# I want to have a planted tank but where to start?



## MiraJane (Aug 29, 2013)

I've done a lot of reading about this, and there seem to be a quite a few (too many) options to consider when beginning a planted tank. I currently have 2 female bettas left from the only sorority I've ever had that are currently living together with a separator, and they are both about 3 years old (the older fish died off). I have a medium sized apartment, but not too many places where I could put a medium sized tank (5-15 gal) and absolutely nowhere that I could have a larger tank. 
I would like to know If there is any practical way to start a planted tank with a 5 gal tank and two female bettas. Right now they are sitting on a shelf next to my desk in my office where I can keep an eye on them, and their doing well. But everything is plastic, and I just can't help but wonder if they would thrive better in a more natural planted tank. I want to have them for as long as I can, and give them the best quality environment to live in as I can, (and I don't know if their just getting older but a while after I split them up because I was down to 3 bettas they don't seem as active or playful). I just have no Idea where to start with a planted tank, and I heard that they can be fairly tricky to get just right. 
I would like to know what your opinion is on a 5-10 gal planted tank. I know the smaller the tank size, the bigger the risk when it comes to water quality. I also would like to know how (if possible) to create a planted tank specifically for bettas. I'm not sure if I'll ever try a sorority again, but I'd like to give my current bettas a nice home. 

Are there any plants that bettas specifically like to nibble on? Are snails a good addition? And what kind of gravel/sand/soil is best suited to bettas?


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## cowgirlsue1 (Nov 22, 2013)

I started a NPT on Jan 3 and it's going strong. I used 1 1/2 in wet potting soil, no ferts added, in a 5 gal Hawkeye tank with filter and flor light from Walmart. I added 1 in play sand on that and so,e gravel on the sand. Added a garden rock and wood that I attached moss. Added several plants, fish, oto, snail and water. Plus an adjustable heater and thermometer. I tested and changed water every 3-4 days until parameters were all good. Ammonia 0, nitrates 0, Ph 7.6. The plants have really grown as have the snails multipied since they come in on the plants :< That's a whole different thread. Getting rid of the darn snails. Bettas are carnivors and don't eat plants. Use a good fish pellet that float or frozen brine shrimp. My betta prefers micro pellets at present. The regular ones were too big. 

Now I test water every 5th day and change 20 percent. Cycling should be finished. I swish my filter pad out in the water I removed just to remove any detrious and put it back in. I also have a sponge on my out port to cut down the water flow that was way to vigorous for my betta. 

That's it. Easy peasy. Plants are growing like weeds (hah) and the cycle goes on. Plants living off fish waste and cleaning the system. Ain't Mother Nature grand?


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## Suresh S (Nov 22, 2013)

@cowgirlsue1 wow...you are tempting me...before I start researchig on this...please post pics of your tank !!


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## Mommagalicia (Dec 30, 2013)

Cowgirlsue1, I would love to see a picture of your setup! Did you buy a separate light for your tank? If so, which one?


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## cowgirlsue1 (Nov 22, 2013)

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Here's my tank...having a tough time with pics. .all the plants have been growing for about 4 1/2 weeks


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## cowgirlsue1 (Nov 22, 2013)

Sorry about those pics. It's been a fight. 
This is a 5 gal Hawkeye with Fl light, planting mix, sand substrate, heater. DT betta Kwei-Li; oto is somewhere. Plants in front have grown like crazy. I put moss on my rock and wood. Lots of duck weed and wisteria floating. Sponge on filter to cut down current.


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

Are the bettas in the 5 gallon now? Just start replacing your fake plants with live. One of my 55 gallons was all fake plants at one time and is now all live plants. I just kept the gravel i had and i have just standard fluorescent lighting with a 6500k bulb. I kept to easy, low light plants such as Anubias, Java fern, amazon sword, sag, and anacharis. For a small tank like yours anubias would be great. And bettas love their large leaves to rest on or under. Tie them to a piece of driftwood or rock. They don't need to be planted. I floatthe anacharis to provide a bit of shade for the anubias.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Micherie (Feb 18, 2014)

Got a question..... It seems vacuuming and doing water changes would be a challenge with a highly planted tank. I am just getting started with this method and I have moved my plants around/taken them out a couple times. Is that problematic?


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

I have 2.6 and 3 gallon tanks that are NPTs. It rocks! I love to watch the growing plants just as much as watching my bettas. <3


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

I'm with Tree, the planted tanks just give a whole new level of interest and beauty to a tank.  One thing I've really wanted to do is to have a very large goldfish tank...but the little beasts are mostly herbivores...and would absolutely devour any plants I'd put in there.  Such a bummer, lol!

Anyway, I've planted everything from 2g to 40g, and there is something really fun about the little NPT's.  The big tanks are a struggle to really fill up without spending organ-selling bucks , but the little ones fill in quickly and they're fun to play with.  

