Sufficient Conditions For Plant Survival?

[kearey]

Hello.

I recently decided to toss my hat, err wallet, into the planted tank world. I have always done hard aquascapes. I suppose I am looking for some advice, or reassurance that I am heading in the right direction. So, I have listed my aquarium specs below. It is my intention to purchase some additional plants soon, perhaps some Java fern. I currently have Amazon swords, and they have been looking good for about the past two weeks. I am adding a liquid plant food supplement as well, approx. 10ml per week.

Tank
46gal/175l bow front.

Lighting
1x36" T8 Marineland actual daylight bulb @30w.
1x36" T8 Flora-glo 2800k @30w.

Substrate
Tahitian moon black sand.

Plants
Amazon swords.
Marimo moss ball.

 

[DrRob]

Although I'm not personally a fan of moss balls, they can look nice. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with what you're doing.

Do remember that the swords, if bought from one of the standard suppliers, tend to be grown emmersed and will generally have to replace all their leaves with underwater ones (known as melting).

Remember that we love pictures.......

 

[mike455555]

we do love pictures and it sounds fine what your doing. if you only have moss balls and swords why not try some other plants like crypts? ect

 

[kearey]

It has been over three months and I am happy to report the Amazon swords are indeed growing, quite well in fact. I replaced the Flora-glo with another Marineland daylight bulb which seems to have had a positive affect. The largest plant began to sprout a runner with several smaller plants.
 
Today I added some Anubias (barteri), and Rotala (rotundifolia) to the mid/foreground area of the tank. I planted the Anubias, but I was very carefull not to bury the rhizome. However, I have been toying with the idea of fastening some to the woodwork with fishing line. What I would really like is to fill the bottom of the tank, hairgrass or something similar... but I am not sure if my setup will suffice without CO2.
 
I will take some quick photos at some point...

 

[r.w.girard]

That's great to hear.  I would definitely second Mike on the cryptocorynes.  They are great, easy plants that don't need much light and seemed to grow fine back before I started to use any kind of fertilizers.  Look forward to the pictures.  And while I know it is planted, maybe you keep fish in it too? Love to know what.  

 

[kearey]

 

[Lunar Jetman]

If it were me, I'd put the big sword in the left corner and have the others around in front of it and get some more plants, e.g. Crypts. They're all in a line virtually down the middle so there's no real depth to your tank.