Need A Lot Of Help With My First Planted Tank..?

[Jackiee]

I have a 90 gallon aquarium with South American Cichlids in it.
I have heard to put hardy plant species in there since cichlids can be rough on plants.

Just a few days ago I bought my first plants.. 4 Ribbon plants, 2 anubias nana, and 2 anubias congensis..
I planted them into my tank by making pits in my current gravel, and adding Caribsea Floramax subtrate into those pits, and then planting the plants. I eventually want to change out my substrate to all floramax but didn't have all the money to do that yet since I would need about 6 or 7 bags of it for my tank, and being $20.00 a bag, that's hard to do all at one time. I will do it gradually.

I also bought API CO2 Booster to add into the water everyday, and Seachem Flourish plant supplement that you add one or twice a week.

You dont HAVE to attach anubias to driftwood do you? can't they grow well in the substrate?

I usually change my tank set-up around every few months.. I planted them according to how my tank is set up now but I'm hoping you guys can help me with suggestions on a tank arrangement that would be great with live plants.

here's some pictures of how my tank is currently set up, and where I planted the plants (i apologize for the quality, my camera doesnt do the best on color when taking tank pics) :

the whole tank,

the left side of the tank, showing the 2 anubias nana on far left, 2 ribbon plants, then the anubias congensis.

the 2 anubias nana,

the 2 ribbon plants and anubias congensis,

the right side of the tank showing the ribbon plant, anubias congensis, and another ribbon plant,

and again,

I tried to pick out the best specimens I could at the petstore.

Suggestions?

 

[uGlitch]

If I were you i'd returen the ribbon plants to your lfs asap!
Although i'm pretty new to plants as well, those don't look like true aquatic plants.
They'll look good for a month or so and then start degenerating.
Otherwise good plant choices.

 

[SO19Firearms]

You dont HAVE to attach anubias to driftwood do you? can't they grow well in the substrate?

The rhizome should be exposed to prevent rotting.

 

[coldcazzie]

The plants with the varigated leaves aren't aquatic - they are house plants. If you want to keep them, then put them in a pot on your kitchen windowsill and they'll grow lovely, but in your tank they will rot and pollute the water.

The anubias should either be attached to wood/rocks, or if you want to plant in the substrate then the rhizome (that's the long green stem bit out of which the roots grow) needs to be above the substrate - if it is below it will rot and the plant will die. The advantage of having them attached to wood/rocks is that when you want to move them, you just move the rock, instead of having to uproot the plant.

 

[Jackiee]

Are you kidding me?.. The ribbon plants arent aquatic plants?.. The Pet store said they were.
And they were labeled semi-aquatic to aquatic.. And I had seen pictures of them in aquariums so I thought they were aquarium plants..

Great. The plants have already been in there for about 4 or 5 days, I don't have the containers anymore as I had to cut them all up to carefully get the plants out. I no longer have the receipt for them either.


Guess that was a waste of about 30 bucks..



Anyways, what's the best way to attach anubias to driftwood or rocks? will the roots eventually wrap round whatever I attach it to?

Also, I did go back and purchase the rest of the FloraMax substrate to change out all the gravel in my aquarium. It was a very long job, took about 4 hours. It's a very fine gravel, my fish love it alot more than the other stuff that's in the pictures, they're digging much more now. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.. for the plants well-being anyways (especially since my Jack Dempsey's are spawning, and digging huge pits). but, not to mention it looks a ton better!

 

[uGlitch]

Personally, I used rubber bands to attach my anubias to my driftwood. Just keep an eye on it so it doesn't start falling apart. Once it roots into the driftwood you can just cut it off.
You can also use fishing line, or some kind of string to tie it on, and I've seen people use superglue as well.
Best of luck! Looking forward to updates.

 

[Jackiee]

Will super glue really work with the plants? I've used it to repair aquarium ornaments before with no problem, but the glue won't hurt the plant at all?

By the way, I took out all the ribbon plants and threw them in the trash
Just the 4 Anubias now.

Some of the leaves on my Anubias are getting these round yellow spots on them. What does this mean ?

I've heard of attaching Anubius to rocks also.. I have a ton of bigger rocks laying throughout the tank, you can see some in the picture. But If I attach the plants to them, will the roots grow around the rock like it does driftwood?

 

[StandbySetting]

Superglue is fine, many use it.