5 gallon set-up

[ohmikeosh]

So I have decided to take my 1.5g and use it to seed my new 5gallon I bought which I will start once my 29g is up and running which should be very soon. I have a few more options with the 5 gallon than the 1.5 and the kit was only 25 bucks. I think I am gonna put either some fern, or java moss and I want some of those floating plants that look like mini lily pads dont know what they are called yet.

1.) How do I de snail the plants. I have read soaking them in salt water, bleaching them or soaking them in Potassium Permanganate. What is the best method?

2.) I see some tanks that have a grass like cover on the gravel its not totally covered, but enough where you can still see the gravel. Is that sag and how is that look achieved do you split the groups of sag. I have looked around and not been able to find any articles on how to do that.

I am gonna take my time with this one because I set up my 29 really fast and didnt put a whole lot of thought into it. Thanks for the help!!!! ( prob should of put this in the plant section sorry Mods).

[Spardas]

Are you talking about duckweed?

1) Bleach or PP will be good but they can destroy fragile plants.

2) Dwarf sag can get pretty big so I don't know if that'll look good in a 29. Some smaller plants for the foreground can be micro swords or maybe narrow chain swords. It depends on what type of plants they're using and how meticulous they are with their pruning when it comes to plants.

[ohmikeosh]

Hi spardas thanks for the reply. Ater doing some research I found that it is duckweed after hearing how bad it takes over I am thinking otherwise now. I had also read that salt water is great for de snailing a plant, But i dont know I dont like the idea of bleach, so maybe the pp will be the way to go. I am not that meticulous with plants so maybe just a few spots with the micro swords would be the way to go. Thanks for the help!

[Michael Milligan]

Duckweed is prolific largely due to how close it is to the light, but I wouldn't say it "takes over"! :) just scoop up a handful and discard it it covers too much of the surface. ;) LOT easier than grooming bottom plants.

[ohmikeosh]

Would it cause a problem with the jave fern or moss on the bottom in terms of light or would I just have to scoop it out all the time? I also heard it constantly gets in the filter and causes lots of probs. Dont know how true that is. Thanks for the info!!

[troy]

I never had a problem with my plants dieing due to lack of light even when it would sometimes cover most of the surface.

[ohmikeosh]

Oh nice........ maybe I will give it a try then. Thanks!!

[SunSchein89]

What I normally do is let my gravel vac suck up any duckweed that gets pushed down from the hob as the water level drops. Thins out the top pretty nicely if it needs it; if it doesn't I'll just keep it away from that spot.

[FishGirl-Seattle]

I've always liked having duckweed in small tanks because it grows so fast it's an excellent way to get carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients out of the tank. I scoop it out every week and consider it part of my filtration. Fish like it too - fry hide in the flowing roots and bettas seem to like floating in the roots too.