New to the whole plant thing

[wlbadger]

I have been keeping aquariums for 10 years followed by a short hiatus. I just started a 10 gallon with 8 tetras, a clown loach and a panda cory. I have never kept live plants but am extremely interested. My tank is equipt with an air stone and a hangon filter. I was wondering if live plants would improve the tank for my fish as well as what cost and maintainance would be. How do you plant? Are the water qualities harder to maintain? Will my fish be at higher risk for disaes and poor water quailty? Also any suggestions on plants would be good.

 

[Rose]

i'll go more into this in the morning when im not so sloshd. basicaly your fish wil do betr in live plants than not. Rose

 

[Dragonslair]

Rose is your expert when it comes to plants. You should see her aquairums on her website. I have a 30gall tank and it is well planted and the fish love it. I would say go for a planted tank.

 

[Dragonslair]

William recommended a site for plants.www.java-plants.com
I tried it and purchased a boat load on line at a reasonable cost. You don't say where you're from, but they do international shipments also. The site is worth a visit. There is also aquaticplants.ev.com. I found their plants a little costlier.
I think Duncan suggested that one.

 

[Rose]

Here's a pic of my 10g that I just tore down to put up a bigger tank (my 30g tiger barb tank.)

I'll get a good pic of my bowfront up here soon. (I hope). Rose

 

[wlbadger]

Can anybody be more specific? Maybe answer some of the questions?

 

[Davy Reynolds]

A quick answer to all of them would be plants are good for your tank, they improve water quality.

As to what plants to have, pass. The only plant I can keep is a sword.

 

[Rose]

I have been keeping aquariums for 10 years followed by a short hiatus. I just started a 10 gallon with 8 tetras, a clown loach and a panda cory. I have never kept live plants but am extremely interested. My tank is equipt with an air stone and a hangon filter. I was wondering if live plants would improve the tank for my fish as well as what cost and maintainance would be. How do you plant? Are the water qualities harder to maintain? Will my fish be at higher risk for disaes and poor water quailty? Also any suggestions on plants would be good.

Sorry to no have gotten back to you sooner on this. Live gave me yet another curve ball that needed to get delt with ASAP. To answer your questions:

I was wondering if live plants would improve the tank for my fish

Yes they would. It's more natural for the fish as they tend to have better color and act more the way they would if you were to take them strait from the wild.

what cost and maintainance would be.

The cost would depend on what plant species you wanted to keep and how high tech you wanted to get with your tank. It would also depend on the size of your tank too. Maintance would also depend on the above things. A high tech tank with everything just perfect would take more time than a low tech tank would.

How do you plant?

There are a few different ways to plant your tank. You can have plants in the gravel, in terricotta pots, leave them in the pots they came in or you can tie them to rocks and wood and the like. I personally plant them in the gravel and tie them to wood and rocks. To me it seems more natural.

Are the water qualities harder to maintain?

The water qualities are actually much easier to maintain than that of tanks with out live plants. The plants ues the nutrients in the water to live. Therefore a lot of planted tanks don't show nitrites, nitrates, phosphates and some other elements cause the plants have used them to live.

Will my fish be at higher risk for disaes and poor water quailty?

This is most deffinatly just the opposite. Your fish will actually be healthier and stay that way with live plants and the water quality is actually better too.

Also any suggestions on plants would be good.

This would all depend on what kind of substraite you have and what kind of lighting as well as if you intend to have a high tech tank or a low tech tank. High tech tanks take up more of your time but you can have a broader assortment of plants (mainly the hard to keep plants that very few places carry.) A low tech tank can look just as nice as a high tech tank but will take less of your time. Low tech tanks don't use CO2 and the plants grow slower too.
Some good plants that I have found are Crypts, Wendii, Java Ferns, Java Moss, Water Sprite, any of the fast growing plants.

I hope this helps. If you need more help let me know. Rose

 

[wlbadger]

Thanks for the quality info. When you have a chance could you go more into depth on how to set up a low tech tank as I do not want to have to mess with co2 if possible. Do I need to use fertilizer? Can't it hurt the fish? Do I need to take out the airstone to cut down on surface movement? (I heard it depletes necisary naturaly occuring co2 in tank. Also I want to keep it with south and central american plants as they are going in a prodominantly tetra tank so I think the java ones are out but any others from south america that will be successful in a low tech tank?

 

[adeyc]

Sorry peeps., While sorting the forum out I think I have deleted a legit post.
Not sure what it was but 100000 apologies to the author.

D.S. The spelling to which you enquired is French. I'd even put money on it's French Canadian.
Enough said.