Greetings from Tucson!

[Just Renee]

I am very new to this hobby.  Mid April, I dusted off my husbands old Fluval Edge 6 gallon tank and started learning about how to set up a planted tank.  I've seen so many pictures and videos online of these beautifully scaped tanks with tons and tons of plants... I want that!  I'm a native Tucsonan, so part of it is that we natives just love anything even remotely green.  I've made several mistakes so far, didn't understand how to cycle the tank first but successfully cycled it with my betta, lone cory and 3 nerite snails and so far, everyone looks like they made it through OK.  Once I got the Fluval going, I realized I really wanted an open top tank so I could grow floating plants and I love the look of plants growing up and out of the water.  So I bought a 20 gallon high tank while it was on sale at Petco and now I am impatiently waiting for it to finish it's fishless cycle.

I discovered Aquarium Co-op through youtube, as I've been obsessively learning more and more about planted tanks.  Most of my plants are from Aquarium Co-op too!  So far, my only losses have been some stem plants but in my new tank, my red root floaters I bought online are looking.... rough.  And I posted about my lily bulb that I think may be rotten but time will tell.  Here are pictures of my two tanks so far.  Not anywhere near where I want them to be but it's a start!

I'm really looking forward to learning more and having some success at growing these plants and keeping the fishies happy and healthy.

 

[Just Renee]

I would like to add that I super duper love how the heater is the main attraction of the fluval.  By that, I mean, I really hate it.  LOL

[Colu]

Welcome to the forum nice tanks

[Gator]

8 minutes ago, Just Renee said:

I am very new to this hobby.  Mid April, I dusted off my husbands old Fluval Edge 6 gallon tank and started learning about how to set up a planted tank.  I've seen so many pictures and videos online of these beautifully scaped tanks with tons and tons of plants... I want that!  I'm a native Tucsonan, so part of it is that we natives just love anything even remotely green.  I've made several mistakes so far, didn't understand how to cycle the tank first but successfully cycled it with my betta, lone cory and 3 nerite snails and so far, everyone looks like they made it through OK.  Once I got the Fluval going, I realized I really wanted an open top tank so I could grow floating plants and I love the look of plants growing up and out of the water.  So I bought a 20 gallon high tank while it was on sale at Petco and now I am impatiently waiting for it to finish it's fishless cycle.

I discovered Aquarium Co-op through youtube, as I've been obsessively learning more and more about planted tanks.  Most of my plants are from Aquarium Co-op too!  So far, my only losses have been some stem plants but in my new tank, my red root floaters I bought online are looking.... rough.  And I posted about my lily bulb that I think may be rotten but time will tell.  Here are pictures of my two tanks so far.  Not anywhere near where I want them to be but it's a start!

I'm really looking forward to learning more and having some success at growing these plants and keeping the fishies happy and healthy.

 

I really like what you've done with your tank or is that two tanks?

The Betta will be happy in a 6 gallon tank and to hide the heater, either move it behind the Water sprite, or plant the Water sprite in front of the heater. Actually Hygrophila difformis will hide the heater quite nicely, but this plant and Water sprite grow tall and will need to be trimmed back from time to time.

Remember, throw any plant trimmings or possible dead fish in the trash, not the toilet. Whatever diseases that killed the fish or are on the plants are transferrable to our native fish species. 

The lushly planted tanks you may be referring to are called Dutch aquariums, these tanks are large, are injected heavily with CO2, have very few fish in them, but a large number and variety of plants with excellent plant growth. 

Welcome to the hobby and I hope you stick with it, the hobby is very relaxing and will help keep your blood pressure down.

[Just Renee]

Thank you!  Yes, it is two tanks.  The one with the obnoxious heater and the betta is the Fluval Edge 6 gallon and it has a glass top with only a small hole, so I'm super limited on where I can put the heater.  The pain of dealing with everything via that tiny little hole is one of the main reasons I wanted to get the 20 gallon I just started.

Thanks for the info re: not throwing dead stuff down the toilet.  Good to know!  

One of these days I may start playing with Co2, but for now I'm trying to stick with plants that will do well for beginners.  Luckily, it seems there are a lot that say they are good for beginners, and that's mainly what I used to fill the 20 gallon.  Once it's finished cycling  (I'm at the 0 ammonia, high nitrite phase right now), I plan on getting pygmy corys and guppies.  Super looking forward to it!

[Gator]

Just Renee;

There are several plants that are good for beginners and you already have several, the Java fern is one.

You can add Hygrophila polysperma and H. difformis and they will do very well, both branch out extensively, look great when they do, each branch will root itself and grow, and both are great oxygenators. I have both in a 29 Gallon tank along with other species and I can't think of ever getting rid of either so when I first had to trim them back, I transferred the cuttings to other tanks. In one of those tanks, I decided to take advantage of the H. polyspermas' branching nature by cutting the original plant at 6" tall so that it will branch out, It sent out several branches so I kept them cut at 6" so now I have a lush growth of H. polysperma covering the entire floor of one end of that tank and it wants to cover the entire tank, maybe.

Amazon sword is another good plant for a beginner, but it will grow very large and block light to smaller plants.

Other good plants for beginners are the two species of Sagittaria, Jungle val, Corkscrew val, all of these are great oxygenators, reproduce by sending out runners either on top of the gravel or just underneath the gravel, and each look good grown in groups. If you've got the right number of fish to plant ratio, the Vals' will do something called "Pearling," sending a stream of oxygen bubbles from one or more of the leaves to the surface. It's pretty cool to see and is very good, you wouldn't need Co2 supplementation. 

Corie's are good catfish to have, I have at least two Bronze Corie's in each of my tanks,  they don't eat other fish and they don't dig many holes in the gravel, usually just one shallow pit, and they'll all hang out there. 

If you want show quality or saleable Guppies', start out with one male and one female, both with the same colored tail. If you mix the colors, you'll end up with babies that will grow up with either multi-colored tails, short tails, or tails of the wrong shape making these babies only suitable for feeding to Jack Dempsey's or Oscar's. 

When the babies are born, separate them from the parents or the parents will eat them, you can put them in a 5 gallon tank and you'll be able to tell the males from the females at 6 weeks old and you'll want to separate the males from the females. The females will have a rounded anal fin while the males will have a modified anal fin called a gonopodium which is nothing more than a hollow tube to deliver sperm to the female.

If you want the female to have a lot of babies each time she has babies, feed them pureed nightcrawlers two or three times a week and she will have a lot of babies., this holds true for any species of fish you choose to breed, and I don't know why.

I've never been to Tucson and I'll probably never go there, but I do know that Davis Monthan AFB is there. A woman from Tucson moved into my neighborhood several years ago, she has always said that she is glad to get away from there, but never mentioned why. I always thought it was either because it may be too hot for her liking there, it's too dry, or that maybe everything there is brown and she wanted color in her life. Don't know, don't care.

Your tanks look great, keep up the good work.