Just starting out

[vanewb]

I just got the Fluval Chi for Christmas and I was thinking about doing a nano planted tank. I'm not really sure how to start, but I've been trying to look up everything I'm gonna need. Any advice would be much appreciated

 

[absolutangel04]

Welcome to the forum!
A planted nano tank would look awesome. Is your chi the little 5g one?

 

[redsea]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice!

 

[vanewb]

Yeah it's the 5g I heard that the lighting and filter aren't good enough for the plants though

 

[ChizerBunoi]

Welcome to AA.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to the FW planted tank forum. You`ll get more info there.

 

[absolutangel04]

Yeah, most of the people I know who have that tank had had to replace the filter in it. It's an attractive little tank though. You should be able to upgrade the lighting pretty cheaply if it needs it.
Have you thougt about what you want in it? Keep in mind it could be a bit tricky to stock because the dimensions don't provide the horizontal room most commonly available fish need, but there are deifnitely some really cool fish/inverts who would LOVE it as a planted tank.
There is another member on here named maxwellag and he is currently converting his fluvial chi into a planted tank too.

 

[vanewb]

Yeah I've looked up some stuff and I just want some dwarf hairgrass to carpet the bottom and a moss wall to start off and possibly some ghost shrimp
Oh thanks I'll go see if I can find any of their threads, there will probably be some more info I can get

 

[akagochi]

Welcome! This hobby is gloriously consuming.

 

[Alex55-20]

Go for red cherry shrimp instead of ghosts

 

[absolutangel04]

Ghost shrimp are pretty cool. Personally, I prefer my red cherry shrimp becuase they are so colorful and they have lots of babies which is pretty cool.
A couple fish ideas would be a dwarf puffer ( but not with inverts). They are pretty cute, personable little guys. But, they get rather territorial so you can typically just just 1 in the tank and not really anything else. Endler's livebearers could be an option too. They stay pretty small and you can usually find them in feeder guppy tanks. Least killifish or chili rasbora would be ok in there. Scarlet badis or sparkling gouramis would be ok IMO. Perhaps a pygmy sunfish could work. Another option is a betta fish. I know they are pretty common, but they are wonderfully active when they are in a 5g tank versus the ones you see cramped into little cups.
Honestly, many of the common fish you see in petstores will not thrive in this particular tank because of the size. But, I recommend looking into the options I listed. There are some more choices too that would do really great.

 

[vanewb]

Yeah, it's hard finding fish small enough that stay small enough. I really like bettas though, I could watch them swim around forever haha. Could I put a betta with the cherry shrimp?

 

[absolutangel04]

Sorry it took me a couple of days to answer. Sometimes thats works, sometimes not. Some bettas will just kill shrimp, some will be ok with them. The only way you can really know is to try it and see. It helps if the shrimp have a lot of places to hide though. But, even then its pretty common for bettas to still kill the shrimp.
Yeah most of the cool nano fish that would thrive in a small tank are not readily available in most petstores. I have had to order fish online a few times.