Setting up Planted Tank - Help Needed!!

[wherestoad]

Hi all!

Some background: I have a 20 gallon tank with neon tetras, zebra danios, a glofish danio (from a friend), two snails (one a golden mystery and the other a black racer nerite), corydoras catfish (3), and a little pleco (also from the friend). They all have been thriving in the tank for the past several months and I’m looking to finally add some live plants.

My questions and concerns:

1) I’m going to quarantine every plant I get. But I’m thinking of doing one at a time. Is this a good idea?

2) How many plants should I get? I was thinking of starting with two (a floating plant and another) and seeing how I do since this is my first fish tank since I was a little kid.

3) Any recommendations on plants? I was thinking about Ludwigia repens. What do you guys think about that one?

4) Any and all advice on how to clean and quarantine these plants is welcome and very much wanted!!!

Thank you!

 

[Rocky998]

when it comes to plants, get a LOT when you're first planting. Not one at a time. You want to start off with a good amount

I'll let others more experienced comment on the other things

 

[Byron]

Different plants have different requirements when it comes to light and nutrients. Very generally, faster growing plants need more intense light and more nutrients than slow growing plants. Point is, we need to know your light data, the type, and spectrum (somewhere it may have a 4 digit number with a "K" suffix, this is the Kelvin rating). The nutrients have to balance the light or problem algae may be a nuisance. Also, what is the GH of your source water; GH measures the calcium and magnesium, referred to as the hardness (softness) of the water, and this is a source of these two mineral nutrients.