Plants In Tanks

[mattybee]

As i am new to this, i would like to ask all the questions i can to do this right.

Using live plants in an aquarium is this hard to maintain - as i would prefer to use live plants over artifical ones.

Whats your opinion?

 

[Underwurlde]

Erm, every time I answer this kind of question someone else comes in and says its easy...

I personally would NOT say keeping plants is by any means easy, (or using the EI method, cheap for that matter).

There is a hell of a lot to learn and the learning curve is steep... but it IS worth it!

These things need some knowledge:
Plants (obviously, to suit the following):
Lighting
Substrate
Fertilizing regieme

Research a number of methods to see what you think:
Tom Barr 'Estimative Index (EI)' - easy yet expensive & high maintenance.
Diana Walstad 'El Natural' - bit more nounce needed, cheap, low maintenance.

Andy

 

[doresy]

Artificial plants....Most are downright horrible but you can get some nicer ones (silk). They are not cheap but if you post a request in the photo or plant section for photos of members artificial only tanks you'll be amazed!

Some will say only real is best. It is true to say that they are more involved to look after but many (me included) would dispute the fact that ANYTHING to do with fish keeping should be labelled as work.

If you do go for real, and I think you will, then go for something simple to start with. Lighting, co2 injection and fertilizers all have to be taken in to consideration.

I started with terrible fake plants off Ebay and thought they were great until, that is, I came accross this forum.
OMG how was I
Anyway, ancient history now but still trying to create 'the look' Posted a picture a while back only to be told that I have 3 non aquatic plants in there and one may even be poisoness! All purchased from LFS with aquatic labels on....don't mean a thing! Ask for recommendationd under the planted section of this forum, with a photo. I did that, got a reply which was exactly what I wanted and my LFS have ordered them for me!
I use fertilizers (from aquatic shop....none of yer Miracle Grow) but do not use co2 injection. What I have in my tank....or rather HAD grew like mad.

When you are ready post further questions/requests in the planted section for better response

 

[mark.w.jones]

Its not "easy" as such but can be made vastly easier by choosing the correct species. Most LFS workers unfortunately no naff all about plants and will sell you any old thing and tell you any old amount of crap. I would rely on the consensus of opinion from this forum if I were you. My tips would be:

1. Bleach dip all new plants for 1 minute in a 1:20 solution of bleach and water. This kills all snails which are a nightmare to get rid of once you've got them.
2. Pick easy to grow species (link in sig.) I have had success with the following:

Java Fern tied to wood with cotton
Anubias barteri tied to wood with cotton
Thai onion plants
Straight Vallis
Limnophila Sessisiflora
Cryptocoryne wendtii


3. http/www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php Is dead useful as it lets you search plants by their difficulty to grow.
4. The above plants will get on fine with a bog standard plant fertilzer in a bottle. Seachems Flourish is a good one if you have the money
5. Aim for around 2 - 3 watts per Gallon of Lighting this is just above low level lighting but not too high so you start getting algae problems.
6. If it dies so what. Chuck it out and try something else. Plants don't cost the earth luckily.

 

[Azaezl]

I'm really new to plants and I was worried about getting into it that it would cost a fortune, and I'd end up with a load of dead plants. As my journal is titled I'm on the 'winging it' program LOL, which basically means I'm playing it by ear, and not doing EI or high lighting or anything like that. In my largest tank I have about 1.45wpg and I have lots of low light plants, a fert bag from greenline(online plant shop) and I've lost 1 plant which wasn't a low light plant, they are all growing / surviving, my egeria, camboba & creeping jenny are growing super fast and creeping jenny is supposed to like higher lighting. I have plants in 2 other tanks which I put some tropica fert in, I have just got a nutrafin kit for £5 which I'm going to put on my 15 gal which has around 1.2wpg so I'm expecting the plants to grow quite fast.

Anyway my point is, you can do it high tech with EI, adequate lighting, co2 / low tech with EI, basic lighting, no co2 etc and have fantastic results or you can do it half assed like me and still get some results. I guess it's what your willing / can afford to spend and how dedicated you are to doing it right. I'd love to go high tech but really can't afford it at the moment hence the half ass approach, I am really pleased with the results I've had considering I'm a total newbie to it all and I'm not doing anything strictly.

 

[Underwurlde]

^ What can I say? This is exactly the right attitude IMHO to have with plants... Try it, wing it, experiment. It's great fun (even if you get algae, so what, more fun in trying to learn how to get rid of it). If the plants do well, great, if not, so what, learn, move on, improve. Whatever you do, it will be a HELL of a lot better than no plants!

Andy

 

[mattybee]

Cheers Guys Much appreciated

 

[dwarfgourami]

Basically, there are two routes you can go down. You can do the whole hog with extra lighting, special substrate, CO injections, LOTs of research and a tank that looks like a picture book.

Or you can concentrate on a few easy plants, enough to give a little life to your tank and give your fish somewhere to hide.

I haven't got the brains for option no 1, but have done ok with option no 2 over the last couple of years. The plants that have done well in my tank (not very good lighting, hard alkaline water, gravel substrate, adding ferts out of a bottle after my weekly water change) have been hygrophila, Java moss, Vallis, Java fern and anubias. The hygrophila has been especially good as it has grown quickly and I've been able to spread it throughout my tanks.

 

[corey01]

ive always used live plants and i have never had a problem with them ... you dont need to spend loads of cash on them just get some fertilizer deep gravel (adleast 4cm deep) and provide plenty of lighting. plants dont only look nice but they absorb ammonia and nitrate. i cycled my tank using plants (silent cycling) .

 

[Nosnibor]

I have aquarium sand in my tank, what are plants like in that?

Martin

 

[Underwurlde]

Sand will provide nothing for plants other than anchorage.

Andy

 

[Nosnibor]

Sand will provide nothing for plants other than anchorage.

Andy

So a lot of fertiliser tablets required then?

Martin

 

[Underwurlde]

Either that and / or direct dosing of ferts into the water column.

Andy

 

[Vicky99]

I haven't gone hi tech. I guess if you want live plants, keep it simple. I have anubias & amazon swords in my tank - they look great and are easy to keep. I especially love anubias (I have it in both my tanks) as it is a gorgeous deep green colour, really easy to keep (mine have even flowered!) and you can tie it to stuff - I have some tied to mopani wood and it looks ace!

There are good fake plants out there now though too - maybe try a mixture of fake & real?

Watch out for some of the plants in IFS. Some look very pretty (especially some of the variagated varieties) but are not true aquatic plants - in fact I bought some once that basically just rotted in my tank when I put them in - after further investigation I found that they were every day house plants that enjoy wet conditions, but not to be fully submerged!

 

[ebrcknrdg]

oh dear im also a newb when it comes to plants and im so confused. Ive just bought me a hagan neutrafin co2 kit and now ive read you dont need to bother i dont think im bright enough to master the EI method so i think ill just add some ferts and hope for the best. I have a very fine gravel but nothing in it for the plants, does this matter? My light is 38w and my tank is 125g so its not the best but ill see how i get on