I made a new betta home....I fixed up the 2 gallon hex I used to have Old Blue in..my shortfin betta which I lost about a month ago.

I got some "Echo-Complete" substrate and some regular garden variety spagnum peat moss. I soaked the peat in a colendar with some paper towl in the strainer to keep the peat from getting through the holes. After the peat was good and soaked I wrapped the paper towel around it and squeezed the excess water out and put about 1/2 in layer on the bottom of the tank....then poured the echo-complete over that..bout an inch of it, making sure it was right up to the edge of the tank so the peat wouldn't come up when I poured in the water.

I filled the tank very carefully...a small amount of peat floated up to the top, but not much. The tank was a bit cloudy for about a day and a half, then it cleared up real nice. Put a fake logtype decoration in there because I don't have any real driftwood at present...along with some crypt plant, water sprite and two of those lily bulbs you get at walmart...both are sprouting nicely.

Apparently the plants love this substrate..they are sprouting new growth all over the place..I only have a 7 watt bulb in the top of that tank, but it sits right next to my 10 gallon which has 2 10W compact flourescent bulbs in it...so maybe it gets a bit of light from that.

Well, anyway, here's a pic....it's going to look real nice when I get some real driftwood in there and the plants grow up a bit...


I also put a black background on the back three panels of the tank. Got tired of seeing the wall behind this tank..looks nice...the PH is also lower because of the peat I put in there..I like that ! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />