Large Betta Tank Stocking

[Kaliska]

I got my 40g breeder pretty much cycled, my nitrite kit might not actually be accurate, but the fish I wanted to put in are no longer available for the year.  We bought a betta just on a whim and were planning to give him a 10g but since I don't have money to do much else with the tank I figured I'll just give it all to the betttas.  I have river rock on the bottom (real river rock I sorted and washed by hand), a few quartz rock structures, a cork background in place for a moss wall, and an experiment of growing periwinkle (vinca minor) submerged.  It's going well.  I plan to replace the substrate with a good layer of eco complete and make this my heavily planted tank in the future.  Right now I have no money for plants so I will have to scrape together what I can.  Reason for the periwinkle experiment. 
 
For filtration there is a small internal filter with 2 sponges on one end that is staying and for now just for circulation I have a HOB refugium hanging on the other end.  I plan to replace the refugium with a marineland biowheel filter that I believe is rated for about 20gallons.  This is just what filters and pumps worked when I dragged things back out to piece together a free tank setup.  Right now the tank has 1 male betta and 1 female platy.  The other 2 platy committed suicide while waiting in a bucket for a 90% tank change after tapwater problems were discovered.  I found I have to haul in bottled water until I can get a filtration system.
 
I haven't done betta breeding, I did breed paradise fish and sparkling gouramis, but I'm assuming like the paradise fish you can leave a male and females in a tank if it's big enough and you break up line of sight?  Could I do 2 or 3 females?  Is there anything that would handle the future low circulation with breeding bettas?  The platy spent a lot of time hanging at the surface before the refugium was running.  I think the oxygen is too low for them even when I pull the internal filter high enough the flow breaks the surface.  I did also debate a small bubble stone.  Then the livebearers might work.  Normally our hard water in this area makes bubble stones/wands/filters very frustrating because everyting gets covered in hardwater deposits.  With the bottled water I have a ph just below 7 so that is probably not a problem doing bubbles in this setup.

 

[NickAu]

I plan to replace the substrate with a good layer of eco complete and make this my heavily planted tank in the future

Don't waste your money, I had it in a 2 foot tank and did not notice any benefit to my plants, It was too sharp IMO for my plecs, and it was just messy. 
 
 

With the bottled water I have a ph just below 7 so that is probably not a problem doing bubbles in this setup.

 
I think you should only keep fish  that will happily live in the water that comes out of your tap in the kitchen and some Easy Life Fluid Filter,
 or SEACHEM PRIME added If you have hard water stick to fish that love hard water, I looked into all that bottled water, Reverse osmosis and all the headaches and cost associated with it and decided that my fish will just have to cope with medium hard water.
 
 
I prefer the Easy Life water conditioner, My LFS recommended it, And its all he uses and to be honest I have never tried any of the other products. 

 

[Kaliska]

I can't use the tapwater.  It comes out 4ppm ammonia, 10ppm nitrates with lots of biological matter that made a protein slick in my tank and used up my purigen bag far faster than I've ever seen.  I have no issue making what I call fake water.  RO with everything added back in.  I did for a 90g for 5 years and then I did some brackish and saltwater.
 
I loved ecocomplete.  I had 4" in my 55g and then 90g.  Plants grew awesome, with the help of trumpet snails I never had to stir or vacuum, and my dojo loaches and royal pleco did perfectly fine.  I think I had cories for awhile in one.

 

[Kaliska]

Asking this on 3 forums I have not gotten any response directly to my questions.  Forge ahead using instinct and hope it turns out right.  Not the first time.

 

[Byron]

I'm having trouble actually understanding the questions, as there seems to be more than one "plan" mentioned.  Betta are mentioned, but so are Paradise Fish, and these two should not be together.  Livebearers are also mentioned, and this is risky for them if you are softening your water.
 
Livebearers must have moderately hard or harder water, as they need to assimilate minerals like calcium and magnesium so their physiology will function properly.  No mention is made of the GH so I can't suggest anything on this, but the pH should be above 7 for livebearers.
 
Betta are not community fish, so I would not consider any other species if you decide to house Betta.
 
If you want to save money, I would not bother with Eco-Complete.  I have not yet found any evidence that this product, or the very similar Flourite, provides any real benefit long-term.  I have tried Flourite and yes the plants were nice, but no nicer than they are now with play sand.  And substrate fish like corys should not be kept over either of these substrates.  While you may have been lucky once, that luck might not repeat itself.  I had a serious issue with corys over Flourite, which I had chosen over Eco-Complete because it felt smooth in my hand by comparison, but that obviously was not the case.  But aside from the sharpness issue, there is another important need for sand with corys, and that is their natural method of sifting sand through their gills when browsing for food in the substrate.  I think it is best to provide fish with what nature intended for them.

 
Byron.

 

[Kaliska]

I mentioned that I bred paradise fish and sparkling gouramis and whether bettas can be done the same in a large tank.  I'm not sure why that's confusing?  I'm putting the livebearers in for the fry and not being as likely to be attacked by bettas but like I said in the low circulation they were having trouble with oxygen levels so I was debating an air stone if it didn't mess with the betta nests.
 
I didn't get lucky with eco complete once.  I used it for like 8 years in many tanks and I have not seen any of the problems people have mentioned with bottom dwellers.  Plecos, loaches, cories...  I've heard more instances of sharp sand causing problems.  I use soft "handy sand" instead of regular playsand to avoid suspected problems with cory whiskers.