Hello from Tennessee

[Carrietn]

Hello everyone! 
I’m so excited that I have found this forum! I have been on other pages and haven’t been able to get help. I sometimes have a lot of questions since I am a newbie. I have had a Betta for almost a year. And have kept him well. But would love to do better for him. I have never used live plants and I am thinking about getting a few just to try. I have no idea what I need as far as substrate or anything as far as plants go. Do I need a bubbler to keep plants? And where can I get clean plants that wouldn’t have a million snail eggs? Lol. Any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, and I am looking forward to talking with y’all!

Carrie T

[Gucci Gourami]

Welcome!

Definitely recommend live plants, no one can fully prevent snail eggs so you may have to be their remover. An airstone or bubbler is not necessary to keep plants. I recommend eco complete for a nutrient infused substrate but gravel works, fertilizers are not required for easy plants but all plants will appreciate it.

[Colu]

Welcome to the forum Great beginner plants  for low tech planted tanks are vallisneria or Hornwort or Elodea for back ground anubis and Javan fern and Javan moss you can attach to wood or rock water lettuce or Amazonian frogbit are great floating plants you will get snails or snail eggs most plants unless you get tissue cultured plants

[lefty o]

welcome to the forum. as for plants, just about any substrate can be used.

[DaveO]

Welcome Carrie, from a fellow tennessean. Definitely do take the plunge into plants. It is very rewarding and enjoyable. Aquarium Co op has many videos to help you get started.

[Andy's Fish Den]

Welcome to the forum! What part of TN are you in? I am going to be down in Gatlinburg and surrounding area later this summer, do you know of any LFS that I should check out? I have heard about a couple in Knoxville already, but always nice to find out if there's any more.

[bettatester]

Awesome! Welcome, I am in TN too! Where are you located? I have kept Bettas for five years now. Now keeping bettas with other fish, haha. I have just recently gotten into the live plants thing and wished I had done it the entire time! As a beginner, I recommend just using either straight up gravel or a flourite inert substrate. This will keep the organic bio-load from getting too high on you if you do not know well how to maintain an aquarium soil/don't have that many plants. I might have made that mistake already. It was a disaster. I have had good results from Amazon sword, Java fern (though it needs to be attached to something like a mat or drift wood to thrive), crypts, dwarf lily, and Tiger Lotus. Water Sprite has been ok, but it is a bit wild for me, haha. Dwarf Sagittarius and micro sword have also done well for me.  So far, the bigger the root system, the greater success I have had keeping them.

[Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics]

On 6/29/2021 at 9:57 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

Welcome to the forum! What part of TN are you in? I am going to be down in Gatlinburg and surrounding area later this summer, do you know of any LFS that I should check out? I have heard about a couple in Knoxville already, but always nice to find out if there's any more.

I hope you enjoyed your trip. Did you visit Aquatic Marine and Aquarium?

[Levi_Aquatics]

Welcome to the forum! You shouldn’t need any special substrate for most easy plants. Gravel should work just fine. You don’t need an airstone/bubbler to grow plants but one turned on a low setting would be beneficial for your aquarium. It is difficult to find places without snail eggs so I would just buy some quality plants from a lfs or aquarium coop and remove the eggs and snails if you are really against them. I have just decided to embrace them lol. As for plant suggestions, I would go with some Java fern, anubias, and crypts. They are all low ish light, easy to care for plants. 

[JMiller2020]

Welcome to the group