What Does Everyone Think?

riggs111 · Feb 23, 2011

hey guys n girls...

Ive come to the point were i want to change some things in my tank.
Ive had it for about a year now, its a fish box 60, and Ive changed the blue moon light bulb to another exactly the same daylight bulb, i think there 15W bulbs but not 100%. It has a hydor prime 10 external filter and am happy with everything at the moment to be honest apart from i want to change from gravel to sand, Ive been reading up about it a little bit but still not 200% sure. Ive been to my local Argos and bought a 15kg bag of play sand for £2.99, i understand i got to clean it thoroughly until the the water is clear. I'm also curious, i want to have some nice, hardy and pretty plants in the tank aswell with a bigish piece of mopani bogwood to go in there aswell. but i want to know if i want some of these ( nice, hardy and pretty plants...still unsure which ones) i want to know do i need some kind of plant substrate under the sand and do i add liquid plant grower stuff to the water every now and again?? or do i need a c02 injection etc?
hope your guys can help me out,
thanks for readingAdam

Gilli · Feb 23, 2011

Depends how much you want to spend! You can grow plants just in an ordinary substrate without a CO2 system and special lighting. Obvioulsy you get better results with all that but you can still grow plants sucessfully without. Use the darker leaved plants as they dont need so much light and you can use liquid ferts, but if your tank is not heavily planted you can buy root tabs which you bury neat the roots of the plant and they will feed it for up to a month.Make sure when you plant them you take them out of any little pots they may be supplied in.

Have a look on ebay - you can buy bogwood with plants already attached. This is a good idea cos not only is it done for you but it wont turn your water yellow as they are already pre- soaked.

Henry21 · Feb 23, 2011

i have the fish box 48 and use tetra co2 optimat only costs £20 for the diffuser and co2 not amazing but does what i want but if you just want a few plants should work well

weezawoo · Feb 23, 2011

I have just sand and nothing underneath and my plants grow fine! I use ferts though to help them grow. Some have some hefty roots!!!

riggs111 · Feb 23, 2011

oh i see thanks wee....do you use c02 then?? also what exactly is ferts?? is it the liquid stuff you can buy from LFS?? i want to get some moss for like a carpet, some amazon swords or some anubias or Echinodorus bleheri or something like that. thanks for the replies guys i need the help! lol
adam

weezawoo · Feb 23, 2011

Nope no co2.i use my own made ferts but u can buy some from lfs.my plants are happy enuf. I dont use root tabs either. My swords are the ones with long roots so are growing well. Also vallis is good. My anubias on my wood is nice and green but nothing to do with the substrate!

Btw echinodorus bleheri is amazon sword

riggs111 · Feb 23, 2011

weezawoo said:
Nope no co2.i use my own made ferts but u can buy some from lfs.my plants are happy enuf. I dont use root tabs either. My swords are the ones with long roots so are growing well. Also vallis is good. My anubias on my wood is nice and green but nothing to do with the substrate!

Btw echinodorus bleheri is amazon sword

haha well that shows how much i know then lol

so u just have sand and you put your own ferts in? if i was to have some of the plants i mentioned.....would i just take them out of there pots and plant them in the sand and get some liquid ferts? and feed them that way?

adam

weezawoo · Feb 23, 2011

Swords u take out and plant in the sand. Anubias are better on wood or rock.. Then just dose ferts.should be good!

riggs111 · Feb 23, 2011

aw excellent.!! thank u for your help! what plants would you reccomend with my setup? as your setup is lush!!
adam

weezawoo · Feb 23, 2011

Vallis is a good plant, nice and tall.in my sig i have sword and vallis mainly.in my new tank i also have dwarf hairgrass, a good foreground plant.and some crypts,a lot of dif types of them.java fern is also good and grows well attached to wood