New Teen Fishkeeper Needs a Variety of Advice for Planted 5 Gallon
Hi everyone,
So recently, (like a month or two ago) I got very interested in fishkeeping, aqua scaping, planted tanks and the like. I bought a betta on impulse after coming across a 2.5 gallon tank abandoned at my school. I felt bad he was in such a small tank, so a month later I upgraded him to a 10 gallon. He's doing well so far, but I wanted to use the 10 gallon for something else, so when I came across a 5.5 gallon at Goodwill, I bought it. After looking online and at my LFS I purchased Fluval stratum, dragon stone and rotala h'ra, java fern windelov, and oriental sword. I set up my tank, got a hygger 24/7 light, a topfin Bettaflo 5 filter, and a heater. everythings all set up now and has been for about three days. I'm attaching a picture below;
anyway, i went to my local Pet supplies plus and had them test my water. i don't have my own test kit yet as I'm kind of on a tight budget. but i'll be getting the API master kit for christmas! I got a little strip of the test back and it looked like this; (also i just added the oriental sword today)
So; here's my question. Are these parameters safe to add my Betta in? I don't think I have a ton of beneficial bacteria but do these results say otherwise?
I also have dosed the water in my tank once with seachem flourish, but have changed the water a couple times to get rid of excess biofilm on top.
Also, i'd love to get my betta some tank mates like shrimp or snails. What types are recommended? I'm a little worried to get snails as I feel they'll crush the delicate fluval substrate pellets. is this a valid concern? Anyway, that's all. Thanks in advance for any feedback I get.