Simply Fin

Sorry I didn't introduce myself properly last week. I was so excited to get started with my planted aquarium journey. I reside in northern Idaho and look forward to meeting more aquarists who enjoy their hobby. I'm learning more through helpful suggestions here in the forum. Thank you for your support and warm welcome. I purchased and received just this Wednesday 1 Anubias Nana, 1 Anubias Nana Petite and a Water Sprite. Have them in quarantine now after alum dip. They are pretty tough. Have plant light on them and we will see what happens. So far, the ammonia level is good. I've become a helicopter mom...aaah. Stay in the swim and have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend everyone. PS Yes, I'm using Easy Green too. 🐠🐠

Thank you Anitstuk for the information. I also read there was or had been a problem with Marimo moss ball. It had to do with finding the invasive mussel in them. And there is a shortage of moss balls. I think I will stay with the water sprite for now until I learn more about the moss ball. Have a great week and appreciate all your help.

Thank you drewzero1 and Anitstuk, I appreciate all the helpful hints and it has me re-thinking a little bit. Floating plants yes. What about Marimo Moss Ball? Are they beneficial to help reduce algae? More questions, sorry. 🙄Hope to make a good decision soon. Thank you again. Simply Fin

Good idea about the water sprite, the rasboras will like that. Thank you, Redfish.

Hi Anitstuk, and Redfish, Thank you for responding to my introduction. I plan on introducing Phoenix Rasboras to my 5-gallon tank once it has cycled and plants are starting to grow. And yes, Redfish I will be testing the water, so important and thank you. Will be doing a great deal of that. So, what would be another plant I could use in place of the sword since I want to use sand substrate? Maybe something the Rasboras would like? Happy fishkeeping to you as well. Thank you for the blog link, Redfish. Simply Fin

Hello everyone, Have just started preparing to set up a 5-gallon tank aquarium. Yeah, it's a small start but that is all this senior can handle. Years ago, I had a Betta in a fish bowl and he lived for 5 years. I call that a miracle. Many years ago, I had a 10-gallon tank. I didn't have the knowledge then to properly care for my fish and learned the hard way. Now, I've watched You Tube videos, read various articles and rechecked to get a good idea of what would work for a beginner aquarist. I want to start with quarantined and disinfected plants. I've read how to do that and plan to use alum dip. Then I'll leave them in de-chlorinated water with plant light for around a month. Sounds good ...so far. I want to use plants that will be attached to rock, or wood because I want to use sand as my substrate. Yep, I saw the video on sand substrate and the importance of how to clean and stir the sand to avoid toxic pockets of gas. I plan on eventually putting pygmy Cory Doras but will wait and see how well my tank cycles, etc. I want to start with Phoenix Rasboras (hope I'm spelling that right). I want to know how many plants would be best in such a small tank. Want to use Java Fern, Anubias Nana Petite and a dwarf sword? I've never grown aquarium plants so I'm very nervous about this but I know how important they are to the aquarium. Any suggestions? I really want small fish because of the low bio-load. Any suggestions or ideas would be welcome, just explain things in a simple clear way, since this is new to me and I don't want to be overwhelmed. Thank you for taking the time to read all of this. Simply Fin