New To Planting

[CruX]

I posted this in Tropical chat but got zero response so I thought I might try here.

So I have been in and out of the hobby for over 15 years and I have learned the most and had the most success over the past 2 years. In all this time I have never planted real plants I have always gone for plastic.

So I have decided I want to plant my aquarium, but to be honest the great big wild world of aquarium plants terrifies me. You seem to be bombarded by a plethera of choice. After reading up on it I was about to give it up when I found a site in practical fishkeeping that do a starter kit for a certain tank size that has plants specifically for the fore, middle and back ground of the aquarium. the company are called Java Plants. The prices seem very good and I am tempted to buy some volcanic rock from there too. Has anybody used this company before and which size would you reccomend for a Juwel Trigon 350? I have a large piece of bogwood that sits on the right hand side parallel to the right hand back wall and a Y shaped piece turned horizontal that sits on top the the filter end and stretches accross the tank towards the front left corner so the bottom Y branch is in the bottom left corner area and the top Y branch is in the top left area. I also had some trailing plastic plant thing that was suckered to the back left wall and draped over the bogwood to provide a nice shady area for those that like it. I am happy to lose the plastic plant whenever. I was thinking the 48" suggestion from java plants would do but I wonder if there might be too many plants there for my set up, taking into account the corner shape of the aquarium and the large bogwood in there.
I thought maybe I could plant the background plants in a M shape. Leading from midway on the left wall to the filter then around the filter perimiter and back to the mid way of the right wall. Then the Mid plants infront of that and the fore ground in front of that to break up the regularity of it. It seems so straight forward in my head when thinking about a regular oblong tank but when trying to apply that to the Trigon it seems daunting.


All your help, thoughts and assistance greatly and thankfully received.

 

[Deep Freeze]

Well, I don't know too much about live plants, but I will grace you with my response just kidding, but anyway I do know that anacharis and Java fern/moss are the best beginner plants due to their hardiness. Anacharis is a bright green, long stalky plant which can grow to an excess of a foot in length. It can grow rooted, or just float free. Java fern is a very leafy plant and possibly the hardiest aquatic live plant. Both would probably look great in your tank and help control ammonia. Oh, and activated carbon isn't good for plants, because it drains their food source. Hope this helped...

 

[Dave Spencer]

I have only used Java Plants once, because they were the only ones that had the plant I wanted, and I would have to say the quality was OK. Delivery took over a week, though. Try looking at Greenline.

The number of plants depends on the look you are after and how serious you are about growing them. Those collections look like a good deal, but the best looking planted tanks tend to have the emphasis on a few species in large bushes, rather than having allsorts dotted all over the place.

Dave.

 

[CruX]

Many thanks for the replies. I already have a couple of Java Moss balls in there. I am still unsure whether to go for the 48" set up or the a smaller one.