Help Identifing Some Plants

[Truck]

for root tabs, go for Tropica plant nutrition + tabs, you put in about 2 or 3 per plant

 

[LongS]

oh useful topic mate as i'm in the same situation.bought some plants and didnt know anything about them. The C02 adding thing seems very intimidating to me and i just don't want to have another thing attached to my tank as well as the filter, heater and air pump.

I take it there is a way to do it without from what i have read previous?

Im sorry to jump in on the thread, just didn't see any point in adding a new topic to ask the same sort of questions lol

this question will sound really daft but if i want to plant my plants and have no weights, (as was told in pet shop i would need) can i leave my plants in the terracotta pots and put them under the gravel? will this be ok for my plants? or if not is there a way i can plant them without the use of the wieghts? like a DIY way of doing this?

 

[fish.com1]

oh useful topic mate as i'm in the same situation.bought some plants and didnt know anything about them. The C02 adding thing seems very intimidating to me and i just don't want to have another thing attached to my tank as well as the filter, heater and air pump.

I take it there is a way to do it without from what i have read previous?

Im sorry to jump in on the thread, just didn't see any point in adding a new topic to ask the same sort of questions lol

this question will sound really daft but if i want to plant my plants and have no weights, (as was told in pet shop i would need) can i leave my plants in the terracotta pots and put them under the gravel? will this be ok for my plants? or if not is there a way i can plant them without the use of the wieghts? like a DIY way of doing this?

The pet shop were wrong. You don't need weights to plant plants. Take the plant out of the terracota pot, remove the rockwool(sponge type thing) from around the roots, then create a hole in the substrate put the plant in and firm the substrate around the plant so you can't see the roots. The plant should stay rootee as long as the roots are submerged in the substrate.

 

[LongS]

Oh really? must have sucker wrote on my head then eh lol

Ok will do that today. If i havent got the c02 thing in my tank does that mean the plants will die soon? or just reduced growth? i wouldn't mind adding nutrients or stuff like that but the C02 thing just terrifies me to be honest.

Just getting to grips with the hobby of fish keeping then someone slaps plants and scientific talk in my face. Quite intimidating.

 

[fish.com1]

Oh really? must have sucker wrote on my head then eh lol

Ok will do that today. If i havent got the c02 thing in my tank does that mean the plants will die soon? or just reduced growth? i wouldn't mind adding nutrients or stuff like that but the C02 thing just terrifies me to be honest.

Just getting to grips with the hobby of fish keeping then someone slaps plants and scientific talk in my face. Quite intimidating.

It depends which type of plants you have. For example riccia fluitans needs high light and c02 to grow whereas java fern will grow with little light and will be fine without c02. So to answer your question we need to know what type of plants you have,what wattage lighting you have and how large your tank is.

 

[SuperColey1]

The plants at the top are Cabomba, Echinodorus Bleheri Sp and Elodia/Egeria. The Echinodorus isn't Amazon Sword. The leaves of Amazon Sword run virtually to the crown with very little stem. They will all be OK under 1WPG.

CO2 and Ferts do not just promote faster growth. Plants will not grow at all without CO2 or ferts. However in a low light tank you can get away without injecting CO2 and relying on the natural CO2 in the water that comes in at the water surface through gaseous exchange just as Oxygen does. I would always add at least small amounts of a good fert like TPN+ because although fish waste/left over food etc will provide some natural fertiliser not everything plants need is necessarily naturally in the water. In nature the water has come all the way downstream and carries a fresh source of all the ferts that are needed. In your tank you are relying on what you add wether it be from food via the fishwaste or adding a fert to the water column.

I wouldn't bother with root tabs. Expensive and not needed IMO. I'm not a believer in the 'heavy root feeder' theory although this is still a theory that is not agreed on. lol You can add them if you want but I would just add the recommended level of TPN+ to the water column and that should suffice.

Riccia doesn't need high light as the person above says. It will grow very nicely under less than 1WPG of T8 lighting in an 18" tall tank. It does require CO2 and ferts though. It is a heavy nutrient feeder so you would definately need to add fertilisers to try it out.

So in summary your 1WPG should be OK to grow quite a lot but without good CO2 injection, high flow rate/circulation and high ferts then these limit what you can do.

AC

 

[aaronnorth]

Caroliniana Cabomba, Echindorous Bleheri and Elodea densa are the plants (in order)

Things have been over complicated in this thread, you have low lighting - so no CO2 injection, nor root tabs will be necessary.

Buy a fertiliser and dose it weekly if the plants start to shown signs of defficiency.

 

[Johnlenham]

Caroliniana Cabomba, Echindorous Bleheri and Elodea densa are the plants (in order)

Things have been over complicated in this thread, you have low lighting - so no CO2 injection, nor root tabs will be necessary.

Buy a fertiliser and dose it weekly if the plants start to shown signs of defficiency.

Ah lamens terms much better

Strange you and Supercoley1 would say its not Amazon sword as thats what was written on the tank but ill take your word over the LFS

Edit Both right I suppose?
"It's my understanding that the plant sold under Amazon Sword plant is most often an E. bleheri. This plant will live in almost any fresh"
Source

 

[SuperColey1]

Virtually all large echinodorus plants are called amazon sword but amazon sword is really echinodorus amazonicus. Just slightly different leaf shapes and stem lengths really. Not a problem they all grow similar heights and have the same requirements.

The plant in your tank has much longer stems and rounder leaves than amazonicus. tiny little differences that make no difference really.

AC

 

[Johnlenham]

Virtually all large echinodorus plants are called amazon sword but amazon sword is really echinodorus amazonicus. Just slightly different leaf shapes and stem lengths really. Not a problem they all grow similar heights and have the same requirements.

The plant in your tank has much longer stems and rounder leaves than amazonicus. tiny little differences that make no difference really.

AC

Ah fair enough

Thanks again all for the help!

 

[aaronnorth]

E.Bleheri has shorrter stems, with longer, spear shaped leaves
E.Amazonicus (amazon sword) has longer stems with more rounded leaves.

 

[Johnlenham]

Well since my last post the plants have been growing nicely.

The Echinodorus has grown some new shoots that seem to be growing quite quickly, the cabomba got trimmed and the trimmings are also going well same for the elodia , my last trip to get plants was a faliure as they had none I wanted so at this rate ill have grown my own!

Now im bumping because I bought this (stupidly without reading up about it)
Trace mix

and noticed that it dosent have N.P.K in it.... Is it worth still adding it even without NPK?

 

[aaronnorth]

Plants require a lot more NPK than they do trace, you can buy KNO3 and KH2PO4 and dose them to provide NPK

 

[Johnlenham]

Plants require a lot more NPK than they do trace, you can buy KNO3 and KH2PO4 and dose them to provide NPK

Hmm so I picked up some Tropica Plant Nutrition +, seemed like what I need? Will iot be ok to use the powdered Trace along side with it?

 

[aaronnorth]

Yes it will be fine, although it isnt really necassary to use both.