First planted vase! Thoughts and ideas welcome!

So here is a picture with the substrate in the vase. I'm debating putting in another handful or two of substrate. Ideas? Thought?

Here is a little different angle on the substrate!

I've got a ten gallon(or a 20H or a 20L or a 50 cube- all sitting in my shed) I'd love to set up for the little guy if I can find the appropriate amount of space and a stand. I hope that this becomes only a temporary stage in the life of Mufasa.lol that name cracks me up anytime I write it.

So I did add a couple more handfuls of sand. I didn't want to go too deep and sacrifice less water for more substrate.

I planted a few random stems that have done well elsewhere without much help, a little bitty amazon sword, I small crypt. Lucens, along with an anubis nana. I'm sure I will probably change some things along the way, but it's a start. I think.

I also moved the vase into a different room(off the dining table) so it will get more sunlight, direct if the blinds are opened. Though I'm not too sure how happy my girlfriend will be to find the Mufasa's new home is now on her desk! Haha...

johnson18 said:

Any thoughts on how long I should wait prior to added the fish into this set up? About 1/3 of the water came from my 55. I am thinking I should add more plants before I add the betta. Will adding an airstone for a day help?

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A little beneficial bacteria will have hitched a ride with the plants, but you'd do better to add some substrate or filter media from your 55 to help seed it.

In general, I wait a couple weeks as I prefer to have the plants settled and growing and enough beneficial bacteria going to minimize how much I'll need to fuss with the vase. The first day I'll set up the vase with substrate and fill with water to test it out. The second day I'll do a 75% wc to clear up any remaining cloudiness and add plants. Over the next couple days I'll add additional plants and do a wc if the water still hasn't fully cleared. Really small vases are tested with a pond snail or two--if they're doing well after a few days I'll move up to ghost shrimp, which is usually the final occupent. Larger vases with heavier planting are given a nerite and, once new plant growth is showing (1-2 weeks), 1-3 endlers from my main tank to test the bio load capacity. After they've proven healthy, anything that fits can go in--shrimp, fish, etc.

Or, you could get the water clear enough not to be aggravating and plop Mufasa right in--but commit to doing 1-2x daily wc to ensure his health while the bacteria catch up. Either way, make sure you don't leave the vase in direct sunlight--not only will it heat up fast, but you'll be opening yourself to algae--which is really really really really hard to scrape off curved walls!

Oh, and get mufasa a nerite snail or two for company--they'll do wonders on any algae and help clean up any dead leaves or excess food.

So I went to the lake today to hang out, gathered quit a few plants! A ton of hair grass!! Several other types I'm not to sure about, I will post plant specific questions as I sort through them!

I used my cup as storage! I'd had enough screwdrivers by then anyways!

You can see all the hair grass down inside the cup!

Can anyone identify the taller stem?