Good Plants?

[blackers92]

Ok so I kind of impulse bought plants for my tank, based on my LFS reccomendation a few weeks ago.

I have 3 types of plant in there now, 2 of them have established well but the other one has struggled to establish and is constantly floating to the surface, it is also begining to looks bad.

I already have,
Hygrophila salicifolia, which i really like the look of and is growing well
Echinodorus Fire Feather, which i also like and is growing well
and
limnophila sessilifolia, which i really liked but is struggling to stay put in my tank even with weights, it is also classified as a weed that grows easy.

regardless of the limnophila sessilifolia, it still looks a bit empty. Any reccomendations on what I should plant? I hope to have loaches and catfish so that kind of removes alot of foreground plants. The tank is also 140 litres with two t5 lamps if that means anything. And i will not have any Co2 added to the tank.

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

There are just huge numbers of choices in plants. I'd re-read through the articles at the top of the plant section as there are some lists of plants that get referred to as "easy" because one doesn't need CO2 and extra attention to the nutrients as much. Sometimes with plants it can help to have the attitude that you will try a large number of types and have the attitude that you will keep those that do well in your tank and just get rid of those that don't.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[blackers92]

wow i didnt see the plants section

thanks

 

[waterdrop]

haha, you're kidding? be careful, its a whole nother hobby, lol

 

[blackers92]

haha well i knew aquascaping was pretty big so i expected a big heading, but it was more of a small hyperlink,

i think i will try Staurogyne sp. and some Java Fern

thanks for directing me to the right forum lol

 

[OldMan47]

Aquatic plants are a whole different hobby, as WD said. I am a newbie in that area and very experienced in the fishy area. We each have our own strengths to draw on here and mine is 50 years of fish, but just a short few years with plants. I have killed plenty of plants in my time but am now starting to have some success, if you can call survival success.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I'm the same way with plants. After a couple of years of reading and doing what I can to learn about it and doing a few small experiments with my own plants I still feel I'm at the beginning of the learning curve.

For lack of anything more refined, I divide the the components that create pleasure in an aquascape for me into 20% hardscape, 40% plants and 40% animals, so to me it makes sense that educating myself about plants is important and worth the effort.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[drobbyb]

I have a fishy thumb for sure, but plants and I generally do not agree. I've had limited success with the easier plants like java moss and anubias, but I kill everything else. If I had the money to spend, I'm sure I could do a real planted tank, but the resources are tied up at the moment. I've always wanted to keep a nice planted tank, and it is still one of my goals, but life has other plans right now.