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i have a 20gal tank with heater and filter temp about 77f. i have plastic plants but ive been looking at some tanks that are well planted and they look very beautiful! i want my tank to be and feel more realalistic for my fish. i dont know ANYTHING about live plants so i will need all the help i can get!

I would strongly recommend using live plants. It's very beneficial to keeping your nitrates down and my fish seem to enjoy having all the hiding places to dart in and out of.

What is the wattage of the lights in this tank (assuming it has lights)? When you go to look at plants you will need to find ones that will grow well with the wattage you have in your tank. We have about 1.5 watts per gallon in our 55 gal tank and have anacharis, hornwort, amazon sword, and a few others that were not labeled. The anacharis and hornwort have gone from 2 small bunches each to over-running the tank... we trim off the excess about every 2 weeks and have enough to plant in our 2 smaller tanks and still share with friends. So, I would suggest that if you want to start with something easy that you get either anacharis or hornwort (1 bunch will do) and see how it grows. Hope all that helped.

-Beth

i will study about the lighting some more i have to buy a light for my tank first i just got a little lamp right now for light during night time.....when i do get the light i will buy the plants the same time so i know what kind of light to get. do i need to get any fertilizers or anything of that sort? is there anything i need to do to keep the plants alive other than just buying them and planting them in the tank? plz help!

-Mira

really depends on what type of plants you get. i would recomend easy plants like crooked/corkscrew val, java moss, java fern, banana plant, elodea, hornwort, anubia etc.
i have a 20 gal running with 24watt 10,000 K bulb. i also sometimes use arcadia marine white lamp which is pretty much the same thing(almost it has less blue and more green light and is only 18w, not as good).

most people would say that using a 6,500K bulb is better for freshwater but i disagree. really just a matter of personal taste.

in my tank i have val, java moss and banana plant all of which grow surpebly well. i dont fertilise at all because my fish do that for me and i dont add co2. if you're going to go for stem plants like elodea or hornwart than you may need to fertilise.

you may also need to fertilise when first adding the plant if your tap water is particulary deficient in minerals like we are down here in sydney, aust. i fertilised for the first 2 weeks and thats it. its mainly just to add some heavy metal minerals like copper and iron.

Yes, yes, yes, definitely go planted. The benefits are enormous in both their help to water chemistry and the health and well being of the fish. And you will get the joy of watching your fish live and grow in a more natural environment and behave in a much more natural way. It is the single best thing you can do for the fish.

After the endorsement comes the caution. Make your life a lot simpler - do a little bit of research. At the beginning all you really need to provide is sufficient light, do not yet worry about fertilizers or such. After that THE most important thing you can do is choose your plants wisely ! So often you will see posts from people who on the spur of the moment picked up a really pretty plant and popped it in their tank, only to ask why it is not growing or dying. Almost always it is because they chose a plant that would be difficult to grow for even an expert or a plant that is not really aquatic. They then give up and think they are not capable of growing plants.

Know beforehand what kind of plant can survive and grow in your set up and use only those. There are plenty of people here who can help you choose appropriate plants. This is important because you don't want plants dying in your tank, it will pollute the water, isn't nice to look at and will destroy your sense of confidence. There is no mystery to growing plants, no magic touch is required just a little homework so you know what you are getting into. I'm sure by this stage you know not to put an Oscar in a 5gal tank, well by the same token it's just a matter of learning that a beautiful red plant won't work in a tank with one bulb. It's simply a matter of putting the same thought into your plant stocking as you would your fish stocking. People tend not to do this simply because the plants are seen as "expendable"

For light, check what you have now and then change as necessary. What you need is flourescent light, incandescent just won't work. You need initially 1.5 to 2 watts per gallon, i.e if you have a 10 gal tank you need 15-20 watts of light, 20 gal tank 30 - 40 watts of light etc. The bulbs should be "daylight", avoid bulbs marked "cool white", no need for those special bulbs in the LFS, overpriced and not much benefit. This won't allow you to grow every plant but would give you room to grow a pretty wide selection without worrying about fertilizer or CO2 etc.

Lastly, be patient. Yes, you have seen the pics of those nice tanks , but they didn't happen overnight. Start slow and easy, with a few easy to grow species. They need time to settle and grow and fill out, you will gain confidence and then you can gradually try more difficult one's if you like and more complicated set ups.

With a bit of imagination, creativity and clever design it is very possible to built a beautiful tank with the simplest of plants and equipment.

GO FOR IT




Last edited by bensaf at 03-Oct-2004 22:49

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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.

And just to address a point in your post that I think went unnoticed - there's no need to light a tank during the night. Fish need to sleep, too, and 24 hour light keeps them from doing so since they nearly all lack opaque eyelids.

-Molly
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A plant that is easy to grow, I bought the bulbs from walmart (yeah I know wal-mart..bad) and the things have grown crazy!! I have hornwart and some others, but these things went crazy and almost fully cover the back of the tank! about 17 inches tall with flowers above the water level. Maybe not the best looking plants (I like them!!!), but they sure help with the natural chemistry of the tank. I even have some little growths that came from the bulbs around my driftwood! Never planted anything around the wood, but they plants found a way to make it work...Also I have, not sure the exact species (micro grass?), a grass type of plant that is growing well for our guppy tank. I think our bubble bar hindered the plants before, because too much Oxygen was in the tank.

pros: plants are beautiful, and make your tank look much more natural
fish love them
they help buffer all sorts of water conditions
they add depth to the tank, even if it's 12" wide.
you can rearange them when they grow for best efefct. develop your artistic skills with them.
no plastic could be as beautiful as the real thing

cons: they sometime mess your tank, aspecially when you're a begginer that makes mistakes
they are even more complex than fish when it comes to nurturing them
the fish might love them too much, and eat them
they are more fuss in the tank. if you don't want to invest in them, don't do it.

i have a kind of desert look to my tank. i have a skull of an animal inside for a hiding place and lots of dark colored plastic plants like red dark green medium green. is there any red plants i can buy that wont be too complicated? i want plants that wont need a lot of atenttion other than light. also another question i have the regular small rocks as the bottom flooring would that pervent the plants from growing well? is there anyother flooring i can put thats not for saltwater fish?

Most red plants need higher light levels, unfortunately, and are a bit more complicated than what I think you're looking for.
You should be able to find a pretty good assortment of lighter and darker shades of green without any problems.
The gravel you have in there might be fine, depends how long the tank's been set-up, with fish, how large the individual stones are, and how thick your gravel bed is.
For a low light tank I'd recommend crypts, hornwort, anubias, java moss, java fern, just to name a few.

I am one for live plants. My tank 5ft is 99% Anubias reason easy to maintain and at a reasonable price. There are some excellent planted tank by members often posted no names mentioned but I think a certain Irish man has got one of the best planted tanks I have seen for a long time.
Keith

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plastic plants are evil ]:| they've killed 2 of my fish that wedged themselves between a plastic plant and the wall of the tank while trying to get at food that fell in there... that was the end of plastic plants for me! 100% live now

Last edited by devon7 at 23-Oct-2004 20:28