Planting a non-planted?

[EvanH]

Hi all,

I'm finally on the ball w/ my tank. I've got a 44 gallon hexagon tank w/...

3 black finned tetras
2 beunos aries tetras
2 giant danios
2 blue gouramis
2 red tuxedos
1 beta (interestingly enough, living VERY happily)

i'm very unsatisfied with the general "look" of my tank. the decoration isn't doing it for me... i was wondering if one is able to add REAL plants to a tank that did not orgionally have them? i'm sure this is probobly a very stupid question.. but could someone let me know? thanks!

[PumaWard]

i'm sure this is probobly a very stupid question..

No, not stupid at all :).

You can add plants to a tank that didn't start out with them, all you need to do is make sure that you have enough lighting to sustain plants.

You could have a lowlight tank with Java fern, java moss, some crypts, and some anubias which you could get away with .5-1watt/gallon with 1.5watts/g being better. For most other plants, with the exception of (maybe, they might do allright) those who have red leave, 2watts/g should be enough. Later, after you start off with a few easy plants, you can move up to those that are a little more difficult.

Good starters are:
Anacharis (Will do allright in 1.5 WPG)
Java fern (Vertually undemanding)
Most Anubias (Most Undemanding)
java moss (Undemanding)
Amazon sword (although they can get VERY big, at least 1.5WPG)
Ozelot Swords (at least 1.5WPG)
Hortwart (At least 1.5WPG)
corkscrew vals (1.5 WPG, do better in more)
Rubin Sword (1.5WPG)
Featherwort (2WPG)
Water Wysteria (2WPG)

[kveeti]

PumaWard had a great answer… I’ll just add my experience.

In June, 2002, I suddenly decided to plant my tank. I had plastic for years (many, many years) and they were starting to break down and turn white, so instead of replacing them I decided to go real.

As just a regular tank, with the standard lighting, do what I did. Research for any plant that is ‘low light’ and ‘easy’ and then you won’t have to bother with CO2. Make a long list because not all plants are easily available. Get what you can when you can. A couple of good starting plant sites for research:

Tropica http://www.tropica.com/default.asp
Aquahobby http://www.aquahobby.com/garden.html

A few start-up suggestions - there are lots but these are the plants I could find so are the only ones I have experience with. (Most of these are also on PumaWard's list.): anubias, java fern, java moss, water sprite, duckweed, crypts. I’ve only recently acquired Brazilian pennywort, so I’m not sure of the long term success, but right now it looks fantastic.

Also, search the plant forum here for “low* light plants”. You have to put the asterisk in because the search doesn’t like 3-letter words. There are a number of results you can sift through.

[EvanH]

thanks guys!

now are there any good faqs around on actually planting the plants?

[kveeti]

I’m not really sure what type of questions you mean; I don’t know of such a page. Once you get individual plants, I would google search them to see if somebody’s put up an informative site on that plant. A general question I have seen on the plant forum time and again is - Do I take potted plants out of the pot? (A) Yes; the ‘wool’ they are wrapped in contains nutrients that would leach into your water and cause algae.

For other questions, you can search the plant forum or ask there if you have any specific questions that you can’t find the answer to. There are some VERY knowledgeable plant people on AC and I’m not one of them.