do I have to have a co2 tank if i have a air pump, watter pump with live plants in a 5 gallon tank?

Answer 1

No you don't, but the plants will do much better if you stop using the air pump in the tank and allow the CO2 from the fish to satay in the water long enough for the plants to use it.

MM

Answer 2

This really depends on whether you are trying to have a 'planted' aquarium or an aquarium with plants. If you are going for the 'planted aquarium' look you have two choices -
1) you can choose to use hardy plants that do well without a decent planting substrate or CO2, these are just the following: anubias, java fern, vallis, elodia & cabomba. You could possibly try cryptocorynes as sometimes they are hardy enough without CO2, you may need to enrich your substrate tho.
2) a selection of any aquatic plants you fancy, not just restricted to those listed above.

If you decide to go for the second option, there are certain conditions that these plants require in order to grow and last longer than a few weeks. From now on, when I mention 'all plants' it is assuming you are choosing the 2nd option, although most of the 'hardy' plants will thrive & do much better under all these conditions too.
All plants require the following:
- CO2 (without it, most of the non-hardy plants will not last). If you chose a cylinder CO2 dispenser, make sure the valve is on a timer so that the CO2 turns off at night when the lights are off. This prevents a high level of CO2 endangering your fish, but also stops CO2 wastage as plants will only photosynthsise when the lights are on. There are much cheaper and easier alternative CO2 units available for your size tank (I personally recommend the mushroom - shaped one as it is the easiest to refill)
- Good lighting (particularly red-leaved plants, don't bother wasting your money on these unless you have either a shallow tank with at least 2 good tubes or T5 plant lights.
- A substrate rich in nutrients, either sand or gravel with a substrate enricher mixed in or preferably a planting substrate like Red Sea 'Flora Base'. Without this, forget growing grasses and foreground spreading mosses, 'grass' etc
- Nutrients, both a weekly iron supplement and ideally, a daily trace element which is added by drops.

I would definately turn off your airpump if you add the CO2, because the water surface in a CO2 enriched planted tank should not be rippled by an airpump or filter outlet as this allows the CO2 to evapourate instead of staying in the water, so you end up cancelling out the benefits of the CO2! Also, for the same reason, make sure you remove any carbon from your filter.
If you get algae build up, you can add a phosphate remover sachet to the filter to fix the problem, otherwise the filter media should contain sponges and biomedia.
A planted tank should not be overstocked.

Saying all this, if you only want to grow a few plants alongside your fish I would just stick to the hardy list I mentioned at the top, this will save you money and can still look great!

If you need any info, please email me!

Answer 3

I would not put put a CO2 air pump, live plants rely on the CO2 of fish, it will save space in your tank as well, to put more fish in.

Answer 4

With 5 gallons, if you have a small filter and an aerator you'll be in great shape.

Answer 5

Nope.