Is This A Good Deal?

[coldcazzie]

Aside from the fact that I'd want more of less types, is this a good deal on plants?

 

[ian]

there is a few non aquatic plants in that collection. I don't know anything about that seller, someone may do. But for £30 it's not bad, aslong as you leave out the non aquatics.

 

[walkers101]

check out plants alive by far the cheapest and ive never had a non aquatic

 

[VaegaVic]

http/www.plantsalive.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=108

I would personally go for them.

I've never had a non-aquatic plant from them either.
There are quite a few non aquatics in that ebay picture, almost the entire top row.

 

[coldcazzie]

Yeh I wasn't very clear, sorry - if I were to buy from them I'd want to specify how many of what kind I wanted. Thanks for the plants alive link though will check that out.

 

[stevereade]

Yeah I wouldn't go for ebay, you do end up with some dodgy plants, so you sorted the algae now?

 

[JoshuaA]

I've bought from LFstore, 1 eBay seller and TGM.

For quality The green machine clearly is the winner and I was over the moon by the quality however the price is off putting for tropica plants. Ordered at 1pm and arrived at 11am the next day too!

Tried an eBay seller (last trading post) and had 3 bunches from him the plants normally come in fantastic quality and well for the amount you get (25+) you can always just have one you want to plant and its likely come out cheaper than tropica standard. I usually pick 5 or so from a bunch and give the rest to a friend who's parrot fish and plecs feast on them. Specifically from this seller you can also "suggest" or "request" what sort/type of plants you want, I've often got a bunch of java fern or bulbs thrown in for free even though they're not listed. In fact I got 6 pieces of java ferns (3 leafs a piece) from him in the pack with another 20+ plants. Strangely he sells java fern 5 for £5.49 too so either they're worthless or he just doesn't care. His packs are around £5.99 I think for 25+ and something like £11.99 for 50+

Store bought was fine but a lot of the plants had been there so long the leaf skeletons were showing, rather disappointing. Though in the end I have always bought tropica plants from that store so the same quality is achieved.

I would highly recommend buying from eBay for your first or second bunches of plants as if you don't know what you're doing or not sure what you plan to do and just have the idea of "I want plants" then it could be an expensive mistake to buy tropica or other expensive brands.

I'm sure people on the forum will also help you ID any plants you do receive in bunches.

 

[stevereade]

I just got 25 from java plants delivered for less than £9 lol, check them out. You wont find things like Star Grass, HC and specialist mosses but you will find a lot, its very cheap and they are always very good condition.

 

[coldcazzie]

Yeah I wouldn't go for ebay, you do end up with some dodgy plants, so you sorted the algae now?

Just stripped all the binbags off this afternoon and done a 60% water change, trimmed the vallis which is yet again looking very sorry for itself (although starting to send out runners, so I take that as a good sign?) and planted the stems you sent me - they look very small compared to the others I have in there!
So far there is no sign of any on the gravel, but there is a slight hint of green still on the wood so I may do another water change tomorrow, clean the filters and give the decor a bit of a scrub. Just sick of the sight of it now, but hoping I've knocked it on the head now - I've not seen the fish since Thursday last week and I missed them!

Tried an eBay seller (last trading post) and had 3 bunches from him the plants normally come in fantastic quality and well for the amount you get (25+) you can always just have one you want to plant and its likely come out cheaper than tropica standard. I usually pick 5 or so from a bunch and give the rest to a friend who's parrot fish and plecs feast on them. Specifically from this seller you can also "suggest" or "request" what sort/type of plants you want, I've often got a bunch of java fern or bulbs thrown in for free even though they're not listed. In fact I got 6 pieces of java ferns (3 leafs a piece) from him in the pack with another 20+ plants. Strangely he sells java fern 5 for £5.49 too so either they're worthless or he just doesn't care. His packs are around £5.99 I think for 25+ and something like £11.99 for 50+

The first lot of plants I bought was from last trading post. Of the 25 plants I received I have about 7 left, 4 swords (I think) and some stem plants (not sure what kind) and needless to say they have gone slightly crazy multiplying and I now have loads

What I'm wanting is a few more foreground plants, and something to build a carpet. Tbh I wasn't hugely inspired by the option of having multiple bunches of 5 different random plants - I'd much rather be able to pick what I want, but they are (or can be) incredibly expensive and we're about to be very in debt (completing on our first house next week - eeek ) so any money that can be saved is good!

 

[JoshuaA]

What I'm wanting is a few more foreground plants, and something to build a carpet.

I understand exactly waht you mean! It's what I have done numerous times, I've bought the packs let them explode but then ditched them and replaced them with something else.

I've moved onto attempting to form a carpet using dwarf hairgrass (Eleocharis parvula), I believe it was about £5.49 for a pot (tropica) which is rather expensive for what it is, however due to its natural it spreads out quite well. You also are advised to plant using the rock wool, I was given an estimate of around 6 weeks for a carpet or at least the beginnings of.

I dose ferts/CO2 and have tropica substrate on a bottom layer, hopefully in some time this will all pay off and I'll have a nice carpet, if not then I guess I'll be taking the java moss route!

Also... I a miniature 40l(30L really) tank with hair grass at around 1.1wpg with ferts and tropica substrate but without CO2. Wondering which one will win!

 

[stevereade]

If you have the right conditions the star grass will grow very quickly.