Some Planting Advice

[tenohfive]

I've just upgraded my community tank and I'm after some advice on planting. Plants are not my forte so some advice would be really appreciated.

The tank is a 36x12x18(H) community tank with play sand substrate. It has no CO2 and no lighting but is in a very well lit upstairs room next to windows that allow a lot of natural light. It's never in direct sunlight but most of the rest of the room often is (well, when the sun actually comes out in the sunny UK.) There are currently a couple of java ferns in there at the moment that have survived for a couple of years and seem reasonably healthy so I was planning to go down the route of some hardy fish.

I'm not looking to turn it into a heavily planted tank - light to moderate planting was what I was aiming for. I'm considering two pairs of dwarf cichlids (apisto's or possibly rams) so part of what I'm trying to achieve is to break up lines of sight between two territories. And I think some green is good for the aesthetics as well. My thought process so far is that I should have some tall wavy plants at the back, something in the middle that will break up lines of sight and some sort of grass effect in 12x6 inch area at the front. Is that workable? I'm also considering a small number of floating plants as during a rescape one of the plants came loose and was floating around the top, and my peacock gobies seemed to love following it around the tank.

I'll be ordering from the Plants Alive website so plenty of options. Can anyone help advise what plants I should be looking at?

ETA:
I'd consider some form of liquid CO2 - but not a proper CO2 kit. I can't afford the initial expense and I had an accident with a yeast based kit a couple of years ago that wiped out 3/4 of my tank.

 

[tenohfive]

I got impatient so after a nosy through the Plants Alive options - going through the entire list and trying to pick out some suitable plants I've ordered this:

Echinodorus Amazonicus (E.Brevipedicellatus)
Quantity - 5
Heteranthera Zosterfolia or Sea Grass
Quantity - 5
Tonina Fluviatilas
Quantity - 5
Hemianthus Callitrichoides
Quantity - 25
Limnobium Spongia
Quantity - 5
Salvinia Auriculata
Quantity - 5

The floating plants won't all be going in this tank, only about half of them.
I've also ordered a bottle of Seachem Flourish Excel.

Whilst I've placed the order now I'm still curious to see if I've made the right choices.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Echinodorus Amazonicus (E.Brevipedicellatus)-Quantity - 5

One of these can outgrow a 75 gallon tank.

Heteranthera Zosterfolia or Sea Grass- Quantity - 5

A fast growing plant that should do fine in moderate light. Its is aka stargrass.

Tonina Fluviatilas-
Quantity - 5

This needs very high light and supplimental co2 and is considered a difficult plant to grow.

Hemianthus Callitrichoides- Quantity - 25

This can be a difficult plant to grow. While it is said it can do fine in less than high light, I dont think most results for it grown this way will compare to hww if does in a high tech tank.
Read here Tropica

Limnobium Spongia- Quantity - 5

Should do fine. It can become invasive but is an excellent at sucking up excess nutrients. AKA frogbit. It can rapidly deplete nutirents in a tank as it spreads.

Salvinia Auriculata- Quantity - 5

Should do fine. You should have chosen either this or the frogbit above as these two plant will rsoon cover the entire surface of your tank blocking out light to the plants below. It will also uptake nutrients rapidly and it will begin to do poorly if micronutrients are not plentiful.

 

[PDSimon]

This doesn't sound ideal... I wouldn't be surprised if algae ensues.

As you said easier to grow the better such as hygrophila difformis, amazon swords, java ferns, various stem plants. Tropica website is good for looking through suitable plants.

I don't think plants like Hemianthus Callitrichoides will do well in those conditions but I've never kept it myself. I would steer clear of plants that demand high light which is a couple if TwoTankAmin is correct

 

[tenohfive]

Ah, too late now unfortunately. I was keen to get an order in today.

In terms of the floating plants I'm planning on popping a few on top and if they grow rapidly I'll prune/seperate/remove - I don't want them to take over and block all the light. The rest will be going in a different tank that is otherwise unplanted.

If they don't work out and I see plants starting to die off I'll remove them as I don't want decaying plants in the tank.

The Hemianthus Callitrichoides is an experiment more than anything else - if it doesn't take then thats not a major problem. Cheers for the tip about Tropica, I'll see how I get on and if it's not going well I'll start again.

 

[tenohfive]

Quick update on this thread, hopefully someone can give me some pointers.

The above all arrived today after a delay due to quality issues (PA weren't happy with quality of what they received and refused to send it out.) Everything seems healthy apart from the Sea Grass/Star Grass. That doesn't seem to have travelled well and some of it has a blue-black tinge to it. I've plucked away the worst of the leaves but it doesn't look great.

Will it recover quickly or should I bin it? Or something in between - watch it and see if it gets healthier, if not bin it? Any thoughts?

Oh, and whilst I've got some Seachem Flourish Excel on order are there any other ferts worth getting to give all the above the best chance I can?