Plants For Begginer

[GTS_MAD]

hi guys recently got my 4ft tank set-up and looking to put some live plants in there im looking for suggestions on what to put in but here is my problem

i need some tall plants for the back of the tank

and also need some very small plants something like hairgrass would be perfect but is hairgrass hard to keep


many thanks

 

[hughessomefish]

amazon sords or brazillan sords our nice

 

[GTS_MAD]

is this tall plants and how hard to keep are they?

i really like hair grass cant this be planted in small gravel anywhere in the tank

 

[hughessomefish]

i have a 2 of them each they start off small then get medium then big,so really there bigger plants

 

[GTS_MAD]

i like twisted vallis, but love the small plant i see in peoples tank just planted anywhere and about 1 inch high looks like hair grass

 

[GTS_MAD]

any ideas guys really want to order some tonight.

 

[finalfantay85]

Are you in the uk?

 

[GTS_MAD]

Yes in UK.

 

[Truck]

The aquatic room, planted box, aqua essentials and the green machine are very good for plants.

Java plants are a bit hit and miss in my experience.

 

[finalfantay85]

try http/www.plantsalive.co.uk/index.php

If you order their free catalogue, or try and read it online, it gives you the details on the plants about how much light they need, whether they need a CO2 infusion and also if they are easy to keep

 

[GTS_MAD]

does anyone know if vallis is ok to keep?

and also what is the ver small matting type plant you can place around the tank about an 1" high

 

[Truck]

Vallis is an easy plant to grow, its not fussy. How much light do you have over your tank? smaller crypts such as C.parva and C.wilisii are both quite compact growers as is pogosteemon helferi.

 

[finalfantay85]

does anyone know if vallis is ok to keep?

From looking at the plantsalive catalogue it looks easy enough to keep but you do need a good amount of light they say 50-75w/100L whatever that works out as. I have seen people on here say they find twisted vallis isn't too easy to keep.

 

[waterdrop]

Interesting! Can't help but wonder if truck has just labeled his water as "hard!" If java ferns seem hit or miss and val seems easy, that just sounds like maybe there is plenty of either GH or KH or both to truck's water. Just out of curiosity is that the case truck?

I just mean that as a side curiosity.. what I've seen advised (perhaps Dave said just recently?) is that Vals tend to not like soft, acid water at first but if you give them time they will adjust and be ok with it. I'm not sure that java ferns (which I believe are widespread as weeds in asia (is this right?) are particularly sensitive to particular hardness and pH but I can definately say that mine are doing just fine in soft acid water! They, alone with anubias are good in quite low light.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

For easy tall plants you can try java ferns, common vals, Italian vals and even some of the taller Cryptocorynes. The crypts take some care to select though. I have some Cryptocoryne aponogetifolia and it grows up the back of the tank, across the top and back down the front like in this picture. It is low light but gets too tall for my 29. Other low to moderate plants do indeed include the various Echinodorus.