Back In Business,

[digitalairman]

Hey all. I am new here. I have been lurking around here for a while. Last year sometime, my wife and I "rescued" a Betta from Wal-Mart. I picked this one, mainly because it looked like it was on the verge of, er, um, sleeping with the fishes. It didn't took too colorful when we got it. Well we did the stereotypical thing and put him in a small tank. It was one of those that has a dark blue divider so you can have two male bettas in the same tank but they never see each other. Well we got another one from petsmart or something like that. A short time after they were put in the tank together, I forgot to place the lid back on and the one from petsmart jumped out one night and we woke up the next morning to a deceased betta. I was pretty upset, but decided to fix up the five gallon tank I had stored under my cichlid tank. Well I had to go to Kuwait for a little while. When I got back, I finally got to it. I thought I would try to do a planted tank again. I had tried in the past, but to no avail.

Well here it is. This is only Day 5 so we have some time for the plants to fill in and what not. Let me know what you think.

Full tank shot

Mr Betta (Still nameless after almost a year, any ideas?)

Close up of the plants.

Another shot of the plants.

Another of the betta.

"What are you looking at?"

Another full tank shot.


Future plans are to put a background in. Can't decide on the color though. I have some black lying around here. Might throw that on for the time being. I also want to put a little asian statue of some kind, inspired by one of you on here. (I can't remember your name, sorry)


Ok, thanks for looking. Let me know your opinions.

Parker

 

[atmmachine816]

Welcome to TFF and hope you like coming back to planted tanks. Sorry about your betta

Hmm, looks nice, like the hill in the back left. It looks to me like a amazon sword in the back right, the one's that grow huge, you'l just have to keep trimming that down I think. What type of lighting do you have, any ferts, co2.

Austin

 

[digitalairman]

I have no idea what the lighting is really. It is leftover from when I had a chameleon and it needed special lighting. I will probably upgrade the bulb eventually, but this one is bright as hell. The only fertilizers I have are Jungle substrate tabs, and leaf zone liquid fertilizer. No CO2 yet. That is also on the list in the future. The plants i got were just cheap-o ones from Petsmart, just to get the tank established. Do you think these will outgrow the tank pretty quick? Maybe I should hold off on the CO2 until I can get some smaller, slower growing plants, maybe.

Parker

 

[atmmachine816]

I'm not sure on the plants since I'm no expert on the plants, One almost looks non-aquatic though not sure, you can check out plantgeek.net for plants. Fertilizers sound ok, not sure if lighting is ok for lots of plants though i don't know. Maybe the farmer will pay you a visit, he knows a lot. Just wait till someboyd who knows more than I do though most of them are in the UK and aren't on now so You might have to wait awhile

Cheers

Austin

 

[wandgrudd]

not wanting to be a pain but the white and green plants (Dracaena sanderiana) you have are non-aquatic plants ( so don't grow fully underwater ) and more than likely will be dead and rotting in a few months.

see - http/www.plantgeek.net/plant-276.htm


also not sure about you grass like plant front left pattern on leaves looks like a non-aquatic plant Ophiopogon japonica see - http/www.plantgeek.net/plant-220.htm (but i could be wrong on this one.)



sorry i would take them back with a print out and get a refund.


for some unknown rezone every time i look at your Betta it reminds me of a chocolate orange.

Andrew

 

[Aeropars]

Saying that though, I had a few of them before i knew better and mine were fine in the tank. They didnt really do much but didnt die either.

 

[digitalairman]

Weak, super super weak. You would think that an aquarium company like Top Fin (Who makets the plants I bought at Petsmart, the non-aquatic ones) would do some friggin research before selling these things and labeling them as aquarium plants. Such BS. Oh well, you live and you learn. Now I just have an excuse to order from a more reputable company like Dr Fosters. Thanks for the heads up guys, anyone got any extra plant matter lying around??


Parker

 

[lljdma06]

Saying that though, I had a few of them before i knew better and mine were fine in the tank. They didnt really do much but didnt die either.

Some non-aquatics can survive for a time submerged, but they do ultimately rot away. I wouldn't take back the Dracaena sanderiana, however. If you only purchased it recently, it makes a very robust houseplant, and will do quite well in a pot near a window that gets adequate light. Ophiopogon japonica also makes a good houseplant, but the soil should be kept rather moist. So you have 6 new houseplants. The rest of them look aquatic to me.

You really can't go by how bright the light looks. Supermarket lights seem notoriously bright and annoying, yet a room in a supermarket will only have a lumen level of about 500lumens or less, which is actually quite meager. I would consider replacing the lighting, since if it was used for a reptile, may have been used to produce heat. This may be as simple as replacing the current bulb with a compact fluorescent fixture, or just simply changing the bulb in your light fixture. Is it a fluorescent strip? I can't really tell from your photo. Aim for a light color temperature of around 6700k, but it can be higher. A full-spectrum daylight bulb would do the trick as well.

Your betta is very lovely and I'm glad you opted to put him in a larger tank.

llj

 

[digitalairman]

It's not a heat lamp for reptiles, its a special UV bulb that simulates real sunlight, so I assumed it would work for the time being. We will see I guess. Still bummed about the plants though. Time to look for replacements.

Parker

 

[wei0204]

I am new to aquatic plants, but I have seen that green & white plant before. In my country (Malaysia), many people plant them in vase with water. But never see them plant it in the water... Now I know why...

 

[digitalairman]

Yeah, still torqued. Any reccomendations for new plants? Since it is a 5 gal, and I dont need any massive plants taking over. Any ideas?

Parker

 

[juicebox]

hello digitalairman,

anubias (especially anubias nana) are great plants for small tanks, although you may want to stick to the more weed-like fast-growing plants for a while to avoid algae. hairgrass and a few other small-leaf carpeting plants are often used for small tanks, but it depends on your lighting. you can browse the tropica website for lots of plant ideas.

good luck!