Newbie To Planting, Need Help

[Linway]

Hey all.
So about 3 months ago I setup a freshwater tank and with it being my very first tank I wanted to concentrate on keeping the fish alive and not having to worry about keeping plants alive too.
 
However, recently it came to my attention that one of my ornaments was too heavy for the sand and was causing it to become impacted, when I took it out the sand underneath was black and stinking. I have removed the bad sand and done a water change so all is fine now.
 
That being said this was a pretty big ornament so the tank is now a little empty and I figured it would be best to look at planting the tank.
 
Some info:
95L (25US Gal, 22Imp Gal)
pH ~7.4
As said above I use sand in the tank because I have some corys.
I have an external filter.
 
Fish:
Platys
Neon Tetras
Betta
Bronze Corys
Bristlenose Pleco
Red Cherry Shrimps
 
 
So to my questions:
What are some easy plants that my fish will like and are easy to take care of?
Do I need to add anything to my sand or even change to a specific type of sand (not really an option to change sand but would rather know now before I buy plants)?
Is it possible to get different coloured plants (I'm not a big fan of just greens 

)?
 
Any other information I might need that wont be covered by the questions would be great

 
I'm hoping to go to a major garden center tomorrow that has a huge aquarium center so any information quick would be good as this place isn't the easiest to get to and I can only get there maybe once every 2 months >.<
 
Thanks guys!

 

[fluttermoth]

All these plants are easy, and don't need any special substrate; they'll be fine in your sand;
 
Amazon sword (do like root tabs as fertilizer though, as they're quite 'greedy')
Java fern (needs to be tied to a rock or piece of wood as it'll rot if planted normally; comes in a variety of different leaf shapes)
Anubias (as Java fern)
cryptocoryne
vallis
cabomba
elodea
apongeton
 
Nearly all the red or pink plants need high lighting and a lot of fertilizers, so that means CO2 as well; but you could mix some colourful fake plants in with the real ones for variety.

 

[Linway]

Amazon sword (do like root tabs as fertilizer though, as they're quite 'greedy')
Java fern (needs to be tied to a rock or piece of wood as it'll rot if planted normally; comes in a variety of different leaf shapes)
Anubias (as Java fern)
cryptocoryne
vallis
cabomba
elodea
apongeton

Ok, sounds good.
 
Other questions, how does one go about taking care of these plants?
Do they need any particular food or is it as simple as the consume fish waste?
Ignoring the ones that need rock/wood do you just root them into the sand?
 
Thanks for the reply =]

 

[levahe]

The Tropica web site is a good resource centre, here is a link to their list of easy plants
http/www.tropica.com/en/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx

You need to make sure your lights arent too bright, and you need to dose fertilisers, tropica premium or specialised ferts aare good, but there is cheaper options if you look around.

Plenty of water changes are good, and keeping the tank generally clean by vacuuming the substrate to avoid a build up of organic matter and un eaten food.

 

[fluttermoth]

Most of those plants don't need any fertilizing; the fish poo is enough.
 
Yes, you just plant them in the sand. Take them out of the pots, if they're in them, and try and get all the rockwool off (under a running tap can help).
 
Try not to bury them too deep. If they have a 'crown' (like vallis, for example) you need that to be above the substrate. It's normally easiest to plant them quite deep and then carefully pull them up until just the roots are under.
 
Some might need weighting down with small rocks/pebbles for a few weeks until they've rooted in.

 

[Linway]

Ok, thank you very much for the advice

 

[fluttermoth]

You're very welcome; good luck with your plants

 

[Linway]

Hey all, just figured I'd update you all. We went today and got some plants. We mostly got bunched plants because they didn't have many rooted plants in stock so the bunched ones will do for now until we get some rooted ones (although we did get one rooted one). I can't remember the names of the plants but I'm sure you all know.
 

 
I should say sorry about the cloudy pics, where I had planted them it obviously disturbed the sane so the water was a little cloudy until it settles again.
 
Tank overall:

 
Some major advantages that have come from planting!!!
1. We had a little stow away snail on one of the plants. When I got it planted about 5 minutes later I noticed the little guy on the back of the tank. I called the LFS store just to ensure he wont harm anything and they said it's all fine so yay!
2. We have red cherry shrimp in the tank that spent their entire lives living under the fake wood in the center, since putting the plants in about 40 minutes ago they haven't stopped exploring. All of them are out and playing in all the new plants! I'm amazed!
 
Thanks again for the advice guys! It's much appreciated and you guys have helped make our fish tank a perfect little home (in my opinion) especially for our little shrimps lol

 

[fluttermoth]

You need to move your anubias (the broad leaved one on the second pic). It needs to be attached to your bogwood, or a stone, or it'll rot.

 

[Linway]

You need to move your anubias (the broad leaved one on the second pic). It needs to be attached to your bogwood, or a stone, or it'll rot.

 
I asked in the LFS about that and I told I had nothing to tie it to and he said he has them in his tanks all year round just in the substrate?
If it does rot how long will that take? I don't wanna take it out but currently I have nothing to tie it to so I'm wondering what I can get to tie it to as any bogwood is going to be too big for the tank now but even if I got a small piece it would need soaking for a while before I could put it in.
 
Edit:
I've just had a very quick google about it planting into substrate and found that it can be ok as long as the "rhizome" (the thing the stems are attached to) so I've pulled it out a little and just put the roots under the sand. Does that sound like it might work to you? At least for a while until I can find a nice rock or something to put it on.

 

[fluttermoth]

Sorry for the late reply!

Yes, it will grow like that. If you want to keep it looking like it's growing in the substrate, you should be able to find a small, flat stone (go out on a walk

) that you can attach it to.