Questions About Planted Tanks

[tez2k007]

Getting my new 105 gallon tank on thursday which is an upgrade from my 33g. I have seen people selling plants on ebay such as 25 plants or 50 plants for like £10. Has anyone else bought from ebay and also with regards to keeping plants I have ever only had about 4 or 5 in my tank which outgrew the tank and just made it look a mess.

Any suggestions on buying these plants and how to keep them looking good or any other tips.

This is the link from ebay. http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...s%3DI%26otn%3D2

 

[three-fingers]

My tip would be not to buy those plants.

The plants they send out are usually very bad quality and many of them not even aquatic.

Before you choose plants, work out which species will grow in your tank (lighting levels will be needed) and chose the ones that you like the look of.

 

[hogan53]

Hi Tez
Ive bought these plants before.
These plants are fine to start a planted aquarium.
Best tips a can give are decent water turnover,dose with fertilizers and trace elements each week also reasonable lighting.
I have both substrate that's suitable for plants and just plain gravel which i added JBL root balls.Ive done okay with both.
The choice depends on your budget.
Read up on EI dosing in this forum and UK Plant Society.

Also buy a decent book on aquarium plants.
Like The 101 Best Aquarium Plants,this also has 33 species to avoid ie messing up your water quality.
hoggie

 

[tez2k007]

Hi Tez
Ive bought these plants before.
These plants are fine to start a planted aquarium.
Best tips a can give are decent water turnover,dose with fertilizers and trace elements each week also reasonable lighting.
I have both substrate that's suitable for plants and just plain gravel which i added JBL root balls.Ive done okay with both.
The choice depends on your budget.
Read up on EI dosing in this forum and UK Plant Society.

Also buy a decent book on aquarium plants.
Like The 101 Best Aquarium Plants,this also has 33 species to avoid ie messing up your water quality.
hoggie

Hi, cheers. I am probably going to be using sand for the substrate but still trying to find out if I can just use general play sand from argos which is a hell of a lot cheaper than what my lfs sells it for.

 

[Truck]

Hi Tez
Ive bought these plants before.
These plants are fine to start a planted aquarium.
Best tips a can give are decent water turnover,dose with fertilizers and trace elements each week also reasonable lighting.
I have both substrate that's suitable for plants and just plain gravel which i added JBL root balls.Ive done okay with both.
The choice depends on your budget.
Read up on EI dosing in this forum and UK Plant Society.

Also buy a decent book on aquarium plants.
Like The 101 Best Aquarium Plants,this also has 33 species to avoid ie messing up your water quality.
hoggie

Hi, cheers. I am probably going to be using sand for the substrate but still trying to find out if I can just use general play sand from argos which is a hell of a lot cheaper than what my lfs sells it for.

you can use play sand no problem...but i suggest you use toysrus sand instead as it requires less preparation

 

[tez2k007]

Hi Tez
Ive bought these plants before.
These plants are fine to start a planted aquarium.
Best tips a can give are decent water turnover,dose with fertilizers and trace elements each week also reasonable lighting.
I have both substrate that's suitable for plants and just plain gravel which i added JBL root balls.Ive done okay with both.
The choice depends on your budget.
Read up on EI dosing in this forum and UK Plant Society.

Also buy a decent book on aquarium plants.
Like The 101 Best Aquarium Plants,this also has 33 species to avoid ie messing up your water quality.
hoggie

Hi, cheers. I am probably going to be using sand for the substrate but still trying to find out if I can just use general play sand from argos which is a hell of a lot cheaper than what my lfs sells it for.

you can use play sand no problem...but i suggest you use toysrus sand instead as it requires less preparation

Didn't even think of that I will check it out thanks

 

[three-fingers]

Hi Tez
Ive bought these plants before.
These plants are fine to start a planted aquarium.

The list they give in that auction includes 5 or 6 species of non-aquatic plants already...
Plus several varieties that will require high lighting and/or CO2.

Total waste IMO.

 

[Truck]

and when they say 50 plants...they will more than likely send you 50 individual stems...the equivalent to a pot of tropica or aquafleur

 

[Jallen]

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/25-Live-Aquatic-Aqua...id=p3911.c0.m14

I got them.

They are all doing fine except the Elodea which just rotted because my lighting isn't good enough.
Go with this set over the other one. These are all 100% aquatic, delivery is super fast and the plants are awesome quality.

 

[baron von bubba]

[URL="http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/25-Live-Aquatic-Aqua...id=p3911.c0.m14"]http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/25-Live-Aquatic-Aqua...id=p3911.c0.m14[/URL]

I got them.

They are all doing fine except the Elodea which just rotted because my lighting isn't good enough.
Go with this set over the other one. These are all 100% aquatic, delivery is super fast and the plants are awesome quality.

i also used that guy when i started my tank up and i personally couldn't fault the service and the plants sent.

you want lots of fast growing plants to begin with, cover as much of the area of your tank as you can also.
do you kjnow what lighting the tank will have? have you decided on your filtration/flow? will you be adding co2 and do you know what ferts you are going to use?

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=298133

have a good read of this.

 

[hogan53]

Hi again
As i said earlier these would be okay for a start up.
I bought these http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/50-Live-Discus-Softw...34.c0.m14.l1262
a few months back and they where perfect no complaints what so ever i just gave away the ones i didn't want.
That's my opinion.
hoggie

 

[tez2k007]

<a href="http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/25-Live-Aquatic-Aqua...id=p3911.c0.m14" target="_blank">http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/25-Live-Aquatic-Aqua...id=p3911.c0.m14</a>

I got them.

They are all doing fine except the Elodea which just rotted because my lighting isn't good enough.
Go with this set over the other one. These are all 100% aquatic, delivery is super fast and the plants are awesome quality.

i also used that guy when i started my tank up and i personally couldn't fault the service and the plants sent.

you want lots of fast growing plants to begin with, cover as much of the area of your tank as you can also.
do you kjnow what lighting the tank will have? have you decided on your filtration/flow? will you be adding co2 and do you know what ferts you are going to use?

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=298133"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=298133[/URL]

have a good read of this.

Dont really know alot about c02 and ferts. Think I will order some of those plants. I had about 5 plants in my 125l tank but they grew too much and just looked a mess.
Not sure if thats your tank in your sig but it looks awwsome.


This is the tank I am getting if this helps. http/www.seapets.co.uk/products/aquarium...rium-black.html

Not in black but its the same.

You guys can probably make more sense of the light specs than what I can.

 

[Truck]

Pressurised CO2 is a must with these tanks...they hold 450 litres and have 4*54 watts of HOT5's thats a lot!

 

[tez2k007]

Pressurised CO2 is a must with these tanks...they hold 450 litres and have 4*54 watts of HOT5's thats a lot!

So lighting is fine? All I need is C02. Where can I get that and how do I go about using it. Sorry I just not certain about stuff with regards to planted tanks. Saying that I was not certain about anything to do with tropical fish til I came to this site.

 

[Truck]

Pressurised CO2 is a must with these tanks...they hold 450 litres and have 4*54 watts of HOT5's thats a lot!

So lighting is fine? All I need is C02. Where can I get that and how do I go about using it. Sorry I just not certain about stuff with regards to planted tanks. Saying that I was not certain about anything to do with tropical fish til I came to this site.

read the pins at the top of the page on CO2