Plant suggestions

[a1wonder]

Here is the situation I've got a green thumb for most plants in general and can usually bring thing back from the brink of death but I have never tried my hand at aquatic plants before and after viewing some beautiful posted pictures I'm dying to try. I was wondering if you might be able to suggest some to put in my tank.

My tank has a silica sand substrate about a 1.5inch thick. it also has a fairly descent current at one end (which my fish seem to enjoy). Another thing is there are three filters in the tank ones a biowheel the other two are ancient and work very well. The lighting is med power florescent which is on for about 8 hours a day on a cloudy day and off if a sunny day (this can change if needed). The aquarium is located in my basement which has a nice window with southern exposure. Our house plants seem to thrive in these conditions.
The inhabitants are:
Black molly
Kissing gourami
Small shoal of white skirts
Couple of red hook silver dollars
khuli loach
Bunch of cories (what tank would be without?)
And a croaking catfish

I know that some of the fish in the tank love to eat their greens. I’d love to hear some of your suggestions.

 

[Puffer_freak]

Can we have a pic of your tank? That way we can decide what would look good where!

 

[a1wonder]

Sure my friend has some pictures stored on his computer but currently it's 1:43 in the morning right now so I'll have to wait until tommorow to post them. Their is a beach at my cabin I attempted to model my tank after. Unfortunately I couldn't find any plastic plants that would suit what I was looking to achieve so I deside to make my own fake plants which look quite a bit more real than anything you can purchase at LFS and they were dirty cheep to make. But pictures will come hopefully tommorow at sunrise.

 

[clutterydrawer]

I think your silver dollars are gonna eat pretty much any plants you put in there

 

[luxum]

For tanks with herbivorous fish, your best bet will be tough leaved plants like anubias species and java fern. These also have the advantage of growing in lower light conditions.

 

[a1wonder]

I'm pretty sure that there is a single plant that is compadible with red hook silver dollars. I'll be getting pictures from my friend in a few minutes. Are there any chemicals that I will need to add to the tank, as with my out of water plants I usually add a monthly fertilizer and coffee grinds. Second question is I've read people monitor their CO2 levels in their water, what type of equipment do you need to do this, also I'm a straving university student is this really nessary?

 

[a1wonder]

Here are a few tank shots of the aquarium of which I speak of, sorry about the size (I attempted to shrink them as much as a could), and the quality of the pictures (my first attempts at using my friends digi cam).

attempt two

 

[Silly me]

you got some hudge fish for that tank..

 

[Lateral Line]

Silver Dollars are notorious lawn mowers. I've never found a plant that could truly stand up to them.

CO2 injection/measuring/fiddling is the realm of high light tanks, and looking at yours, I don't think you'll need to worry about that.

You could try some Anubias or Java Fern, but those SD's will, one day, decide they are on the menu today.

 

[a1wonder]

you got some hudge fish for that tank..

not really I attempted to plan ahead and some of the fish got thrown at me
the kissing gourami is already 3 years old when I got her a month ago and from what I understand was shunted for thoughs years unfortunatly. She seems alot happier now in my 33 in comparison to her orginal 15. Within a year (or as money becomes avaible) I'll perhapes puchase a larger tank.

I should also correct myself for using the term silver dollars, sorry. There is actually two in the tank and their correct name is Schhreitmuller's Metynnis (Metynnis hypsauchen) they are somtimes refer to commanly as red hook silver dollars but today I say "actually Red Hooks" and the LFS and they look quite different. At the very most their largest recorded size 5.5 incsh. Which isn't that bad. From what I read reguarding this species is that they perfer well planted sections of tank for sleeping and wide open areas to swiming when awake.

The crockng catfish is another sad adopting from the same neighbours 15 tank he is only about 2inchs at the most right now but still young.


I'll try looking into Anubias or Java Ferns on my next trip to the store.