# Hi everyone! First attempt at a planted tank



## An t-iasg (Jun 3, 2005)

I have three 5 gallon tanks for bettas. Two are regular All-Glass tanks and one is an Eclipse hex tank. The lighting over the tanks is 1.5 watts/gallon. The hex tank, however, has a spiral CF and I'll try putting the medium light plants in there. 

Previously, one tank had a few crypts and the other had an anubias (the hex tank is empty now). Both tanks had silk plants. I got some additional crypts and anubias, plus some new plants to try:

Echinodorus angustifolius
Lagarosiphon madagascariensis
Narrow leaf sag, bacopa, sunset hygro, lace java fern, and java moss for betta beds (see my intro thread for details about the moss beds!)

Right now I want to remove the silk plants. I plan to divide the L. madagascariensis, crypts, anubias, java fern and narrow leaf sag among the All-Glass tanks. I'll put the hygro, bacopa, and E. angustifolius in the hex tank. I may try the sunset hygro in the two AG tanks too and see how it does. I know the bettas in those tanks would love it.

I have regular aquarium gravel for substrate. I also have root tabs, Seachem Flourish Comprehensive, Excel, and Nitrogen. 

Any suggestions and tips are welcome!


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## Cavan Allen (Jul 22, 2004)

The first thing I'd suggest is to get a larger tank! The larger a tank is, the more stable it is. You don't have to go all-out and get a large, heavily lighted and co2 injected tank to start, but fives are not really what I'd suggest someone use to 'learn the ropes'. If it starts doing well, that angustifolius will consume a 5 gallon in about three days. 

Your bettas will be just fine in the larger tanks anyway. Just don't count on keeping shrimp with them. 

How are the plants doing now? What are you dosing? etc.....


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## An t-iasg (Jun 3, 2005)

Hi Cavan! Yes, believe me, I know bigger is better! I do know the bettas would love a 10 gallon tank. These three 5 gallon tanks are all I can manage, space-wise, for now. Hopefully, within a few weeks, I'll see if I can start a 10 gallon tank. Then that will be the limit for tanks. 

The two AG 5 gallon tanks are on the kitchen counter, where I can see them as I sit at the barstool. I (well, my husband -- I'm not good with DIY stuff!) removed the undercabinet halogen fixture, replaced it with a fluorescent kitchen fixture, and put a Penn Plax 15 watt bulb in the fixture. I know that's not the ideal for a planted tank at all, but it's all I have to work with now. 

Right now the one 5 gallon tank has java moss and one crypt with three leaves. (The other AG tank is not set up. I will try to get to it before the weekend -- I have all these plants in the critter keeper and a poor betta in a 2.5 gallon.) The rest of the crypts melted and only this one grew back. I was dosing Flourish Excel, Comprehensive, and Nitrogen, each twice a week at 1/8 teaspoon. I had a lot more crypts when I was following this dosing schedule. Now I stopped dosing because I didn't want to fuel a green algae bloom (because most of the crypts died). The silk plants in there now have a rather bad coating of diatoms. I'm trying to get more plants in the tank and resume my fert schedule and hopefully the diatoms will go away. It did seem like the diatoms took hold when I stopped the Excel. This time I would like to remove the silk plants (they are stained by diatoms anyway) and try all live plants.

I saw the L. madagascariensis at AOA. I saw how it filled up the showtank...I probably did twist Tim's arm a bit to get some! :lol:

Edit: L. madagascariensis was the prominent plant in the show tank, not E. angustifolius as previously stated.


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## An t-iasg (Jun 3, 2005)

Update: The E. angustifolius is not doing well. I hoped that with my low light and no CO2 that it wouldn't grow as fast. It appears to be turning brown in spots. It is in the highest light that I can give it. The sunset hygro, the plant that I wondered about doing well, is fine so far -- still nice and green.


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## An t-iasg (Jun 3, 2005)

I looked at the Plant Finder and the E. angustifolius needs more micronutrients and iron. If the Flourish Comprehensive isn't enough for its needs, I'll get some Flourish Iron. It only had one brown leaf, and the rest look ok so far. Under my lighting, it may get too tall, so I'll just have to keep an eye on it.


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