# Two Planted 2.5 Gallons! [photos]



## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

So since I'm poor, I decided to plant my 2.5 gallon betta tanks instead of buying a new 6.6 gallon and ordering enough plants to fill it! (I will eventually though, my fish can use the upgrade)

I know nano tanks are a big challenge but I'd rather spend the time to take the challenge rather than spend a lot of money I literally don't have.

I dropped $26 dollars on these guys including shipping. I currently have:
- Brazilian pennywort (my favorite! It smelled so fresh when i was trimming them :-D )
- Bacopa Caroliniana (It's sort of melting... The awesome website I ordered from said they were low light plants but I found that most people recommend moderate lights... after the fact.)
- Creeping Jenny (It's so pretty  I've been finding mixed info about lighting; I hope they make it)
- Water Wisteria (I trimmed down the main bunch. The trimmings were so small, but I planted them anyways. I hope they make it too..)
- Dwarf lily (Only Gibbs has it and its barely sprouting)

Lighting: 1 5000k bulb (I plan to get 2 6500k bulbs, hopefully in time to save my bacopa)

Substrate: Petco black sand on top of Miracle gro organic potting mix

please dont mind my laundry in the bg lol. And sorry for the glare and reflection :/










This is Gibbs's tank. It used to be over 75% planted but I split the wisteria bunch and took out some dying bacopa stems and transferred them. The driftwood cave was a lucky find  It even has a smaller hole (that you can't really see) but don't worry, Gibbs can fit through it just fine  The wood was only $2.50










This is Blair's tank. At first he just had normal gravel with all the leftover plants that wouldn't fit into Gibb's. Then I decided I had enough trimmings to plant a new tank so I did. Except... it's a bit less than the recommended amount of 75% stem plants. Im still shopping around for a good piece of wood to replace the area on the left.










I really really like the look of pennywort, especially from above.











Opinions? Any tips on maintaining the plants/keeping them alive?


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Looks great!


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## Destinystar (May 26, 2012)

Looks very nice I really love Pennywort too ! I hope they all do good for you the lights with with 5600K should help alot . I have one of those too and my plants seems to love it . I have Hornwort, Anacharis, Watersprite, small stem of Pennywort and a Banana plant which I really love it has such big nice leaves which have a pretty pattern on them in green and light rust red color.


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## PooterFish (Dec 17, 2012)

Looking good! I love that little driftwood cave thing


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

MattsBettas said:


> Looks great!


Thanks!



Perseusmom said:


> Looks very nice I really love Pennywort too ! I hope they all do good for you the lights with with 5600K should help alot . I have one of those too and my plants seems to love it . I have Hornwort, Anacharis, Watersprite, small stem of Pennywort and a Banana plant which I really love it has such big nice leaves which have a pretty pattern on them in green and light rust red color.


I'll look to see if 5600K or 6500K are available, anything higher than 5000K lol. My pet stores sell the banana plant, I was thinking of picking up one myself. Thanks for the suggestion 



PooterFish said:


> Looking good! I love that little driftwood cave thing


Thanks, I like it too, I'm glad I found it


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Btw, would anyone know if its normal to have ammonia levels rising to .25-.5 ppm within 24 hours? I've been doing frequent water tests and water changes (most I can do is ~60% without damaging the plants which brings down the level to 0 ppm - .25ppm)

Is this from the soil, or dying plants D:?


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

i like to start planted tank off without fish... but a bunch of pond snails instead...
I usually dont change the water and force the tank to fight out an equilibrium.
then I stock...


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Uh oh  I thought I'd be good adding them right away, but apparently not... I don't have any extra heaters and my room gets to 55 degrees at night.

Do you think keeping up with water changes and borrowing some seeding material from my friend will be sufficient? I dont have a filter either for water movement, only air pumps, and Im afraid that will displace the CO2 (and create a whole bunch of noise at night)


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Just a little update, no photos since there isnt anything visibly exciting. 

Got some seeding material and turned on my air pump for water movement. All plants have showed signs of growth (dwarf lily is the fastest!) except for a few bacopa stems, but those are still green and I picked off all the dead leaves so I'm hoping for new growth soon.

I still have an ammonia problem according to my test kit, but strangely none of my fish have been showing any reaction. Of course I've still been doing water changes to keep it under .25 ppm just in case. Hopefully I can go to my lps tomorrow and pick up an extra bunch of creeping jenny to help out (and spend a lot of time picking off snails probably, the place I ordered from did a good job keeping my plants pest-free but as awesome as my lps is, I cant say the same for it ;( )

I've also been half-dosing API leaf zone for some minerals, should I consider Ammo-lock and/or Excel for the list of additives?


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## Agility4fun (Nov 16, 2012)

Nice set up Sea Dragon! I have three 2.5g tanks that I am filling up with plants. Christmas moss is fun and it grows fast. I got 2 micro swords today and will split them up and add to each tank.


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Agility4fun said:


> Nice set up Sea Dragon! I have three 2.5g tanks that I am filling up with plants. Christmas moss is fun and it grows fast. I got 2 micro swords today and will split them up and add to each tank.


