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Hi I am just starting this whole plant thing and I need ideas on what type of plants I could put in my tank they would need to be hardy.

Parameters

12 Gallon
Sand substrate
75F
Some rocks

Will contain a Bolivian Ram,2 otto's and a few tetra's. I was hoping for a South American tank but I am willing to make exceptions with plants.

Last edited by bcwcat22 at 14-Aug-2005 07:31

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

bcwcat,

You forgot to mention one component that is important for planting, the amount of light that you have.

Sand is not the best substrate for plants, but given that you have (or will have) some rocks you could use Java Fern, some of the smaller Anubias plants, and Moss. All of these do not require too much light.

How much light do you have?

Ingo

PS: On a side not, am I reading this right that you are planning on ONE oto? Why? They like to be in a group, if I am not mistaken.

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Sorry thats a typo I meant 2 otto's and I have a very limited lighting 1 florescant tube.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

bcwcat22,

Ok, so how many watts does that tube have and, if you happen to know this, what is the K value (like in 6,700K)?

As for the Otos, 2 is not a school. You either need more or none at all. Without going through your previous posts in the hope of finding the answer, why do you want Otos in the first place? Did you read the wonderful article [link=A Word About Otocinclus]http://www.fishprofiles.com/articles/freshwater/oto.asp" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link] from Calilasseia?

Let us continue the conversation when I have the answer to the question above (and after you read the article and think about if this is really what you want).

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Im in the process of getting a new bulb so I dont currently have the wattage. As for the otto's I was told probably wrongly by a friend that 2 otto's would be ok in my size tank if I fed them fresh veggies and closly monitored tank conditions. After reading the artical I think im going to put more research into them. I will have the new wattage in a day or 2 thanks.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

1 regular fluorescent tube is going to give you really low light on a 12 gallon tank, they are usually about 15 watts. So you're going to be just over 1 watt per gallon, which isn't much at all on a small tank. You can still grow some things, anubias, java ferns, mosses, common cryptocorynes, etc. There are probably more that I'm not remembering right now.

A good article to check out on low light setups without CO2 is Tom Barr's "Non CO2 Methods." Very informative.

[link=http://www.barrreport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=395]http://www.barrreport.com/forums/showthread.php?t=395" style="COLOR: #36af30[/link]

Remember that your plants will grow very slowly in a setup such as this one but the main benefit is that it will be very low maintenance for you. Minimal dosing, hardly any water changes (6 months is not unheard of), and of course not a lot of pruning because the plants grow slowly. You can use Flourish Excel if you want faster growth but you will need to match the higher uptake with more nutrients added - ferts.

Thanks I jus got the bulb and its 15 watts. I was wondering what is your opinion of an amazon sword would it be ok in a low light tank?

Last edited by bcwcat22 at 15-Aug-2005 12:32

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

If you need low light Plants, go with some Anubias attached to a piece of Driftwood.


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