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I'm going to be starting a 5 gallon betta tank with a couple of dwarf frogs in it. This will be my first planted tank and was wanting some pointers. For substrate I was thinking gravel with some flourite? (I think thats right). Do ADF's need a relatively bare bottom or do they not mind having a lot of carpet plants? Most likely will be low light so probably some java ferns but I'm not sure what else to go for. Kind of aiming at a betta biotope but I'm not sure what plants would be best for that. Treat me like I know nothing because I really don't know a lot about plants.

Hi Imrandy, welcome to the green side

You don't need flourite in your betta tank, pea gravel will work perfectly fine, since is not a high lighted tank, you don't need that much of a nutrient rich substrate. Betta love to rest on plants, at least all of mine do, and also some hiding spaces (back of the filter) or under a small piece of drift wood. I think that for your tank aside java fern, you can also go for anubias nana, Sagittaria subulata, Microsorum pteropus 'Windeløv' (which is a nice variation to java fern), christmas moss, or java moss. all those will do great in a low light and your betta and frogs are gonna love it.

You can find images and profiles of the plants here

A piece of driftwood with moss attached would look nice.

I have a 2.5g betta tank, planted only with Java fern. Here's a recent pic:



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