Plant Advice

[mark4785]

I am looking to add some potted aquarium plants to my bare-bottom discus tank. I do not wish to use any fertilisers or liquid/injected CO2. For lighting I use the Aquasky 990mm.

What plant would grow under these conditions?

To give an idea, Valis does not grow under these conditions in my aquarium.

 

[Colin_T]

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?

Most plants will struggle without some form of fertiliser, be it liquid added to the tank or fertiliser in the substrate. We did potted plants at an aquaculture facility and added fertiliser to the pots. The plants did well this way.

We use to grow some plants (usually swords, crypts, Aponogetons and water lilies, but any aquatic plant will grow this way) in 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers. You put an inch of gravel in the bottom of the container, then spread a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser over the gravel. Put a 1/4inch (6mm) thick layer of red/ orange clay over the fertiliser. Dry the clay first and crush it into a powder. Then cover that with more gravel.

You put the plants in the gravel and as they grow, their roots hit the clay and fertiliser and they take off and go nuts. The clay stops the fertiliser leaching into the water.

You can smear silicon on the outside of the buckets and stick gravel or sand to them so it is less conspicuous. Or you can let algae grow on them and the containers turn green.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello mark. The standard plants that work in about any tank conditions are: Dwarf Water Lettuce, Anacharis, Water Sprite and Hornwort. Others are: Java Fern, Anubias, just about any of the Sword plants, Colorata, Java Moss and Moss balls.

Keep your lighting in the 5500 to 6500K range. 5500K is roughly natural daylight and this should work well for your plants. Generally, stay away from the light green plants. These require stronger light. The darker green plants are best because these will accept lower light.

That's about it. Pretty easy.

10 Tanks (Now 11)