Just How Well Can These Do In The Conditions?

[Jallen]

So I have added some plants to my Elite 95. It's an 80x30x40 tank with some sort of Vallisneria (see pic), something which I believe is some form of Anubis (second pic, far right plant behind angel), and three types of Cryptocoryne (diversen, nevelli, beckettii)(all crypts are in pic 2).
The guy at the shop said that the crypts were pretty tough and that I should be alright with keeping them in my tank, also that I would have the best chance to grow them without CO2 out of the plants that were at the shop. The vallisneria I have had for a while (though stupidly I kept them in pots, recently removed them and they are already starting to grow).

I don't have CO2 - nor do I want it if it's maintenance heavy, expensive or hard to set up.
I have a SUN-GLO 20W 60cm tube that came with my tank (should I replace this, also how much will that cost).
Plant food stuff? The bottles of nutrients in the shops - do I need it?

Pictures:

I would love if I would be able to get some java ferns to go on a spare bit of mopani root I have where the rocks in picture 2 currently are, but I'm not sure about CO2 or nutrient requirements. What do you think?

It's quite heavily stocked with 10 kuhli loaches, an angel fish, 2 tiger barbs, 2 green tiger barbs, 2 corys, 4 glass bloodfin tetras, 6 cardinal tetras, a bristlenose pleco and a singapore wood shrimp. I do pretty frequent 20% water changes (every week, or very occasionally i skip a week).

I have my lights on for 12 hours a day, I'm using play sand which is pretty fine and I keep the bubble wall on for 12 hours along with the lights. I feed once a day for what they will eat in 2 minutes plus some bottom feeder pellets and cucumber for the pleco.

Video:
[URL="http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=paiC7PrLuNg"]http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=paiC7PrLuNg[/URL]

 

[lljdma06]

If that is an anubia in the far right, it should be attached to wood or rocks, not buried in the substrate. It look a little like an amazon sword of some type to me, so closer picture would be helpful.

Java fern would be fine in your setup. I'd add more crypts and consider adding rootabs to your substrate for the vallis and crypts. The plants will do better, but IMO, you won't need CO2.

My 36g journal is a similar setup.

llj

 

[Jallen]

If that is an anubia in the far right, it should be attached to wood or rocks, not buried in the substrate. It look a little like an amazon sword of some type to me, so closer picture would be helpful.

Java fern would be fine in your setup. I'd add more crypts and consider adding rootabs to your substrate for the vallis and crypts. The plants will do better, but IMO, you won't need CO2.

My 36g journal is a similar setup.

llj

Thanks, I really wanted to hear that
I love the idea of having a tank with nice bushy green plants mixed with the wood and the sand for a natural look but was worried about needing CO2.

Here is the anubis / amazon sword, I'll let you decide which
The leaves are quite thick and dark and the roots are pretty chunky.

What do you think about plant food? The bottles of nutrient that you can get in the LFS. Should I use them?
Also, will I be able to cut off any shoots from these plants and grow them in that way? Is that possible on any of these species?

Thanks again!

Oh I forgot to add, your tank looks awesome, I love the whole white sand, green bushy plants dark knotted mopani root look.
Though I agree about prefering long shallow tanks, my first tank was a 56 litre cube and the fish weren't anywhere as near as visible as in my current tank.

 

[lljdma06]

It is an anubia. Get it out of the substrate and onto some wood! Seriously, it grows via a rhizome that shouldn't be submerged or it will rot and you will have a dead plant.

Thank you for your compliments. I don't like using gadgets and making things more complicated than they should be. My family says I have a green thumb. I keep orchids and garden outside, so I figured why not keep plants in my aquariums.

 

[Jallen]

Ok, got it out onto the wood, tied it down with 3 bits of black cotton. I should be getting some Java ferns soon which I will be able to attach to the other bit of wood as well as the one the anubis is on.

Should look quite nice with the Java ferns. I will probably change the layout a bit so that the plants and wood are more towards the back and there is a clearing with just sand in the middle front.

Thanks for the help again

 

[vinylman]

J, I'd remove that Anubias leaf with the hole in it; the plant will only be wasting nutrients it could use on the rest of the leaves.

 

[Jallen]

J, I'd remove that Anubias leave with the hole in it; the plant will only be wasting nutrients it could use on the rest of the leaves.

Ok will do.

Can I grow any of the plants I have by cut offs?

 

[dazsmith69]

From my experience, dosing flourish excel will make your vallis grow so well, the amount of runners my vallis has, and the height of the leaves are amazing. I have two arcadia lights 25w each in a 250l tank and dose every other day with a small capful.

HTH Daz