Want Some Live Plants But Not Sure How To Go About It

[mattlee]

ive got a bit fed up of plastic fake plants so want to add a few real plants. i have a 240L 4ft tank with 2 x 40w T8 bulbs in the hood, the tank is in the conservatory so gets quite a bit of light but nothing direct so therefor i get quite a bit of algae on decor and tank sides. currently i have some java moss, flame moss and xmas moss attached to a large piece of bogwood, a small java ferm attached to a rock and an anubius attached to a piece of bogwood. the fern and anubius i bought today and was told they would be ok in my tank but that was advice from lfs.......
i dont really want to go down the co2 route but dont mind adding ferts etc to the water or tablets to the substrate if it means helping the plants out. can anyone suggest what plants i should get for my kind of tank and what if anything do i need to do to help them grow and do well?
i would like some kind of tall grass if poss at one end of the tank, the rest i dont mind what they are really a mixture of a few different sized as long as they will survive ok.
ive never had real plants before so please treat me like a complete newbie on this....

 

[Truck]

you should be fine without CO2 if I were you I would dose some fertiliser be it TPN+ or your own recipe using dry salts.

Vallis resembles grass and comes in different species which will achieve different spiders, buy a couple of pots of crypts and anubias and tie the anubias to the wood, or plant them in the substrate (roots only with the Anubias and java fern though!), you could also try some echindorus species or pogosteemon helferi.

Having a nice planted tank is easy, all you need is time and effort, as well as a little perseverance, achieving a nice tank takes time, tweaking and the right combination of light, CO2 and nutrients.

If I were you, I would look at buying 1kg of KNO3, 250 grams of KH2PO4 and 250 grams of trace elements all from fluid sensor, you can then mix up your own ferts for pennies! The addition of easy carbo will help a lot too.

 

[mattlee]

you should be fine without CO2 if I were you I would dose some fertiliser be it TPN+ or your own recipe using dry salts.

Vallis resembles grass and comes in different species which will achieve different spiders, buy a couple of pots of crypts and anubias and tie the anubias to the wood, or plant them in the substrate (roots only with the Anubias and java fern though!), you could also try some echindorus species or pogosteemon helferi.

Having a nice planted tank is easy, all you need is time and effort, as well as a little perseverance, achieving a nice tank takes time, tweaking and the right combination of light, CO2 and nutrients.

If I were you, I would look at buying 1kg of KNO3, 250 grams of KH2PO4 and 250 grams of trace elements all from fluid sensor, you can then mix up your own ferts for pennies! The addition of easy carbo will help a lot too.

Hi Truck,
ok wow,what!!!! i take it TPN+ is a fert i can buy...? i think for now i would rather add ready made ferts and maybe see about making my own when im a bit more experienced are crypts plants...? sorry i did say i was a complete newbie to all of this planted side.....

 

[AdAndrews]

crypt is a plant, google it, many varieties exist.

 

[mattlee]

crypt is a plant, google it, many varieties exist.

cheers ill take a look
would Vallisneria americana (gigantea) be a good choice for my tank? just found it on a website and its kind of the effect i want at 1 end...?

 

[Truck]

All species of vallis will be fine, the gigantea is the thick leaved species, nana is the thin and tall one.

 

[mattlee]

All species of vallis will be fine, the gigantea is the thick leaved species, nana is the thin and tall one.

thanks truck please watch this space as i may be testing you knowledge quite a bit during the next few weeks if you dont mind......

 

[mattlee]

ive ordered some vallisneria rubra.... from last trading post. is there any tips when planting them or do i just sink th roots into the gravel? also do i need to add tablets into the substrate or add liquid ferts to keep them in shape....?

 

[Truck]

Just liquid ferts, Plant the roots and have the rosette exposed so it gets adequate water circulation. you can order TPN+ online from fluid sensor online, and the easy carbo is available from there also, I would add 5ml's of TPN+ a day and 8ml's of easy carbo a day.

 

[mattlee]

should this amount be increased when i add more plants? im getting 5 plants (vallis) and have 1 anubius, 1 java fern and a few bits of moss here and there. ill be adding more vallis and anubius nana i think in time

 

[Truck]

you could dose half of what I recommended to begin with, and then double when you plant mass increases.

 

[Knox213]

you could dose half of what I recommended to begin with, and then double when you plant mass increases.

Your more of the plant type..

Why dont you sell them?

you seem to know ALOT about them.

and at the end of the day.

you got some money to buy stuff

 

[Truck]

I don't sell them because my plants don't grow fast enough

, I used to sell them a couple of months ago when I kept faster growing species and I made a packet, but I'm really enjoying the low maintenance at the moment with the slow growers, because I don't spend so much on ferts, lighting and plants.

 

[Knox213]

I don't sell them because my plants don't grow fast enough

, I used to sell them a couple of months ago when I kept faster growing species and I made a packet, but I'm really enjoying the low maintenance at the moment with the slow growers, because I don't spend so much on ferts, lighting and plants.

Good I Guess.

I Might buy a small 2.5 gallon stick some Limnophila in there and grow it out.

Then use the trimmings for my other tanks same with some kind of swaying palnt i brought off kittykat..

its extremely healthy...

 

[snowflake311]

Crypt retrospiralis I keep this in my low tech tank it's like grass way easy to grow. I had jungle Val it was awful did not do well . The cork screw Val is hardy.

I love my crypts I have 4 differant kinds. Tall grass like kinds wide leaf kind, the short bush like ones. They love root tabs and grow great with them.