Plants For South American Tank

[mossonthemoon]

I am going to attempt to make my tank as authentic as I can for South American fish. I will probably be limited by what is available to me, but I want to at least try. I have a Juwel Rio 180 with the lights it came with: Juwel New Style High Lite Day, T5 length 895mm, 45 watts and Juwel New Style High Lite Nature, T5 length 895mm, 45 watts. I won't be able to replace those anytime soon, and don't plan on using CO2. This may change at some point, but probably not for quite a while.

Can anyone please suggest types of plants that would be good in this case? I don't know a lot about aquatic plants yet so when I search, I don't really know what I am looking at. I will use fertiliser if necessary (and will probably ask for advice about this), have bogwood and bits of slate that I can use for anchors, and will try almost anything. Oh and I am using play sand for a substrate.

In case it matters, my tentative plan is to have Bolivian rams, emperor tetras, a bristlenose and perhaps one other species. This is not definite, other than the bristlenose and tetras, though.

 

[blackops]

sorry do not now about the plants but for other fish u could get sterba cory great littel fish

 

[mossonthemoon]

I have always loved seeing them in shops, but for some reason have never gone for them. Is it true that they are delicate? And would they be compatible with a quite large, old male bristlenose?

 

[stu40]

I have a Juwel Rio 180 with the lights it came with: Juwel New Style High Lite Day, T5 length 895mm, 45 watts and Juwel New Style High Lite Nature, T5 length 895mm, 45 watts. I won't be able to replace those anytime soon, and don't plan on using CO2. This may change at some point, but probably not for quite a while.

Unfortunately, these lights will mean that you're going to have to think about Co2, sooner rather than later.Or at the least, liquid carbon

 

[mossonthemoon]

That's interesting to read. Can you please explain why? It seems a lot of people on here mention T5 lights and don't necessarily have CO2. Also, I have had plants without CO2, and without fertilising and they grew very well. The only difference now being that I want to plan rather than get any random thing I happen to come across (which is what I did before). I have only used fertiliser a limited number of times because whatever I got (it is too long ago to remember now) ended up making things in the tank look powdery. I hated it and thought all of them would do that. I didn't know about things like tabs back then.

It's just that CO2 will absolutely not be an option for a long time.

 

[stu40]

Try reading through this.
The WPG rule is flawed because it was originally for the older T12 bulbs, however i find it a useful gauge as to where things are.
Lighting in a tank will usually dictate whether co2 is needed, it's not always about the lighting period, it's intensity as well.
in general, from what i've read & observed,>2WPG T5 (which is what you have) means some form of carbon addition or co2.
Floating plants will take the edge off lighting, surface agitation will help with gas exchange.
Increased carbon or co2 means that you're going to need better ferts with N & P in them.

 

[blackops]

i think the corys would be fine mine are fine with my male bn

 

[mossonthemoon]

Sorry to drag this thread back up but I finally remembered a question I wanted to ask, now that putting plants in my tank is looking imminent. Would plants be better off in my tank if I tank one of the bulbs out? Would it be safe to do this? I have a slightly unreasonable paranoia when it comes to light switches being on with no bulb in. I am not sure how tank lighting works and whether it would be dangerous to have the empty slot for the bulb... Or whether there would be any point to this for the plants. I am not against getting surface plants as suggested above, but would they still die without CO2 given the high amount of light I have?

 

[dbanner]

I have a rio 400 with the same lighting as yours and have grown valis, twisted valis, amazon swords, and cabomba (if that's how it's spelt) with no problems what so ever. Just lights on 6 hours a day. No ferts, no CO2. Using black sand as substrate but have also used normal kids play sand. Again with no problems

 

[mossonthemoon]

Ah, that's good news. I had my lights on a lot longer previously, and my plants did well but other than one absolutely massive sword, they did tend to have a shorter lifespan than I expected. When I first started keeping fish I was told (and read in a book) that lights should be on for half the day because of the equator having roughly equal parts night to day.

 

[dbanner]

Not too sure about that. I used to have my lights on for longer but noticed algae starting to grow. Since then I dropped it back down to 6 hours (on a timer)

Iv only just trimmed the valis down actually because it was getting a bit out of hand lol I started off in February with 3 plants (valis) now iv had at least another 8-9 growing through and it continues to grow... Quickly lol

 

[mossonthemoon]

Yes, in retrospect I don't agree with the 12 hour requirement, but I did believe it at the time. I didn't have algae problems, but I suspect I was lucky. I just ordered some bacopa after reading a post on here about how easy it was to keep... Time will tell!

 

[dbanner]

Sounds good. Good luck

 

[mossonthemoon]

Thank you! I will be ordering more but it is early days and this was an impulse buy. I need to figure out what I am going to do with this tank!

 

[dbanner]

I know all too well about impulse buys, it's scary to think how much money iv spent on impulse buys since I started the hobby 2 years back lol It's an expensive hobby... But a worthwhile one

What iv done with all my tanks is first off get ideas by looking at pics of other people's tanks or watching videos of them so you can get a rough idea in your head of how you want your tank to look, then for the fish I go to my LFS and make a list of all the fish I like that catch my eye. Then I research them online or ask on here for advice to see if the ones iv chose are compatible, if my tanks big enough for them, their needs/requirements like food, temp, how many I need for a good size group and so on.

If your like me then the more you do that the more you will find yourself just researching random fish. Which is good to pass time and plus your knowledge will grow. I know a lot more now than I did 2 years back. All thanks to the members on here and taking a little time to research before buying