These sound good?

Fishies4Ever

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I am going to order some plants soon for my 10 gallon tank with neons, black neons, serpae, and von rio tetras, and yea I know it’s overstocked. I am planning on getting another tank to spread them out a bit more in the future. These are the plants I am planning on getting: Anubias nana petite, Java fern microsorum pteropus, some kind of cryptocoryne plant, golden Lloydiella, and red myrio. My pH is about 6.6 to 6.8. I am not sure about my gH though. There are also two Amazon swords in there already. Are these good plants or should I get some other plants instead? I am using Markus fishtanks because I only have petco and pet smart around here and I think in the end it will be cheaper and they have good variety.
 
Anubias and Java fern are low light plants.
Never heard of golden Lloydiella
Cryptocorynes are slow growing low light plants too.

What sort of light is above the aquarium?
How long is the light on for?
Do you add an aquarium plant fertiliser?

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LIST OF PLANTS TO TRY
Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma, H. ruba/ rubra, Elodia (during summer, but don't buy it in winter because it falls apart), Hydrilla, common Amazon sword plant, narrow or twisted/ spiral Vallis, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta).
The Water Sprite normally floats on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Ambulia, H. polysperma, Elodia/ Hydrilla and Vallis are tall plants that do well along the back. Rotala macranda is a medium/ tallish red plant that usually does well.

H. ruba/ rubra is a medium height plant that looks good on the sides of the tank.

Cryptocorynes are small/ medium plants that are taller than pygmy chain swords but shorter than H. rubra. They also come in a range of colours, mostly different shades of green, brown or purplish red. Crypts are not the easiest plant to grow but can do well if they are healthy to begin with and are not disturbed after planting in the tank.

Most Amazon sword plants can get pretty big and are usually kept in the middle of the tank as a show piece. There is an Ozelot sword plant that has brown spots on green leaves, and a red ruffle sword plant (name may vary depending on where you live) with deep red leaves.

There is a pygmy chain sword plant that is small and does well in the front of the tank.
 
Thanks you for the ideas I am pretty new with live plants up until recently. I have fluval plant substrate under sand to give the plants the required nutrients. My light is a model AQ085-14w I am not sure what brand. The light is on from about 6am to 9 or 10pm depending on when I go to bed. I should probably start turning it off at a scheduled time. The light has 3 different levels. There is one with all white lights, one with the white red, blue, green which I think is the low level light, and the the third is the same as the low light level but with another whole row of white lights making it a bit brighter.
 
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I see a problem of space. Your amazon swords that you have will fill a 10 gallon fairly quickly if conditions are good. They may be tiny now, but they grow large. The choices you want to make are interesting - Anubias nana and Crypts can't be beat! I have had java ferns reach a leaf length of 20 plus inches, and a ten is a fraction of that height.

It isn't just fish that will be overstocked, but you may lose your investment in plants if they have no space to grow in. You need a tank large enough to suit your ambitions.
 
Hello. Plants are a good thing. Floating plants like Anubias, Hornwort and Dwarf Water Lettuce will help keep the water clean. But, nothing can take the place of large, regular water changes. If you change a lot of tank water and do it regularly, you won't need to worry about the water chemistry. The water changes will maintain a steady water chemistry and this is way more important than a particular water chemistry. Keep the tank water really clean and your fish and plants should be fine. A larger tank is much better. There's more water to help out in case of a mistake in tank management, like for instance a missed water change.

10 Tanks (Now 11)
 
I have already ordered the plants. A lot of them are slow growers so I am hoping once they get big I will be able to move some of them to another larger tank once I get another tank. Are these plants possible to trim so I can help keep them at a good size? Are there better spots to put these plants in the tank? Can someone give me a general layout of where these plants should be placed?
 
Do you use anubias as floating plants? I've always tied mine onto wood......
Ooops! Typed in Anubias when I meant to type Anacharis. Don't think Anubias would work well floating unless one attached it to a piece of floating driftwood. May have to try that at some point.

10 Tanks (Now 11)
 
I've used anacharis (elodea in the UK) as a floating plant, works well :)
 
Anubias are not floating plants and should be tied or glued to a rock or some other surface. A plant substrate does nothing for Anubias or Java Fern

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TURNING LIGHTS ON AND OFF
Stress from tank lights coming on when the room is dark can be an issue. Fish don't have eyelids and don't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light (or vice versa) instantly.

In the morning open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes (or more) before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

Try to have the lights on at the same time each day. Use a timer if possible.

