Some Ideas Of What To Plant...

[Nosnibor]

Hi All,

My partner raves on about this site so I have hijacked his login to ask for some help please
We have just bought a 180l tank and as per previous advice given on another threads we have just started our fishless cycle (recommended by rdd1952) and the tank is looking a little bare so I am doing some research.
Martin is the fishy person but I am more interested in plants so wondered, whilst we are waiting for the cycle to finish whether you can recommend some easy plants for us to start with. I have read some info about mosses which look nice but not really my cup of tea. We currently have a piece of bogwood and two rocks in there with sand and a fake 'rock' backing. I would like to use real plants as Im keen to see them root themselves etc to make a more natural setting for the fish but dont really know where to start. I have also read some threads on readers tanks which talk about CO2 and fertilising - is this necessary for all plants? Plus crabs have been suggested so are there any any plants they do/dont like?
Sorry to post such a novice request and perhaps not in the right place (please advise) but some pointers would be great. Just to top it off, some low maintenance plant suggestions would be much appreciated!
Many Thanks Nina

 

[DevUK]

Hey Nina, welcome to the forum

I'm slowly getting to grips with plants (very slowly!). For starters, you might want to look at Java Fern. Its a hardy plant that will survive in low to high light. Its the sort of plant that will root onto stones and wood and looks great

You don't have to have CO2 if you're only going with easy to grow plants that are fogiving. Take a look around the Plants and Planted Tanks forum, lots of info in there, although it can get a bit techy at times Check out the sticky posts for a list of plant suggestions.

 

[three-fingers]

I have also read some threads on readers tanks which talk about CO2 and fertilising - is this necessary for all plants?

Nope, only necessary for 'difficult' plants and in tanks with high lighting, If your juwel has the standard lighting, then it's classified as low light .
Although if your tank doesn't have many fish in it and you have lot's of plants you may need to fertilise.
Some species like Amazon swords need to feed through the root, so a substrate fertiliser or root tabs is needed by these.

The best advice I can give you on plants is buy good quality ones to start with, don't be tempted by the cheap bunches in your lfs unless you are 100% sure you know about the plant, they are usually all cuttings, and I would especially avoid any bunches of java fern from your lfs. Lfs's very frequently sell non-aquatic plants for aquariums that will soon rot and die, so it's great that you asked here before buying .

Very good low-light plant starter plants for your tank are things like java fern and Anubias species. And the best quality ones can be bought here, you can pick up tropica brand like the ones sold at that website from some pets@home's too, and dobbies garden centre if there's any near you But aqua essentials have the biggest variety and very good service.

Plus crabs have been suggested so are there any any plants they do/dont like?

Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend crabs at all, they will eat most plants, even java fern and Anubias if there's nothing easier for them to tackle.

The main problem with crabs though is that unless you happen to be importing certain species from Germany, the only crabs you commonly find in UK stores (and UK websites) are actually brackish crabs (red claw crabs, and fiddler crabs, there are a couple of others that go by different names as well) , they don't do nearly as well in fresh water and their lifespans are reduced significantly. Sometimes people get lucky if they have hard alkaline water, but I certainly would not recommend it.

The other thing with all commercially available freshwater 'aquatic' crabs is they need at least a bit of dry land to come out on to, and will die if they cant get out (or find their way out the smallest gap in the hood and escape).

So crabs aren't a good idea at all .

 

[Nosnibor]

Thank you very much, its my first forum ever!
Funny you should mention the Java fern as I had seen some piccies and it looks lovely. I must admit with all the latin names I get a little lost but I noticed people had kindly numbered the plants so that really helps. Do I need to worry about roots etc or is it a case of just pushing them into the sand? We had some advice from our local fish shop who suggested fertilizer pills to put near roots but is this necessary or will things just grow happily? I read the info on how to grow riccia which seemed to take care of itself - with a little pruning...

 

[Nosnibor]

Thanks Three fingers!
Martin wasn't too happy about the crabs but you've made my evening! He was wondering if we feed them frozen peas whether it would put them off the plants..
I will have a look on the link you suggested, its such a huge learning curve especially when you have to trust these shops. We tried to get some info about snails in the plants but they were very vague.