How?

tetras4me

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up until now i have been useing plastic plants. i decided to try something new and put in live plants. but i have herd that live plants are hard to keep. so any advice bout this. oh, and should i use fertilizer? i afraid it will harm my fish....

anyone??? helooooo???
 
Plants are really easy to keep, if you get hardy ones, such as java moss, java fern, sword plants and anubias. I've kept allsorts of plants, and I only have low light conditions and they are doing fine, aslong as they get light they will do fine. Fertilisers, i've never used them, and my plants are still living and looking good, they aren't really necceseray in my eyes, unless you have a medium tech setup, 3-4WPG, Co2, good substrate etc.

Neal ;)
 
live plants aren't that hard to keep.. but there are a few things you must take into consideration.. so i will brake it down in a simple way for u. keep in mind that this is only the start, there is so much more. also i won't explain too much regarding high light setups as my suggestion to you is to start with a low light setup

Light
You need some sort of light source. Most growers use some sort of fluro fixture, wether its just a regular fluro tube or a compact fluro is really up to the grower. When choosing a fixture you want to keep in mind the wattage of light that you will need. In your case your just starting to grow plants, so my suggestion is to aim for a lower light setup as these require less maintenance, less feeding, and no co2 system(normally). A lower light setup would consist of something such as 1.5 wpg(watts per gallon). To get the watts per gallon rating you need to divide your total wattage of lights by the total gallons of your tank. Keep in mind i am only making a suggestion, if you want to go to a high light setup by all means do so but remember in high light setups your going to need ferts, co2 and regular pruning.

Food
Plants need food to grow just like us. In a low light setup fish waste can provide sufficient major nutrients to your plants (such as nitrate and phosphate). Keep in mind this isn't always the case and some time in low light setups will need additional food, especially if you don't have a lot of fish and don't feed much. You have two options here, dry ferts or liquid ferts. I won't get into this too much though because with a low light setup most of the time the aim is to do as little as possible. Plants don't only need the major nutrients though, they need things that are not as easily obtainable, such as iron. These are trace elements and can be given to the plants through a substrate(a good gravel/sand which is designed for plant growth, ADA makes a great one but its a little on the pricey side), a liquid fertilizer (in this case I can recommend seachem flourish, i have had great results with it), and/or root tabs which are sunk into the gravel around the plants.

CO2
I won't get into this too much because in a low light setup again the aim (most the time) is to do as little as possible and stay cheap. Anyways co2 can increase growth dramatically, and in high light setups it is pretty much a must to have or you will run into algae problems due to high levels of nutrients. In low light setups this isn't the case always. Co2 will help but in a low light setup it isn't need like it is in high light setups. If your going to get into co2 there are many articles on the forum regarding your options, DIY and pressurized. I suggest you avoid this topic for now but if your going to get into it then start reading the pinned articles about it.

Anyways I hope this broke it down for you, keep in mind that this is only the start. People have been studying and planting for decades so you can take it as far as you want it ;)

Goodluck! :good:
 
my first fish tank started with mostly plastic plants, its been 6 months and theyve all been replaced with live plants
i dont do anything special atall - i figured id just buy new ones if they died (their so cheap anyway)

i have java fern, some crypt, a banana plant, little pennywort thing and some dwarf grass

i dont use ferts, special substrate or co2, i just let them do their thing, their fine, and they are growing great!

i think everyone finds different things challenging, for me its keeping guppies alive LOL XD
 
You can, but its rather a difficult plant to grow and generally needs a decent setup to grow well, but it is possible.

Sam
 

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