New Plant Owner

[sunpirate2u]

Hello Live Plant Section,

I've done some research on live plants but cant find real good info. I’m going to set up a 10 gallon breeding tank for the common guppy. I wanted some really nice thick plants. I've been trying to hold my curious mind (lol ) on doing live plants because I may have some risks.

1. Live bacteria, diseases, and invertebrates? How can I prevent it from happening?

2. Can plants live in small gravel instead of sand?

3. Could I just use my regular tank light?

4. How long should I wait until I add the fish? I think about a week (just to make sure).

5. What about water conditioners, and do they need a stress coat?

6. How can u clean the gravel with plants in them?

Err...I have a lot of questions....please feel free to add more info

The kinds of plants I was thinking of, were lose, thin, bright green, moss. I've seen it before, not sure of the name though, lol .

 

[Cerbios]

I'd reccomand reading through this article on aquatic eden for a good primer turtoriol on planted aquas. I really like this site aquatic eden tutoriol (I know I recomend AE a lot but Its not becuase im trying to send anybody off of this site. Good info here but its obviosly more geared to fish then plants. I promise if I see anyone on aquatic eden about asking about fish Ill send them here.)

I'm just setting up my first planted myself. You can use your aquariam light most likley but youll need plant bulps that amidt light in the right specturem your cheepest option especialy for that small a tank would probably be Compact flourecsent bulbs with proper color range. Mine cost me 10$ a peice but I got the equivelent of a 150 watts out of a standerd hood light.

Your probably thinking of java moss or if your not you should because its your best bet for a new aquariam.

When you add your fish doesnt matter in regards to your plants. You still need to cycle the tank obviosly. I began adding my plants actually after I had allready cycled the tank and had fish in it.

As for gravel it varies by plant, some plants cant grow in heavy gravel because it hampers root growth, although there are plenty of species that dont even grow in the substrate anyway and java moss will suposedly on anything.

I would also recomend getting a Murimo ball as one of your fist plants. I got mine of ebay and love them they are wonderfully odd, but others Ive met think their ugly as sin so its a matter of opinion there, but they are very good for a new planted. Their actualy an algae colonly that grows into a ball. They look like a plant, grow slowly and wont spread all over your aquariam like normal algae however what they will do is outcompeate other algaes whose growth will be boosted by your plant light. They also need only very little light and are supposedly very hardy.


(edited becasue for some reason I never notice mistakes untill after I post)

 

[Colin_T]

Fish tanks are a veritable soup of disease organsims and the best way to minimise disease outbreaks is to do regular partial water changes and gravel cleans to dilute the number of pathogens. And make sure the fish are kept in a nice stable environment so they are not stressed and the diseases have more trouble infecting them. A well balanced diet also goes a long way to preventing diseases from infecting the fish.

Plants don't get fish diseases as such but they can transmit them on their leaves and with the water they carry across to the new tank. You can rinse the new plants under luke warm tap water before putting them in the tank. If you are really concerned about diseases then put the plants in a quarantine tank for a month. Most fish diseases should be well and truly dead after a month without a host.
Snails eggs are sometimes found on leaves but if you look at each plant carefully you should be able to find the eggs. They look like small clear jelly blobs. As the baby snails develop the jelly blobs develop little dark spots which are the baby snails. You can scrape off the eggs with your finger nail or simply cut off the leaf with the eggs on.

Plants will grow fine in fine gravel

Normal aquarium lights should be fine but have them on for about 10-12 hours a day. if the plants grow and you don't get too much algae then that is fine. If you get lots of algae then increase the number of plants or decrease the lighting period. You can have the lights on for up to 16 hours per day but plants and fish should get an 8 hour rest period.

Fish can go in the tank anytime after the chlorine/ chloramine is removed from the water. However, many people try to cycle the filters before putting fish in the tank. This can take about a month. If you don't want to wait then you can set the tank up and add fish a couple of days later. But you must monitor the water quality (ammonia & nitrite) and keep the feeding down. Even small amounts of ammonia can kill fish hence the reason people try to cycle the filters before adding fish.

Plants don't need stresscoat or any water conditioners. Fish cannot tolerate chlorine because it burns their gills. Plants don't suffer from that and can go straight into tap water. You can add liquid iron fertilisers to encourage the plant growth. I use Sera Florena but there are plenty of other brands on the market.

If the plants are planted in the gravel you simpy gravel clean around them leaving a couple of inches of undisturbed gravel baround the base of the plant. Alternatively you can grow plants in small pots and simply move the pot, gravel clean under it, then move it back.

Java Moss, Water Sprite & Ambulia are some of the better plants for guppies.

 

[Luketendo]

1. Live bacteria, diseases, and invertebrates? How can I prevent it from happening?
Keeping tank levels good and making sure the aren't stressed.

2. Can plants live in small gravel instead of sand?
Yeah small gravel (like a few mm) is very good.

3. Could I just use my regular tank light?
It depends how powerful it is.

4. How long should I wait until I add the fish? I think about a week (just to make sure).
Well you need to cycle.

5. What about water conditioners, and do they need a stress coat?
Anything that will take out chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals. Tetra Aquasafe does this, it also has stress coat.

6. How can u clean the gravel with plants in them?
With a Gravel Vac.

 

[sunpirate2u]

Roughly tree weeks ago I have gotten a horrible ick breakout. It was so powerful and I couldn't use any meds. Well, all my fish died . So my tank has been running now trying to kill the ick off. I read off the internet that ick cant live without fish to complete their life cycle.
The ick and massive algae have been spreading all over the glass!!!! Eww ! Eww ! I’m going to clean it today and though out the rocks (because that’s were the ick lives). I'm also toughing out all my plastic plants and getting live ones (as u know). Ay ay....

 

[Colin_T]

the whitespot parasite dies within a few days if there are no fish in the tank. There is no need to chuck everything out. If you are really concerned you can boil the gravel, and dry everything else out in the sun. 24 hours is sufficient to kill virtually everything that lives in a fish tank. And if you're really concerned you can bleach everything.