Low Light Nano Plants

FWIW, the smallest volume of water that can be maintained at a stable temperature with one of our hobbyist-grade heaters is about 2.5 gallons, so I personally wouldn't recommend keeping bettas in tanks that small. I'd recommend keeping them as plant and inverts only.

Some good plants to try would be Anbuias nana 'petite,' Marselia minuta, Echinodorus tenellus, Cryptocoryne parva, C. lucens, and Rotala rotundifolia. All IMO stay small enough to keep "in scale" with your tank and can do well in low light.

Thanks....

About the heater, the ones Im looking at are only ten watts. Includes an auto shut off when the temperature is reached...I'll do more research.

Also, do you know what type of bulb those 7 watt light fixtures use? If it's LED or incandescent those wont' work for plants, either. Flourescent is what you need.

Incandescent but I am replacing it with a flourescent. Do you know if CFL's would work?

Are there any micro heaters on the market for nano tanks like a 2.5 or even a 5g that arent so huge???

tetrabettaguy97 said:

Incandescent but I am replacing it with a flourescent. Do you know if CFL's would work?

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yeah the spiral CFL's are great...just make sure you get a daylight 6700K bulb and you are good to go.

amcoffeegirl said:

Are there any micro heaters on the market for nano tanks like a 2.5 or even a 5g that arent so huge???

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This one is pretty small (5.5"), and at $15 IMO is one of the best for nano tanks:

http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/product_info.php?cPath=42_43&products_id=975

lauraleellbp said:

the smallest volume of water that can be maintained at a stable temperature with one of our hobbyist-grade heaters is about 2.5 gallons

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Hi Laura,

I am curious as to the reasoning behind. Can you please explain? Thanks.

An excellent article about this is at http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/201011/?pg=67#pg67 from Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine.

These are the smallest heaters I am aware of

http://www.hydor.it/index.php/prodotti/show/famprod/10/list/3

But there is an issue - a heater will only raise the temperature of the water a certain amount above the ambient temperature. the higher the wattage the greater the increase that can be maintained.

The smaller the tank, the quicker it heats and cools - meaning the water temp will be constantly changing.

About plants, I'm sorry, but I have to defer to the recommendation of others. Heater, I am liking the Marina C10 that I have in my betta tank. So far, it works like a charm, keeping the temp in the middle of the safe zone of my thermometer. Nice and small, too. On the inside of the tank, on one side, I barely take notice of it.

In my one gallon,
I have marsilea, crypt parva, creeping jenny, moss (fissidens), water wisteria, salvinia, and anubias nana petite...
Going to be adding some pennywort and something else as soon as I figure out what.
If you wanna see pics go to the last page in the link in my sig.
I wouldnt recommend a betta in a one gallon. Bettas are pretty big and active.
I have shrimp in mine..
As for a heater I have a marina mini 10 watt from petsmart. It keeps my tank at a really stable 78.