New To Plants

[chris_mcr]

I used to kill all my plants in anything over a week, not sure why but now I have restarted developing my tank its something I hope to change.

I have two sharks, three gourami, four shrimp (for now!) And four assassin snails.

I plan to remove the current gravel and use sand instead which I have always fancied but never been sure about. I presume this could aid plant growth. I'll also be buying some fertilizer to bury with the roots.

Considering co2 after I do some more research, my wife does not like the sound of a canister but maybe I can disguise it some how in the living room ...... I have no idea on cost or anything yet.

tank is 100x40x50cm and I have two 30w "plant growth" bulbs

 

[pablothebetta]

You could try dosing 'liquid CO2' instead of using a canister. 3 products I know of are Seachem Flourish Excel, EasyCarbo and AE Design Aqua Carbon (by AquaEssentials). In terms of cost, I'm sure I've seen EasyCarbo at around £3 per 250ml from fluidsensoronline.com, though the site is currently down for maintenance so I'm unable to check up on that.

With the size of your tank, you might want to buy more than 250ml at a time, though (not too sure about that as I don't know a whole lot about dosing ferts/co2, etc).

If I were you and have problems keeping plants healthy, I'd go for some hardy species at first. Anubias, java fern, java moss and some crypt species all tend to be pretty hardy plants that you might want to consider. I've had very good success with hygrophilia polysperma in my low-tech tank, so that might be a plant worth considering as well.

 

[chris_mcr]

I think fertilizer alone will help, as would choosing my types of plants a little better.

I've got a bag of play sand to sort out during the week or next week once I have cleaned a little tank for live stock to live In for a day or two

Also a mate has a fire extinguisher for me when I travel back home if choose that route. I have read that liquid carbon is that I would be doing large water changes every week? Not something I fancy having to do!