Planted Tank

[aaronnorth]

I hope to have a few live plants to replace most if not all plastic plants, i have just bought and put in my first plants, cabomba caroliniana, java fern, moss balls, oxygenating plants, amazon swords, water lettuce, straight vallis. i have on order anubias barterii, hygrophila difformis. i am also hoping to get red ludwigia, cryptocoryne wisteria red.

should order these straight away and put them all in or wait until the others have matured a bit.

i have a 180l, nutrafin natural plant system Co2, 2 x 24w T5 hagen power glo's, fluval 205 external with lots of biomax,1 x carbon.

water parmeters PH 7.5 nitrite 0 nitrate 50ppm ammonia 0

thanks

aaron_north@hotmail.co.uk

 

[SuperColey1]

Your best bet is to research all the plants you are going to start the tank with. Then plan where you want them using the research on height, light requirements, growth rates etc.

then order the lot and bang them in.

this means you won't be disturbing the substrate every week, and also will mean you are instantly getting the algae fighters in (fast growers and large plant mass will help counteract algae)

Most people say aim for 75% substrate coverage meaning if you plant each stem 1 inch apart then each 4 counts as that 1 inch square planted.

Andy

 

[dasmall1]

With your lighting I wouldn't worry too much about getting 75% of the substrate planted because you have low lighting and won't be battling algae too much. It is a good idea to plant everything at once for a few reasons. As said, you don't want to disturb the substrate a lot by adding plants little by little, and to battle algae as already mentioned. The plants are really not going to have an effect on each other so you don't have to worry about adding them slowly like you would fish.

You might not be able to grow red ludwiga very well under your conditions, but it is worth a try. You will have very slow growth at best with only 1 wpg. Andy said it first but I will restate that research into what conditions different plants need is very important.

EDIT: forgot the word "not," and it completely changed the meaning, haha.

 

[Themuleous]

I dont think you can ever add to many plants in one go, the more the better really.

Sam