New To Aquarium Plants

[eaglesaquarium]

I'm getting back into fish, primarily because my 5 year old is asking for a pet, and my wife is allergic to anything with fur!


My tank will be a 56 gallon column style from Marineland - 30" long x 18" wide x 24" high.

I'm looking to have a moderately planted tank with the fish, but I can't seem to find a really easy to follow list of plants, complete with simple instructions for lighting, temp, etc. I've found a million easy to follow sources for fish...I'll be housing two small shoals (10-15) fish peaceful variety - harlequin rasbora, bloodfin tetra, cherry barbs, black phantom tetra or similar. Then I will have a shoal of corydoras, probably pygmy (pygmaeus), or perhaps the dwarf (habrosus). Then eventually I will be adding a pair of rams and/or apistogrammas eventually.

The substrate will be flourite black "gravel" in the planted areas, and sand everywhere else (for the corydoras).

The lighting will be a single T5 bulb - comes with the hood for the tank.

I do not plan to dose with fertilizers or CO2. I just don't think that I am nearly ready for that level of commitment at this time.


So, I will have a low CO2, low lighting, low tech community tank. What plants am I looking at being able to house at a pH in the range of 6.5-70, and a temp around 76-78F?

I am aware of Java moss, Java Fern, Anubias, etc. But, my primary issue is that saying you can grow Anubias is like saying that you can have tetras in your tank. There are just so many varieties available. Or, Cryptos... again, too many varieties. What I need is a few varieties to really focus on, because I haven't got a clue what I am looking at with these plants. It's just information overload! I am going to need some plants to provide cover for the rams or apisto to feel comfortable, but not so many plants that the shoaling fish won't have space to swim. I also need some very tall varieties to hide equipment, but also some shorter foreground plants, as well as some mid-level varieties. What "Newbie" plants do folks recommend? My sig lists some that I think I like. What about "betta bulbs"?

 

[lljdma06]

What's the wattage in that single bulb? Just curious. I think you can definitely have a nice planted tank. Crytocoryne species are good to use for these setups. Some vallisneria, some Echinodorus species. Mosses, Pelia, Bolbitis may do alright if you put it near a current.

Go for habrosus corydoras. Pygymies are a bit twitchy while habrosus are super fun and you can have like 20 of them!

Small anubias - Barterii var nana
Mid-sized - Barterii and coffeefolia

Crypts small - c. parva
Crypts mid-sized - lutea, lucens, wendtii (all three colors red, green, brown)
Crypts large - retrospiralis, spiralis, balansae

Looks like a tall tank, right? Build up with wood and you can create a lot of height and add plants in different locations.

This helping any? Have a read of PARC, the resource center. Scroll down especially to where it says "Information on plants for and not for the aquarium"

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/296418-planted-aquariums-resource-center/

 

[eaglesaquarium]

What's the wattage in that single bulb? Just curious. I think you can definitely have a nice planted tank. Crytocoryne species are good to use for these setups. Some vallisneria, some Echinodorus species. Mosses, Pelia, Bolbitis may do alright if you put it near a current.

Go for habrosus corydoras. Pygymies are a bit twitchy while habrosus are super fun and you can have like 20 of them!

Small anubias - Barterii var nana
Mid-sized - Barterii and coffeefolia

Crypts small - c. parva
Crypts mid-sized - lutea, lucens, wendtii (all three colors red, green, brown)
Crypts large - retrospiralis, spiralis, balansae

Looks like a tall tank, right? Build up with wood and you can create a lot of height and add plants in different locations.

This helping any? Have a read of PARC, the resource center. Scroll down especially to where it says "Information on plants for and not for the aquarium"

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/296418-planted-aquariums-resource-center/

Yes, I believe this helps. To be honest, I had a general idea of what I was looking for in fish, having kept fish before with my dad growing up. Of course, the more I researched the more my plans changed until I now figure that I want 2 mid-water shoaling varieties (the exact variety is actually far less important to me now than I was when I started - there are more cool fish out there than I will ever be able to keep!) Now, plants on the other hand is a completely different thing. I started without a single clue. I now have enough of a clue to realize exactly how much I still don't know! I've been searching for fish, plants, aquariums, etc. for about 3-4 months now. And I am still a few months away from getting everything ready to go. (One thing that has worked well, my patience has rewarded me, as the $300 tank I want to buy is now on sale for $240! I have now put an order in and have the price locked in. )


The tank is 24 inches tall, so yeah its a bit taller than the standard. It's what I need though, as I can't get a longer tank to fit in my dining room.

I plan to have a major barrier setup in the middle of the tank - large rock or huge driftwood to sort of cut the tank in half (about 8 inches tall) to allow the rams and apisto to have separate territories. I could add some plants to part of that, so that it would help to further differentiate the sections of the tank. So, your suggestion meets pretty well with what I was thinking...


I will start to research more about the varieties you mentioned. Thanks a bunch! You've set me in a direction that might actually help me. While I may not go with the plants you've mentioned, you have set me on a course. And at this point I didn't have one. (With the fish, I started with what I thought I wanted, and started to research every type of fish I could find to see how it would work with my initial thoughts... and through that process I settled in a completely different direction. Hopefully I can have that same pattern follow with the plants. That would be great!)



