I picked up a 1.5 gallon hex w/ airlift filter - no heater, incandescent hood. Right now there's cheap blue pebbly substrate and a male betta swimming around. I did swap the incandescent for a 13W screw-in CFL, and I stuck in a couple of those "betta bulb" type things that had sprouted in another tank.
I want to put some plants in this thing but as far as planted tanks go I'm pretty much a complete newbie. My couple bulbs aren't dead (yet), but I seem to be having much better success growing algae than plants at this point. It's on my desk at work so it gets plenty of attention, so I can tackle some of the maintenance stuff (trimming and etc).
So what needs to be done to get this tank set for "real" plant growth? My goals are... few to no ferts (though I could get with a small DIY CO2 setup), keep the betta in there, maybe add a snail. I think I need to swap the substrate for something better and build the CO2 reactor already, plus maybe add a couple more starter plants to help compete with the algae. Thoughts?
I want to put some plants in this thing but as far as planted tanks go I'm pretty much a complete newbie. My couple bulbs aren't dead (yet), but I seem to be having much better success growing algae than plants at this point. It's on my desk at work so it gets plenty of attention, so I can tackle some of the maintenance stuff (trimming and etc).
So what needs to be done to get this tank set for "real" plant growth? My goals are... few to no ferts (though I could get with a small DIY CO2 setup), keep the betta in there, maybe add a snail. I think I need to swap the substrate for something better and build the CO2 reactor already, plus maybe add a couple more starter plants to help compete with the algae. Thoughts?