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setting up a 10 gallon planted aquarium

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  • setting up a 10 gallon planted aquarium

    I'm super new to fish keeping and the HFB so apologies if someone has already asked this. I currently have a super simple betta tank and I'm ready to try something slightly bigger. I want to get a 10 gallon so that I can keep it on my desk but the more research I do, the harder the decision gets. what are some good plants for a relative beginner as well as fish that would do okay in a well planted 10 gallon?

  • #2
    As to not inundate you with more questions and make life more difficult I'll just list plants that are good matches for low-tech, low-light tanks. That just means the lighting isn't super intense and you're not injecting CO2

    -Anubias barteri nana (and the smaller A. barteri nana petite and even smaller A. pangolino)
    * I would generally avoid going with the larger anubias species here because of the relatively small space of a 10g
    -Bucephalandra (beautiful, huge variety, small and slow growing)
    -Java fern (many varieties like trident, windelov, narrow leaf, needle leaf, etc)
    -Dwarf sagittaria (grass like plant for use at the bottom of the tank space)
    -Cryptocoryne (another HUGE range of plants to choose from, all sorts of colors and textures like bucephalandra)
    -Floating plants like dwarf water lettuce (but don't tell anyone in Texas because it's invasive, also throw it in the trash when you thin it out), red root floaters, amazon frogbit, etc
    -Aponogeton (this is a bulb growing plant that can be super awesome, lots of variety here too)
    -Mosses like java moss, christmas moss, flame moss, weeping moss (they're all easy but can be annoying...)
    -Amazon sword (these can get really big, like 12"+, so don't plant them too tightly near anything else)
    -Bacopa (B. monnieri aka "moneywort", B. carolinia) these are stem plants that are pretty easy. Jab a stem into the substrate and off you go
    -Jungle vallisneria (tall grass like plant will fill a 10g from top to bottom easily and quickly)
    -Anacharis (floating stem plant is hella fast growing)
    -Hornwort (floating stem plant that shrimp love, easy and fast growing)
    -Banana plant (nymphoides aquatica, you'll only see it by the aka banana plant)
    -Marimo moss balls (I didn't care for them personally, they're boring IMO)
    -Water wisteria

    Lots more but that's a list you can google images of and see what you like or don't like.

    Fish you have way more options and I couldn't even begin to start. Consider looking at a site like AqAdvisor.com and plugging in different configurations of fish (and tank setup details) while googling images of the different species. The site will tell you if you've got fish with incompatible requirements as well as whether the filtration you intend to use is sufficient for the stocking (with some margin because I don't think it accounts for plant mass at all). I would avoid the classic "beginner" fish like Oscars, Flowerhorns, Red devil (cichlids?), common plecostomus [sucker fish], gold fish of any kind [they get big and yes, all of them]. Most of those will outgrow your tank before you know it and/or are high waste generators which makes finding a good equilibrium point *more* difficult

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