Too much plants?

I've always heard that there's no such thing as "too much plants" for a tank, I'm wondering that includes space for the plants?

I set this 5 gal up just 2 days earlier, and I feel like I did not give the plants enough space to grow?


I know this doesn't look like something that's gonna have the "too much plants" issue, but I'm mainly worried about the cryptocoryne wendtii. I don't know if you can see, but there's about 10 of them in there (the others are hidden behind the hardscape) They were small when I got them, about 3-4 inches tall. Now some of them have grown about 5-7 inches tall (I had them in a separate tank before this set up)

I kind of planted them too near with eachother? About 3-4cm apart from each stem, now I'm wondering if this is going to cause any problems.

- Will they start competing with each other because of space?
- Maybe compete for lighting, or block light for other plants?
- Or they'll grow in harmony and create a lush jungle where each plant gets equal amount of resources in there?
- Or will they just die?

I forgot to mention, there is a 2" layer of dirt under a 2" layer of sand cap. But the surface is mostly occupied by hardscape.


And going back to the "too much plants" thing

Currently I've counted all the plants:
(excluding the floaters, I ain't counting all that)

4 hornwort stems
10 Cryptocoryne Wendtii
2 Corymbosa Compact
4 Hygrophila Polysperma
2 Water Wisteria
12 Rotala Rotundifolia at the back

And added just earlier today
+4 stems of guppy grass
+4 stems of hydrilla

so there's about 42 plants in there, with most growing large or multiplying fast.

Will they be ok?

There are really only three reasons there can be too many plants: 1. They're overcrowding each other, in which case they'll probably sort themselves out over time, but might look leggy and ugly for a while; 2. The tank is so pack there's no room for the fish to swim, which is an issue for fast swimmers and open water species (but hopefully you don't have any of those in a 5g anyway) or 3. The way it looks doesn't give pleasure to the aquarist, which of course is the whole point.

Plant selection is important in small tanks. I usually start my tanks out with 10+ different species, figuring that over time some will come to dominate and others will gradually die out. You have some big species in there that will outgrow the tank fairly quickly. I recommend doing a little reading on each species/variety you have, and take out the ones that are going to get too big so they don't outcompete and kill off the smaller species that you're going to want later.

As for the overall look, if the plant are getting too leggy and look like they're struggling with each other, just thin them out.

WhistlingBadger said:

There are really only three reasons there can be too many plants: 1. They're overcrowding each other, in which case they'll probably sort themselves out over time, but might look leggy and ugly for a while; 2. The tank is so pack there's no room for the fish to swim, which is an issue for fast swimmers and open water species (but hopefully you don't have any of those in a 5g anyway) or 3. The way it looks doesn't give pleasure to the aquarist, which of course is the whole point.

Plant selection is important in small tanks. I usually start my tanks out with 10+ different species, figuring that over time some will come to dominate and others will gradually die out. You have some big species in there that will outgrow the tank fairly quickly. I recommend doing a little reading on each species/variety you have, and take out the ones that are going to get too big so they don't outcompete and kill off the smaller species that you're going to want later.

As for the overall look, if the plant are getting too leggy and look like they're struggling with each other, just thin them out.

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I don't really mind if it looks ugly, I just appreciate having alot of plants in. But it becomes an issue if they seem to not be doing well because of a mistake I looked past on.

Planning on getting a betta with really short fins so it can still swim through the plants and hardscape, and will be the only fish in the tank so swimming space should be fine? But yea I might actually need to remove some of the plants, right now I'm keeping my eye on the larger plants (crypt, polysperma, corymbosa, wisteria) if any of them grow out of hand/die I'll remove them.

You mentioned plants sorting themselves out, does that mean overcrowding is not that big of a problem? I'm probably going to trim some of the leaves to so the others would get some light.

Thermal said:

You mentioned plants sorting themselves out, does that mean overcrowding is not that big of a problem? I'm probably going to trim some of the leaves to so the others would get some light.

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It's a balance to strike. If you crows them too much they won't get enough light and nutrients, and they'll suffer. But I like a lot of plants too. Just keep an eye on them and you'll get a feel for how they're doing.

By sorting themselves out, I mean more some plants are more or less suited to a particular tank's water chemistry, temperature, etc. and some thrive and other don't. It's fairly unpredictable IME, but with a bunch of species I'm pretty sure some of them will make it.

I assume that Thermal's tank may need more intense lighting if the larger plants fill in over time?