Elaine T wrote:
Empty wrote:

It's been a while!

I moved to Arizona with my wife, and subsisted for a whole year with one
tank. ONE TANK!

Sadly, that state of affairs is a-changing I just finished setting
up a
2.5 for my desk. I'd always wanted to do a fun tiny plant tank(sort of an
aquatic bonsai project) and I finally felt up to it. A pic is at:
http://www.emptiedout.com/2.5/
The following details are up there as well, reposted here because it's
usenet and that's just how it should be

This is a 2.5 gallon tank, with a small heater, and Aquaclear power
filter, and and a homemade hood with a 13W power compact fluorescent
for lighting.

The piece of driftwood is one I have had for years, most of that time
in a box. I bought it imagining I would do something cool with it some
day, and
it seems I was right. I drilled a few holes in a spare piece of
plexigless to make a base for it- the thing floats and never seems to
waterlog so this was pretty much a necessity. Being the geek I am I used
cable ties to secure it. The wood is tied with Java moss, a few small
java
ferns in the back, and anubias nana and barteri var coffeefolia.

Upon much consideration, I decided the use a soil substrate. I mixed
about 3 handfuls of topsoil, one handful of vermiculite, one handful
of potting
soil, half a handful of peat moss, and enough water to make a nice pasty
mess. On top of that is small grain gravel bought in a local fish store.

The tank is currently planted with rotala indica, an unidentified
crypt species, an unidentified hygrophilia(I think) species, and
echinodorus
tenellus. I plan to add some dwarf hairgrass for accents as soon as I can
find some locally.

Current inhabitants are 10 snails to stir the substrate and eat detritus.
Next week I will add one otocinclus affinis and one Amano shrimp for
algae
control. As for fish, I am currently thinking I will add a pair of
sparkling gourami. Other contenders include a trio of featherfin
rainbowfish or a pair or trio of dwarf puffers. If you have other
suggestions for a small tank (aside from betta or paradisefish) feel free
to contact me via email or reply to this post. I want something very
small
with personality.

Also in the works, a new 20 gallon to house my rambunctious red phantom
tetras. The school of them (10) feels out of place in my 55 now, and I
want to go with some dwarf cichlids in that tank(most likely apistogramma
cacatuides) and needed to free up some fishload If this 2.5 goes
well I
will likely do soil in that tank as well.

This time I am stopping at three tanks. Really. No, *really*.
~Empty


Looks like it's going to grow out beutifully. I'm amazed you didn't
have trouble with the vermiculite floating. I made the mistake of
trying to use soil with some vermiculite in my pond, and boy was it a
mess. I have 15 watts of CF over my 2 gallon hex and it works very
nicely for green plants - it's not quite enough for reds.

I like your idea of sparkling gouramis. Other tiny fish that come to
mind are Endler's livebearers, pygmy rasboras (Bororas maculata), or
pygmy cories (C. pygmaeus). Gill has a tiny tank with some really
unusual freshwater gobies but I haven't seen anything like that on this
side of the pond.

I've never seen the Peacock Gobies over here since buying the five
(sadly now 4)....most places just look at me blankly if I ask about them
:-( They are great little fish IMO and I'm just keeping an eye out and
spare tank room just in case I find some again. The Gobies are currently
living with 5 panda cories which I guess would put pay to any breeding.
It looks like I have 2M and 2F so I think some research on breeding
might be in order....Great fish if you can get them

Gill

BTW did a google on the Sparkling Gouramis and they look like great
little fish - never seen them in the UK