Plant Advice

[fishdaze]

I've been keeping fish for years now but never got into using live plants as scenery/water quality benefits. I think I may want to start. I have a 30 gallon tank and a 46 gallon bow front. I would like to start in the small one and see how it goes but I have no idea what kind of plant/s to get. I honestly am looking for a fairly low maintenance plant that doesn't require any CO2 added and is fairly cheap but at the same time aesthetically pleasing and an aid to water quality... basically I want the perfect plant for little cost haha. Anyone have any suggestions for plants that would be good for someone with lots of tank experience, just no plant experience?

P.S. - I'm not sure if it matters but...the small tank has a leopard bush fish, 2 spiny eels, a common pleco and a blue crayfish in it. All fairly small except the pleco who is 3-4 inches long.

[AshK]

A crayfish expert will chime in on this, but I'm fairly certain your "blue crayfish" will eat live plants.

As far as plant suggestions, how many watts does your tank light have? What kind of substrate do you have?

(Do you have any plans to get a larger tank for your current stock? All of your fish will outgrow the tank except the crayfish....)

[hamsterman]

When I had crayfish they tore all my plants up :( but seems like people have varying experiences with them.

Low maintenance, easy, slow growing plants I would recommend are any java fern, aquatic moss- java moss, christmas moss, flame moss, etc. (in my experience, java moss grew fastest), and anubias. I love these types of plants as they are affordable and very hard to kill. I actually prefer them to stem plants. These can live under fairly low light as well.

Easy stem plants people may advise you to try may be hornwort, cabomba, or anacharis although hornwort seems to grow a bit fast as well as cabomba and anacharis in the right conditions.

[fishdaze]

The spiny eels that I got were of the kind that the store owner told me wouldn't get more than 12 inches. I made sure they weren't fire eels or tire track eels as I've heard they grow much too large for either of my aquariums. The bush fish is currently about the size of a quarter. He was sold as an african spotted leaf fish but my research says otherwise. I also have the 46 gallon tank that I mentioned that I can easily transfer anyone growing too large into.

I was wondering about the crayfish situation, I had heard different stories about them eating plants, tearing them up or simply leaving them alone. I wasn't sure if possibly him tearing them up a little would be compensated for by their growth. That's also another reason I would rather go with something fairly cheap just in case it gets destroyed lol. My substrate currently is simply gravel and the light says "120 VAC, 60hz, 20 watts" on the back of it. I have a double bio wheel filter with carbon. Like I said I know very little, if anything at all about keeping plants so I apologize for not knowing some of the things that may be generally considered "common knowledge" for them. Thanks!

[petluvr]

i would suggest first upgrading your lighting before trying to put ANY plants in your tank. With less than 1wpg you are just heaing for disappointed with plants:) My cray has never bothered plants but mileage does vary greatly with these things:)

[inkyjenn]

to cheaply upgrade your lights, measure the length of your tank, then go to home depot. they sell flourescent lights for a fraction of the price of the ones you can buy at a fish place. remeber you want a minimum of 1 watt per gallon and somewhere around 5000 - 10,000K. the bulbs are marked as are the fixtures. make sure the bulb wattage does not exceed the wattage rating on the fixture.

i picked up a 4' fixture that is currently holding 2 40 watt, 6500K bulbs from home depot for around $35 with tax. a similar fixture from a fish place would cost $200-$300. it is on my 55 gallon and my plants are doing pretty well. i dont use co2, just a dab of excel and fluorish. i do happen to have 60 lbs of fluorite as substrate though. the plants i have are all pretty inexpensive as well: anubias (nana and barteri barteri), hornwort (ive had this same plant for 4 years or more; it grows really fast and is pretty much indestructible), water wisteria (same deal as the hornwort), red rubin swords, 2 species of crypts, and apogonaton of some kind (a bulb i bought in one of those packs), some large plant that i have no idea what it is, and java fern. everything seems to be growing very well in that tank. in fact, i need to trim back the hornwort and move some of the wisteria from the 55 into another tank

[stussy28]

I have a P. Alleni crayfish also and it has not touched my anacharis which is my favorite plant because it is such a vibrant green and grows very easily.

[fishdaze]

Hmmm well I was hoping I could just go buy a plant and set it in with my current set up, but it appears that my worries of it not being so simple are justified. Thank you very much. I think I will be attempting to add some plants after upgrading the light, but I think I'm gonna wait until after my final exams to tackle the project. It will take a little more effort than I had originally hoped. Good thing I asked. Thanks again.

[petluvr]

No extra effort and actually VERY little costs. I bought a 4 foot "shop light" as Wallie world for like 10 buck and the bulbs for about 12 and EVERYTHING thrives in my 29 that it is on. I know before anyone says anything I loose a lot of light because of over hang but it works great:)

[Squawkbert]

I'd start by buying a little Java fern &/or Java moss and maybe some Anubias nana petite. These can all be ties to rocks or driftwood. Java fern & moss are seldom eaten by much of anything.

I'd also buy better lights, or at least get the best bulb you can for the fixture you have...

Good luck!

[fishdaze]

So I finally went upgraded my lights. For my smaller tank it was a real pain to do it myself because there was a very limited selection on bulbs that would fit with my hood since the slot for the light is only 2 feet long. I put in 2 20w "natural light" bulbs by using part of the setup it came with and ripping out the guts of my old one so I could keep the fixture. I went out today and got some java moss, a crypt of some sort, and cabomba. They look great, hopefully it goes well and I can add more and eventually do the same with the other tank. Thanks for the help!

[fishdaze]

So... I did some more research and actually saw the layout to do it with 4x14 watt cfl's... and I took back the stuff I bought from home depot and bought the stuff for that instead. More watts and looks much cleaner. took me to 1.9 instead of 1.3 wpg for my 29g.