will I have trouble growing plants?

[vantgE]

Just asking if I can grow any plants in my soon to be african cichlid tank,

The substrate is just about 50 kilograms or 110 lbs of playsand mixed with 20 lbs of african cichlid gravel just some specialty stuff with fairly small grains it's supposed to simulate a rift lake enviroment i don't think the sand will be very deep but i could get some more what would be the minimum depth for plants?

Also cichlids are herbivorous so i would need something very hardy or bad tasteing, Iwas thinking Java fern and would prefer something leafier not just a grass sort thing because the plants are to acomadate the syno that i hope to get

acidic hard water don't know if this makes a difference for plants but...

also any tips for keeping plant or anything else i didn't think of i'm fairly new to fish still, and know very little to nothing about plants

Thanks in advance

EDIT-> do i need C02, 40 watt flourescant light

 

[scott1000]

How big of a tank?

To expand a little. I'm not sure what plants would be good in a cichlid tank, because they would obviously have to be "bad tasting". Java fern and java moss are the only that I know of off the top of my head.

Light is important part of a fish tank, you said 40watt, so I'm guess it's a stock 4ft strip light? Would this mean it's on a 55 gallon tank or somewhere near there? If so you'll need more light to get good growth. Although some VERY low light plants will probably grow slowly.

If you have 40watt on a 55gallon it's really not worth worrying about C02 at this point. However once you get a decent amount of light (preferably above 2 watt per gallon) you could set up a DIY C02 injection system (google it).

I would recommend about 1.5-2" deep on the substrate. Because it's play sand you are going to have to stir it on a regular basis to keep it from compacting as much. I would also recommend some Malaysian Trumpet snails to stir the sand if you don't mind snails in your tank.

Many people would also suggest the addition of laterite to your substrate to give it some benificial minerals to your plants. However I've never used this before and I've heard some bad things about it.

If it were me I would probably add some flourite or eco-complete to the substrate (a bag or two depending on tank size) to give it some really good minerals.

Although, a mineral rich substrate becomes less important when you growing plants that get most of their nutrients from their leaves/stems. Java fern and java moss would both fall in that category, so if that's all your growing than your substrate really doesn't matter, because these are usually anchored to a rock or driftwood.

Hope this helps! Keep asking questions!

PS: I could be totally wrong about the tank size, if so sorry .

 

[Lateral Line]

Most plants prefer soft acidic water, although many are tolerant. Whatever your water is like now, if you are adding a mineral sand to create rift conditions, it's going to get hard and alkali.

Most rift tanks I've seen are plant free, and diving in some of the lakes revealed very little plant life, a few isolated Potamogetons - about all.

 

[Silly me]

I think you have the wrong setup to add plants, you'll just make whole setup to complicated to control and you might just end up where you started.

If you like Cichlids try some Angels and smaller tetras in a soft water tank,

 

[vantgE]

I wanted to do a biotope but also wanted a syno and the njasse is too big for my tank so I thought i'd get a trio of nigriventis and i already have got my cichlids but i wanted a synodontis nigriventis if i am able to get this I want to put in plants as it says the would be agood enviroment they are a african riverine species

i was thinking of only just a few planys i will have room in the corner

it's a 90 gallon tank

thanks for your help so far

 

[Lateral Line]

You can always try some Java Fern, it takes harder water, survives in lower light, is not eaten as readily as many other plants, and because you fix the rhizome to a stone or piece of wood, (i.e. don't plant it), it is less likely to get knocked over by excavation.

 

[vantgE]

I just read in hardware forgot who but they said they don't have carbon in their filter cause they have plants

Why?

EDIt probally won't get plants decided i want syno petrichola instead, but if i can't find any i might go eupterus and get some still