I only have two or three plants in my tanks, well maybe 4 or 5. But all are not that large and I do not want them to take over the whole tank....
Do i need CO2 for them to survive? Or will they do just fine without any CO2?
I have about 16 fish in the tank with the plants.
The tank is a 72 gallon, my lighting is just a flourescent bulb that is about 4ft long. To be honest I have no idea what kind of plants they are...I just bought them from petco because I thought they looked nice. The four on the fron right are real and there is a tall grss on the left in the rear that is hard to see, that is real......let me know if you can identify them by the pic.....
The pics are too vague to tell what the plants are. I either suggest getting closer pics for an ID or going on here to see if you can figure it out yourself, since you can see the plants better than we can. http://www.aquahobby.com/e_aquarium_plants.php Also try to take the pic without flash, as the flash either rebounds and reflects of the glass, or it washes out the colors.
You're going to need more light before you start worrying about CO2, 40w over a 72g tank is not enough to grow plants. You'll want to double the wattage at minimum.
Hard to tell from the pics but I think I see two types of crypts (probably wendtii and willisii x lucens), a sword plant (hopefully not brazilian sword), and a bacopa. Not sure what the tall grass like plant is from the pic.
The next one looks like some sort of anubias, possibly barteri: http://plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=265
You need to take the rhizome (the fleshy horizontal bar that the roots are attached to) out of the gravel. If you leave it buried the plant will die.
The crypt and anubias are low-light plants, but they still may not do so well in your very low light tank. You will need more light for the plants to thrive.
I bought all my plants from petco, and one died already, the tall grass may be mondo grass....which according to the above site is not even an aquatic plant and the one that died was not either. Why sell a plant that is not aquatic......that really bothers me....I think I am going back to fake plants...just want to find some realistic looking ones so my wife will go for it
Yea, Petco is notorious for selling non-aquatic plants, or bog plants as true aquatics. But live plants are great and I don't think I could ever go back to plastic. It's not the plants fault that they were sold as an aquatic plant. You just have to arm yourself with the facts next time, or anytime you make a purchase. You still will need another light fixture in order to get a decent amount of light above your tank, so that your plants can survive. If you don't think you want to go through the trouble then maybe a planted tank isn't for you. :huh: But if you do think you want to continue this route, we will be here to help with any questions.