I had a 2g cookie jar I did awhile back, but took out the plants because it was just SO hard to get in there...  Plus, it became rather overcrowded really fast...so I switched them over to a 5g.  I think I will put some plants back into the 2g, but I believe I'm going to stick to a single large fern or crypt, and some mosses.  Something slower growing.  

To answer your questions, these are the steps/options to putting together an NPT. 

1. Substrate. You have so many options. You can get the special "plant" substrates, you can use plain gravel (just make sure it's fairly small diameter and pretty deep), you can use sand (aquarium, play, pool filter, black diamond blasting, estes...), you can use organic dirt (miracle grow organic potting soil, or I've used MGO dirt) capped with either sand or gravel. Any of these will work. Organic soil or plant substrate will cause most plants to grow faster and bigger, but plain gravel will also work. Plain gravel will accumulate "fertz" from the fish, their waste, and any uneaten food, but it will be a slower process so the plants will grow more slowly as well. 

2. Fertz. There are two different types of aquatic plants: those that get their nutrients from the water column, and those that get their nutrients from the substrate. Just about all stem plants, anubias, and java fern will get their nutrients from the water column. This means that they will need liquid fertz, like Flourish or Flourish Excel. On the other side are plants like crypts, which get their nutrients from the substrate. These plants will benefit some from the liquid fertz, but your best bet with these are to use organic house-plant fertz sticks broken into pieces and shoved into the substrate under the plants, or with special aquatic root-tabs used the same way. The root-feeder plants will benefit the most from a dirted tank, but the tabs will do almost as good a job for them if you stay on top of them. 

3. After that, it's just buying your plants.  I love rotala, it comes in SO many different forms, and it is SO easy to grow. It also comes in both green and red varieties, which is nice for some contrast. 
Another favorite is water wisteria, which can either be planted or it can float. 
Bacopa is another that's easy to grow, along with moneywort and pennywort. 
Java ferns and anubias should be tied to driftwood and NOT planted, but they're both low-light and easy to grow. Java fern comes in both a plain variety and in a "lacey" variety, so that's fun too. 
Cardamine is just a beautiful little plant...very fine, almost thread-like stems and branches with very pretty little light-green leaves that are about 2cm's in diameter and slightly scalloped at the edges. It can be planted or it can float. 
Many stem plants can do either since they get their nutrients from the water column.  
Salvinia is my favorite floater.  It forms these really pretty little "lily pad" looking clumps at the water's surface, and then has small, delicate, reddish roots that hang down. It's nice because it's easy to clump into areas, and also very easy to scoop out of the tank during cleaning or re-arranging...Unlike duckweed. Which is in your tank forever once it has been introduced.  
I like myrio as a floater (normally it's a stem plant, but it makes a great clump that floats), it's just a nice place for fish to rest near the surface and it's fine enough to allow plenty of light to reach the lower portions of the tank as well. Also very easy to grow. 
Java moss is some fun stuff to play with, it can be tied to rocks, tied to driftwood, made into moss-walls for the back of the tank, used for a carpet...the options with moss are just about endless.  Also very easy to grow and very hardy.  

4. Tank set up. This is personal preference.  I went online and found some tanks that I thought were pretty and weren't too complicated, and then tried to replicate them in my own way. Driftwood is always lovely in a planted tank, especially with the plants growing behind and through the branches. This makes a great natural focal spot and really goes with the organic theme.  Just stick in your plants, obviously bigger goes in the back, smaller goes in the front. 
Smooth stones or river rocks also make nice accents in planted tanks.

5. Cleaning. You don't have to change water or clean a planted tank as much as a regular tank in terms of water quality because the plants form their own ecosystem...BUT, some plants shed needles or leaves, and you do still need to do regular cleaning to pick up uneaten food, waste, things like that. The trick to cleaning a planted tank is to be selective about what and where you vacuum. Don't vacuum right at the base of the plants because you'll uproot them, and the waste at their roots is actually good for them in terms of extra fertz. Just vacuum around any open areas, and any areas where you feed or the fish tend to hang out. Don't get too boisterous with it, this is more of a spot-cleaning than a full-on gravel sucking like you'd normally do. I try to clean once every couple of weeks, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on if things look mucky at the substrate level. 

6. Snails are great because they can help with any algae that may be growing. Mysteries and Apple snails are herbivores, but I believe ramshorns, and I know pond snails are omnivores and will eat left over food and to some degree even waste. For whatever reason, my ramshorns seem to keep the ponds in check...not sure if they're just out-competing them or what. Not sure about nerite snails...but I believe they're herbivores? Also, if you go with dirt or sand, you'll need to get some Malaysian trumpet snails to aerate the soil/sand and prevent pockets of anaerobic bacteria which is toxic to plants and fish.

I hope that helps!!


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

Photos of my 3 week-old 5g acrylic half-hex. Violet is my female betta who lives there, she was retired from the sorority due to her age (2yrs). 


















(Hello! LOL!)

