Help With Corner Tank

[eduller]

Okay so I have my 54 gallon corner bowfront tank. I'm about sold on a betta sorority for this tank plus some cories and maybe 1 other school of something like rasboras. I do already have a breeder who has 15 female baby bettas being raised with rasboras that I will probably just take all in one group.

The substrate is 1 inch of floramax covered with 2 inches of black diamond blasting sand. I have a Finnex Ray 2 light fixture as well as a clip-on shop light for the back corner which I haven't gotten a bulb for yet. I will be doing liquid ferts and liquid CO2. I have root tabs and clay tabs for the root feeders.

I am sure I ordered too many plants, but I have 4 other tanks I can distribute the leftovers to. My plants should arrive today! I have:
12 assorted anubias
12 assorted java ferns
6 medium sized (8 inch) ruffled swords
2 10-12 inch amazon swords who have created about 8 baby swords between them
countless stalks of moneywort and some anacharis
5 large bunches of water sprite
5 large bunches of ludwigia
A ton of wisteria
5 large bunches of aponogeton crispus
5 large bunches of bacopa
a couple bunches of rotala
5 large bunches of cabomba
a wad of some floating something which I can't remember what I ordered
several bunches of java moss
maybe some pennywort?
I'll put a picture below of the tank as it is now. Ignore the cloudy glass, as my daughter smeared the front with a healthy portion of hand lotion for whatever reason. I'm thinking of putting the large driftwood in the middle back in a different spot/configuration. Maybe rotate it 90 degrees counterclockwise so it's sitting more on that V and putting it slightly off center toward the left. The ledges with the pebbles in them will also have plants in them - probably anubias or maybe a couple of the plants that require a higher light. I know I'm going to drive myself insane planting and re-planting if I don't make a game plan first. I think this will give me enough density and cover for a sorority. I also put the little clay pots in the background as some hidey-holes, and they each have a small ledge in front to put a plant on to obscure the opening. I also might flip the background around to the black side, but I'll see how the blue against the green of the plants looks.

I also have another small piece of driftwood I could put in there - about the size of a...hamster? And I have 2 large pieces of lava rock each about the size of an Xbox controller that I can put in.
 

 

[nic1]

I'm looking forward to seeing the progression of this tank!
Id love to change my blue background into a black background but the previous tank owner painted it and I'm too scared to scrape it off as I may ruin it!
I would go for black but that's just me
And you can never have too many plants.
Love the idea of the little terracotta pots, I may have to nick that one

 

[KrazyKuhli]

Nice looking tank I love my corner one.
 
That's alot of plants (I would never finish planting them as I always want to move them again lol) but should look nice when done.
 
Just a quicky of mine:

 
I like having the focal point at the center.

 

[Meeresstille]

Ui, that looks like a very interesting project! I really like it already.

 

[eduller]

I'm obsessed with terracotta pots for some reason. I actually have a few that I carefully removed just the top ring, and I might use them as "planters" for some of the ruffled swords - I'm also obsessed with putting things in pots.
 
KrazyKuhli - thanks for sharing your tank. I love the red plants mixed in as well as the rocks. My daughter keeps asking me to put her rock collection in one of the tanks, so maybe I'll add a few to this one
 
It didn't seem like a lot of plants when I was ordering, but then I underestimated the amount of plants I already have in my holding tank. I have a bunch of random snails, in all my tanks, so maybe I'll keep the "plant holding tank" planted with the extra plants and make a snail only tank!

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

You will need ALOT more bettas than 15 for that tank. I would put 15 in a 20g, so you probably need 30-40
 
Good plant list, you need to have tall plants everywhere.
 
You also need to be able to tell betta behavior, and if you havent had bettas I recommend you have something else in that tank

 

[DiddleBug]

Keep us posted!  Your tank should look very neat!! I love the wood!    
 
Nice tank btw KrazyKuhli.

 

[eduller]

The swords didn't come today, but the tank is filling up right now! I have everything else planted. I'll just drain it and plant the swords on Friday - have the day off for my birthday  
 
I have 3 male bettas right now (separate tanks of course!), and I have had a sorority in the past, but it was a small one of 9 in a 10G tank and it was in my college days...I'm not even going to think about how many years ago that was... I could definitely swing 30-40 females if I had to, but I hate the idea of having so many fish I can't keep track. Is it that I CAN HAVE up to 30-40 or it's recommended to have that many in a tank of my size? I'm definitely willing to re-think the sorority because I have waffled about it for months already. The breeder I know also raises male bettas in community tanks. I know she has some male juveniles in a tank with tetras and rasboras. Maybe a better bet would be to scoop up a male along with its current tankmates? I have a spare 5G tank if the betta has any trouble. Or a gourami instead maybe? Either of those shouldn't be a problem with cories, I'd think. 

 

[eduller]

Here we go. The bubbles make it hard to get a good shot. I was trying to plant anticipating how things will grow in. I've been staring at it for 15 minutes, and I feel like it's too random. I'll post a better picture after I get the swords in, and maybe they'll make it look less awkward. I have about 5 extra bunches of stem plants I didn't put in because it was feeling like too much. I also just have the anacharis floating. I kind of don't mind it like that though. 

Also, I'm super happy with the quality of the plants I got. Am I allowed to post links to the sites I bought them from on here? They aren't other forums. If so, I'll put them up. One of them in particular sent really nice HUGE bunches of plants along with one surprise freebia - a Joshua plant which is lovely. I wouldn't have ordered it from the picture on their site, but seeing it in person I really like it. It can be grown emergent,so I might put it at the top in the back corner and let it grow out of the water.

 

[KrystaK]

You're tank looks good so far. I really like that background with the ledges you have. Did you make it yourself or buy it? (I've been looking for one) (Sorry if you said something about it and I didn't read it )
 
 
I don't think you'd need 30-40 females in a tank that size. I think 10 would do just fine, each could have it's own territory, and with all those plants there would be plenty of hiding places. You could probably add a shoal or two of schooling fish too.
I've had a Sorority before, 10 females in a 20 gal with a school of corries. And everyone did fine. In the later years when the girls started to die off (Due to age, I had said tank for 4 years) I took out the remaining 4 and added them to my 30 gal and they generally left each other alone - except at meal time, but that's to be expected. 
That's just my opinion though, others may see it as a necessity, it depends on the experiences they've had, because really, all Betta's have different personalities. 

 

[eduller]

I made the background actually. It was by far the easiest part of this whole project, lol. A little syrofoam, a little Drylok, a little (okay a lot) aquarium silicone. 
 
I guess I have a while to decide on what fish to put in. I'm going to do a fishless cycle. I have 2 ten gallons and a 5 gallon tank to borrow a little mature media from, but I don't want to take too much from them. Hopefully it will only take a week or so with the seeding material. I'll obsess about the fish until then. And probably move the plants around 400 times.

 

[Meeresstille]

You've really got some talent there, maybe you should offer making these kind of back grounds for others.  I can't comment on the sorority idea, since I never had one, but the tank looks very promising with the plants that are already in there. 

 

[eduller]

Thanks! It was so much fun making it that I'd probably do it for free 

 

[DiddleBug]

wow!  It looks terrific! I can't wait to see what it looks like when the plants grow in!  

 

[KrazyKuhli]

Tanks looking great =) 
 
Oh and Happy Birthday!