Planted 5 gal Hex

K

KarenElissa

AC Members
Aug 3, 2007
13
0
0
43
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
 
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.
 
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
 
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. :)

bettatank01.JPG
 
Last edited:
Flourish used to come with a ml dropper enclosed inside the bottle. The dropper has marks for dif amounts of a ml on it.
 
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
busterhome.jpg
 
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.
 
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.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom