New To This Planted Tank Stuff

[pipsical]

Hey guys/girls

I've been trying to get as much information as possible before i buy anything for my tank setup. I've seen all the tanks and what is normally used and most of the tanks look awesome. What i want is one or two bits of wood with a few attached plants/moss.
I have found a how too, but its not at all clear so if there are any idiot guides i'd be grateful.

From my understanding these are the main plants for growing on wood:
Java fern

Java moss

Bolbitis (another fern like species)

Anubias

What othe plants can i get to grow, i still havent found exactly what i want. Basically a piece of wood with moss and some kind off longer 'grass' type plant.

like this:

Hopefully someone will have a clue what i want or can help me out. I've never used 'live' plante before so ideally don't want anything that going to be hard to grow/take care of.

Cheers
Phil

 

[hensonc4098]

Those ones are fine for growing on wood

If you're looking for something grass-like and easy to grow, you could maybe look at vallis. They're pretty undemanding and easy to grow.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Grows tall tho, if you want a carpet try Hairgrass, or Riccia when attaching plants to wood you can just tie them to it with a bit of fishing line then cut it off once the roots have got a hold or do what I do and use a tiny bit of superglue. Java Fern is awesome as you can get normal, narrow leaf and needle leaf (bit hard to come by) but they're easy to grow and over time will fill out and become very bushy and a really nice shade of green.

 

[pipsical]

Yer, thats the type of 'grass' i want, but will it attach it's self to my wood?

These are the bits of wood that i have bought and i don't want to cover them, just light patches of growth:

Cheers for your help.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Riccia is a floating plan that can be grown tied to anything, hairgrass is more difficult that needs to go in the substrate really as it sends off runners to spread.

 

[pipsical]

I plan on having a few plants growing from the substrate too.

Is this the Riccia you speak of? looks pretty cool.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah thats the stuff and it will grow in pretty much any tank, needs trimming from time to time otherwise it gets loose and floats but good for low tech set ups, I have a little patch in my nano fry journal on the front right corner. There is a guide I believe in the planted resource centre at the top of the planted section.

 

[pipsical]

I've been mooching around the pet shops, Pets at Home is double the price on everything compared to my local fish shop. I'm going tommorow to buy my tank and hopefully set it up and let it do it's thing for a few days. (I need to re-read the how-to on cycling a planted tank as i got confused haha)

How much normally are plants from the fish shops?
not sure what quantity you get etc.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Depends, mine does a deal on potted, 9 for £26 I think.

 

[pipsical]

Been looking on ebay too and theres a shop on there with very good feedback who sell in larger batches (5, 10, 15, 20 etc..) and they seem pretty reasonably priced.

I'm going to buy my tank tomorrow and the sand/gravel and maybe a few plants if the pet shop have any i like. Will they be ok to just throw in to start with or should i leave it a day or two to settle down?

*goes off to read the how too*

Cheers for your help, mucho appriciated

 

[stu40]

Hi
are you doing a fishless cycle? If so, i believe the recommendation is to leave the lights off. (ammonia + light = algae).
You might want to put your plants in when the cycle is over, and the lights are back on.

 

[pipsical]

I havent looked that deepl into it yet, i was going to do a fishless cycle until i read its a waste of time as it takes ages when i want plants anyway.


Whats the best way to clean my sand before i Put it in the tank?

 

[hensonc4098]

Fishless cycles aren't a waste of time unless your tank is heavily planted as the plants will absord ammonia etc. Unless your tank is going to be totally planted out from the start then it is a good idea to look at a fishless cycle. They only take a couple of weeks and IMO it's worth doing the fishless cycle and then not having fish deaths.

The riccia you were looking at doesn't actually attach itself to the wood, it is just held in place by either fishing line or a hairnet or something. It is a naturally floating plant, so as it grows, bits will come off and float to the surface so it can get messy. Mosses will actually attach themselves to the wood and there are different variations of mosses from the most common java moss species, to flame mosses, to fissidens species which are harder to come by IME but are very nice.

Other than mosses, the only plants that you can attach to wood are anubias and fern species.

If you are looking at buying a "bulk buy" plant package off of eBay, watch out for the ones that sell a mixed bunch thing of 20 plants or whatever, as you often find that they either have non-aquatic plants in or lots of plants that you don't necessarily want. Better to pick single species bundles. I have dealt with last trading post on eBay to buy vallis and they were great.

 

[pipsical]

Ive actually decided to have both tanks running. So the plants which i dont like or need will go in the other which i can then use if i need to for any babies or ill fish.

Thanks for your advice.