Want To Try My Hand At Live Plants

[pumpkinnose]

Ok I won't be doing this right away but now that I am an adult I would like to try and see if I can get some aquatic plants to thrive. My parents never seemed able to keep plants very long.

I would like to start them in my 10 gallon I have once we get a larger tank for our fish. I also have plans to turn this aquarium into a quarantine tank also, would this hurt the plants any? And after I know I have the plants growing will it hurt to move them?

I think I know somewhat what I need but would like any suggestions or tips.

I would need a way to get co into the water and fertilizer for aquatic plants right? Also do they absolutely need a special light or will a regular light for fish work?

I only know of two kinds of plants I would like to have and those are hair grass and sword plant. How hard are these to grow.

 

[DrRob]

Swords are very easy, just be aware that they tend to melt when first bought and then grow back, so don't panic.

Hair grass is fairly easy, but it likes a fair amount of flow to keep it clean, otherwise you'll spend your time picking algae out of it.

As for the CO2/ferts/light. A lot of plants will do fine with just your stock lighting and some basic ferts every week.

 

[pumpkinnose]

Thanks Dr. Rob. I appreciate it. Hopefully next year I'll have to room to get some plants going.

 

[Geoff-]

swords are easy to grow, they will survive without added nutrients but they definitely benefit from substrate fertilisation and CO2.

I have had good success with both green and brown wendtii cryptocoryne, in fact my brown one grows at 3-4 times the rate of the green one. amazon swords and java fern are also fine. Funnily enough I had a friend who donated some other plants that he said were going bananas in his tank, he had to keep trimming it and removing it - they gradually died in my tank. So if you don't get success the first time try different plants. I have been through 5 or 6 species before finding 3 that work really well for me.

 

[pumpkinnose]

swords are easy to grow, they will survive without added nutrients but they definitely benefit from substrate fertilisation and CO2.

I have had good success with both green and brown wendtii cryptocoryne, in fact my brown one grows at 3-4 times the rate of the green one. amazon swords and java fern are also fine. Funnily enough I had a friend who donated some other plants that he said were going bananas in his tank, he had to keep trimming it and removing it - they gradually died in my tank. So if you don't get success the first time try different plants. I have been through 5 or 6 species before finding 3 that work really well for me.

Thanks Geoff,

I'm hoping that I'll be able to at least get the sword and hair grass to actually grow. I think it will be something that platy fry will be able to hide in especially if it is the actual plant instead of a plastic plant.