Keeping Your Plants Healthy?

[Tsunami_Spike]

Well seems we're not too good at keeping our plants healthy (being as this is our first tank) so we're going to replace them and clean the tank out, unfortunately we just lost our male Gourami to dropsy -which I hear can be caused by dirty/poor water, nothing would make him better as much as we tried and looked up on help for him (got told the best thing to do was to just let him go and put him out of his misery). Now, as we'd like to avoid such things in the future and as everything else was being done as it should be to maintain healthy water, we'd rather not have plants dying and dirtying the water again. Any suggestions for a newbie?

 

[cuprajake]

hi,

i newish too.

what size is the tank, and what filter do you have is it adequate, next is the tank heavliy planted or not

a pic would prob be better

how long do you have the lights on for and do you use plant food

if you look through the stickies at the top of most of the forums you will find loads of useful info for every aspect of fish keeping.

good luck jake

 

[doresy]

Hi, obviously we need a bit more info as asked by previous reply. I have replaced all my artificial plants with real ones and have been going strong for a couple of months now. I add fertiliser once a month which seems ok looking at all the new growth.
Buy good plants and ones that are in pots as they are rooted. Gently removed them from the pot and tease off all the media around the roots. Plants them in you substrate (which is?) add liquid plant food (aquarium grade!!!) and watch them grow. I believe the coloured ones (other than green!) are more delicate. Good luck

PS. Gouramis must have really good water in a more mature, well planted tank.....not a good starter fish

 

[mark.w.jones]

If this is your first aquarium I would suggest you go for some of the following easy to grow plant species. Virtually guaranteed success:

Limnophila sessiliflora
Java fern
Vallisneria spiralis ''Tiger''
Thai Onion Plants
Cryptocoryne wendtii ''green''

Also Anubias barteri (var) nana once your tank is more established as it is a bit of an algae magnet.

 

[Tessla]

What sort of plants do you have? There are many different aquatic plants, all with different needs, and to make matters worse, non-aquatic plants are often sold as aquatic. Many plants require higher lighting levels than you get with stock lighting, light spectrum can also make a difference. Some species need a nutrient rich substrate or other special fertilizers. There are also many fish that will chew up most aquatic plants, what are you stocking?

If you're a newbie to aquatic plants, select a few hardy low-light species rather than going for whatever looks pretty at the shop. Here are a few that are practically foolproof:

Anubias, java fern and java moss all do very well with low lighting, however none of these should be completely planted in the substrate. Keep the rhizomes of anubias and java fern above the substrate at all times or attach any of these plants to rocks or bogwood. Anubias especially is a slow grower, but these have thick leaves which most fish won't touch.

Anacharis is an especially fast growing stem plant which I've found to be impossbile to kill. It can be rooted into any substrate or left to float at the top of the aquarium. It's also extremely easy to propogate from cuttings.

If you can get those growing in your tank, you might add a few more hardy species:

Cryptocorynes don't have much in the way of light requirements, though they do best with a nutrient rich substrate or root tab fertilizers. They are however sensitive to changes in water conditions, and will often melt if you move them though they'll quickly grow back so long as there is a healthy root structure intact.

Swords are also heavy root feeders without many requirements when it comes to lighting.

Vallisneria is a fast grower that propogates with runners, one of the easier beginning plants.

Marmimo moss balls are an interesting addition and don't require much lighting or other special care unless you're going for high growth.

 

[vinylman]

A couple of months ago, I emptied my tank and added a base of Tetra Complete substrate. Last month, I replaced my one-tube 40w aquarium hood with an Arcadia 2x38w Luminaire. It's the best money I've ever spent on my tank and worth doing even if you have to empty your tank to put in a good undergravel substrate. I've never had to add liquid fertilisers and I'm trimming the plants at each water change. Just do some research online so you know your shop isn't selling aquarium plants that aren't true aquatic ones; some do, unfortunately. It can seem expensive to get your plants to grow, but it's worth it in the long run. Just think how much it would cost to keep buying new plants every month or so.