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i am going to be planting 2 10 gallon tanks with basic lighting (not sure of the wattage but its a perfect a strip that goes over my glass canopy) and regular gravel (unless someone can recomend me something thats safe to fish and benefits the plants more). Question is what plants will grow well in their besides java fern/moss, anarchis, etc. How would frill or cabomba do in a 10 gallon?

Hi,
As shallow as a 10G tank is, I would think that with the
standard 40 watt flourscent (Daylight, or Sunlight)
6700K, bulb, you could grow pretty much any of the low,
medium, and maybe some of the high demand plants.
The problem however, is the size of the tank. Most plants
will out grow your tank with in months, and in some cases
weeks! I don't know what Fril is, but the cambomba and
anacharis will grow so fast you could probably actually
see it happen. You would be trimming, and throwing away
the stuff in a short time.

Rather than gravel, I would use one of the substrates
developed for plants such as SeaChem's Flourite.
For plants, I would consider the dwarf varietes and perhaps
one of the plants such as a crypt that grows to no more than
4-6 inches. Take a look at the various sites (Arizona
Gardens, Tropica, Big Al's, Drsfostersmith, etc.) and look
at their plant selections. Look for small plants that
will fit nicely into the tank. The stem plants will be
a constant routine of cutting, planting, and tossing.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

hornwort, dwarf lillys, aponos, and gravel should work just fine, maybe some swords also

Flourite... plants love it, I hated it. I rinsed forever and still wound up with dust clouds whenever I gravel vacced or moved anything.

I have a crypt and apons that are now looking at me accusingly because I took away their flourite. Truthfully, though, I think you NEED flourite or something like that to have successful apons. Mine went from practically taking over the tank (with flourite) to itsy bitsy teeny tiny and hardly growing at all with plain gravel.

Even with fertilizer sticks and whatnot, the plants don't do any NEAR as well with plain gravel as they did with flourite.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

The Best way to rinse flourite is to either create a strainer or use a large fish net(make sure it is a fine mesh). Then run the garden hose over it. Takes a lil bit but it will run clear!

Jake

'S what I did... strainer in the laundry room tub, actually, 'cause it was last winter... too cold outside! I spent over an hour rinsing out those stinking 15 pounds of flourite and it was still yucky.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

my luck with plants has been amazing
maybe its because i add fertilizer once a month and i give them half a iron tablet every time the iron is low ( iron is very good for the plants) in my 10 gallon with basic stock lighting everything has thrived to the point that no one want anymore cutings and i just throught them out. so i sugest use the tank as is by fertilizer and get any plant you want

Well i went out and bought a bag of flourite and will soon switch the gravel out and put the flourite in.

I have heard the CaribSea's Ecocomplete is the superior plant substrate, and it doesnt even need to be rinsed!
When I swap my 25 and 10g plant tanks over to plant substrate, I will be using ecocomplete. Plus its lovely and looks like black sand!


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