first planted tank advice and recommendations request

[kcsquare]

Hi, I've had a 10 gallon tank that we used for mbuna fry about 6 months ago. For the past couple of months I've had just a piece of spider wood in it. About a week ago I got a betta fish. Finally, yesterday I received a sponge filter, light, root tabs, easy green, and some plants from aquariumcoop! 

Really looking for some reassurance and tips for how to be successful.  Here's what I did last night after work:

1. I did a 50% water change 
2. I cleaned (w. just water and elbow grease) a few rocks from my yard and added them to the tank
3. I buried 12 root tabs around the sand, in a grid-ish. 
4. I put in the small sponge filter + airstone. 
5. I planted scarlet temple in back left
6. I planted tiger lotus bulb back center/right
7. I glued windelov java fern to the far right, on the wood
8. I planted monte carlo towards the front 
9. I glued anubias nan petite in a Y on the spider wood
10. I glued java moss in a few places on the spider wood and to the back of the rock on the far right 

Here are some of my concerns. 

• The scarlet temple broke into multiple pieces when I was taking it out of packaging. I planted all of the pieces that had roots. I can see some of the roots of the scarlet temple. Should I try to carefully get them all in the sand ?
• Same question with monte carlo. Some of the roots are up in the water, not in the sand.  How deep do these need to be? 
• I have a lot of extra moss. Any suggestions for where to glue it? 
• The sand, throughout this work last night, got really out of level. I had it slightly higher in the back, slightly lower in the front. Now it's very bumpy. How anal are you all about this sorta stuff? 

Today or tomorrow I plan to do first dose of easy green. 

Anything else I'm missing? Should I get easy iron to help the scarlet temple stay pink/red? 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Leave the roots out, eventually they’ll sink in.

Maybe glue the moss on the wood? 
Bumpy sand isn’t exactly a concern, it’s probably flow evening it out.

[FlyingFishKeeper]

On 10/20/2022 at 11:15 AM, kcsquare said:

• The scarlet temple broke into multiple pieces when I was taking it out of packaging. I planted all of the pieces that had roots. I can see some of the roots of the scarlet temple. Should I try to carefully get them all in the sand ?
• Same question with monte carlo. Some of the roots are up in the water, not in the sand.  How deep do these need to be? 

Hi, in my experience most stem plants don't really NEED to be rooted, and will do fine floating. I've also seen my monte carlo have pieces break off on their own, and to the best of my knowledge they are still floating around and fairly green.

 

On 10/20/2022 at 11:15 AM, kcsquare said:

The sand, throughout this work last night, got really out of level. I had it slightly higher in the back, slightly lower in the front. Now it's very bumpy. How anal are you all about this sorta stuff? 

For me I don't usually care too too much as long as it's still the rough idea of what I had in mind, and just change it if I need to. I also usually just fill the tank up very slowly, so it stays roughly where I want it. Hope this helps!