Sweet  Make sure you post pics when you're done! I've heard good things about christmas moss too and once I get a higher light, I was thinking of adding some microsword or dwarf grass to help fill in the foreground.

I've been wanting to get another betta and 2.5 gallon, but Im going to college in the fall and I promised my babies that they'll be getting an upgrade :U The dilemma.


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## Agility4fun (Nov 16, 2012)

Sea Dragon said:


> Sweet  Make sure you post pics when you're done! I've heard good things about christmas moss too and once I get a higher light, I was thinking of adding some microsword or dwarf grass to help fill in the foreground.
> 
> I've been wanting to get another betta and 2.5 gallon, but Im going to college in the fall and I promised my babies that they'll be getting an upgrade :U The dilemma.


This is a week old already and the Christmas moss is already overtaking the tip of the driftwood.


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Wow I love the clean look to it  I can't wait to add broader leaf plants to my tanks eventually.


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

make sure you get the cmas moss with a reputable ID. many mosses are mis-IDed and you may end up with taiwan, peacock or whatever. lol.

that said, most moss looks the same under low light ^_^


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## leahleigh (Feb 3, 2013)

Your water is so clear I didn't realize you had water in it until I saw your fish, and even then I was pretty confused, haha! 
I'm in love with that drift wood, I really wish I could find a good piece for my 2.5 that I just got, literally set it up today and grabbed some Amazon Sword + Marimo Moss Ball. I have a picked apart Anubias i'm hoping to regrow in there too.

Either way, I love your tanks! What is the plant in the middle in the first picture? I keep seeing it at my Petco but i'm not sure if I want to get it yet, I'm more in favor of broad-leaf plants myself, with the exception of my Pennywort which I love!


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

aokashi said:


> make sure you get the cmas moss with a reputable ID. many mosses are mis-IDed and you may end up with taiwan, peacock or whatever. lol.
> 
> that said, most moss looks the same under low light ^_^


Well I wouldn't mind some taiwan or christmas moss  I just have to find some locally since i cant afford online shipping atm.


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

leahleigh said:


> Your water is so clear I didn't realize you had water in it until I saw your fish, and even then I was pretty confused, haha!
> I'm in love with that drift wood, I really wish I could find a good piece for my 2.5 that I just got, literally set it up today and grabbed some Amazon Sword + Marimo Moss Ball. I have a picked apart Anubias i'm hoping to regrow in there too.
> 
> Either way, I love your tanks! What is the plant in the middle in the first picture? I keep seeing it at my Petco but i'm not sure if I want to get it yet, I'm more in favor of broad-leaf plants myself, with the exception of my Pennywort which I love!


Yeah, I poured in the water super slow and I was lucky to get a good batch of petco sand  There have been several times when I poured in the water too rapidly, and stirred up the soil -.-

Good luck! Yeah I was lucky with the driftwood. I've been back a couple times and I haven't found anythig else ;(


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

trick to pouring water, like during a water change or something.... grab a zip loc bag (the bigger the better, but it should fit in the tank) and float it on top. the pour the water onto the bag. start slow~


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## Agility4fun (Nov 16, 2012)

Sea Dragon said:


> Well I wouldn't mind some taiwan or christmas moss  I just have to find some locally since i cant afford online shipping atm.


Come to San Jose, there is a LFS that has a lot of moss.


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Hehe I might have to settle with pouring in a dish since I only have those sandwich bags 

augh, I want to go aquarium shopping in San Jose so bad! I'll have to set aside some splurging funds when I get a job (I say that a lot sadly haha)

I will post an update soon!


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

Wow it's already been a month, where has the time gone :'D









It's always the top shots that look the best.. The pennywort has sprouted a whole bunch of leaves ever since I upgraded the lighting.









Me trying to block my flash because the glare/reflection is so bad (I tried doing it without the flash and the reflection was even worse)









As you can see, the pennywort is getting way to tall for my tank xD It's overcrowding the top, I should propagate soon but it's so hard to find a good place to cut and I don't have a lot of ground area left that gets a decent amount of light. My bulb is like 10 inches from the surface of the water because I only have a tall pole lamp. What I would do to have a normal desk lamp sighh :/

Creeping jenny and wisteria are growing decently well... A bit unevenly but that can't be helped... yet lol. The tank doesn't look as lush since I took the pics during the night and thats when the wisteria closes up to sleep haha.

Half the bacopa died so i just sorta gave up on that. The spindly stems are unsightly and I wish I planted the pennywort in the back :U


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

I personally love floating pennywort more than it as a stem ^_^ i think you should leave it


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## Agility4fun (Nov 16, 2012)

The floating pennywort is lovely.

Try to angle your camera slightly upwards or downwards to avoid the glare.


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## Sea Dragon (Mar 20, 2012)

I left a little pennywort floating out of pure frustration  That plant does not root well at all!

Relocated some of the pennywort, trimmed and planted the wisteria. Here are more pics of the tank and its residents. I uploaded some of these at my thread in the Betta Pictures Section bc I just cant get over how cute my little Fuji Apple is |D;









































































As you can see, I have an algae (diatoms?) problem. Would liquid carbon help out?


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