Live Plants?

[panther1505]

I am new to this forum, and also new to fish keeping. I use to have a 10 gallon aquarium when I was around 10 years old. I'm now 42.

I just started up a 42 gallon high aquarium. I've got an undergravel filter and an external Whisper 60 filter. I have 3 artificial plants, and a rock formation in my aquarium. The fish that I currently have are,
Gold Zebras
Neons
Glass Cats
and Bala Sharks

I am thinking about removing 2 of the artificial plants and replacing them with live plants. I don't want to get any plants that will grow so big that they take over the tank.

Can anyone suggest what type of plants I should get that my fish will be alright with?

[cohazard]

If you want to take care of live plants, you need to know how many wpg (watts per gallon) of flourescent lighting you have over your tank. There are some plants you can keep with 1wpg, a lot more at 2 and 3wpg, and you can keep just about anything at 4wpg. For your tank, you would want to have at least 84wpg (2wpg).

This can be achieved by buying a new lighting setup, because the standard one or two strip lights that come with aquariums usually aren't enough to keep plants healthy. Post what your current lighting setup is, and we'll go from there :D .





Serg

[happychem]

Well, why don't we start at the beginning. It's easy for folks here to get carried away, myself especially. ;)

How densely planted do you want your tank? Do you want fast growth and high light plants? Or are you looking for something more simple, not work intensive, but more limited in choices?

Depending on what you want, you may or may not be able to get away with the fixture that came with your tank.

On a side note, I think it's pretty neat that your aquariums match the age you owned them at.:D