Planted Tank

[Dave T]

Hi All

i have a Natural planted tank with compleat substrait as a base
was thinking of changing to fake plants as to be honest i seem to be replacing plants every couple of weeks
and i dont like upsetting the tank is it normal to have to replace plants so often
also is it much of a job to change tank

Cheers

 

[Nick16]

plants dont need to be replaced at all, you just have to trim them correctly if the are growing so fast.
If you get the right plants to match your tank. - co2 levels, fertiliser levels and lighting levels you should be fine and they will grow, flower and pearl!

 

[Dave T]

plants dont need to be replaced at all, you just have to trim them correctly if the are growing so fast.
If you get the right plants to match your tank. - co2 levels, fertiliser levels and lighting levels you should be fine and they will grow, flower and pearl!

ok so i am obviously doing somthing wrong then as they seem to be decomposing from the base
i am planting them deep into the substriat to make sure they are geting the nutriants
should i be doing somthing differant
I am thinking that maybe its me not knowing enough about the plants i am bying
all thought i am very limited

 

[OldMan47]

Are you following the entire regime for an NPT? They run with higher light levels than people would usually use without CO2 and run them for long time periods like 10 to 12 hours daily. You feed the plants by being generous with fish food while not allowing significant enough overfeeding to end up with food residue rotting on the substrate. You do not do very many water changes since they are really not needed very often with the plants sucking up the nitrogen and even sequestering the metals and other pollutants in the tank. You start with a large number of different plants and do not keep replacing the ones that die with more of the same plant. You let the tank tell you what plants will thrive and which ones will not. You have floating plant cover included in your plant stock, things like duckweed or frogbit to help control algae until the main planting takes off. You stay completely off the high tech forums or receive terrible advice on your planting, because those folks do not know how to run an NPT, their approach is not even compatible with an NPT. We are talking about a whole new way of looking at a planted tank if you want to succeed. I found it impossible to succeed until I broke down and bought Diana's Walstad's book, so that I could consult it every step of the way while getting set up.

 

[Dave T]

Are you following the entire regime for an NPT? They run with higher light levels than people would usually use without CO2 and run them for long time periods like 10 to 12 hours daily. You feed the plants by being generous with fish food while not allowing significant enough overfeeding to end up with food residue rotting on the substrate. You do not do very many water changes since they are really not needed very often with the plants sucking up the nitrogen and even sequestering the metals and other pollutants in the tank. You start with a large number of different plants and do not keep replacing the ones that die with more of the same plant. You let the tank tell you what plants will thrive and which ones will not. You have floating plant cover included in your plant stock, things like duckweed or frogbit to help control algae until the main planting takes off. You stay completely off the high tech forums or receive terrible advice on your planting, because those folks do not know how to run an NPT, their approach is not even compatible with an NPT. We are talking about a whole new way of looking at a planted tank if you want to succeed. I found it impossible to succeed until I broke down and bought Diana's Walstad's book, so that I could consult it every step of the way while getting set up.

Ive just googled Diana's Walstad's and they show some pics of her tanks they are really impressive
i would like to say mine is similer but i would be lying terrible
ive been providing the tank with plenty of light think i have been changing to much water to regurly
its trying to find that even balance

appreciate all your help

 

[Mikaila31]

How much light (watts) do you have on the tank? what size is the tank? and what plants are you trying to grow?

 

[Dave T]

How much light (watts) do you have on the tank? what size is the tank? and what plants are you trying to grow?

Tried to google the plants that i have to get names but no luck i am afraid
Tank size is 125 litres
lights are 2 20 watt powerglo which came as standard with the tank

1 is Water milfoil
1 Cryptocoryne
Grass
can get pics later if required

Cheers

 

[OldMan47]

A tank of 120 litres would need about 60 to 80 watts of lighting or even some natural daylight to match the conditions assumed by Diana in her book. You have a partially implemented NPT, a poor combination to end up with. If you follow the filtration and water change recommendations, you will not really get the growth needed for the tank to be safe for fish. It takes a vigorously growing group of plants to really get to her style of tank. They need not be big plants but must get enough light to grow well. In your relatively low light situation, you can grow low light plants like cryptocorynes, Anubias or java fern without artificial fertilizers or added CO2, but you cannot achieve an NPT.

