Wanting A Few Plants, Don't Know What To Get?

[TCroker]

I have a 20 gallon tank and i am wanting to add some plants to it. i have gravel so it would need to be something that would be able to thrive on that. as of right now i have a nice piece of driftwood with some flame moss on it and a castle. im looking to get rid of the castle, center the driftwood and put some plants on the sides maybe towards the rear corners. i have some serpae and some painted tetras in the tank and i know they would definitely appreciate some more plants. any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[David J]

Hi

I too have a 20g tank which is currently cycling so I've been looking into plants for when I'm ready to go. Being new to the hobby I wanted something relatively easy to care for and after reading lots and chatting on here, I've pretty much decided on getting some or all of the following:

Jungle val (background)
Anubias (attached to bogwood or rock)
Java moss (attached to some bogwood)
Frog bit (floating on surface but only in part of the tank to create a shaded area)
Cryptocyrene. (Middle)

Have a look at those. It might give you some ideas. Folks on here seem to think they are easy to care for and they are all quite popular.

David

 

[Something'sfishy]

What kind of lighting do you have? If it's the standard light that comes with most tanks, you'll need some low-light plants. Good ones to start with are any of the anubias and java fern. They're easy to grow, so if they do well, you can always branch out from there.

Lol I didn't see the post above mine. It's very good advice!

 

[David J]

FYI, my tank is low light and was advised these plants are ok with the lights on for 8-12 hours a day. I was told that if algae became a problem I could reduce the time the lights are on so they mustn't be very demanding.

 

[Dubfellas]

How do you attatch plants to bogwood? Also how do u keep plants living alive in your tank? I know this might sound stupid but if im putting them in to gravel how could they survive and grow? How would they take root? I might sound daft but i just cant see how i could sustain a plant in gravel

 

[David J]

You can tie it to the wood using thread or fishing line. Eventually the roots will hold the plant to the wood on its own and you remove the thread or line.

With regards to keeping them alive, the way I understand it is plants need water, light and fertiliser to survive. The light is obvious. A non aquatic plant in soil gets its water through the roots in the ground but aquatic plants don't need to rely on that. The roots are more to hold it in place rather than supply water. I believe you initially need to weigh some plants down to keep them down but I don't know if you have to leave the weights there forever or remove them after a point. Fertiliser an be bought and added as required. I believe the plants I,have listed need some ferts once a week or so.

Hopefully a more experienced person can confirm if what I'm saying is correct but i think it's pretty much right.

David

 

[CezzaXV]

I've got various types of anubias, along with java fern and a crypt in my tank and they all thrive tremendously, especially given that I don't even have the lights on every day nor do I dose fertilisers. Vallis is supposed to be another good low light one but it just melts away in my tank, but I suspect it's due to my very soft water.

With anubias and java fern, you actually don't want to plant them in the gravel or their roots will rot away, so their roots need to be exposed to the water. I superglue mine to some rocks to weigh them down. If you're using superglue make sure it's the type that only has cyanoacrylate in it. You can also glue or tie them to wood.