Want Something Different...

[#1 Fish Fan]

PM me bmonki!

 

[bmonki]

i bought my fishies a big bit of wood with java fern on it for xmas, you know what, since putting it in I'm ow seriously considering replacing all my plastic plants, it just looks so much greener!

(the bit on the left)

 

[Scates11]

Looks great, I may do the same, my tank is full of fake plants and bright gravel....i like the natural look much better now!

 

[phantomlink]

If you want to keep the fake coloured plants for your kids, try swapping out two of the fake green ones with Amazon swords. They live and I even had one sprout a baby in my 125 gallon ( low maint, liquid fert once a week and only about 48 watts of light or so I'm around 0.4 watts/gallon give or take which is really, really low ) They look great and depending what kind of pleco you have, they'll go around the leaves cleaning them

 

[bmonki]

If you want to keep the fake coloured plants for your kids, try swapping out two of the fake green ones with Amazon swords. They live and I even had one sprout a baby in my 125 gallon ( low maint, liquid fert once a week and only about 48 watts of light or so I'm around 0.4 watts/gallon give or take which is really, really low ) They look great and depending what kind of pleco you have, they'll go around the leaves cleaning them

that sounds pretty ideal, - any pics? got clown plecs so i very much doubt they'll clean anything lol, they mess stuff up instead

 

[phantomlink]

If you want to keep the fake coloured plants for your kids, try swapping out two of the fake green ones with Amazon swords. They live and I even had one sprout a baby in my 125 gallon ( low maint, liquid fert once a week and only about 48 watts of light or so I'm around 0.4 watts/gallon give or take which is really, really low ) They look great and depending what kind of pleco you have, they'll go around the leaves cleaning them

that sounds pretty ideal, - any pics? got clown plecs so i very much doubt they'll clean anything lol, they mess stuff up instead

I dunno what clowns will do to plants, I have a Bristle/Bushynose and they are gentle towards plants. I know Dwarf Clowns enjoy wood because they do munch on it abit, you might see yours over at the wood once in awhile that you just added to it. Here are one of my Swords, I do have some in my tank with a little brown on them but I ran out of ferts awhile ago and just picked up a new, larger, and far cheaper bottle then I originally had so it'll last me a nice while. This plant is about 14" tall or so, you can get them smaller but they do eventually grow. The tallest one I have is currently touching the top of my water at about 19" or so since I have ~2" of subtrate. You'll see some roots around in the picture, I had to replant some of them a month ago or so and never put 100% of some of the roots back in the sand, and they come with about 4" of roots from the store, and quickly go to about 16" of roots in a month. I'm about to rescape the tank and I'm going to have a mess of roots to deal with. All for the better for my new clown loaches though

 

[Colonials66]

In my mind the easiest way to make any tank look better is remove all and any plastic. I recently moved from a smaller tank that was pretty much all plastic plants and plastic ornaments to a bigger one that is just all natural, just with several varieties of live plants and various woods. I'm now thinking maybe adding in some stones and that will be it. But I prefer my new tank a 1000x better now.

 

[biohazard156]

My tank is fully planted and I don't dose ferts or co2 (I *have* ferts but just forgot to use them!) java fern won't need them really, if you want to start slow and see how it goes you can always start using the, when you get more comfy with it all. Look at my tank, no added ferts other than some root tabs which I add every few months into the gravel/ sand!

 

[greenmumma141]

My tank is fully planted and I don't dose ferts or co2 (I *have* ferts but just forgot to use them!) java fern won't need them really, if you want to start slow and see how it goes you can always start using the, when you get more comfy with it all. Look at my tank, no added ferts other than some root tabs which I add every few months into the gravel/ sand!

No ferts/co2??!?! Wow, this is very inspiring as I am upgrading soon and I want to do my first heavy planted tank and am very nervous about using ferts and just mentioning co2 makes me anxious haha. This is great!!!

