Planted 5 gal Hex

[KarenElissa]

Anyone have a planted 5 gallon hex tank? I have my Betta in one and want to plant it. But I have a couple of questions.

First, lighting. I've tired reading about this, but I'm a little confused. From what I understand I would need a special bulb, the regular incandescent that came with the tank won't work. But will a regular florescent work? Or do I need one of those special plant bulbs? And if I do, has anyone had any luck finding one that is the regular screw in type, but longer and skinny? The only other option I can come up with is take the front of the hood off and use a lamp. But I'd rather not unless I have to.

Also I bought some Flourish, but the dosing if 5mL for a 60 gal tank. That would be .41mL in my 5 gal tank. Anyone have any idea how to measure that? And how exact do I need to be? Would .5mL be ok?

Thanks for the help! And any other suggestions are always welcome!

Karen

[ThePBM]

any compact fluorescent light (CFL) that has a color temp of 6500k would be fine. They are the ones that have the standard screw in but the top of the bulb is a coiled tube. they also come in longer ones with U shaped tubes instead of coils. you should be able to find those bulbs at walmart, home depot, lowes, etc.

[feemia]

A 13-15 watt compact flourescent bulb will be plenty of light. I have a 14 watt in my planted 5 gallon hex.

I bought a set of measuring spoons from here for my smaller planted tanks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-Measuring-Spoon-5-piece-Set-Stainless-Steel-NEW_W0QQitemZ110126391129QQihZ001QQcategoryZ25358Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The sizes in the set range from 1/4 - 1/64 of a teaspoon. .41 ml is 1/12 tsp. I use the 1/16 (pinch) measuring spoon from this set for my 5 gallon.

[magakitty]

I use a 15 watt 50/50 bulb for my 5 hex, and on the measurement question, I have syringes from the drugstore that measure increments of ml. Ask for the type you give babies cough medicine with

[Kyohti]

I have a 5 gallon planted mini-bow aquarium myself.

I went with easy low-light plants because the only flourescents I could find locally were 11 watts. I dose Tetra Flora-Pride and Hagen Plant-Gro for my tank's ferts. They're easy for me to dose and easy to come by in my area.

I have common and needle-leaf java fern, hygrophila (polysperma?), flame moss, and some lovely Alternanthera reineckii. I'm wanting to add some anubias coffefolia soon as well.

My substrate is a plain mix of small and fine grade gravel. Nothing fancy. It took some of my medium-light plants some time to adjust, but everything's growing quite well and has survived three different redecorating stints.

I currently have 1 male CT betta, a shoal of 7 neons, one spotted ramshorn and one jade green mystery snail in my tank. Everybody's doing very well and the tank has been established since April, I believe.

This was how the tank looked the first time. I'm working on getting a new USB cable to show the 2nd and 3rd renovations. :)

[TwoTankAmin]

Flourish used to come with a ml dropper enclosed inside the bottle. The dropper has marks for dif amounts of a ml on it.

[br553]

I have a 5g hex that I keep my betta in. I am using a 13 watt screw-in fluorescent. It's not a 6500k bulb, but it is a soft white. The plants don't seem to mind. Here is a picture of the tank from about a month and a half ago
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e330/br553/busterhome.jpg

[ThePBM]

Frankly, the plants don't seem to mind because it appears they get sunlight. Soft white is around the 2500k range i believe which probably does nothing for the plants.

[br553]

I suppose that's possible, but they only get about 1.5-2 hours direct sunlight in the late afternoon and that's only if I have the blinds open. I would have thought the plants would not be doing as well if the bulb provided little and the sun is providing most of the daily energy during that 2 hours. If the blinds are closed, only small parts of the tank get any signifigant sunlight. I should add that I have noticed that when the blinds are open, I've notice pearling, sometimes streaming, during that 2 hour "window" of sunlight.
This may be a dumb question, but will 2 WPG work for hybrid apons? I do have a 10 watt daylight bulb I could put in.

[Andrew.]

Is it the Eclipse Hex, I suppose? Not too hard to have it planted. You can go to Petsmart or Petco and buy one of the CFL bulbs for around $8-15. I believe it is somewhere around 6xxxk as well. It works quite well. I also believe it is 15w which is fine for the Eclipse.

Also, if it is the Eclipse, the back part of the aquarium is usually quite darker than the front, because of the filtration hood. I would avoid planting back there and stick to the front "half" of the aquarium, anything underneath the portion where the hood comes off.

[Kyohti]

Frankly, the plants don't seem to mind because it appears they get sunlight. Soft white is around the 2500k range i believe which probably does nothing for the plants.

Mine's a plain screw in 11-watt fluorescent and I have no natural light in my kitchen. There's a wall between it and the livingroom and no windows (it's located on the internal walls of the apartment, the livingroom and bedrooms are located with the outer walls).

