Help with planting in small tank.

HI guys, kinda messed up again without doing proper research.

So I have a 5.5 gallon with some Neons in it. All parameters are stable. Tank been running for 3 weeks. I know Neons love to hide around plants so I got some without knowing what they are, purely base on how they would look like in a small tank.

So as you would have guessed, some of the plants died due to insufficient lighting. So I got a dual T5 lighting, 14w each so that would make 28w if I turned on both. That also I made a mistake because the light was too strong and my anubias is getting burned. So now I'm left with a recovering anubias... and a table LED lamp that seems to be doing well for the anubias...

Question, what can I do to utilize the T5 lighting and at the same time not burn my anubias? Thank you for all your suggestions and sorry for not making proper research beforehand.

This is now.
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If it can be hung up, or rigged so that it's not sitting directly on the top of the tank and the light has room to dissipate, that would keep the harshest lighting off of the plants.

 

You can also add some floating plants like Amazon Frogbit to cover the surface so it blocks some of the light.

 

Would the amazon frogbits be burned? The light is really strong and close...

 

You could always raise it higher above the tank? I have the Planted+ and it sits directly on the lid and I didn't have any burn issues. Of course, my light is probably not as strong as yours.

 

Water wisteria from the petco tubes also works as floating plant. May lose about half of it, but would work. Not the densitist of plants but could work

 

You could use a piece of glass to block some of the light.

 

Hmm... So I can either raise the light somehow or use something to cover the light and put floating plants to further diffuse it. Thanks. So after reducing the intensity I should probably go for low to med light plants?

 

It's really going to be trial and error. Start off with the low/med light plants. You can even decrease the hours of light if you feel it's too much.

 

So, I was looking for ways to increase the height of the fixture. DIY stands, hangars etc... going around looking for the right materials... but couldnt really find anything that's easy to assemble.

So today I was holding the light and thought of @ 's idea. Then, I remembered I had a roll of tracing paper from my university days and took it out, cut 2 pieces of it and double taped it onto the light and voila! It diffused the light to be much softer. and it didnt cost a penny!

Thanks guys for the suggestion. Now I can go on planning for my plants.

 

Paper on a strong light... Be careful make sure that's safe !

 

Yeah that was my thought at first. But after running it for 12 hours straight the paper didnt catch fire. So I think it should be alright. am gonna turn it off during the night and turn it on for maybe 9 to 10 hours.

 

I ran through some old stuff and found some black sponge like material. Used it to further raise the light as it was still feeling strong. Am quite satisfied with how it looks in the end.

 

HI guys, I got some more plants. But I'm not sure what they are called? I know the one with driftwood is anubias, the other 2 types I'm not too sure.

Is one of them Hornwort? And what about the ones with big leaves? Thanks for the help!

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