Planning An Aquascaped Tank

[DanielaMarie]

Hey everyone!

I am trying to plan a tank, I'm not sure what size yet, for my dorm room at college, and I was wondering how planted my tank should be, and with what plants? Can you help me out?
My options are:
2.5 gallon with one male betta splenden
5.5 gallon with one male betta splenden and some community fish (most likely cories)
10 gallon with one male betta splenden and some community fish (either cories only or cories and neon tetras)

I know cories like sand as supposed to gravel, which I will be getting if I get cories.

Thank you in advance!

 

[KittyKat]

From my point of view, your first two suggestions are not actually an option, so that leaves only the third one.

I recommend a tank with a 60*30 cm bottom area, plants, Betta and 10 dwarf or pygmy Corys, a bit of wood and sand.

 

[snowflake311]

In a 10 gal a betta and Pygmy corys would be fine I agree. The 5 gal if a bit small for a good group of corys.

Sand has little to no nutrients for root feeding plants. You could put a layer of plant substrate with sand on top. That can work well.

What's your lighting going to be? Can't pick plants if you don't know the tank specs.

Also it's always best to lay out the hard scape first and fill in the plants once you have the rough draft in place. Are you going to use wood or rcks or both? It's nice to look up aquascaping online for some ideas as to what you want to do.

 

[ian]

Can we not get away from the root feeding myth??!!

Inert sand is absolutely fine as long as you feed the water column. Think about it...the water column will extend into the substrate.

Im on my phone at the moment, so it's hard to link. I will link the op the basics in aquascaping.

now on a PC, have a read of this...

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/328059-basics-in-aquascaping/

 

[minnnt]

My plants are growing quite well in sand, far better than they ever did in gravel...

 

[DanielaMarie]

I don't have the tank yet, but the descriptions says an incandescent hood with bulb. I'm guessing an 18 watt bulb.

 

[GrayScale]

Sand and root tabs does great imo. I like sand better too cause all detritus sits on the top and you dont have to dig down in it with a syphon. What sort of plants are you thinking about?