Live Plants

[Kiara]

I had a couple of questions about live plants.

I have angels, Paradise Gourami's, a Rainbow Shark, and 2 Plecos, are live plants a good idea with these guys?

My tank is still cycling, should I wait for it to cycle before I add in real plants?

What kind of UV lights do I need?

I'm using gravel atm, do I need to add sand, or is gravel ok?

Will adding live plants make my tank cycle again?

Is there anything else I should know?

Thanks, sry for being a bugger but thanks for all the help

 

[Fella]

Best place to start is reading the pinned topics in the planted forum

Good luck, planting tanks is great fun.

 

[ncjharris]

Read the pinned posts, as Fella said, but quick answers to your q's;

My tank is still cycling, should I wait for it to cycle before I add in real plants?
Not unless you are adding very delicate, specific plants. Plants in theory should help the cycling process. You shouldn't really be cycling with all those fish in?

What kind of UV lights do I need?
You won't need any UltraViolet lights if this is what you mean. Some plants will grow with the most basic of hood lights. However, when you start getting into plants, you'll need to pay attention to the K of the lights, the emitted spectrum etc. An easier way is to look on the bulbs to see if it says they are ideal for plants.

I'm using gravel atm, do I need to add sand, or is gravel ok?
Gravel will be fine for most plants. Make sure you have a depth of around 1-2" for rooting to take place.

Will adding live plants make my tank cycle again?
Not unless you do something really bad!

Is there anything else I should know?
Research your plants as your fish, to make sure no one will eat anything. Shouldn't do with what you have. You should be warned, plants are the easiest way to introduce snails to your tank, be prepared for an infestation!

Once you are started and they seem to be coping ok, you can look into CO2, fertalizer and so on.

Hope this helps.
One last thing, how big is your tank? You have some fish there that can become quite big........

 

[Kiara]

When I first set up my tank, my LFS told me it would be ok to add the fish in after running it for 24 hrs. I now know this is wrong, and I wasn't going to add anymore fish in my tank. The angels are a new addition as my father came into town, heard I had a fish tank, and bought them for me. They seem to be doing fine, I'm doing 2 or 3 water changes a day to help them along. In all actuality, the angels seem to be doing the best. Hopefully it stays that way.

The reason I mentioned UV lights is because a guy at Petsmart said I needed them for the plants. I have very basic lights, as they came with a start up kit that included everything I needed to set up the tank.

I have a 55g tank, and my husband is looking to get me another one at least the same size for christmas (earliest we know we can afford it) or maybe this awsome 150g tank we saw at a petstore the other day. I plan on rehoming one of the plecs there for sure as soon as I get it cycled... I'm really hoping both plecs can survive until then.

Thanks I'm gonna start reading the plant forums, didn't know that it was there