Borrowed from plantedtank.net

Another image on the web

Oh man they make a 65w one now too!

[mahoro]

i use it on my 10g and i use 2 on my 20l they all works really well i did at one point had a nice carpet of HC.. but that died off once i stop using co2...

[eklikewhoa]

Hmmm... I guess.

I ran 54w over my 5g and still wasn't completely satisfied.

[szidlon]

Ok,I will go out looking today or tomorrow, thanks!

[manifresh006]

Yeah i have used that bulb too before its GREAT!!!!!

[lachupacabra]

this is the hampton bay lamp 27w 65000K full spectrum. Found it on the planted tank (http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/di...bay-light.html)



I have that over a 5.5 with .6ml of excel everyday except sunday. I'm growing all kinds of plants including limnophila aromatica, which is considered a med-high light plant. I'm aso keeping shrimp in there and its just fine.


as for the plant you have according to TPT it can be kept in low light too, but would probably grow slower.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/myplants/45-Cardamine_Cardamine_lyrata.html

[mahoro]

there we go.. the robo cop light... no one else thinks it looks like robo cop??