[DishyFishy]

So I was wondering if anyone has experience with this. I want to do a Malaysian Peat Swamp biotope for a Betta, but I'm reading lots of conflicting information.. so here are my questions.

-I see written that the Betta's natural habitat is low pH, but that the Betta's we mostly find in our stores are only tolerant of a neutral pH.. so if this is true it will 86 my whole idea.

-I also wondered where could I buy peat to use as a substrate (I was thinking it would be mixed with organic soil), I don't really see it when I look around online, and I have read that I should NOT use the peat from a garden center.

So I don't want to guess and kill a Betta, has anyone actually used a peat substrate? Also I'm still sorta new at this (and have never used soil substrate), so if I'm saying anything that sounds really wrong, please let me know!

Thanks!

 

[wespastor]

So I was wondering if anyone has experience with this. I want to do a Malaysian Peat Swamp biotope for a Betta, but I'm reading lots of conflicting information.. so here are my questions.

-I see written that the Betta's natural habitat is low pH, but that the Betta's we mostly find in our stores are only tolerant of a neutral pH.. so if this is true it will 86 my whole idea.

-I also wondered where could I buy peat to use as a substrate (I was thinking it would be mixed with organic soil), I don't really see it when I look around online, and I have read that I should NOT use the peat from a garden center.

So I don't want to guess and kill a Betta, has anyone actually used a peat substrate?

Thanks!

I used a Peat substrate a few years back in a 10 Gallon capped with paversand.

Just make sure there are no additives in it and it 100% peat.

The dept of the peat I used was just under about 1/2" deep make sure it's well wetted first otherwise it may float out should you want to plant the tank in any way. Soaking for a week works well.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Wes

 

[DishyFishy]

I used a Peat substrate a few years back in a 10 Gallon capped with paversand.

Just make sure there are no additives in it and it 100% peat.

The dept of the peat I used was just under about 1/2" deep make sure it's well wetted first otherwise it may float out should you want to plant the tank in any way. Soaking for a week works well.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Wes

Great I'll keep that in mind. What do you think about capping it with Flourite (I have some leftover)? Or should I cap it with something inorganic, to inhibit algae?

 

[jasonpatterson]

Fluorite is inorganic. It's just fired clay.

 

[Crispino L Ramos]

I've used peat moss from Home Depot garden center. I used it to make a diy substrate composed of four parts (one part peat moss, one part playsand, one part vermiculite and one part backyard soil). By backyard soil, I don't mean potting soil - just regular dirt without gravel, roots, leaves and debris. I just mixed them all together until fine in texture then slowly added water to form a dough-like mixture. The tank water was cloudy but it settled down after several days.

 

[astonstreet]

I use a mixture of peat and inert gravel. I add nutrients to the mix and cap it with plain gravel.
I used to have a aquarium that I tested with a pure peat substrate (20 litre aquarium) and I found that the plants loved it, the roots were nice and white and seemed to thrive.
I should note that I have extremely high ph and hard tap water.

 

[kuni]

Don't use peat - you just want the look of brown mud, not the actual mess. Use brown sand (substratesource has it) mixed with dried oak or katappa leaves, and have emersed or floating plants. Blackwater setups don't grow much in the way of submerged plants because the tannins in the water absorb the light before the plants do, which is why betta habitats don't have them.

For emersed plants, my first choice would be Cyperus helferi, followed by Acorus gramineus (probably a dwarf variety) and Cryptocoryne cilata. Floating plants could be duckweed, giant duckweed, Asian salvinia, Nymphoides indica(like a tiny water lily). There are others, but they're harder to get.

Give it a shot - to my knowledge, there isn't a single good example of a betta biotope tank out there. Make yours the first!

 

[DishyFishy]

Awesome, thanks all! Ya when I actually start buying the goods I'll start a journal.

 

[shrimpNewbie]

I love bettas and I never keep mine in neutral+ ph mine are in soft acidic water, I have peat in my filters and under my substrate if you don't mind tea water you'll notice a big difference in the activity of your betta. atleast I have. try to get the peat that is mostly in tact, I use both fine milled and ground but that's because I can't find intact peat moss, good luck with this



Also I would avoid using soil, My preference is half inch peat moss and 1 inch to 1 and a half inches black sand or baseball diamond sand, works out well and Just now i'm tearing down my soil tank and I regret it, at a loss of several fish because of my inexperienced mistakes, I would wait till you know exactly how to setup a soil tank for just plants before you subject fish to it, try in small tanks and avoid going over half an inch of soil, and try to mineralize it first.