First Planted 5 Gallon Tank

Hello fish people, I am in need of assistance. I didn’t know whether to put this in the beginner aquarium forum or this forum only because I am a beginner to this entire hobby.

I was wondering what plants I should put in my new five gallon tank. I want to stock it with two nerite snails, 3-5 ghost shrimp, and one betta. I want low tech plants and I don’t want to have to use Co2. I was thinking Vallisneria, Hornwort, Anubias, Dwarf Grass, A Single Moss Ball, and Duckweed. Is this too much? Does anyone suggest a combination of plants that was successful for them?

 

In tanks ~10G I really recommend crypt. parva!

 

I am new as well, I have a 10gal that only has a couple of live plants (and a couple fake), I can't wait to have it fully planted, looking forward to seeing what people recommend. I have no desire to run CO2 either lol

 

Be careful with duckweed. If taken care of right, it will grow like crazy and overrun your tank, which is a good/bad thing. You can sell it, trash it, or make fish food out of it. My shrimp and snails love this food.

I like dwarf sag and crypts for fast growing. If you want val, they grow very very tall, so you'll often do trimmings. If high-light, I would get elodea, but it will die quickly without light. You can also let it float. I think anubias and java moss or fern is also very nice. Maybe add an amazon sword to it since it grows slowly. When it gets taller, you can move it to another tank.

Duckweed fish food: cornstarch, duckweed, spirulina powder, and water (you can also add many more things, like fish food to enhance it.

All you have to do is blend all the ingredients together, until it becomes soupy, but not too runny. Like, if you titled it over, it would slowly drip, instead of quickly, like water.

Next, you spread a thin layer of our solution on something- like foil, plastic wrap, etc. When it dried, you can feed it.

If you want a more in depth recipe, go to cubbyaqautics.com (or something like that)

 

I wouldn’t do Dwarf Hair Grass. It doesn’t do well in a low tech tank at all. It needs CO2 most of the time.

I suggest Java Moss, Java Fern, and Anubias to start with. The moss balls work too. Be sure to not plant the rhizomes, and glue or tie to driftwood or rocks. They need to only have their roots in the substrate.

Using an all in one fertilizer is a must. Something like Nilocg Thrive should work well. You will do 1 pump once or twice per week. It will give you a leg up on getting the plants enough nutrients, along with being easy to use.

Duckweed can be messy, but I personally like it. It prefers low flow, so won’t do well with a hang on back filter, but since you have a betta, using a sponge filter work well for you.

 

I would avoid the duckweed as it tends to over take a tank and for bettas who like to go to the surface to breath, difficult to deal with.
If you wanted an easier to deal with floating plant try salvinia or dwarf water lettuce.
As others have said, hair grass will need CO2 and high light. I'd not do that in this tank.
The rest sounds good. Easy to grow and care for. Also if you don't need super fast growth, just don't fertilize. I have a tank with jungle Val and hornwort and it gets no ferts. Purely what it can pull from fish waste. I still have to trim about a foot off those vals every month.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied it was a lot of help