29 Gallon Ship Wreck Theme

Okay okay I am new to fish keeping having quickly moved from a 2.5 betta tank to a fun 29 gallon community tank with 6 pristella tetras, 1 veil tail betta, 15 ghost shrimp, and 3 nerite snails. I read a ton of information saying my betta will eat the shrimp and the shrimp will eat the snails but everyone gets along fine. So my tank.... I purchased it on facebook marketplace for $65! The sticker on the tank said 1985, the seals were awful so I spent a week learning how to reseal the entire thing and finally got rid of all leaks after a lot of patience. It came with the gravel, decorations, filter, light, and food and conditioners and so on. Howeverrrr the decorations are fake plants and the gravel is black with neon rainbow colors. It is awful. Just awful. So I am here to get tips, advice, thoughts on my theme idea of a heavily planted ship wreck. What I mean by that is maybe a destroyed pirate ship looking thing against/in/on some driftwood with plants attached to everything. I am getting really sidetracked. Here are my main points.

I have one live plant in my tank rn from my smaller earlier mentioned betta tank, I have no idea what it is, just kinds grabbed it from petco and bought it. oops. I need input on good substrate/soil and then advice on plants. I want some amazon sword in the bank of the tank behind the ship but I have been doing some research on plants and pretty much want to know what will grow well on the wood and attached to the ship? What will look like some cool grass all along the bottom. I won't be doing this for a while, just doing research and getting input.

 

I personally like using organic soil, capped with play sand as substrate. Your amazon sword will love you. Java moss will attach itself to anything you put it on that has texture (shipwreck, wood) you can also put it to use as a carpet, but some dear hair grass or S Repens look really cool. Anubias, java fern, hornwort, and I think cryptocorn don’t like being planted, and draw nutrients mainly from the water. Some frog bit, red rooted floaters, or duckweed would go nicely on top of your tank.

 

I like natural. U won't find much sinken wood in the ocean. Shrimp r scavengers thet won't eat snails. It depends on the bettas perdonality if they eat shrimp. Id do white sand with fake coral to give it a sunken ship in the ocean theme. I wouldnt do plants tho. If u r willing to scrap the ship imo u could do driftwood center pirce with plants I back and on the sides. Try s. repens for a carpeting plant. I have plain blac sand and use secham root tabs and I get a new leaf every 5-7 days on my amazon sword. Java moss, any kind of moss really, will grow in anything. I have some anubias nana growing on/in some driftwood. Hope this helps.

 

I personally like using organic soil, capped with play sand as substrate. Your amazon sword will love you. Java moss will attach itself to anything you put it on that has texture (shipwreck, wood) you can also put it to use as a carpet, but some dear hair grass or S Repens look really cool. Anubias, java fern, hornwort, and I think cryptocorn don’t like being planted, and draw nutrients mainly from the water. Some frog bit, red rooted floaters, or duckweed would go nicely on top of your tank.

We made almost the exact same plant sugestions!! lol.

 

Oof sounds like a rough go of things to get it going. I have to completely reseal a tank I just bought used not looking forward to it. If you get a picture of the plant we can try to identify it! Not often you find some crazy plant at petco so should be straightforward. As for substrate that's not always necessary. Root tabs will do wonders for you. If you want to replace though you have plenty of choices. I love eco complete. A lot of members here are really big on sand. Plus it's pretty cheap. As for plants you have tons of options. You can attach java ferns and anubias to driftwood and rocks. They get their nutrients from the water column (so liquid ferts for them). Mosses also look really nice and are easy to attach. Java moss, christmas moss, weeping moss, the list goes on. Amazon swords are gonna love you with some root tabs. If you want an actual grass dwarf hairgrass works. Micro swords. S repens. Monte carlo can give a nice different look. Lots of carpeting plants to choose from!

 

We made almost the exact same plant sugestions!! lol.

I’m no good with plants as I’ve just started using them, so I only recommend plants that I’ve researched, which are the hardy, low need plants lol.

 

Thanks for all the input so far. Here is something I just read about. An article said plants like soft water. My water is very very hard. It is well water and it goes through a water softener but API strips still show the second hardest to hardest level. Will plants not grow well in that hard of water?

 

I always recomwny easy plants
Whis is what I usially use.

 

Mine do fine with a gh of 13. Or 225ppm.

 

Thanks for all the input so far. Here is something I just read about. An article said plants like soft water. My water is very very hard. It is well water and it goes through a water softener but API strips still show the second hardest to hardest level. Will plants not grow well in that hard of water?

I have super hard water as well. Life in the midwest I guess. My plants grow fine. Most beginner plants don't care too much. More advanced ones will but just stay away from those and you'll be alright