Which Plants?

[Jinkz]

Hi all,

I've been running my 300ltr community tank for a few months now and till now it's been planted with only a few artificial plants, however the time has now come to get my act together and get some live plants in there but the trouble is I'm not sure exactly which plants to buy.

I've attached a pic of the tank and would appreciate any advice or hints anyone has. I had considered something along the lines of some smaller grass like plants to run along the front of the middle section with some larger leafed plants around the roots and at the back and to provide a few floating plants to give the tank some shaded spots also.

 

[Aqua Tom]

I am just dipping my toe into the world of real plants & have my tank looking like this now. Its no where near finished but I am very chuffed with it so far.

Is this the sort of thing you would like?

 

[TheDarkGoby]

What kind of lighting do you have? It is very important to have good lighting for your plants.

 

[Jinkz]

I am just dipping my toe into the world of real plants & have my tank looking like this now. Its no where near finished but I am very chuffed with it so far.

Is this the sort of thing you would like?

Hi Tom, thanks for the reply.

Yep that's more or less the kind of idea I have although I'd like a little more coverage at the front of the tank and something leafier at the back, but the layout you have is the road I want to go down. I do like that fern type you have back left corner..something like that planted around the bogwood would hide my heater and doesn't have to be close to it to do so.

I know a few people are bound to tell me to start searching posts but there are so many posts and so many types of plants that without the visual reference of pics in tanks it's hard to make a choice.

That's a lovely tank mate, looks fantastic. Is that real slate you have in there too? I'd love some but can't get any here (Israel) so have to make do with the local rocks and lfs wood.

What kind of lighting do you have? It is very important to have good lighting for your plants.

That's a good question. I bought the tank and the lighting came with it. I really need to go back and ask the right questions to the guy I bought it from so will find that out.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Yes its real slate. The plants at the back left are Cabomba, the plants at the back right are twisted vallis. The leafy plant on the centre piece of bogwood is Anubis. The smaller plants scatterd around the foreground are crypts & the "grass" is java moss that i hope to have spreading soon.

A java fern or amazon sword plant would be nice for your "leafy" rear plant. These are all low tech, easy grow plants.

 

[Rynofasho]

Swords require a bit more than your typical java ferns, anubias, etc.

You really first need to find out about your light and (more than likely) replace it. A good rule of thumb for the miniumum required lighting for a low tech approach with less light hungry plants is 1 Watt per gallon of water. Then it is off to choosing low light plants like java ferns, anubias, java moss, some crypts, hygros, etc.

Here is a great site to learn more:

http/www.tropica.com/plants.aspx