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I was just wondering what everyones favorite and most enjoyable plants to grow are? I am new to planted tanks and am interested in anyone elses experience with any type. I right now have 2 java ferns and some water sprite. I like the java ferns alot they seem to have a thousand babies growing on them and I've only had them for a month. The water sprite hasn't had a chance to show me what it can do

How much light do you have on it? The sprite should take off if you have enough light.
Java ferns have always produced dozens of plantlets when you first get them (IME) you can leave them to float around the tank or move them to a smaller tank to grow up.

One of my favoirtes right now is rotala indica, it's responding really well to the CO2. Does good under 2wpg, but turns a better pink/red under higher light.

^_^


[hr width='40%']"Put your soul in the water,
And join me for a swim tonight"

I like my 4 leaf clover. Under 4 wpg it's kept it's 4 leaf form and only gotten 2-3" high. If it keeps growing how it is then it should make great ground cover. Under lower light I'm told it will grow but only gets 1 leaf per stem, grows taller, and doesn't spread as quickly.

I love any type of sword plant(echinodorus) and pretty much all the anubias species I have grown are fantasticaly easy and have great color. I have yet to find a stem plant that I really like though .

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Fake ones

I have 4 watts per gallon but because I have so little plants right now I only put on half my lights. I have no co2 and I don't think I ever will. But we will see. What types of fish like ground covers??

My guess is that most community fish will like ground cover. Any bottom feeders may have a hard time getting at food. (But don't take my word for it, I have no ground cover)

I've found that Crypts work well for beginners, although they tend to like lower light than what your tank is capable of. There are a lot of beautiful plants that require high light like you have, you should feel lucky that you have the opportunity for a great garden.

Also, what size tank is it? IME, Water sprite can take over a small tank like mine (10g) and I have to prune it almost weekly. With the right conditions, Water Sprite can be a beautiful plant. Try dosing with ferts (if you haven't already) to see that bright green come out.

My tank is 75 gallons. I've read that I can have some beautiful plants, but I'm concerned about the upkeep of them as I have heard that alot of them are hard to keep. Does anyone know of any that are easy to keep. I have drift wood and some rocks and a big rock (that I haven't put in my tank yet) to attach plants to. I haven't done any research on fertalizer yet but plan on it.

Most of the hygrophilia love high light, such as hygrophelia polysperma, which is also very easy to keep. Most sword plants(like echinodorus 'rubin'), if fertilised with root tabs, are also very easy to care for and will use the high light.

[link=Tropica]http://www.tropica.com" style="COLOR: #00FFFF[/link] is a great website to look at plant requirements.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

There are lots of easy to grow plants. It depends how much light you have on your tank. Try the sticky at the top of the page for some information. The swords and crypts in my tanks are fairly low maintenance but may require a root tab shoved under them on occasion depending on your substrate. Anubias is slow growing but requires no maintenance and likes to grow on driftwood. Most of my low maintenance tanks are planted in crypts and aponogeton with a few vals or some of my baby sword plants that have spilled over into other tanks.

My favourites since beginning my planted tank 4 years ago are the Japanese Spatterdock (great cover for many of my corys, barbs & the plec), Aponogeton crispus, my Rotala Macandra and the Red Tiger Lotus. The amazon sword and the Echinodorus osiris is also good & the angels love it for spawning, although an algae bloom has affected the Echinodorus and hasn't recovered as well as I would like.

Substrate is garden soil topped with gravel for good iron/mineral/trace element base.

Ambition: If I could get rid of the algae properly then the Aponogeton madagascariensis (Madagascan Lace Fern) IS IT! one day maybe.



In wildness, nature is not human-hearted!

My tanks are all low, low-medium light. I've had success with anubias, dwarf sag, anacharis, moneywort, java fern, crypts, and Amazon swords (if only my fish wouldn't eat them )

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

i say... anubias nana..well..if ever u see it growin at all..hehehe..but..with proper setting...it will reward u...

Favorite plants - crypts, anubias and swords. (for now, anyway )

Most stem plants I've had with my set-up (2.4 WPG, pressurized CO2) have exploded in growth and taken over the tank. I hadn't the time to keep them looking their best, what with all the overgrowth and the ugly roots etc. If you have the time for these plants, then go for, I'm sure it's rewarding.

Right now though, I've got moneywort, which seems to be a slower growing stem plant, which sounds promising to me.

Still, though, I love watching anubias plants grow - first there's this stalky thing poppin gup, then the next day it gets bigger, then it starts to open, the next day more so, and then finally there it is, a big beautiful new leaf. Same thing with swords, though I've had mine (green melon and ozelot) for a little over a week an I already have a few new leaves out of them. it all depends on what you have the time and money for

Last edited by nowherman6 at 02-May-2005 10:53

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Back in the saddle!

Anubias and Crypts, just because they are so easy and maintenance free.

IMO Anubias are the most versatile plants there are. You can doo pretty much anything with them, from Groundcover to backgropund filling.Crypts come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors.

Stem plants, while much prettier, tend to become a bit of a pain to maintain in the long term. Two stem plants I do like working with are Ludwigia Repens and Hygrophila Augustifolia.

The Repens is pretty and versatile. Can be used as a background or mid-ground plant. Very undemanding. Grows in such a way that it's easy to trim and sculpt. Not very fast growing so doesn't need much work.

The Augustifolia is probably may favourite plant in my tank. It's very beautiful and requitres very little work. It has incredibly long narrow leaves (some reach about 8"which are bright green with a silver underside so it can really brighten up a tank. In good conditions it produces a lot of side shoots without any trimming so it becomes incredibly bushy quickly.Moderate light needed. Only work it requires is to be uprooted about once a month and the bottom trimmed of and the top replanted. Only down side is that it gets so tall and bushy it really requires a fairly big tank to really appreciate it's beauty. Perfect for filling a corner on a medium to large tank. 1 or 2 stems can look like a forest fairly quickly.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.