How many plant species can I put in 2 gallons?

[Kytkattin]

Right now I have 3 Marimo moss balls, java fern, curly java fern, moneywort, anacharis, and lucky bamboo growing out of the top. I would like to add some other species. Other than running out of planting room because there isn't a lot of floor space in a drum bowl, is there any reason not to add more plants as long as they grow? How much swimming space does a betta really need? Water quality is tops because of all these plants.

[ChoclateBetta]

Bettas prfer heavily planted but one Betta does not create a lot of nutrients so if you want to have tons of plants things like subrate fert tabs, liquid CO2, and liquid ferts increase carrying capacity. Hygro is a good plants.

[aokashi]

I have about 15 in mine :)
I dose a drop of flourish everyday when I turn the lights on ^___^
I plant everything on the side and keep the middle and front low. this way, my fishie has swimming space in the middle :)

with a drum, you can try to design along the curves. I've always wanted to make a "cave" like feeling, like if you were looking into a cross section of a cave or cavern :)

[Kytkattin]

Yay, more plants it is! I do liquid ferts, but I can't do the liquid CO2 because of the moss balls. I don't have any true rooting plants, and barely have any sub as it is (again, hardly any floor space in a drum shape) so I don't know if it would be worth getting tabs. Any thoughts?

[ChoclateBetta]

I use liquid CO2 with my moss ball why can't you?

[aokashi]

Originally Posted by ChoclateBetta

I use liquid CO2 with my moss ball why can't you?

Moss balls are a type of algae. excel is known to get rid of algae. therefore dosing excel with moss ball is probably a risk Kytkattin didn't want to take



@Kytkattin- I'd say to use substrate. plant some low growing plants or even moss. you will find that with the drum shape, you get more floor space the most substrate you out in. I have zero floor space in my tank. my fish prefera the middle and upper stratum anyway. and the plants on the bottom is his "floor space"

[ChoclateBetta]

I am using a different brand of liquid CO2 then because mine does not stop my marimo.

[Kytkattin]

Yes, with three moss balls in this tank I am not going to risk it. I don't have $20+ to replace them and have had them for over a year now. They pearl like crazy too! It would be akin to me treating for ich while having scaleless fish. They might do okay, but why should I risk their health like that? I have other options.

Here is a picture of the tank in question. I just culled a bit of the anacharis, but it will be back soon enough to fill in the middle space more. I suppose I could raise the sub so that I could put more rooting plants in, but I don't want him to lose too much swimming space. Everything pearls like crazy, so I am not worried about health at the moment. The java moss reproduce every few months, the anacharis grows a few inches a week, and the lucky bamboo, though not pictured, sticks up a good 2.5ft out of the top having grown 2ft in the last year.

[ChoclateBetta]

I use lucky bamboo too. I use liquad CO2 from API and it works CO2 is going to be a big limiting factor.

[Kytkattin]

If I am going to use CO2 I am going to go with a homemade setup with yeast. It just isn't worth the risk to my moss balls.

All of my plants in this tank pearl and grow at a good rate without being overbearing.