# Plant for small tank



## zebra3 (Sep 3, 2012)

Hi, so here's the situation:
I've never planted anything underwater before but I want to do so.
I have a 1 gallon tank that will probably be upgraded to a 3 gallon sometime in the next 6 months.
I want to add a small plant (no taller than 6 inches) to my tank, and maybe some frogbit to the top.
I have no experience with planting so I don't know where to begin. 
I need to be able to do my weekly 100% water changes without killing the plant, so some sort of way to easily remove it would be great.

What kind of plant would you recommend?
I thought of getting something like this:


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## Destinystar (May 26, 2012)

Opps pictures arent showing...But I would go with either a Java Fern or Anacharis and you could float some Hornwort at top.


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## Oldfishlady (Mar 1, 2010)

What kind of light do you have-watts, kelvin and age of bulb.....
Lighting or proper color temp bulb is the driving force with some species of plants......

Since you want a plant that stays small-Anubias, java fern, java moss will work well and they need to be attached to something and not planted in the substrate-plus they are not that picky about the light and your bulb might be fine and since they are slow growing and not big eaters-plus are tied off-it will make the 100% water changes easier with less damage to the plant, however, you may not need to make 100% WC....

IMO/E the 1gal is fine to keep a Long fin male long term-
Do you have a filter, type of additives used, any snails or shrimp...

Can you post a pic...


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## rich e rich (Sep 7, 2012)

hello,

i would really like to know how you keep your betta healthy. Please share:

:what sort of ornaments you
- what u feed it
- other fish?
- how you control the temperature of the water
- tank maintenance- how often yiu change the water?

tank you


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## zebra3 (Sep 3, 2012)

Hey, thanks a lot guys.

Rich: I keep the tank clean by doing weekly (give or take a day or two) water changes. I may switch to weekly 50% changes and bi-weekly 100% changes if I get a plant, depending on if that affects the ammonia levels, a fact which I don't know. The biggest aid/hinder in cleaning is that if my fish does not allow food to drop down to the rocks. If the rocks get dirty, I feel like I have to clean them.
I feed my fish a combination of New Life Spectrum Betta formula and flakes. Sometimes he spits out the new life but it is better for him.
I have no other fish. If I got a three gallon I would either get a dwarf frog and shrimp, or maybe a couple small fish.
No ornaments, I'd like a piece of small driftwood.
Lighting: I have natural light from a window on the tank from about 11am to 6 pm, depending on how hot the room temp is. I have a 7watt bulb as well that doesn't get used much this time of year.

Speaking of driftwood, can plants be attached to it? If so, can most plants work that way?
Also related, anyone want to sell me some frogbit? I like the look of it, though since apparently bettas can/will jump out of their tanks I have to have a lid on it.


No filter. Can post pics later.


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## zebra3 (Sep 3, 2012)

I'm thinking about getting a 3 gallon tank earlier than I expected. I want to know how to clean a planted tank, because right now, I'm just removing the fish, dumping the water, rinsing the rocks, and adding fresh water and finally the fish. But with plants, how do I clean the rocks and remove the old dirty water?


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## registereduser (Jul 30, 2010)

Get a small piece of driftwood or rock and tie an anubias to it. The roots will eventually grip onto the wood/rock then you can easily remove wood/rock and plant when you clean.

Google anubias 

I found this good example online, it's from a British site 

http://www.java-plants.com/product_info.php?products_id=290


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## rich e rich (Sep 7, 2012)

ok zebra3,

I'll follow your way of tsking care of your betta. But if your betta were to get sick from poor water conditions, would you expect it to return to its original healthy state that you enjoyed it and bought it in after you've treated it (take care of water, put medication)? What is rock salt good for?


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## toad (Jul 17, 2012)

Hi! I have plants in my tanks, as well. Some floating, some planted, and some that are wedged in driftwood (fake driftwood, actually) or tied to rocks. I use a gravel siphon to vacuum the substrate and remove the water into a bucket (I use my kitchen trash can and bleach it when I'm done). I leave all the plants in the tank. Usually, I just push the floating plants to a corner so I don't damage them.

I have a few different plants, but my favorites are wisteria, which loves to float, hornwort, java fern, anubias and marimo balls.


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## JackisLost (Feb 26, 2011)

i use fissidens and anubias micro, nana, petite


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## LadyVictorian (Nov 23, 2011)

zebra3 said:


> Hey, thanks a lot guys.
> 
> Rich: I keep the tank clean by doing weekly (give or take a day or two) water changes. I may switch to weekly 50% changes and bi-weekly 100% changes if I get a plant, depending on if that affects the ammonia levels, a fact which I don't know. The biggest aid/hinder in cleaning is that if my fish does not allow food to drop down to the rocks. If the rocks get dirty, I feel like I have to clean them.
> I feed my fish a combination of New Life Spectrum Betta formula and flakes. Sometimes he spits out the new life but it is better for him.
> ...


It's five gallons min to keep other aquatic animals in with your betta and 10 gal min to keep other freshwater fish with it. 3 gallons would be too small. At most you could have maybe one shrimp in it because they don't have much of a bioload otherwise if you want an ADF get a 5 gal tank. If you want other fish you NEED a 10 gal. 

Also do you have a heater for your betta?

I would say for smaller tanks something like java moss is best, it stays fairly small and is easy to care for. I'm getting some for my 5.5 gal soon enough for my fish and shrimp (when I get them after cycling my tank)


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