Plants For A Beginner?

[DiddleBug]

I'm hoping on getting a 30 gallon tank in a few weeks and I wondered what live plants I could try.  I can't put too much money into it though, and they'd need low light.  It would have sand and it would just be a cory tank (hopefully).  I've tried combamba and swords before but they died.  I did have gravel then though.  
 
Anyway, I might have to drive an hour to get some, so I'd need to know what to look for and all.  Do they need fertilizers?  Would plastic plants be much easier?  I'd like to go for the "thinly planted tank look", if you know what I mean (some tanks are so "hairy" you can't find the fish very easy).  Some drift wood and stuff would be cool too.  Any ideas?

 

[NickBFC]

Anubia, Java moss etc are easy to keep and look nice especially attached to some bog wood. I fed mine with liquid ferts, with the standard lighting and they did very well.

 

[Zikofski]

well, where to start
 
Anubias, Moss, Crypt's, Vallis
 
i hate cabomba in my tank looks nice at the LFS but gets to leggy in my tank people say it prefers high light but i think thats the cause of it being to leggy, swords are lovely they are to a good plant heavy root feeder tho so some under sand or gravel substrate or root tabs they will love

 

[DrRob]

Bulb plants might work, many of the nymphea or aponogeton are pretty simple to keep.

 

[ReddSamurai]

well, where to start

 
Anubias, Moss, Crypt's, Vallis
 
i hate cabomba in my tank looks nice at the LFS but gets to leggy in my tank people say it prefers high light but i think thats the cause of it being to leggy, swords are lovely they are to a good plant heavy root feeder tho so some under sand or gravel substrate or root tabs they will love

+1

 

[mike455555]

as everyone else has said, not sure if java fern and swords were mentioned 

 

[frothhelmet]

susswassertang is also a favourite unkillable of mine.

 

[DiddleBug]

Here's one of my 10 gallons right now.  I just "remodeled" it-with fake plants of course.  Before picture and after: 

Anyway, don't plants need a lot of pruning and take up a lot of time?  I just love the way real planted tanks look, but it might be too costly and time consuming.  I probably wouldn't fertilize them either.   Are they really worth it?  I've already spent a lot of money on fish supplies as it is.    

 

[mike455555]

love plants are better than plastic, if you get it right you can sell them and it doesnt cost anything (or its fairly cheap) 

 

[DiddleBug]

So do I just go to a LFS and ask if they have certain types of plants?  Do they charge some or how does it work?  Can I just plant the stuff if I got it and let it go?  I can "prune" some if it's needed, that wouldn't be too hard.  And do most plants like sand?

 

[DerpPH]

Some foregroung plants like stargrass and dwarf sag are some hreat alternatives to hg and glosso. Background plants can be vallis, cabomba , and echi. Mid ground could be cryptocorines and java fern.

 

[DiddleBug]

Ok, so how would I stock a 30 gallon with these plants?  Petsmart has some, would that be a good source?  Could you post some pictures maybe or tell me how to set things up?  Do you just put big plants in the back, then medium, and then small in front with some open space in front?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I've gotten java fern, amazon swords, anubias, dwarf hair grass and anacharis (Elodea densa) from my local Petsmart.  The plants are fine.  Expect some ride along snails.
 
 
You can scape it anyway you want, but traditionally, plants that grow tall go in the back, and along the sides - shortest plants go in the 'front'.  How you define front is up to you.  You could either bring the plants way out front so that the fish can swim between them like in your layout with fake plants, or you can push them more to the back...  Its a matter of taste.

 

[DrRob]

Check out the planted journals and aquascaping sections if you want inspiration on where to plant stuff.
 
Otherwise, yes, just take a list of what you'd like and see how it compares to what they've got and what looks healthy.

 

[DiddleBug]

How would I get rid of the snails?  I got an amazon sword years ago (it's long gone) but I still have some baby snails (I'm finally getting ahead of them) in my one tank.  Is there a cheap product to kill them that's safe for plants and fish?