Plants Going Crazy, Is It Worth It?

[isherwoodc]

Hello all, 
 
First post so please go easy
 
I've had fish since last June in a roughly 70 litre tank with filter, air pump and 2 live plants. 
 
We currently have 4 Cardinal tetras, 4 Rosy tetras and 3 Silver tip tetras (one recently deceased). 
 
Since last June we also had a bristlenose plec, who we sadly lost last month. Probably our own fault as we are pretty new to this. 
 
I replace about 40% of the water every week, and clean the filter material in the removed tank water (avoiding the poop) and replace the carbon/bio things every few months. The fish we still have are around 8 months old so I like to think they are doing ok, and we are doing ok looking after them. 
 
Which brings me onto my question. Shortly after we got the tank, we bought 2 live plants, one of them didn't root and went yellow after 2 or 3 months, but the other seemed to have loved the environment. Its roots ended up covering the entire base of the tank under the sand, and we constantly had to trim it back to keep it from filling almost half the tank. Yesterday I decided that the dying root ends and sheer presence of the plant was too much, so pulled the entire thing out (the huge web of roots that came out was pretty impressive. 
 
I'm wondering if this plant may have been too big/powerful/too many roots for my tank, as it just seemed to create a lot of waste with excess roots that had died, and just disturbing the entire bed of the tank. The tank seems much cleaner and nicer looking since I removed it, but I don't want the fish to suffer from the lack of it being there. 
 
We still have another plant, but it's losing leaves as well as growing new ones and doesn't seem to have taken root, I understand with a sandy bed some plants won't like it at all.
 
Wondering if it's worth keeping plants in there, but for short periods at a time and making sure they don't root or grow too out of hand, as I don't want a repeat of what happened with this plant.
 
If you got this far and read it all, then thank you for your time, I'm sorry if I have waffled on a bit, but I do enjoy keeping fish and want them to have the healthiest and happiest time I can give them.
 
Thanks all,
 
Chris

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Do you know what type of plant it was? It was possible an Amazon Sword which do generally tend to take over the tank.
If you want some plants that won't take over you could get some anubias or java fern which can be attached to wood or rocks in your tank but cannot be planted in the substrate although some experienced aquarists can.
Some crypts might be good for your tank.
Hope this helps and also 

 to the forum!

 

[isherwoodc]

Do you know what type of plant it was? It was possible an Amazon Sword which do generally tend to take over the tank.
If you want some plants that won't take over you could get some anubias or java fern which can be attached to wood or rocks in your tank but cannot be planted in the substrate although some experienced aquarists can.
Some crypts might be good for your tank.
Hope this helps and also 

 to the forum!

 
Hah, just searched for Amazon Sword and yes it was! What a menace!!
 
Is it really beneficial keeping live plants? Or would my plan of rotating them before they get out of hand work ok? 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Plants help with absorbing Ammonia and Nitrate. They often make the fish feel safer as well as giving you something more to look at. 
Its up to you if you wanted to keep replacing them although its all extra cost that you could avoid with getting smaller plants that won't get out of hand. It would depend on how you want your tank as to what plants would be good. I'm sure that there are lots of dwarf sword species out there that you could look into as well as a bunch of other smaller plants that would look good.
It's your call though!

 

[the_lock_man]

I agree with Blondie, crypts (properly known as cryptocorynes) would be a good choice for your tank. Ultimately, it's your choice, but the fish often prefer lots of plants, there's quite a few species that are only really happy with a decent level of plant cover.
 
Just one other thing, somewhat unrelated, but it'll save you a few quid. You mentioned about replacing the carbon/bio things every few months. You need to be sure what you're replacing - carbon is little black balls or powder in some sort of cartridge, looks like little bits of charcoal, whilst the bio-filter media is shaped pieces of ceramic, not usually black.
 
Carbon is used for removing heavy metal pollutants from the water. It has a limited life span, there's some debate about exactly how long, but my opinion is that it's two or three weeks at most. This is why the filter manufacturers tell you to replace them. BUT, here's the money saving thing - most decent dechlorinators (aka water conditioners) also remove heavy metals from the tap water, meaning that the carbon isn't actually doing anything anyway. However, it does get saturated, and stops being effective at removing anything, even if it's not done so already. What it is good for, though, is removing spent medications after an infection in the fish. I keep a spare cartridge in my cupboard, but not in my filter. Saves me gawd knows how much over a year.
 
Bio-ceramics are an ideal place for your filter bacteria to live. They should never be changed, as you will be constantly removing beneficial bacteria. If it's these that you are replacing, you should stop.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

I agree with Blondie re the plants and TLM re Carbon.

I'd have kept the plants if it were me and any that spread as you suggest must be fairly healthy and happy in the conditions. They do more good than harm in my opinion.

Re the carbon, I haven't had any in my filter for months now and have no issues. It's worth keeping a bit if you have some for use if you need to remove medication but I don't have any, or medications for that matter, so will buy it if I really need it.

And never replace the Bio-ceramics. I've increased their numbers before, but never replaced them.

 

[isherwoodc]

And never replace the Bio-ceramics. I've increased their numbers before, but never replaced them.

 
Rather than taking the carbon out, could I just leave it in there and stop replacing it? 
 
I have bio-balls which are black plastic balls, and some white chalky tube things. I have never replaced the bio balls, but have replaced the white ones maybe once or twice. Whenever I wash the filter material I give these a little shake in the water to remove the hug clumps of dirt (usually stuck on the bag that contains them) but I don't give them a hard scrub. 
 
If I remove the carbon, I would be able to fit more filter 'wool?' in as currently the carbon is wrapped in the filter material. Would this be more beneficial?
 
I will have a look for some smaller plants and take note of the suggested names thanks

 

[Lunar Jetman]

I wouldn't leave it in to be honest. The Filter wool is likely to be more use than any carbon. Can you get sponges to go in it instead? I think that would be the best option.

 

[isherwoodc]

I wouldn't leave it in to be honest. The Filter wool is likely to be more use than any carbon. Can you get sponges to go in it instead? I think that would be the best option.

Is sponge better than wool?
 
It's a rectangular filter that came fitted with the tank (wouldn't buy it again as I think spares are difficult to find), with 3 sections. The middle section has always had carbon wrapped in filter wool. Do you recommend I buy a filter 'sponge' and wrap it in filter wool?
 
never heard or seen sponge before that I'm aware of

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Sponges will be much better than wool, yes. The sponge will filter the water and give the bacteria somewhere else to live which is only a benefit. In my filter I have 8 sponges and some bio media.

 

[attibones]

I have a few floss filters in my tank which are loaded with good bacteria. I'm aware the carbon is not useful, but I also keep sponges in there. Basically I'm now waiting for the cartridge part to fall apart. When it does, my sponges will already be nice and full of bacteria (many of them already are). I didn't learn about this until after I cycled my aquariums with the cartridges already in, though. Also, when one of the floss cartridges falls apart, I replace it with more ceramic rings for building bacteria. It works very well for all my tanks. 
 
The sponges are very cheap too. You can get them in a large box and then cut them to size so they fit your filter. It's pretty simple. Fluval sells a sponge that works. I use the ones formerly by AquaClear, but are now sold under Fluval.