Two Planted 2.5 Gallons! [photos]

[Sea Dragon]

So since I'm poor, I decided to plant my 2.5 gallon betta tanks instead of buying a new 6.6 gallon and ordering enough plants to fill it! (I will eventually though, my fish can use the upgrade)

I know nano tanks are a big challenge but I'd rather spend the time to take the challenge rather than spend a lot of money I literally don't have.

I dropped $26 dollars on these guys including shipping. I currently have:
- Brazilian pennywort (my favorite! It smelled so fresh when i was trimming them )
- Bacopa Caroliniana (It's sort of melting... The awesome website I ordered from said they were low light plants but I found that most people recommend moderate lights... after the fact.)
- Creeping Jenny (It's so pretty :D I've been finding mixed info about lighting; I hope they make it)
- Water Wisteria (I trimmed down the main bunch. The trimmings were so small, but I planted them anyways. I hope they make it too..)
- Dwarf lily (Only Gibbs has it and its barely sprouting)

Lighting: 1 5000k bulb (I plan to get 2 6500k bulbs, hopefully in time to save my bacopa)

Substrate: Petco black sand on top of Miracle gro organic potting mix

please dont mind my laundry in the bg lol. And sorry for the glare and reflection :/



This is Gibbs's tank. It used to be over 75% planted but I split the wisteria bunch and took out some dying bacopa stems and transferred them. The driftwood cave was a lucky find :D It even has a smaller hole (that you can't really see) but don't worry, Gibbs can fit through it just fine :D The wood was only $2.50



This is Blair's tank. At first he just had normal gravel with all the leftover plants that wouldn't fit into Gibb's. Then I decided I had enough trimmings to plant a new tank so I did. Except... it's a bit less than the recommended amount of 75% stem plants. Im still shopping around for a good piece of wood to replace the area on the left.



I really really like the look of pennywort, especially from above.




Opinions? Any tips on maintaining the plants/keeping them alive?

[MattsBettas]

Looks great!

[Perseusmom]

Looks very nice I really love Pennywort too ! I hope they all do good for you the lights with with 5600K should help alot . I have one of those too and my plants seems to love it . I have Hornwort, Anacharis, Watersprite, small stem of Pennywort and a Banana plant which I really love it has such big nice leaves which have a pretty pattern on them in green and light rust red color.

[PooterFish]

Looking good! I love that little driftwood cave thing :)

[Sea Dragon]

Originally Posted by MattsBettas

Looks great!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Perseusmom

Looks very nice I really love Pennywort too ! I hope they all do good for you the lights with with 5600K should help alot . I have one of those too and my plants seems to love it . I have Hornwort, Anacharis, Watersprite, small stem of Pennywort and a Banana plant which I really love it has such big nice leaves which have a pretty pattern on them in green and light rust red color.

I'll look to see if 5600K or 6500K are available, anything higher than 5000K lol. My pet stores sell the banana plant, I was thinking of picking up one myself. Thanks for the suggestion :)

Originally Posted by PooterFish

Looking good! I love that little driftwood cave thing :)

Thanks, I like it too, I'm glad I found it

[Sea Dragon]

Btw, would anyone know if its normal to have ammonia levels rising to .25-.5 ppm within 24 hours? I've been doing frequent water tests and water changes (most I can do is ~60% without damaging the plants which brings down the level to 0 ppm - .25ppm)

Is this from the soil, or dying plants D

[aokashi]

i like to start planted tank off without fish... but a bunch of pond snails instead...
I usually dont change the water and force the tank to fight out an equilibrium.
then I stock...

[Sea Dragon]

Uh oh :( I thought I'd be good adding them right away, but apparently not... I don't have any extra heaters and my room gets to 55 degrees at night.

Do you think keeping up with water changes and borrowing some seeding material from my friend will be sufficient? I dont have a filter either for water movement, only air pumps, and Im afraid that will displace the CO2 (and create a whole bunch of noise at night)

[Sea Dragon]

Just a little update, no photos since there isnt anything visibly exciting.

Got some seeding material and turned on my air pump for water movement. All plants have showed signs of growth (dwarf lily is the fastest!) except for a few bacopa stems, but those are still green and I picked off all the dead leaves so I'm hoping for new growth soon.

I still have an ammonia problem according to my test kit, but strangely none of my fish have been showing any reaction. Of course I've still been doing water changes to keep it under .25 ppm just in case. Hopefully I can go to my lps tomorrow and pick up an extra bunch of creeping jenny to help out (and spend a lot of time picking off snails probably, the place I ordered from did a good job keeping my plants pest-free but as awesome as my lps is, I cant say the same for it ;( )

I've also been half-dosing API leaf zone for some minerals, should I consider Ammo-lock and/or Excel for the list of additives?

[Agility4fun]

Nice set up Sea Dragon! I have three 2.5g tanks that I am filling up with plants. Christmas moss is fun and it grows fast. I got 2 micro swords today and will split them up and add to each tank.