Do I have room for more plants?

[ILo]

Hi. I have a 4 gallon tank and 1 Betta. I have a couple live plants in there but would like to add a couple more if I can, to help with the strong current from the output of the filter. I tried making a baffle using a water bottle but it almost made it worse, so I thought adding more plants might help. My album has a picture of my tank. Do I have room for more plants? If yes, how many would you suggest?

[Laki]

You could try adding a bit of sponge to the output to control the flow. Attach with elastic band if nothing else.

I'll go see your album now in a sec, but it is my opinion that you can never have too many plants!!

[Kwomais]

Lol IMO you have too few plants! (I do like a lot of plants though...) You could definitely add some more to the system. If I were you, I'd more the house so that it's more centred (under the outflow of the filter) and tie a bunch of java fern to the roof. Or you could do a 'wall' of some stems or some nice big swords along the back that act as a background and double as a baffle. You could even "baffle" the outflow by putting some plastic mesh over some moss (like java) over it to form a little semi-emerged carpet in place of the sponge baffle. Just a few ideas :D

[tekkguy]

Just like Jello, there's always room for plants. Or something like that.

[ILo]

Thanks everyone. I will get more plants.

[sarahspins]

There is always room for more plants :) In my heavily planted tanks.. the fish tend to hang out IN the plants more than in the open areas - they like the plants.

In one of my betta tanks, my betta especially likes to "park" himself under the leaves of my hygrophila pinnatifida.. it's really cute, he'll sit there peeking out like he's under an umbrella.

[Laki]

Okay, I found your album. Everybody listed great ideas and suggestions!!

Your tank could definitely use more plants :) easy to care for (my definition is if I can keep them alive and growing then anybody can) is java fern, marimo moss, salvinia, hornwort.. I'd like to try hygro again bc I love how tall it gets but all of mine melted.

[soady]

Originally Posted by ILo

Hi. I have a 4 gallon tank and 1 Betta. I have a couple live plants in there but would like to add a couple more if I can, to help with the strong current from the output of the filter. I tried making a baffle using a water bottle but it almost made it worse, so I thought adding more plants might help. My album has a picture of my tank. Do I have room for more plants? If yes, how many would you suggest?

I have a good suggestion on how to calm the water surface. I just cut the straight part of a bottle's body, made edges round and just attached it to my hang on filter. The water is disturbed only in the boundaries of the bottle and you can barely notice the bottle. Check it out:







The bottle will naturally squeeze onto the filter. It shows great results! Check out how close to the filter his nest is:



It is literally touching the plastic bottle! And you do get water disturbance, but only inside the bottle boundaries. :) Then, you could put the plants wherever you like and not try to calm the water surface with them. Hope I helped!

[ILo]

Soady thanks for the suggestion. However I don't think this would work for our fish. We had a undergravel tank and the airstone filter was in the middle of his round tank and he kept swimming down the tube and under the gravel grate. So we bought a new and bigger tank. I used the same tube around in the input of the filter to decrease flow and he swam in there and got stuck so I'd prefer no more tubes or bottles in the tank that he could get stuck in. I've had bettas in the past but this one is either really brave or just not very bright to keep getting stuck. Thanks!

[soady]

Originally Posted by ILo

Soady thanks for the suggestion. However I don't think this would work for our fish. We had a undergravel tank and the airstone filter was in the middle of his round tank and he kept swimming down the tube and under the gravel grate. So we bought a new and bigger tank. I used the same tube around in the input of the filter to decrease flow and he swam in there and got stuck so I'd prefer no more tubes or bottles in the tank that he could get stuck in. I've had bettas in the past but this one is either really brave or just not very bright to keep getting stuck. Thanks!

Haha, you're welcome! :D

I think my bettas are not much of a daredevil. They sometimes go under the bottle, swim against the current for a few seconds and easily go out. It is also not a strong filter (Atman HF100).

Anyway, I'm thinking if you did the bottle thing and then planted tall plants to fill the inside of the bottle so they wouldn't have space to get inside and get stuck. It just seems to me that using plants to calm the water surface would be tricky.

Good luck!