This tank contains:


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## appleandpebble (Mar 15, 2014)

the Tropica website actually gives A LOT of information about setting up a tank etc. 

here's the link to the easy plants: http://www.tropica.com/en/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx

and here's the link for basic info (everything you need to know when you start) 
http://www.tropica.com/en/tropica-abc/basic-knowledge.aspx

substrate for plants information: http://www.tropica.com/en/plant-care/plant-growth-substrate.aspx


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## Micherie (Feb 18, 2014)

Immensely, thank you!


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## Micherie (Feb 18, 2014)

You guys have some pretty awesome planted tanks!! Kinda makes me want to get a bigger one, but maybe later in the year. Thanks so much for sharing!


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## fishyface323 (Jan 25, 2014)

this is so helpful!!!


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## KatNDog292 (Apr 10, 2014)

I have a Java Fern in my tank. It grows pretty fast though, kinda took over  started growing baby Javas last summer!


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## Tree (Sep 29, 2013)

Awsome info Blue Fish! Hey I do have a question. how often do you clean your 2 gallons tanks? I clean mine every sunday but I fear I am cleaning to much. I do 50% water changes. 

back to the topic. I have a dwarf lily plant and it grows so well! I also have a sword plant in the other 2.6 gallon that is thriving. I tend not to do so well with the floaters like hornwort and Ancharis. strange eh? but I tend to like to have them planted on the ground when they like to float and when I clean they come out of the soil. x_x so the heavy rooted plants are my favorite to work with. 

there is one plant I REALLY want but I have no room for. XD
http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com/CRYPTOCORYNE-WENDTII-RED-Easy-Beautiful_p_28.html


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## Micherie (Feb 18, 2014)

Tree said:


> there is one plant I REALLY want but I have no room for. XD
> http://shop.plantedaquariumscentral.com/CRYPTOCORYNE-WENDTII-RED-Easy-Beautiful_p_28.html



I have one of those in my 5 gallon. It's still pretty new so we'll see how big it will get. I'm super low tech and still not fertilizing yet. But... it only melted for a day or so and it now seems really healthy, so we'll see!!


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

Thanks Tree!  

I have one of the wendtii...maybe two of these? One is still fairly small and suffered a bit from a transplant, but is making a comeback. The other is larger...unless I'm mistaken and it's another version of this...lol, you'd think I'd remember.  I just re-did my 40g and I have trouble remembering what I put in there. 

I totally agree about the roots...things that don't like to stay rooted while cleaning are a major pain. I generally just stay away from them, figuring that any waste material near their tiny root system is helping them root in...and I'm leaving it alone.  

I actually took down the 2g after a month because it got so dense that I couldn't get in there.  Part of it was the shape, because of it being a cookie jar the thing was slightly narrower in the top than at the base...and between the plants and the driftwood...I could barely get the vacuum in there.  I do plan to replant it and maybe put some shrimp or something in, but I'm waiting on a moss order before I get that started.  

I don't think I'd take out 50% of the water once a week...is it heavily planted enough to have a silent cycle, or is it filtered/cycled? If it's NOT, then yeah, the changes are probably about right, but if it's maintaining any sort of a cycle, you really don't need to clean that much, that often. I'd just spot clean the "open" gravel areas and around anything that's not going to be uprooted, and then stop. 

In terms of general cleaning, I mostly just spot-clean about once every two weeks unless there seems to be a lot of gunk at the substrate level. I attempted to clean the 2g once during that month, and it was ready to be cleaned again when I took it down. If you've got plants that are cleaner, and I you're *really* careful about feeding *only* what the fish is going to eat, you can get away with cleaning less. One of my 20g's is going on almost two months now, but it's mostly rosette and crypt plants, two bettas, and two mystery snails, so they keep everything pretty clean on their own. The plants and the filter back up keep my water params at 0's, so other than topping off to replenish nutrients and evaporated water, I only substrate clean as needed for gunk...or once a month, whichever comes first. I'm behind on that one, it should really get cleaned monthly.

The sorority I really have to clean about once a week because there's a lot of dropped food. I overfeed because I worry about everyone getting enough to eat...so I have to get that out of the substrate before it turns to gunk. 

As if that wasn't a convoluted answer, lol!


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## Dragon41214 (Apr 14, 2014)

I started out with an ornamental aquarium until I bought a rock with Annubias anchored to it. That is how I got started . My betta is housed in a 6 gal Edge it cycled in three days after adding BB and a live plant. (I test it frequently because it just seemed too easy) I decided to use rhizome's because I didn't want to start over with a different substrate. I ordered a Marimo that came in over the weekend, I added larger leaf variety Annubias, and some Anacharis that is floating in my tank. My water is crystal clear the levels are perfect and my Betta loves his plants. My next project will be making a java moss wall to hide the black stand behind his aquarium it creates a mirror effect and drives him crazy for hours! I haven't upgraded any light fixtures or fertilized and I have seen new growth in all my plants the Anacharis is beginning to grow roots.


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