My plants are doing quite well.

[KarenElissa]

I don't have the Eclipse Hex, I have an Aqua-Tech, which I think it pretty much the same, but the cheap one from Wal-Mart.

I looked at Pet Smart yesterday and they had some incandescent bulbs, but nothing for plants. And BIG florescent bulbs for plants, but nothing that would even come close to fitting.

I looked at Wal-Mart and they have a CFL, but I couldn't find any numbers on it and it didn't say anything about for plants.

And I looked at Home Depot and didn't find anything that would fit my current light, but found some plant light bulbs that screw in to a regular light, but nothing longish and skinny.

I am now thinking about getting a small clip on light, then I think I would be able to aim it towards the back and grow plants back there, right?

Also, on the watts, on the CFL lights they say something like 10W (40 W equivalant). So is the 10 W too big? And how many watts is too much for my tank? Also will it be different it is a clip on type light since more light would be going into the room too?

Oh, and thanks for the syringe tip for the Flourish, I'll pick one up.

Thanks again!

[Sammie7]

When talking about WPG, we are talking about fluorescent light watts, not incandescent. Incandescent light does nothing for plants. A 10 watt is low light for a 5 hex. Even though in the WPG equation it would be 2 watts per gallon, the WPG rule breaks down in smaller and larger tanks out of the 20G-90G range. Also, the 10W (40W) equivalent just means that that bulb (fluorescent) uses less energy than an incandescent bulb with the same light output. Incandescent bulbs are highly inefficient and most of the energy used goes into producing heat with little light. So for far less heat output and energy usage you can have a bulb that puts out much more light. This is why you may see promotions for Energy smart CF bulbs in stores now.

In my Aqua-Tech 5 hex, I have a 10 watt CF bulb found in the fish section of Walmart. The plants that are in this tank are in my signature.

[magakitty]

my 15 w 50/50 came from the fish store.

[KarenElissa]

So something like a 20/25w bulb would be better for a wider variety of plants?

[KarenElissa]

Oh, and what would be considered high light? And what would be just too much?

Thanks!

[Sammie7]

So something like a 20/25w bulb would be better for a wider variety of plants?

Sure would, but the only issue is how you are gonna get that light over that tank. You'd have to build your own hood, and probably do fertilizers and CO2 addition. I wouldn't know as I haven't tried.

I'm not too sure on what the high light barrier would be on such a small tank, but I think 25 watts would be just fine to grow many plants.

[KarenElissa]

I was thinking about a little clip on light pointed at the top?

[Sammie7]

Pointed at the top? I'm sure a desk light would fine, as long as it's fluorescent light. Would the tank be getting any ambient light from a nearby window? That would also add light for the tank.

[KarenElissa]

ya, it seems to be pretty easy to find CF bulbs to fit your regular socket so I figure that might be easier that finding a bulb to fit my hood since I haven't had much luck with that so far.

And it gets little to no light from outside. I get pretty much no direct sunlight in my apartment and only a little light other wise, so that isn't going to help much. It seems pretty dim in the tank when I turn all the lights off.

[Sammie7]

Yea, just make sure not to go over the recommended max wattage for the hood, as the lights get very hot and could melt the plastic and cause a fire.

I know some people have been able to find 15 watt bulbs to fit their hoods, but all I could find was the 10 watt, so that's what I have. The max for my hood is 15 watts anyway, so that's as high as I can go if I do find a bulb that fits. If I wanted to have more light I would need to retrofit the hood.

[KarenElissa]

Thanks again! Off shopping I go to see what I can find!

[Sammie7]

No problem and good luck!:)

[KarenElissa]

Yea! I had a lovely and very productive shopping trip. I now have a nice planted tank for Liam (my betta). I found a great table lamp that even already had a 6500K bulb in it, so it will be great. It is 27W, pretty high, but we'll see how it goes. I'll also have to get some plastic canvas to put over the front half of the tank where I took the hood off so Liam won't jump out. I don't think he will, but I'm not risking that! And he looks SOO much prettier with this bulb, it brings out his blues which is the color I really like!

And then I got some plants, a number of different kinds. I'll just play with it and see what works and what doesn't and what I like.

But I'm very happy now! I'll try and post some pics tomorrow so you can all see. Thanks for the help!

[kimmisc]

My 5g hex was planted for a while, but not now. Anyhow, as said already, the screw in florescent bulbs you find in teh light bulb isle of walmart will work fine.

For measuring, I use a syringe. You can get one at a drugstore I'm sure... a diabetic syringe would be a good size I think? If you know anyone working in a hospital or dr's office, could make a thief of them... :)

[KarenElissa]

here are a couple of pics of my tank. You can see the light I have and the whole thing in the first one and the second is a closer view of the inside.