Novice Fishkeeper

Joecon13

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Jul 16, 2016
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Hello all, my name is Joe and I am about to set up my first ever tropical aquarium, a jewel Rio 125. I am three score years plus 10, and so looking forward to setting up my tank and I have researched this for weeks to learn such things as the cycling process. I wish live plants. I am given to understand that I need larger/taller plants at the back and smaller in mid tank. Would someone please patiently advise me the names of plants I should look at as I have difficulty with these Latin names. Thank you for your help and I look forward to developing my tank and learning about its environment and fish species.
 
Hi Joe and 
welcomeani.gif
 to the forum. 
 
Firstly do you plan to do a fishless cycle of this new aquarium? If so I would wait until this is done before adding the plants.
 
Once you are ready to plant I would look to the easy to keep kind. The main 'easy' kinds are things like Amazon swords, Altnanthera, Cabomba, Echinodorus, and then there the two that you'll need to tie to wood as they don't like their stems in the substrate - that's Anubias and Java fern. 
 
There's another plant that I'll recommend - it's not 'easy' as it can be hard to get going but once it's settled it's a lovely plant - it's Cryptocoryne. It comes in many variants. It's a lovely mid ground plant.
 
Depending on your water type you could look to Vallis - it's doesn't do well in soft water but if your water is on the neutral to hard end it will do better.
 
On a side note I'll take the opportunity to ask if you know your water type? Do you know if it is soft or hard? If you don't know have a look to see if your water company have that information on their website.
Knowing your water type in advance helps you on your choices, not just with certain plants (like the Vallis I mentioned) but more importantly on your choice of fish to keep.
Some fish need hard water - these are mostly the livebearing fish such as guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails, endlers. None of these fish will cope with soft water. If your water is soft though then your choices on fish are far wider. Any of the tetra species, central and South American cichlids, cories, pleco's ... the list goes on and on. 
 
Welcome Joecon!
 
We don't get many folks who describe their age in scores!  :lol:  I am just over a year shy of 2 scores.  :D
 
 
Knowing the water parameters, pH, kH, and gH will help us in directing you to some specific species of fish for your set-up, as well as the plants.  Most plants can do ok in any water, though they do have their preferences.  
 
 
http://tropica.com/en/plants <--- A good resource for sourcing and researching plants.
 
I'll let you rummage around there and see what you like.   LOTS of options!
 

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