Going w/ live plants & have a few Q's

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nikipike

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 21, 2006
Messages
76
Location
New Bern, NC
I'm in the process of setting up a 10gal tank for my female bettas to live in (well, it sounds great on paper, just hope they get the memo... :roll:)
The tank needs to be heavily planted so after pricing silk plants I decided it would be worth it to at least consider going live, especially with the benefits.

Would like to stick to simple low-light plants at the moment (anubias, java fern/moss, etc.)

I have read the stickies up top (minus the CO2 one. I did glance, but it's not an important part with what I want for my tank.)

1. I know snails are really common to find in plants. Read in another thread that there are a couple of benefits to having them, such as stirring the substrates. As much as I hate the idea of seeing snails crawl around my tank, I think my bettas might enjoy snacking on young ones or picking on them at least. Are there any minuses to leaving the snails?

2. Is there a chance of *over* stocking my tank with plants?
I need to start out pretty heavily (would like tank setup & ready to go soon as possible so I don't necessarily want to sit around & wait for small plants to grow & fill the tank up enough.) Can I remove extra plants later to make room for other plants to grow?

3. Have read the lighting sticky, but i'm still a little confused. The hood my tank came with (& can be replaced if needed) is split by a box in the middle which both my bulb (15w, I don't think their fluorescents either) ends are screwed into. Their ends are just like a normal light bulb, not like the longer fluorescents i've had the past. Was scanning over petsmart's site to see what kind of better bulbs they carry & saw these compact fluorescents...

Online Link

Would these bulbs be better? I think they might actually fit in the hood I have currently.

The other option I was thinking of is buying another hood that could take a normal light & getting an aquaglo bulb.

Thanks,
Niki
 
Sounds like you got a standard incadescent fixture. Bulbs like the ones that you linked to should work in your fixture and will actually give you better light than a standard flourescent fixture would have. Just make sure to get daylight bulbs instead of the 50/50 bulbs. Actinic light can't be used by FW plants, so these bulbs would effectively half your lighting. If you've got a Walmart nearby, some of them carry 10Watt CF bulbs for use in incadescent fixtures for about $5. They'd be in the Fish Area.

That much light would allow you to grow low light plants and maybe some medium low light plants too. Anubias, Crypts, Java Moss, and Java Fern would all be excellant selections. Check out PlantGeek.com for some more of your options.

The biggest minus to snails is that some will eat your plants and if you overfeed they will multiply like mad. There are ways to remove snails later if you decide you don't want them. Most planted tanks end up with snails eventually.

Feel free to plant heavily and then thin them out as needed. Once the plants really get going you'll need to trim and thin them anyway, you'll just need to do it sooner if you plant heavily from the start. Planting heavily from the start also helps to minimize the cycle since plants feed on all forms of Nitrogen, including Ammonia and Nitrite.
 
*I edited your link*

I happen to believe that some snails are very beneficial to a planted tank. Malaysian Trumpet snails stir the substrate (like you said) and ramshorns are great for picking algae off plant leaves. None of the other species of snails are good for tanks. The good thing about the MTS is, you will not see them all that often, they prefer to come out in the dark.
 
Cool beans! I saw they had them in Walmart, but I didn't make the connection between them & my fixture.

I'm going to wait to add plants after my tank is cycled. It's been at it a week using the normal fishless cycle, but i've changed my mind & am working on getting bio-spira.
 
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