Which Plants?

[Serious Dan]

Hi

Are there any plants that are worth avoiding when planting up a new aquarium? I remember having problems with a pond many years ago with fairy moss completely clogging the whole system.

Also on the flip side are there any that are better than the others?

Will plants grow in sand or will I need to use a special substrate?

Thanks Dan

 

[stevereade]

Any non aquatic plants you want to avoid really, basic rule is when its out of the water aquatic plants go floppy lol. Anything else is fine depending on your set up, nutrients, co2, lighting etc. You dont really need any special substrate, my heavily planted tank has two inches of sand at the bottom and most plants take in nutrients through the leaves anyway.

Let us know what type of lighting you have and the wattage, what ferts you will be adding and whether your going to use co2 and we'll be able to tell you which plants will be best for you.

Steve

 

[Serious Dan]

The lighting is 2 t5 tubes 35 watts each 1 is a daylight and the other is a nature (both juwels) on a 180 liter tank.

I was planning on using just sand and gravel for the substrate and hoping not to use co2, as for fertilisers what ever is required as this is something I have very little knowledge of and I am willing to take any good advise available.

I am trying to keep it as simple as possible for up keep, but looking as good as possible. This is only going to be for a simple community tank barbs danios etc.

Thanks Dan

 

[stevereade]

Ok well, thats roughly 1.5 watts per gallon. You could get away with a fair few plants with just the addition of ferts.

In my little low tech set up I successfully grew various Swords, Crypts, Ambulia Aquatica, Hygrophila, various Mosses, Red Myriophyllum and Rotala Indica but that was with the addition of TPN+ fertilizer every other day. I now have a Nutrafin CO2 kit added aswell as it was sitting in the cupboard and growth is amazing. The good thing about low tech is plants such as Myriophyllum and Ambulia and pretty much any stem plants that will be happy with lower light will stay very bushy and thick as supposed to high light where they will need constant trimming to keep them thick.

If you have a look on the Tropica website (www.tropica.com) it will give you a huge plant list and pretty much lets you know what each plant needs to flourish, there are a few aquatic plants not on the list but I'm sure it will help.

As for substrate sand will be fine so long as your not growing things like HC Cuba and Staurogyne, pretty much any plants that need nutrient rich substrate. As long as you have a couple of inches deep the sand will hold the plants just fine.

As for ferts, I would use TPN+, you can get it from any decent online supplier, just make sure it has the + and not plane TPN and as long as your photo period is no more than 8 hours and the tank gets no natural light from windows etc you should be fine and hopefully algae free.

Oh one more thing, if you buy swords and they look like they're dying after being in the tank a couple of days, don't worry, most swords die back a little and then come back quick as they are changing environment.

Hope all this helps as it took forever for me to type lol.

Steve

 

[GrayScale]

Even if you do decide to buy rooted plants that draw nutrients in from the roots, you can get root tabs to push into your substrate that they can get nutrients from. For anubias and swords it's not a bad thing to clip off the leaves before putting them in the tank. It will force them to grow faster as well as adapt to your water params better.

 

[stevereade]

Just make sure you push them in quick before they turn to mush and make your tank water black lol, I made that mistake.

 

[GrayScale]

Just make sure you push them in quick before they turn to mush and make your tank water black lol, I made that mistake.

Push them in before adding water and when you're ready, slowly add water so you don't disturb the substrate and the tabs. If you don't have this luxury because you can't regime the fish for the rescape then yes, push them in before they murk up the water.

 

[Serious Dan]

Thanks for the Info

Dan