Getting into live plants!

[Gruntking]

Hey guys, so my gf and i have decided to start a live plant tank. We want to start out small and have a 2.5 gal to spare atm.

I have learned from reading threads that growing live plants need a lot of light, which both of my bigger tanks are lacking, but with this 2.5 i have a nice desk lamp that puts out enough power.

Ok, a couple of questions...
1.What plants can i grow in this tank that are locally available and look nice?
2. Does any substrate work for planting? I have black gravel or sand.
3. What fish can i put in here? My gf wanted some dwarf german blue rams, which if they get too big can be moved to the 75.
4. As far as filtration i have heard that plants pretty much do the nitrogen cycle themselves and not many w/c's are needed. I have a small powerhead i was thinking of adding just to get a little bit of flow in the tank, and then do w/c's just to scoop up or if my nitrates are bad?
5. Referring to the above question, do plants break down amonnia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate, or will i still need a bio media source?

Thanks for helping me out in advance!

 

[Gruntking]

Ok so i googled what fish to put in and it seems like the rams are a no-no. Is it possible to keep them in here kinda as a grow out and once they reach around 2 inches put them in the 75? The blue rams are under an inch.

 

[steve617]

I would say no. Much too small even for a growout.

 

[Sab_Fan]

1.What plants can i grow in this tank that are locally available and look nice? anubias v. "nana", java moss, small cryptocorynes
2. Does any substrate work for planting? I have black gravel or sand. should work, you can add laeterite or root fertilizer tabs
3. What fish can i put in here? My gf wanted some dwarf german blue rams, which if they get too big can be moved to the 75. geez, I'm thinking betta maybe ... not much else I'd do in a 2.5G tank
4. As far as filtration i have heard that plants pretty much do the nitrogen cycle themselves and not many w/c's are needed. I have a small powerhead i was thinking of adding just to get a little bit of flow in the tank, and then do w/c's just to scoop up or if my nitrates are bad? an HOB nano-filter would work just fine ... cost about $5-10 ... and yes, IME plants do a great job of controlling ammonia and nitrates
5. Referring to the above question, do plants break down amonnia to nitrite, and nitrite to nitrate, or will i still need a bio media source? opinions differ, but I do not use any external bio-media in my planted tanks

Thanks for helping me out in advance!

see comments above ...

 

[Gruntking]

Thanks alot Sab, that really cleared up alot of things.

I'm thinking of picking up the plants and setting up the tank tomorrow, do i need to wait for a cycle, or is it safe to add fish?

Im probably either going to go with a betta or maybe some small tetras that dont get over an inch in a small group.

 

[Industrial]

I tried the exact same thing as you and I failed miserably.

I moved an established sponge filter into a 2.5 and started with a pair of killies and a couple of stem plants.

Within a few weeks I got a massive cyanobacteria (blue green algae) outbreak. After further reading, I found out that cyanobacteria thrives off of phosphates and needs nothing else. Live plants on the other hand, need phosphates and nitrates. The new tank will not have nitrates for a couple of weeks and when I tested, mine were at 0. The phosphates are unavoidable since they are in a lot of tap water and come from food and plant decay (which normally happens to some degree when they are moved).

Anyways, I dosed a small amount of nitrates and stopped doing water changes and the cyanobacteria eventually went away leaving a bunch of dead plants in it's wake.

So, if I were you, I would use an established filter if possible or cycle the tank from scratch. If you want to do live plants, make sure your nitrates are over 5 ppm or else your plants will starve. Plants need a balance of nitrates and phosphates. If you don't have the balance, you may get problems and lose the plants.

As for fish, there are plenty of choices. A betta, celestial pearl danios, licorice gouramis, chocolate gouramis, a pair of badis, signifer or gertrudae rainbows and there are many others.

If you go with gertrudae rainbows or a pair of badis, there is a very good chance that these fish will spawn frequently for you in a well planted 2.5 gallon aquarium.