Thinking about starting a planted tank

I could not agree more! Turtles take up space, which your tank does not provide sufficient space needed for the turtle. Neon Tetras go a long way for a small tank.

 

++1!go for endlers though

 

My planted tank is 35g with 3 fish, two paired angels and one pleco algae eater. It's been the most stress-free, maintenance free, and most relaxing tank I've ever put together. 10hours a day of two 6500k light bulbs from LFS(used for plants) and a very high grade substrate that converts fish waste into plant nutrients. Also have a 250gph powerhead to keep the plants in a nice happy flow.

Not much really you probably need to know that you already haven't experienced.

Just do some research on the plants you want, make sure you can provide them with the life they need and that they are indeed true aquatic plants. Many pet stores sell underwater plants that are not actually meant to be kept underwater, rather to be kept at the waters edge.

Also with a low bioload of fish, good water movement, high quality substrate, and good biological filtration this tank should be pretty self sustaining. My plants are flourishing, fish are breeding about once per month, pleco has grown 5" in past 10months. I guess I could add a line of Co2 but realistically I don't need it. I use dechlorinated tap water for my water changes, and this has all the supplements my plants need really. I used to run an air pump to an air stone in the back but I took it out because my plants produce enough oxygen for the fish, and I really didn't like the look.

Here are a few pics from my tank


Notice the male guarding the eggs on the filter tube?

Tank as of this morning

 

Been out for a week. Thanks for all the feedback.

I was just listing random FW things I might consider down the road, sorry for that confusion.

Having said that, 5 gallon is not too small for a combination of crabs, snails, and fish. Not sure why anyone would think it is... The turtle is something different though, I'll give you that But if I do find a turtle that's OK in a 5 (haven't researched that point yet, not saying I will find one) the rest of the list won't make any difference (unless the turtle views them as lunch). I suppose it might matter what you picture vs. what I picture when I say crabs, snails, and fish. 8)

I had a frog in there for the past 9 or so years. It died right after Christmas 2011 though (yay!). With it, I kept several fish (that served as food really for the frog) and several snails. The fish that were still alive when the frog died, are still there. That'd be feeder goldfish and guppies. Nothing big.

Interesting tidbit, the frog would rip apple snails out of their shells and eat them but leaves "trapdoor" snails alone. (search my threads, at some point I posted some pics of that lunch feast happening)

Anyway, now that the frog is out (and i will not replace it), thinking crabs would be cool (previously, the frog would kill any crab or shrimp I put in).

 

Cool! You should take the goldfish out of there though. 10 g at least for 2 of them

 

I don't know anything about them but I have seen really small turtles the size of a half dollar at pet stores that were just kept in a little plastic container with about 2 cups of water in it. I'm not sure if they out grow a 5 gal eventually though.

posted with tapatalk please ignore bad spelling and grammar

 

I've seen those too and have the same question. I'll research b4 I get one of course, but that's where my hope lies. If it's not good for the turtle, I won't do it.

It'll be a while b4 I pull the trigger on this, just researching for now.

Thanks for all the feedback!