I agree with Colonials, even if you don't have the means to get alot of plants or anything, just remove the plastic stuff and add a couple bigger stones and go for the natural minimalist look. Natural always looks better, and is much more relaxing to look at. I have kids and they're still very interested in the natural look too. What kid doesn't like rocks? hehe

 

[bmonki]

Hehe, well I've decided I really like one or two of the plastic plants, and the bridge ornament will be staying for the foreseeable cause one if the plecs gets very upset with me when I remove it to clean around it etc. I don't think the heavily planned route is quite for me, mainly because I like to be a bit obsessive and do a headcount of the fishes, so if they were hiding too much behind stuff that'd bug me lol. I'll also have to find a way of keeping the Nemo and bear ornaments. Thinking maybe getting 2 plants like those swords about 20 cm or so and maybe a couple of low level plants got some variety and going more minimal. How would you stop them growing when they reach the top if the tank? And can you trim the roots or would that kill the plant? Thinking of getting another largish bit of wood with plant on for the other side then a have the cave in the middle wth the bridge andlow level things dotted in foreground. Any ideas on a small short plant that again is easy peasy?

Oh and are there any aquatic plants that aren't just green? Any variety with variegated leads or anything?

 

[phantomlink]

most crypts are low maint, low light. I have a few in my tank, I took out 80% of my plants yesterday because the pump for my loaches was a little too powerful for some of the plants but they all moved into a smaller tank closeby. There are other colours of plants, however once you leave the green colour they need more light, nutrients and better care.

 

[greenmumma141]

You know, I would suggest a floating moss ball. They sell them everywhere in the States, and they're super easy, and mine grew at a good rate. It also helps to add height to a tank b.c you can raise the line or lower it. It would look great with your driftwood but wouldn't compete

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The pleco has probably claimed the bridge as his territory and his spot to hang out in. If you were to remove it, he'd probably jump over to the piece of wood to the left. They need wood anyway. My BN carved out a "cave" under my driftwood in the sand. He know sits under it happily for large portions of the day and only comes out for dinner (algae wafer).


Another plant you might want to consider for sitting on the other wood you plan to buy is anubias. My anubias just BLOOMED! A little white flower came out of it. It looks kind of like a lily. Shocking to me that it happened, considering that I have extremely low light 28W for a 56 gallon TALL tank. The anubias that bloomed is actually very close to the light, which may be why it bloomed. More intensity. Anyway, I don't fertilize AT ALL. I have a highly stocked tank and the fish (and any uneaten food) provide the nutrients the plants require. I have a very limited number of plants, but it's helping my cories in their breeding!


Plants:
amazon swords - 4
java fern - unknown. I started with 1, but it grows little "plantlets" on the tips of some leaves. I trimmed them off after a while and attached them to other things. They are everywhere in my tank now in various sizes.
anacharis/elodea

I'll be getting some cryptocoryne wendtii for the front of my tank soon. Its another low maintenance/low light plant.



An added benefit to plants is that they can outcompete algae for nutrients, so they keep the tank cleaner. All of your fish will appreciate it, and many of them may actually show their best color in contrast to the natural plants, rather than the fake ones.


Start small, and soon enough you will find yourself browsing the plants at the LFS as much as you browsed the fish before. Another thing about plants... you can ALWAYS add another one, unlike fish. You can also replace the plants, without guilt whenever you want.


Trimming the plants isn't as big an issue if you have low light/low ferts. The plants will grow much slower than boosting with fertilizer and high light. My tank is 30 inches tall, and I've NEVER had to trim them to fix their heights. You can also buy dwarf plants, like a dwarf amazon sword (amazon sword is a very BROAD category of plants that grow in the Amazon River region of South America). Most amazon swords grow to a specific height, then send out new leaves as they get "bigger". They BROADEN more than grow taller. Anubias and java fern are similar. They grow along their rhizome (green horizontal stem that should be tied to wood, stone, etc.). They only get so tall about 8 inches or so, but will send out more leaves along the rhizome as it grows longer, and will divide by creating plantlets on leaf ends... then the leaf will die.

Plants are the best decision I've made in fishkeeping. BTW, I have a mainly sand substrate, although I do have some flourite under portions of the sand.

 

[bmonki]

most crypts are low maint, low light. I have a few in my tank, I took out 80% of my plants yesterday because the pump for my loaches was a little too powerful for some of the plants but they all moved into a smaller tank closeby. There are other colours of plants, however once you leave the green colour they need more light, nutrients and better care.

Ah ok, so basically stay with the green plants till I get more confident lol... At the risk of sounding even more ignorant than before, what are crypts?

