My First Planted Tank

[Winterlily]

Alrighty. As I said in my last post about this, I have NO aquascaping talent at ALL. I'm aquascaping-challenged. Anyhow, here's what my betta's 5.5 gallon looked like BEFORE:

And here, after killing or rehoming a lot of the plants (those feathery hair-like ones are a PAIN), and adding some wood, here 'tis currently:

Better? These plant choices good for relatively low light and a rank beginner? Opened up the moss ball for my betta - he loved the HC, used it like a bed, but the HC went out fairly quickly, so he has the opened ball now. Took a day or 2, but he likes it now too. Added swords (the one on the right came with the little hole and few brown tips) and vallis (sp?) I separated the micro sword a bit - you can't really see, but it's in 3 clumps now. I didn't do too much to it because every time I messed with it, it just sorta came apart one "blade" at a time and, well, I would just go insane dealing with one at a time, truly. Anyhow, suggestions are most welcome - I know it's not great! But better, at least, I hope. BTW... I think that crypt is well on its way out - doesn't look good to me. Getting browner and browner and more brittle looking. Suggestions for something to put in its place? I love the whole potted deal - soooo much easier. Is there a downside to potted plants? Do they allow you not to have to worry about special stuff under your substrate (like eco-complete etc) since you can use potting soil or whatever IN the pot only?

(Oh and btw for plant suggestions... high pH and hard water, if that matters.)

Edited for stupid spelling mistake.

 

[Bebobb]

Pretty, but you should take the plants out of the pots and plant them in the substrate.

 

[Winterlily]

Oh! I didn't know this. The guy at the pet store said leave them in the pots! I thought pots were so much easier - moving them much easier too. Guess not, huh?

 

[Rlon35]

Oh! I didn't know this. The guy at the pet store said leave them in the pots! I thought pots were so much easier - moving them much easier too. Guess not, huh?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Take them out of the pots, and ready yourself for a lot of pruning. Those plants will get quite big for that tank. Trim off the outer leaves of the swords by cutting the leaf of as close to the stem as possible. That will keep them relatively small...perhaps not small enough though.

 

[Winterlily]

Okay, so they need to come out of their plastic pots. Will do. I can, though, re-pot them into terracotta pots with growing substrate for them to root into, no? I realize they may be limited in that, but in this case, might that not actually be a good thing, to help limit their growth a bit?

...ready yourself for a lot of pruning.

This I really don't want. Any other suggestions for slower-growing plants (besides java fern/moss) that are okay with a 14w bulb in a 5.5 gallon tank and which would require less maintenance than it sounds like these are going to need?

 

[mdwheeler]

Your feathery hairy plants are called Cabomba. Just bought some to cover my powerhead in my ten gallon.....it worked!!!

Also what kind of light are you using? It looks good (I need a differnt light....I hate it looking purple!!!)

 

[Winterlily]

Also what kind of light are you using? It looks good (I need a differnt light....I hate it looking purple!!!)

Oh that's funny. I actually have a thread on here asking for suggestions on other light because I hate this one. See, the fish is a true purple and red, and the light washes him out completely to appearing totally ruddy-red. You can't quite see his purple at all. The light you see in those pics is because of the addition of flash on the camera. (Don't usually use flash with fish pics, but because the light is so bad, I couldn't get ANY pic without.) But, to answer your question, it's just the regular ol standard fluorescent bulb that came with the AGA (All Glass Aquarium) strip light.

Right - cabomba. I had a bunch more but some didn't do well, and others were taken back to the LFS because I got fed up with those little hairs coming detached. Every time I went near the tank, more of them were floating around, eventually clogging my prefilter. I love the way they look, but I'll be sticking with the plants with real leaves.