Btw, what is the Latin for the cryptos' genus? (I assume you included the species name - and the variants.)


(Just realized that I didn't answer the wattage question: I'm not sure... But, I am willing to upgrade the lighting if need be. What wattage, Kelvin rating do you recommend for low lighting and 24 inches depth.)

 

[jacko32]

hi theres a fantastic article in pfk that might help a bit heres a link

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3855

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That was a great article... thanks.

I'm not sure if I will recreate that 'scape, but the bigger thing is that I saw a step-by-step guide on how to create a 'scape. I'm sure to some the cardboard method to hold substrates separate is old hat to many on this forum, but as simple a thing as it is, it's still news to me, and a brilliantly simple method that I am going to need to employ!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

What is the procedure for adding fish and plants to a fully cycled tank?


I figure that I will add the substrate and plants when I empty the tank after the completed cycle. Then I can properly scape, etc. and not need to worry about dosing ammonia with the light on... I really don't want any algae blooms! Then, refill with water. The big issue is when do I add the fish? The next day? Do I do the scaping late at night and go get the fish early the next day? Do I have more time to play with than I think before I start to lose the bacteria colony?

Can I still dose with ammonia after adding the plants until the fish are added? I really don't want to screw up such a seemingly simple thing... but after waiting so long to get the tank going, and cycling, I don't want to have a set-back because I miscalculated on adding plants, fish, or ammonia. I am still rather confused. With fake plants its easy... just add them whenever you want. It doesn't matter. With live plants, I've heard that they can be harder to keep alive than the fish.

 

[ian]

welcome to the dark side eagles, you will be fine to drain the tank and scape. Plant it up, and i would recommend 1-2 day 20% water change for a couple of weeks until the plants start to get used to their new surrounding. This is where a few people slip up, they will plant and then leave it. You will get some 'melt' die back from certain types of plant. The water changes help to rid you of excess ammonia and gives you chance to trim the effected leaves.

you'll also struggle to find a planted tank keeper who owns a test kit as well.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

ianho,

Thanks for the welcome. The plants will be nice, but unlike some folks around here, they will be playing a clear second fiddle to the fish.


I appreciate your advice, but I am a bit confused. First, you are suggesting adding the plants after the fishless cycle is completed, correct? Secondly, you said:

i would recommend 1-2 day 20% water change for a couple of weeks until the plants start to get used to their new surrounding.

Does that mean 1 daily or every other day 20% water change, or does it mean once to twice daily?


I understand that some plants will suffer from the transition to my tank. Do I add fish after the plants have settled in? Do I add fish right away? If not, do I continue to add ammonia, or will the potential dieback add sufficient ammonia to keep the bacteria happy?


I think I'll keep a test kit on hand... just to be safe. I probably won't be planting as heavily as some folks. I want to add a few plants here and there to provide nice hiding places and security for the fish, but I don't want to add so many that I won't be able to watch the fish do their thing. I want to see the shoaling behavior of the fishes I will be keeping.

 

[ian]

add the plants after the cycle. Most aquatic plants are grown out of water, they then get shipped to our LFS and are then put into water. We then buy then and put them straight into our tanks, they then have to get used to the environment. Not all will melt and depending on your system (high tech tend to do a little better, ie crypts do better in high tech from the off). Some leaves may die off and cause small ammonia build ups, which in turn can cause alagae out breaks. This is why i would advocate doing more water changes within the first couple of weeks, every other day is fine.

I would also add the fish after the plants, same day is fine aslong as the filter is mature.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks... I am thinking I will end up waiting a day or so between plants and fish if possible.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Anyone have any advice on a newbie to plants and amazon swords? I see them everywhere, and they look really nice. Would they work in a low light, non-fert - fluorite substrate, non-CO2 dosed tank?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

My lighting set up is EXTREMELY low...


F18T8 24" Natural Daylight Fluorescent

I guess that means 18Watts! I might need to get some plants that just don't grow at all, and do ANY photosynthesis. Are there real plants that fit that description?!

 

[lljdma06]

This is stock lighting. You can grow cryptocorynes, anubias, mosses. Things just grow slow. Not a bad thing necessarily. I remember back when I just focused on fish, I bred kribs. Added a couple of what I now know as Cryptocoryne wendtii into the tank for cover and such. When I dismantled the tank, the root structures were ginormous. That was just with a standard, I think, 18W T8 over 29g. And I wasn't even trying to grow plants. The plants were beautiful. Very lush.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks. I've checked out plants you mentioned earlier and I think that I can find a way to make that work well, assuming that they will work with this lighting. I guess I will stick with: cryptocoryne, abubias, java moss and java fern. Thanks... (I'll be back!)


I guess the next thing I need to figure out is where I am going to get them!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Would moss balls work in this set-up? I saw a picture of some on a sand substrate and it is striking! I guess the degree of awesomeness in the look depends on whether or not they will be a dark green - and they need to be happy with their light, before they will be dark green... right?