You know, I would suggest a floating moss ball. They sell them everywhere in the States, and they're super easy, and mine grew at a good rate. It also helps to add height to a tank b.c you can raise the line or lower it. It would look great with your driftwood but wouldn't compete

We have two moss balls on the bottom, I'm not too keen on then tbh as they move around so much!

The pleco has probably claimed the bridge as his territory and his spot to hang out in. If you were to remove it, he'd probably jump over to the piece of wood to the left. They need wood anyway. My BN carved out a "cave" under my driftwood in the sand. He know sits under it happily for large portions of the day and only comes out for dinner (algae wafer).


Another plant you might want to consider for sitting on the other wood you plan to buy is anubias. My anubias just BLOOMED! A little white flower came out of it. It looks kind of like a lily. Shocking to me that it happened, considering that I have extremely low light 28W for a 56 gallon TALL tank. The anubias that bloomed is actually very close to the light, which may be why it bloomed. More intensity. Anyway, I don't fertilize AT ALL. I have a highly stocked tank and the fish (and any uneaten food) provide the nutrients the plants require. I have a very limited number of plants, but it's helping my cories in their breeding!


Plants:
amazon swords - 4
java fern - unknown. I started with 1, but it grows little "plantlets" on the tips of some leaves. I trimmed them off after a while and attached them to other things. They are everywhere in my tank now in various sizes.
anacharis/elodea

I'll be getting some cryptocoryne wendtii for the front of my tank soon. Its another low maintenance/low light plant.



An added benefit to plants is that they can outcompete algae for nutrients, so they keep the tank cleaner. All of your fish will appreciate it, and many of them may actually show their best color in contrast to the natural plants, rather than the fake ones.


Start small, and soon enough you will find yourself browsing the plants at the LFS as much as you browsed the fish before. Another thing about plants... you can ALWAYS add another one, unlike fish. You can also replace the plants, without guilt whenever you want.


Trimming the plants isn't as big an issue if you have low light/low ferts. The plants will grow much slower than boosting with fertilizer and high light. My tank is 30 inches tall, and I've NEVER had to trim them to fix their heights. You can also buy dwarf plants, like a dwarf amazon sword (amazon sword is a very BROAD category of plants that grow in the Amazon River region of South America). Most amazon swords grow to a specific height, then send out new leaves as they get "bigger". They BROADEN more than grow taller. Anubias and java fern are similar. They grow along their rhizome (green horizontal stem that should be tied to wood, stone, etc.). They only get so tall about 8 inches or so, but will send out more leaves along the rhizome as it grows longer, and will divide by creating plantlets on leaf ends... then the leaf will die.

Plants are the best decision I've made in fishkeeping. BTW, I have a mainly sand substrate, although I do have some flourite under portions of the sand.

The pleco definitely has claimed the bridge as her territory, but I quite like it anyway so will keep it - the male has nicked the wood for himself as is anyway lol.

Flowers sounds quite awesome! That would be really god, although I'm not sure what lighting we have, all I know is its a fairly bright fluorescent tube...

Good to know that I shouldn't need to trim the plants, I was worried about that, I don't mind them spreading width ways at all, means less initial cost as I'll just buy a few and let them grow to fill the space.


What are some nice short easy to care for plants?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Crypts is a way that folks refer to the genus "cryptocoryne" These come in a variety of species, but all of them (at least all of them that I know) are very low demand, easy to grow plants. So much so that I actually grow some!

Cryptocoryne wendtii
Anubias spp.



Check out this link for some more ideas: http/www.plantedta...n=Cryptocorynes

Stick to Cryptocorynes, microsorums (java fern), java moss, Echinodorus, anubias, and anacharis (egeria densa) and you will be fine.

Some plants will "melt" when first introduced to a new environment - meaning shed old leaves. Usually if the stem remains green, there are no problems. Just remove the dead leaves and wait. The plant will rebound. Anacharis did that in my tank when I first got it. It just melted away to a bare stem. Fortunately, I asked about that and in a few days it was back looking like a plant again. Now it is all over the place in my tank. My cories keep digging the stems up as the shuffle around in the sand, but I just stick it back, or leave it to float around, it grows floating as well as it does when rooted.