2 Gallon Planted Experiment

[Anitax3x]

Hmm that is confusing! How does it look? How is your fishy?

[Kytkattin]

It looks good, the plants are growing, the fish is very active and viscous. I will do another water change later, but I am not going to worry about it too much.

[Anitax3x]

awesome! my fish is runnin around too! I believe he's a happy fish :D I just got a 10 gal at petco for like $3 from my petco dollars, so I'm thinking of dividing that between 4 bettas. do you think thats too small?

[Kytkattin]

The only reason dividing a 10 four ways doesn't work so well is that they don't end up with much sideways room. 3 is typically advised. However,4 could certainly work. Clean water is the most important thing.

[Anitax3x]

Oh I keep my fish spoiled so clean water is always a definite!

[Kytkattin]

Using the sun in a window means that the plants grow towards the sun, so kind of sideways. lol. Not nice and straight up like my plants in the artificially lighted tank. Potentially thinking about rotating the tank to correct for this, but since it has a heater it means that the "ugly side" would face forward sometimes.

Still don't know why I have ammonia and nitrates at the same time. I am thinking it has to do with some of the plants decaying. It is weird, a plant is browning in one area and growing a bright green arm at the same time. Guess that is what I get for buying half dead plants.

Fish is always hungry. Sometimes I look at her at the bottom, thinking something is wrong because she keeps twitching only to discover that she is hunting, some poor creature that she happily devours. I haven't seen the snail for a while. I think she ate that too. I would say she has hunted everything to extinction, but i think I just spotted a water flea, zooming about. Somehow there is still a healthy population of mystery creatures.

All plants have grown except the moss ball, which pearls like crazy. The plants seem healthy, except for the half wilted anacharis. Once the new growth is a little bigger I will break them from the original and plant them. The java fern is one of my new favorite plants of all time. I currently add no ferts, but will consider doing so later. I only have Flourish, not Excel so don't worry!
I will try to test the water later.

[Kytkattin]

I am not sure if I am allowed to dig up old threads if they are my own, but I figured that this would be the best place to show a current photo of the experiment as it is a continuous project. Spooky, the original occupant is still with me but was moved to my 5.5 gallon because she got huge. I have a rescued male betta in there now. He is probably the happiest darn fish on the planet. I haven't looked at the parameters in forever. I do a 1/3 water change about once a week, though I have let it go at times and no one seems harmed. As of 4 days ago, this tank has been running for one year. I consider it a complete success.

Currently there are two lucky bamboo plants growing with the roots in the water, java ferns, anacharis, and 2-3 Marimo moss balls. I lost the wisteria in both of my tanks, as well as the duckweed. In addition to the betta, there are also a plethora of snails that he often eats. I fertilize occasionally. I would like to add more plants, but there just isn't much room. Maybe an anubias sometime around Christmas. I currently have to supplement the plant life with lights as I moved and my new window isn't as sunny. I just use a compact fluorescent bulb for now, but will be getting an LED bulb eventually. Anyone have any thoughts about my overall progress? Has anyone tried something similar in the meantime?