Plant Question for Old Fish Lady??

[choob99]

Mostly for OFL, but anyone else feel free to share your experience. I have a 40 gallon breeder that has amazon swords, java fern mats tied to driftwood, and some other low light plants, this tank is a sorority betta tank with 6 betta females in at the moment but will soon have 10-12 females in it, anyway I plan on getting some dwarf baby tears to make a carpet, and some other higher light and fert plants. My question is is it ok to use fert tabs and flourish with the fish? and also is it safe to put a CO2 system in the tank, or will that cause problems with the fish or water quality?

[choob99]

Forgot to mention I just have a gravel substrate, no soil or sand

[battered]

I'm assuming fert tabs are the same as root tabs - but yes, flourish and substrate supplements are fine with fish. I would even go so far as to say that root tabs are necessary for your root feeders. With CO2, you need to be careful you don't gas the fish at night, but if done correctly, CO2 is safe with fish. If you add HC (dwarf baby tears), CO2 or Excel (glut or some other sort of CO2 supplement) is necessary, or you'll probably run into algae problems/limited growth. In my opinion, make sure your lower light plants are growing very well for you first, before getting into higher light plants/CO2. If you try your hand at it before you are ready, it might just end up being frustrating. Good luck!

[Twilight Storm]

Silly question but do you have the lighting already to support your moderate/high light plants?

Mo would be a good person to get opinions too here about the plants and CO2 I think? Kfryman, and Romand (I think) are good with plants.

I am not sure if you knew, but tropicalfishkeeping.com is the "mother" site of bettafish.com

Your password is the same for both sites but logging into tropical fish keeping lets you access the entire sight of forums rather then be locked into the betta section. There should be more information on the mother site about plants if I remember correctly.

I like logging into the betta section because of the color of the forums. It's easy on my eyes and I like the feel of it. -Just wanted you to know.

Edited to add:
battered snuck in there before I hit enter :D

[choob99]

Yes I'm very experienced in keep low light plants and have lights to support a higher output system, just wasn't sure on the use of ferts and CO2 with bettas in the tank, didn't know if there were things i couldn't use and what the process with CO2 is with fish

[Oldfishlady]

Actually I am not the best person to ask since I don't have any personal experience with CO2 or ferts......I have natural soil based systems and they create everything that is needed.....

But I do know that the ferts are designed to be safe with most fish and livestock-some can cause problems with some inverts.

With CO2 you need a lot of light and generally with Betta the CO2 will not cause problems-but other species it can if you are not careful as posted by battered and as Twilight storm posted you may want to go to the plant section on TFK and ask.....

Sorry I couldn't be of more help....

[choob99]

appreciate the help, i think i'm gonna pass on getting a co2 system for now, i got some more plants today, and i've talked to several ppl that say if you used Flourish Excel that co2 is REALLY necessary, so i'm gonna go at it with Flourish and Flourish Excel with some upgraded lighting and see how it goes