 

[Dave T]

A tank of 120 litres would need about 60 to 80 watts of lighting or even some natural daylight to match the conditions assumed by Diana in her book. You have a partially implemented NPT, a poor combination to end up with. If you follow the filtration and water change recommendations, you will not really get the growth needed for the tank to be safe for fish. It takes a vigorously growing group of plants to really get to her style of tank. They need not be big plants but must get enough light to grow well. In your relatively low light situation, you can grow low light plants like cryptocorynes, Anubias or java fern without artificial fertilizers or added CO2, but you cannot achieve an NPT.

Cheers the tank recieves plenty of day light weel as long its light outside
in relation to the lights do you mean 2 by 60-80 watt lights or 2 30-40watt lights
ive added some pics of the plants i am unable to name at the moment and as you will see pic 1 4 & 5 are not looking the best
and today i have ran into a new problem none of my LFS or pet stores are selling real plants for the forseeable future
and ive travelled 15 mile radius to find some
what next

 

[OldMan47]

The plant in picture 4 is valisneria. It generally requires a bit more light than you have. The plant in picture 3 would work much better in a plant pot than in an aquarium. The frizzy looking plant that is barely visible at the edge in several pictures is definitely a low light water plant but I don't recall its name. It is not the centerpiece in any of your pictures. Picture 1 looks like a water plant that I have seen before but I don't know its name or requirements.
What I was referring to is 60 to 80 watts of fluorescent light over the tank. You would need to use your tank dimensions to find out what is available to get you into that range with available fixtures to fit the tank. There are many companies that package lighting upgrade kits for aquariums who would be delighted to take your money and get you some better lighting but, until you get the knack for keeping plants alive, I would work with low light plants. An easy rule for selecting plants is to buy whatever is cheapest of the true water plants. They are cheap because they are easy to grow.

 

[three-fingers]

Unfortunately, all the plants apart from the vallis mentioned are non-aquatic and should be removed from the tank. They wont grow, it's a shame places sell these. Put them in a pot on your windowsill and they will grow.

Since you mentioned rotting at the base, are you removing the lead weights and foam before planting? This needs to be done, but is seldom advised at the lfs.

 

[Dave T]

Unfortunately, all the plants apart from the vallis mentioned are non-aquatic and should be removed from the tank. They wont grow, it's a shame places sell these. Put them in a pot on your windowsill and they will grow.

Since you mentioned rotting at the base, are you removing the lead weights and foam before planting? This needs to be done, but is seldom advised at the lfs.

No unfortunatly i was not advised to remove the led weight
and i really hope your not serious about the plants that i have not being aquatic plants
as i have searched high and low to get what i have and getting more is going to be a real problem

so i guess i am back to my origanal question how big of a job is it to remove the substrait from the tank and replace
with fake plants as i really can not get my hands on any what a disaster one problem after another

 

[OldMan47]

There is no need to remove your present substrate if you have used the garden soil or potting soil covered by a gravel cap as you would with an NPT. If you remove all but the vals and pull the plant weights off the vals, they will slowly spread to fill the tank as they should. In the meantime, you coud just put some silk plants around as decor until things grow in. I find that vals in my NPT just send out runners constantly in that fertile part of the substrate and new plants pop up all the time. The non-aquatics should be removed before they eventually die and cause you nitrogen problems in the tank water.

 

[Mr Bliss]

I agree. Vallisneria can grow and spread at an amazing rate, just remove the lead weights.

The fine leaved plant on the very right side of picture #3 is aquatic too, as OldMan said. And I'm not sure about the one in pic #1 either, as it looks like it might be a species of Nymphaea lotus, which is an aquatic plant.

Unfortunately the other plants are definitely not aquatic, and better off in a pot on the windowsill, like the others said.