Major Info Needed

[george4]

Hi all , please bare with me.
i have 2 tanks rio 400 and trigon 190.
have tried plants in rio 400 and they all die or get eaten by my silver dollars
i want to make a real go of plants and complelety plant out my trigon 190 which only has angels, cory , plec and torpedo barb.
i am going to take out the sand and put gravel back in a this should be better for the plants (rite?)
basically i want ideas on what plants to go for. i have the standard juwel lighting and no co2 but would be prepared to get it if necessary. do i need root tabs and liquid feed? i am planning to put quite a large quintity in in one go so need to get it right

any help appreciated. thanks

 

[Colin_T]

use an iron based liquid fertiliser like Sera Florena. You can use laterite balls to put under swordplants and crypts. Laterite is simply powdered red clay. Wet some and roll into small balls then allow to dry. They can be stored for use later on. Place one or two balls in the gravel when you plant a plant.
lighting is essential for good plant growth so you might need to upgrade to a higher wattage globe if possible. If not have the lights on for longer, up to 16 hours per day.
good plants to try include: swordplants, ambulia, hygrophilla species, ludwigia and vallis.
gravel should be fine for the plants.

re: the silver dollars. they are naturally vegetarian and require lots of plant matter in their diet. You can feed them on peas, beans, carrot, pumpkin, etc. Just put the veges in boiling water for a few seconds to blanch them and when cool offer to the fish.

 

[george4]

thank you , info v helpful but would u reccommend planting in the sand i have at the moment or changing back to gravel ?

 

[garuf]

Sand is good, but akadama is better.
http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/substrate.htm

 

[Themuleous]

Gravel and sand are about the same for plant growth, the way to improve it is to add nutrients either by putting a layer of plant substrate under the sand/gravel, or completely changing the substrate for a planted one. Probably the best base layer substrate is tropica plant substrate . Complete substrates include eco-complete and ADA Aquasoil, Eco-complete is probably best for people new to the hobby. Or Akadama as Gareth suggests, cheap too!!

Use a descent fertiliser, like tropica plant nutrition or seachem flourish, both are excellent.

I always recommend adding CO2 to any tank, even its low light, its essential for plants to grow, so it cant hurt to add it

I would be tempted to start with the lighting you have and upgrade once you get used to planted tank you can add nutrients and co2 without upgrading the lighting, but if you upgrade the lighting adding nutrients and co2 becomes essential to prevent algae.

Sam

 

[george4]

thank you for your reply / is the only way of adding co2 through a bubble drip thing ? is this expensive, does the co2 need replacing frequently? also would it be ok to keep cold water plants in trpoical water >>

thanks v much

 

[sjdriscoll]

thank you for your reply / is the only way of adding co2 through a bubble drip thing ? is this expensive, does the co2 need replacing frequently?

You can make a really cheap CO2 kit from plastic drinks bottles, some tubing, sugar and yeast. Costs a few pence to run. It would be ok until you upgraded your lights I think. Loads of threads on here to help or im me.

 

[Themuleous]

Not sure about cold water plants in tropical tanks, perhaps not in a discus tank but in normal tropical is would probably be OK.

Sam

 

[garuf]

don't things like comba melt badly.