If the light unit is programmable, have it on a low setting for the first 30-60 minutes and increase the brightness over time. Do the opposite in the evening and gradually reduce the light for the last 30-60 minutes before lights out.

If you don't have live plants in the tank, you only need the light on for a few hours in the evening. You might turn them on at 4 or 5pm and off at 9pm.

If you do have live plants in the tank, you can have the lights on for 8-16 hours a day but the fish and plants need 8 hours of darkness to rest. Most people with live plants in their aquarium will have the lights on for 8-12 hours a day.

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LIGHTING TIMES
Most aquarium plants like a bit of light and if you only have the light on for a couple of hours a day, they struggle. If the light doesn't have a high enough wattage they also struggle. Try having the tank lights on for 10-12 hours a day.

If you get lots of green algae then reduce the light by an hour a day and monitor the algae over the next 2 weeks.
If you don't get any green algae on the glass then increase the lighting period by an hour and monitor it.
If you get a small amount of algae then the lighting time is about right.

Some plants will close their leaves up when they have had sufficient light. Ambulia, Hygrophilas and a few others close their top set of leaves first, then the next set and so on down the stem. When you see this happening, wait an hour after the leaves have closed up against the stem and then turn lights off.

Plant lights should have equal amount of red and blue light and a bit less green light.

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TRUE AQUATIC VS MARSH/ TERRESTRIAL PLANTS
Lots of plants are sold as aquarium plants and most are marsh plants that do really well when their roots are in water and the rest of the plant is above water. Some marsh plants will do well underwater too.

Hair grass is not a true aquatic plant, neither is Anubias.

Some common marsh plants include Amazon sword plants, Cryptocorynes, Hygrophila sp, Rotala sp, Ludwigia sp, Bacopa sp. These plant do reasonably well underwater.

True aquatic plants include Ambulia, Cabomba, Hornwort, Elodia, Hydrilla and Vallis.

The main difference between marsh plants and true aquatic plants is the stem. True aquatics have a soft flexible stem with air bubbles in it. These bubbles help the plant float and remain buoyant in the water column.

Marsh plants have a rigid stem and these plants can remain standing upright when removed from water. Whereas true aquatic plants will fall over/ collapse when removed from water.

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IRON BASED PLANT FERTILISER
If you add an iron based aquarium plant fertiliser, it will help most aquarium plants do well. An iron based fertiliser is not just iron, it contains other nutrients as well, but the main ingredient is iron. The liquid iron based aquarium plant fertilisers tend to be better than the tablet forms, although you can push the tablets under the roots of plants and that works well.

You use an iron (Fe) test kit to monitor iron levels and keep them at 1mg/l (1ppm).

I used Sera Florena liquid plant fertiliser but there are other brands too.

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CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2)
There is no point adding carbon dioxide (CO2) until you have the lights and nutrients worked out. Even then you don't need CO2 unless the tank is completely full of plants and only has a few small fish in or no fish in it.

There are no natural waterways anywhere around the world that have supplemental CO2 added to them to make aquatic plants grow. People add CO2 to aquariums to help some marsh/ terrestrial plants grow underwater. These plants should not be grown in aquariums and the fact they need to add CO2 (as well as huge amounts of fertiliser and light) just to keep them alive is a clear indication they shouldn't be kept underwater.

In an average aquarium, there is a constant source of carbon dioxide produced all day and night by the fish, and the bacteria in the gravel and filter. More CO2 gets into the aquarium from the air mixing with the water. And plants release small amounts of CO2 when resting. There is no real need to add CO2, either in a gas or liquid form to an aquarium unless it is devoid of fish. There is plenty of CO2 in the water in most aquariums.

Liquid CO2 boosters often contain Glutaraldehyde, which is a disinfectant used to clean and sterilise medical equipment. It is highly toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms and people have wiped out tanks by adding too much of it. These products should not be used for aquariums.

For aquarium plants to use supplemental CO2, they need lots of light and lots of nutrients. Unless they have the light and nutrients, they won't use a lot of CO2, so there's no point adding extra. To check if your plants are getting lots of light, see if any of them produce streams of tiny little bubbles from their leaves. This is called pearling and is the plant photosynthesising and producing tiny bubbles of oxygen. Algae also does this when given bright light and nutrients.
 
I've used anacharis (elodea in the UK) as a floating plant, works well :)
Same. I've tried planting it in substrate too. But I've found it works much better floating. Sometimes it will extend roots to the substrate.
 

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