Thinking About Trying Live Plants

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Ok, my first experience with real plants in an aquarium was well, not so good. Snail and plants dying after a few days…

Anyway I’m getting a bit bored and fancy a bit of a re-scape in my tanks. I was wondering what simple plants are ideal for my tanks:

Tank 1: Next to window but gets no direct sunlight; it’s actually fairly dark

Tank 2: Next to window, no direct sunlight, but there is a lot of light in the room.

Tank 3: Direct sunlight for a few hours (at most)

Tank 4: Direct sunlight for a few hours (longer than tank 3 but still not longer than a few hours).

Also what would I need to do with the plants, and what fertilizers would be best to use? Preferably stuff with no copper in it, as I have newts and they can’t deal with copper (I think).

How would I make sure there are no snails on the plants too – I did have mine steeping in water for a few days?

 

[RadaR]

Tank 1. Java Fern, Java moss, Amazon Swords, Cryptocorynes, Anubais.

Tank 2. Same as tank 1.

Tank 3. Same plants as tanks1+2 but also species like Hygrophila, Ludwigia, Ambulia.

Tank 4. Same as tank 3.


With tanks 1 and 2 I would supply a nutrient rich substrate such as JBL AquaBasis plus placed under a gravel with small grain size (3-4mm). Plant up heavily.

Tanks 3+4 expereince more light therefore you will need faster growing plants to help minimse the undetecable ammonia in the tank otherwise the extra light will go towards creating algae spores. I would also add a liquid carbon supplment such as Easylife Easycarbo and 1ml per 20litres. This is because the extra light will drive the uptake of the plants, so they will require more carbon. I would also get the JBL AquaBasis plus for this tank. If you start experiencing nutrient deficiencies then I would reccomend dosing Tropica Plant Nutrition+ daily (or every other day).

Don't worry about the copper in plant ferts as these concentrations are so low that they do not effect copper sensetive species (even shrimps!).

To prevent introducing snails, give the new plants a rinse under tap water or get them a slosh in a fresh bucket of water. If some snails do manage to get into the tank then simply don't overfeed. Overfeeding is the main reason why people get plagued with snails in their tanks.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Brilliant thank you. I'm a total aquatic plant noobie.

That JBL aqua basis stuff - just to make sure I read it right; I put it under the gravel; my gravel on top?

Stupid question...how will that effect the gravel vac?

Also will the plants root into the gravel/JBL or will I need to do something else?

 

[RadaR]

Brilliant thank you. I'm a total aquatic plant noobie.

That JBL aqua basis stuff - just to make sure I read it right; I put it under the gravel; my gravel on top?

Stupid question...how will that effect the gravel vac?

Also will the plants root into the gravel/JBL or will I need to do something else?

The JBL goes under the gravel/sand.

You don't gravel vac. If there is any debris on the gravel/sand then simply hoover it away with just the plastic tubing without the gravel vac attactchment.

The plants will root. Any plants you get should be taken out of their foam and lead weight. Or if they come in pots then you take them out of that, carefully remove all the rock wool and then plant.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Thank you.

I'm just busy doing research on all of the plants that were listed

 

[FishStrings]

Im not sure if this advice is too noob. I would start by moving the tanks away from the windows and only use UV light bulbs. The glass on the tank can magnify the heat. Any tropical fish has a 76 to 80 degree range with maybe one or two degrees tolerance in any direction. Snails will like the water to be a bit cooler and will probably die instantly past 80 degrees. Keep an eye on thermometers closely, feed the plants with iron supplements, and simply replace the lights with UV aquarium plant lights. Substrate depends on the plant but plain gravel is not good in general. They need a special spongy substrate or they need to be potted. As I've said in other posts as well, swords are generally easy to maintain. Anubias Nana will live outside of the water (which is great since amphibian tanks are never full) and it does well in low light.

 

[Tolak]

Any tropical fish has a 76 to 80 degree range with maybe one or two degrees tolerance in any direction. Snails will like the water to be a bit cooler and will probably die instantly past 80 degrees.

Many cats such as corys do better in water that is considerably cooler than this. Many cichids, most notably angels & discus require water warmer than this. If temperatures higher than 80F would kill snails I wouldn't need to keep loachs.

 

[Bignose]

Any tropical fish has a 76 to 80 degree range with maybe one or two degrees tolerance in any direction. Snails will like the water to be a bit cooler and will probably die instantly past 80 degrees.

Just need to rebut this for the record -- there are virtually no spots in the world that stay between 76-80 degrees (F) +- 2 degrees for 24/7/365 every single year. Fish are not this sensitive. Fish actually can be quite tolerant of temperature changes. You don't see massive fish after large rainstorms, for example, or even after each night, where is will drop more than 6 degrees F even in the tropical regions of the world.

 

[lljdma06]

Im not sure if this advice is too noob. I would start by moving the tanks away from the windows and only use UV light bulbs. The glass on the tank can magnify the heat. Any tropical fish has a 76 to 80 degree range with maybe one or two degrees tolerance in any direction. Snails will like the water to be a bit cooler and will probably die instantly past 80 degrees. Keep an eye on thermometers closely, feed the plants with iron supplements, and simply replace the lights with UV aquarium plant lights. Substrate depends on the plant but plain gravel is not good in general. They need a special spongy substrate or they need to be potted. As I've said in other posts as well, swords are generally easy to maintain. Anubias Nana will live outside of the water (which is great since amphibian tanks are never full) and it does well in low light.

OP, you will be fine with just plain gravel, if you wish. Dosing and CO2 are options to consider only if you lighting needs outright demand the increased nutrient consumption, but it isn't used in all successful systems, especially those with lower light levels. Use whatever florescent lighting in whatever spectrum that is pleasing to your eye. Even use LEDs if you want. RadaR has given good advice, if you have more questions, take a look at the pinned topics.

Llj