To plant, or not to plant

[Andi]

I have finally (I think) settled on a vision 190 for my new tank. My plans (mentioned in another forum) are to move my pair of SD's there (picking up the lingo lol) add another couple of larger fish and have 2 shoals - maybe 15-20 in each.

Even with the SD's I think I should go for real plants, and would like to add rocks (a sort of 50/50 type of tank).

Soooo many plants to choose from - my lfs (there I go again hehe) doesnt have names on their plants and the girl working there doesn't exactly have green fingers. My thought is to find pictures of tanks I like and try to copy the design. Is there a site that has plants (with pics) that I can visit?

Now thinking a tenner won't do it lol

 

[Macquatic]

Try HERE you can order plants on line, a bit slow with delivery but good quality. Also check Green Line Aquatic Plants (advert in PFK mag) excellent delivery and quality.
And try HERE, Danish firm, best plants on the market, do a search for your nearest dealer. Mac.

 

[William]

I've heard good things from java plants (the first link) although never treid them myself.

 

[cryosi]

was planning on ordering form java next week cos it so much cheaper than lfs if the plants are ok! will wait and see will post when they come and let u know! i am sure someone in this house has ordered thme before! will ask.....

 

[Andi]

Thanks Mac, William & Cryosi - will check out the links on my return from work

 

[Rose]

Andi before you get all crazy with plants make sure you have enough lighting to grow the plants as well as a good substraite for those plants that feed from their roots and not from the leaves. If you don't your going to have sick and dying plants all over the place. One other thing make sure your fish are plant friendly. Otherwise you just buying a salad bar for the fish. It gets a bit costly after a bit. Rose

 

[Andi]

Thanks Rose,

Any suggestions for a decent substraite? I thought gravel was gravel so maybe not use the stuff from my drive then. A collection of 85 plants from Java doesnt sound expensive (<£15 for 85 plants!) - shall wait for Cryosi to buy first .
I am planning on moving my SD's to the tank, but hey @ 26p for a courgette I think it would be cheaper to let them eat the plants!

Another week in here and I'll be giving my LFS's advice

 

[Rose]

there are different types of additives that you can add to your gravel. Things like laterite, flourite, aquarium dirt and many others. thats what i mean by a good substrait. Rose

 

[Andi]

Thanks (again) Rose, so, there is a little more to it than buying a tank and putting some fish/plants in it then

 

[Rose]

There is more to it than most people think. When your ready to give it a go let me know and I can walk you through it. I currently have 3 planted tanks and will probably have more in the future. I'll try and get a few new pics of them up here soon. Rose

 

[Andi]

Thanks Rose, I can learn much from books and look forward to seeing somes pics of your tanks - good old passing of information/ experiences can't be beat tho

I did see some tanks by 'Rose' on the net - were they yours? am sure the link from was in here.

 

[gadazobe]

I bought the £15 tropical collection from Java - it had a great selection of plants, about 5-6 of each one. That might sound a lot, but remember that a lot of these plants are planted in groups of about 6 stems in each group. They send their deliveries every Tuesday by first class mail. I waited about 2 weeks for mine. They arrived in perfect condition and nicely labeled and also with lead weights to keep them planted. Most of mine did very well - but my pleco has destroyed a few.

 

[gadazobe]

One more thing - remember to de-snail them before planting. I didn't and as a result spent days picking out the snails.

 

[Andi]

thanks gadazobe - £15 is gonna be cheaper than buying courgette for my SD's lol.

Snails - don't go there. I'd done nothing to my tanks for months (plantless, added no fish) and I had an invasion of snails. when I eventually cleared the whole tank out I counted 170+

 

[Rose]

They probably were my tanks you saw. I have some on the main page of Tropical Aquariums. I'll put a couple up here in a bit. gotta take them first lol. As for snails get clown loaches and well you will have some very, very happy loaches. I had a huge snail problem in my bow when I first set it up transfured my loaches to it and with in a few hours I couldn't find a single snail and haven't since unless I put them in from another tank and then it's only for as long as it takes the loaches to suck them out of the shell. Neat to watch actually. Off to take some pics for ya. Rose