Newbie Plant Help

[aquajay]

Hi all,

I recently got a 20 gal community tank up and running (two months ago). I have 5 zebra danios and 3 fantail guppies so far. I haven't had live plants before but would really like to learn and get them growing in my tank. So far I have 3 amazon swords that I bought at the LPS because they were recommended to help with cycling. I've done a bunch of reading on the resource page of this website but still have questions about how to keep things simple in my tank.

I would like to get low-maintenance plants that will grow well without much care. Two of the swords are looking good but the third is a bit yellow/brown and hasn't rooted itself after 1.5 months. From all my reading it still isn't clear to me if I need fertilizer or anything for low-tech plants (such as the swords). CO2 seems complicated and pricey so I am staying away. I have read that other good species for my type of tank might be: cryptocorynes, anubias, mosses, Jave Fern, Sagittaria platyphylla.

Are there other basics I need to know about keeping low tech plants? Can I simply buy a couple of the above species and expect them to do well in my tank? My other tank specs are: 15W T8 light ON 8AM-10PM every day. Water temp 75-80 F. Standard gravel-type substrate.

Any help is very appreciated!

 

[hensonc4098]

All plants need nutrients of some kind. Swords are low tech in that they don't need a lot of ferts and don't need CO2 to grow well, however it is likely that dosing small quantities of some kind of fert will help them along.

The species that you mentioned should all be fine in a low tech setup.

You really don't need your lighting on for that long. For low tech setups you only really need the lights on for 6-8 hours per day. I have mine on from 3pm till 10:30pm and mine are kindof "medium" tech lol. Any more than that won't really make a difference to plant growth so is just using electricity for the sake of it!

As far as choosing a fert goes, one of the best ferts is TPN+. It seems pricey, but with the plants you are having then you would only need to dose small amounts to make them grow well

 

[hensonc4098]

Looking again at your post though your lighting is quite low so I would think the fish would probably provide enough nutrients for the plants without fertilisers. Still reduce the length of time the lights are on though

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with henson - your brightness is pretty low (.75 watts/USgallon) but your lighting period is quite long, 6-8 hours being quite common (I only run my lights about 5 hours a day but my brightness is 1.07 w/g.) Often you don't know you have too much light until after excess algae has begun to appear.

If you are in the UK you have easy access to the TPN+ mentioned, the best stuff around if you can get it. I believe a few in the US have also found ways to get it but if not then you can do about the same thing with 6 or so bottles from seachem. And of course no matter where you are you can mix dry ferts and save money. Low-light technique means you can go with quite small amounts of fert, so it will last a long time.

WD

 

[aquajay]

OK, sounds like I should get some fertilizer and reduce my lighting period. I'll have a go with some of the other plant species and see how they do. Are *some* yellow/brown spots on the leave normal, or does this mean that something is wrong?

This is the fertilizer that's carried locally:
http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753407
Is it acceptable for my tank/plants?

Thanks for your help from across the pond. I've noticed many members from the UK, is it a majority on the site? Cheers!