Planted Tank setup Help Needed

luckydud13

luckydud13

Did you hear that?
Jun 20, 2008
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Charlotte, NC
Ok, I picked up a 5 gallon hex eclipse system from our local auction, it is pretty nice, seen better seen worse, but anyway, it is now going to be my new bathroom tank :) . But first of all I had a few questions....

1. Is there a size of cfl bulb that will fit in the eclipse hoods?
2. I don't have enough money for fancy substrate, so I decided to try cat liter, well ours is "pure white clay" whcih is good, but it also has little blue pieces in there too. When I put it in for a test run my water turned a light blue, and was foggy, but I forgot to wash. I didn't see anything about scents exept " odor eliminating, releases fresh scent into air" or something like that...... is that not usable then?
3. How do you go about cleaning the liter?
4. I cleaned the tank with a diluted bleach solution, I rinsed it out real well, but it still smelled like bleach, so I put 10ml of stress coat in there, will that eliminate it?

Thanks for your help!
 
luckydud13 said:
1. Is there a size of cfl bulb that will fit in the eclipse hoods?

I'm not familiar with these kinds of hoods, can you take a picture please? Maybe someone else can help you on this.

2. I don't have enough money for fancy substrate, so I decided to try cat liter, well ours is "pure white clay" whcih is good, but it also has little blue pieces in there too. When I put it in for a test run my water turned a light blue, and was foggy, but I forgot to wash. I didn't see anything about scents exept " odor eliminating, releases fresh scent into air" or something like that...... is that not usable then?

If it were me, I wouldn't use it, there are probably chemicals that could kill your fish in it. Even if you pick out all the crystals, I still would use it. I would just get 50 pounds of play sand for $4.

3. How do you go about cleaning the liter?

See above.

4. I cleaned the tank with a diluted bleach solution, I rinsed it out real well, but it still smelled like bleach, so I put 10ml of stress coat in there, will that eliminate it?

In a few days, the smell would have gone away on it's own.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

Answers in Bold.
 
The small 13watt Spiral CFL's usually fit, you can get them in 6500k, which look really nice, get these from any home depot/lowes, etc. And there is also Walmart, in the pet section is a $5 10watt Straight CFL, which I think would do better, as the straigth bulbs have less restrike.

I have a 5gal Hex personally with the 10watt Walmart bulb, and I can grow anubias/crypts but I havent tried anything else.
 
But I have some play sand, but it doesn't have any nutrients in it right? I was going to use cat liter and play sand on top, so I could ge the look of sand, and the nutrients of liter, thanks riz, so which of the two should I get? 10 watts doesn't seem like enough to me. I make just take the light of and use the famous home deopt one but Idk
 
Even if you go the kitty litter route, you have to put some type of substrate on top of the litter. Bottom layer kitty litter, top layer sand or something.... This keeps the clay like cat litter from clouding up the water and stuff.
 
You know kitty litter doesnt have any nutrients in it either, its just clay. You still need to enrich it.
 
If you use kitty litter, you are supposed to use a very specific kind...that doesn't have anything in it at all (essentially, the really cheap kind). I'd be really careful. And know, it doesn't really have any more nutrients in than sand, but because it's clay it will have a better CEC. If those were my only two options...I'd just go w/ sand.
 
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