Want to add live plants

[New Boy]

Hi, I've got a Juwel Rio 300 (61 cm deep) and I'd like to grow live plants but I've never had much luck. The light is 2 x 38 w, plus I have reflectors on them. My substrate is gravel and ph is 7.6 (moderately hard too). I have no soil heating and do not add CO2 to the tank.

What plants could I sucessfully keep in the tank?

Which floating plants are likely to survive?

Would I benefit from a change in substrate - to either sand or some plant compost (which ones are good in the UK)?

I've tried vallis, elodea, amazon sword, java fern and anubias in the past and none of them lasted so wondering what I'm doing wrong. Only plant that did well for a while was Hygrophilia which the fish ripped to shreds eventually!

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
Andy

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hey man maybe you can take a lookie at this page
http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm
maybe it'l help you

from what i can see, maybe your lights are wrong or the plants are lacking nutrients because your not adding ferts and ur gravel is just plain gravel

 

[Dubby]

This is a common problem with Juwels - inadequate lighting for planted tanks. Plants that will grow are Anubias, crypts, Java fern, hornwort (floating)

Ideally you should add more tubes.... But in the short term you can also help by replacing the std.tubes with triphosphor Daylight lamps which have a higher lumen rating.