Plant Help

[barnsleyfisherman]

Had a tropical tank for about 4 years now, but one area that I have always struggled in is keeping 'live plants.

I recently upgraded my tank so am wanting this to look great, and for this I feel I may need some help from you wonderful people.

So, questions................... Here we go

1. Some easy plants to manage, both low light and surface plants.
2. Best way to plant into a gravel tank.

Any extra information that may be useful, please let me know.

 

[Dubby]

Had a tropical tank for about 4 years now, but one area that I have always struggled in is keeping 'live plants.

I recently upgraded my tank so am wanting this to look great, and for this I feel I may need some help from you wonderful people.

So, questions................... Here we go

1. Some easy plants to manage, both low light and surface plants.
2. Best way to plant into a gravel tank.

Any extra information that may be useful, please let me know.

Hi

Here are a few easy to grow low light plants.....
Hornwort, Vallis, Java fern, Anubias, Crypts, Egeria densa
Hornwort can be grown as a floating plant or planted.

On planting.....
Get the right size of gravel (2-3mm) or smaller. I guess it then falls under the category of sand
Use a substrate such as clay, laterite, Eco complete, etc. below the gravel to provide nutrients to the plants.

Add liquid fertiliser with each water change.

Add a few algae eating species of fish such as Mollys, SAE, CAE, shrimp, Ottos

And before I forget.... read the pinned up articles in this section

All the best!

 

[lljdma06]

This is a post that I made a while back listing the most common plant species available at LFS that are easy to care for. I have them listed according to tank position (foreground, background, etc).

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...p;#entry1382934

I concur with the previous post about gravel size. If you live in the US, Topfin makes a very nice, inexpensive natural gravel that is that grain size and is very good for planted tanks. Adding rootabs to the substrate will also help quite a bit. Space them about 4-5 inches apart in places where plants will be planted. Even stem plants, they actually benefit quite a bit from rootabs.

I don't agree with mollies as algae eaters in a freshwater tropic. In my experience, they are a brackish fish and really should be kept in those conditions. Amano shrimp, otos, American Flag fish, SAE are better for the job. Avoid common plecos and Chinese algae eaters, they either get way too big or out-grow algae eating for more carnivorous habits. Other fish to consider that will pick on some algae are platies, cherry barbs, and rosy barbs, though they won't eat it to the extent of the algae-eating species.

Good luck to you and keep us posted on you progress.

llj

 

[barnsleyfisherman]

Thanks to you both for your comments / Suggestions.

The tank is already set up, 3.5 months to be exact so already got the gravel down. It is smallish in size, but nothing under the gravel to give the nutrients, etc.

I will post a couple of picture of the tank currently. It does have plants in but allot of them are quickly pulled out, others dying off. None seem to be thriving in development though.