substrate for bettas

[side19]

ok so i got my 3 gallon pico tank today from drs foster and smith and i'll be setting it up for my two betta imbellis tomorrow. so i have three choices for substrate right now and i'm not sure what i should go with. i can do natural colored aquarium gravel, crushed coral, or sand. what do you all think is the best? i'm open to any suggestions. also, do you all think it would be a bad idea to try breeding some ramshorns in the tank with the bettas if i'm trying to get them to breed while they're in there? the filter is a red sea nano power filter, a 10 watt marine pro stealth heater preset to 78 degree F, and the lighting is a 9 watt compact florescent 50/50 bulb. also, do you think live plants would be able to do well in this tank given those specs and under a 50/50 bulb, or would you suggest staying away from them? thanks for the help in advance.

[J-P]

my snails reproduce in my betta tank. The one thing I found is that they like still water, so a diffuser on the outlet of the filter might be a good idea.

My guy loves to make bubble nests and that can't be done in a normally filtered tank.

Substrate... it is your choice. I would go with gravel as the betta are not substrate dwellers and don't require a soft touch in that respect.

Plants are good. My boy lives to play hide ans seek. He hides behind something and then pops out at feeding time.

[xrayjeeper83]

My tank is bare bottom, easier to clean. I have snails in the tank with him and its easier to clean around them when i can see them and they arent hiding in gravel.

I do need to get some plants for him to hide in, right now he hides under/behind my sponge filter

[Camaro95]

My guy loves to make bubble nests and that can't be done in a normally filtered tank.

Sure it can. Mine did it all the time. All depends on the size of the tank, direction of the current and the strength. If you have a normal HOB fiter creating a current the length of the tank, it might not work given that a 3 gallon tank is puny. If it's the width, and placed somewhere in the middle, there's no issue.

[RTR]

If you have plenty of floating plants at the surface, or anchor a small piece of styrofoam at the surface, bettas can produce bubble nests w/o problems. They are not white-water fish by any means however. Those hobby Betta fins cannot deal with high-flow tanks in any case.

[side19]

i know that the current can't be too strong for the bettas, the filter has an adjustable flow and i plan on setting it low as well as putting some plants right in front of the filter output to help baffle the flow. as far as fins i'm not worried as they are both short finned wild species (i would like the tears in my female's fins to heal though, the male is a little aggressive about trying to mate with her and she doesn't seem to want to, i'm thinking this might becuase they are in an unheated tank right now, and adding a heater will induce spawning). will java fern grow well under 50/50 light? i'll have an intensity of 3 watts per gallon. will i also need to dose with ferts if i do this, and will ramshorns eat any algae i accumulate? also will teh bettas prevent the ramshorns from breeding? and one final question (sorry for so many), its an open topped tank, do i have to worry about the ramshorns escaping? i'm not sure if they are one of teh snails capable of breathing air, i don't want to find them all over my room.

[RTR]

At 3WPG, anything will grow and you should likely be using EI and supplementing CO2 from pressurized gas bottles. That is a heck of a lot of light. Why?

Define 50:50 - there are several such tubes. If you mean actinic plus 8-10K visible, that is not a FW tube and you are wasting power costs without helping your plants at all.

For any Betta species, and many other fish, the females and and males are best housed separately for conditioning and only put together for spawning unless it is a very large and heavily plant tank, which this is not.

[side19]

the lighting is just what was supplied in the kit. and yes it is half actinic and half 10k daylight. would you recommend a different type of lighting, if so what, and would this be fine if i used silk plants instead of live? and after alot of research i have found this species can live in groups and pairs just fine, is this not true, or is it just that since its a pair the aggression is a little higher and would lessen if i added another female?

[side19]

well they're moved into the new tank and seem to be loving it. they hid by the heater together for a few hours at first but then warmed up and have explored the tank. jacob got a few rips in his fins now two since the move, i'm wondering if i've been blaming the wrong plants the whole time. anyway i'm going to take out all of the plastic plants and leave them with just the silk ones for now, looking into live plants but all the java fern i have is too small right now to take hold. i'm thinking of maybe adding a small piece of drift wood but i'm not sure. what do you all think? i'll post picture once i get back from class today so you all can see how the tank turned out.

[RTR]

Anything broad-spectrum (commonly tri-phosphor) with the color rating on the order of (5000) 6000 -6500K is suitable for FW plants, but at that intensity, if you do not use EI and CO2 you will have problems with anything in live plants. And without live plants densely planted you will have algae heaven anyway.

Most smallish tanks without live plants operate well at less than 1 WPG.

HTH

[side19]

ok, its looking like live plants will be a no for now then. thanks for clearing that up. and just out of curiosity, what is EI? i'm assuming its some kind of fert right?

[side19]

so as promised here
are some pics of the happy couple in their lovely new tank.
the tank

Jacob in his hiding spot

the happy couple

In their new toy

Bella (hoping the warm water will help her fins heal)

Jacob by leaves (hoping he will make a bubble nest under the two green leaves at the surface)

the planted side

hope you all enjoy.

[RTR]

At least some of your plants are not true aquatics - which may have something to do with your problems. This is a common problem.

If you continue using that set-up, you are going to have to really find some way of cutting down the light intensity.

[side19]

all of the plants are silk, so none are live. i'll try to find a new light that will fit the fixture to cut the light down.