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I still consider myself a novice when it comes to planted tanks. My first has a flourite substrate, then I did a a gravel/flourite mix, and finally gravel over flourite. None of these tanks have special lighting, just whatever came with them. The plants are doing well.

I'd like to convert my 30g from plastic to real. I call it my dark tank...black gravel, charcoal grey rocks, neutral (sparkling gourami) and dark fish with just a bit of coloring (black phantoms, metallic blue guppies, etc). The background is the matte side of foil and the tank has a flourescent light giving it almost a purple/grey look.

I want to keep everything as-is except for the plants. I already have floating hornwort, water wisteria, and water sprite as well as a bit of java moss. The plastic plants I have are tall, so I'm thinking of just getting amazon swords...kind of keep it simple with the theme.

So anyhow...my question is how well will swords do in just regular gravel? Or is there another somewhat tall, simple plant I should use instead?

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

As long as the gravel is conditioned a bit, should be just fine. Grab some fert tablets and follow the instructions. Seachem's makes a decent root tablet.

http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=5&filter_by=3]http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=5&filter_by=3[/link] are some mid sized to larger plants, and [link=http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_list.php?category=5&filter_by=4 are some taller plants ( background type). If your lighting is strong enough, and they have a good fert source for their roots, the Amazons should be fine in regular gravel.

Thanks for the info.

I've got some fert tablets; so I should start using them before I plant?

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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

After planting would be fine, especially if you're not adding a whole lot of plants. There's no reason to have fert tablets in the substrate in places where no plant is going to even go near, or that it's roots will be able to reach.. something you don't know until you start planting. When you push in the tablets, make sure they are practically sitting on the glass under the substrate...we don't want the ferts leeching. Also try to keep them about 3 or 4 inches from the plant. If you're going to plant pretty heavily, leaving little room in between plants, you can go ahead and plant and then just push the tabs in at intervals, to " condition" the entire substrate, without worrying too much about placement. It's best to do it AFTER planting still, so while planting you don't accidentally dig one up or bring it too close to the surface of the substrate.

Good links for the novice planter -


http://www.kingvinnie.com/aquaria/articles/auralproportions/

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forum/fertilator.php
http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm#brown
http://www.tropica.com/default.asp
http://www.plantguild.com/
http://www.plantgeek.net/
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm]http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm[/link][link=http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/
http://www.gregwatson.com/products.asp
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_aquacalc.htm

Have fun and good luck!

I wouldn't start with the tablets for now, if it's a new tank let it stablish, plants will do good in the mean time, if you start to see signs of lack of nutrients, then start with the tablets. You could have algae problems if you start right away with them.

I already have floating hornwort, water wisteria, and water sprite as well as a bit of java moss

Maybe I misunderstood. Are these already established in the 30 gal tank you are putting the amazon swords in? And it's already a cycled, established tank, right? That is the way I took it. If that is the case, should be fine. What root tablets do you have?

Taken off the seachems site - "Flourish Tabs are growth stimulating tablets for plant roots. They contain essential trace elements, amino acids, and vitamins. They are rich in iron, manganese, magnesium, calcium, potassium, inositol, choline B12, biotin, and other factors that have been determined to be beneficial to aquatic plant roots. They contain no phosphate or nitrate that would promote algae proliferation."