Plants

[shaun_j]

Hi just a few quick questions on having plants in your tank.

How do you manage them ?

do you need a co2 filter ive seen them on ebay

do they need to be fed?

thanks

 

[Truck]

you need a c02 injection system. quite good lighting.(unless you get ones with low lighting requirments. and i recomend you use ferts

so for co2 you dont need a pad you need a 2 litre pop bottle, 1m of airline an airstone and a check valve

fill the bottle to the first ridge with sugar then add double the quantity of water(has to be luke warm not to hot or cold). then add a tea spoon or 2 of yeast i use about 1.5 teaspoon. so the quantity of sugar to water is 1:2.

to manage them they need a trim every few months. there is a topic on this somewhere.

and just buy some liquid ferts and dose the recomended quantity

good luck

 

[shaun_j]

you need a c02 injection system. quite good lighting.(unless you get ones with low lighting requirments. and i recomend you use ferts

so for co2 you dont need a pad you need a 2 litre pop bottle, 1m of airline an airstone and a check valve

fill the bottle to the first ridge with sugar then add double the quantity of water(has to be luke warm not to hot or cold). then add a tea spoon or 2 of yeast i use about 1.5 teaspoon. so the quantity of sugar to water is 1:2.

to manage them they need a trim every few months. there is a topic on this somewhere.

and just buy some liquid ferts and dose the recomended quantity

good luck

would this here work? http/cgi.ebay.com.au/Co2-Diffuser-Aquari...id=p3286.c0.m14

and is the co2 thing essential ? my friend has plants in his tank and doesnt have one

 

[Truck]

id say the co2 is essential for them to flourish. the diffuser gos on the end of the airline and they are good as its easier for the co2 to dissolve into the water. do a diy system i have you need to replace the mixture every week or so

 

[mark.w.jones]

I have not had any good experiences buying plants off of ebay. The last 2 times I have had quite poor quality and only one of each species in the pack. I would recommend you stick to around 4 different species of plant only and buy a 5 or so of each so that you can bunch them together in you tank. If you have a smaller sized tank, <20gallons it fairly easy to get by without a CO2 diffuser by using Seachems Flourish Excel instead. Basically liquid CO2. As mentioned CO2 makes a huge difference to healthy plant growth. Stick with easy to grow species though and you can get away without it but I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[waterdrop]

I have not had any good experiences buying plants off of ebay. The last 2 times I have had quite poor quality and only one of each species in the pack. I would recommend you stick to around 4 different species of plant only and buy a 5 or so of each so that you can bunch them together in you tank. If you have a smaller sized tank, <20gallons it fairly easy to get by without a CO2 diffuser by using Seachems Flourish Excel instead. Basically liquid CO2. As mentioned CO2 makes a huge difference to healthy plant growth. Stick with easy to grow species though and you can get away without it but I wouldn't recommend it.

Yes, I think jonesy's advice is very well taken! Its important with beginners for us to lay out the full range of the planted tank landscape, so to speak. A beginner has to understand enough to even be able to establish some initial goals or they might head down a path that's wrong for them. If a beginner is interested in a community tank mostly focused on tropical fish and just wants some healthy plants to compliment this, then working with "easy plants" can be important and perhaps staying within the bounds of Flourish Excel as the carbon approach would make things much easier.

If the beginner finds he/she really wants to take extra interest in the plant side of the tank, then its true that DIY CO2 and Pressurized are sometimes taken on, even by beginners, but either carries a commitment. DIY obviously takes some DIY effort up front, but the money outlay is small. The result though will carry more maintance duties and we are told its fairly difficult to maintain a stable CO2 level with DIY. Pressurized tends to move up the money scale (potentially a lot, although a fire exinguisher diy approach can be done there too) but after setup requires less intervention to maintain a stable CO2 level in the tank, which is important.

And of course, CO2 is just a whole topic all about one particular nutrient plants need. Plants also need the main 3 macronutrients P,N and K and they need trace nutrients too and these need to be in correct quantities with correct timings. And understanding light and using it correctly is another topic area, when going beyond "easy plants."

~~waterdrop~~