Converting to Live Plants

[mercurial]

A little backround. I have about a 6 month 'old' tank, with plastic plants & a gravel substrate (about an inch deep). When I was starting out I didn't want the extra complication of dealing with live plants as well as the fish side of things. Now things are established I would like to get some live plants in the tank. I doubt this is the first time this has been said in this forum (is there a sticky I missed?).

I have read this forum a little, and there seems to be talk of the amount of Watts/gallon, tank height, different substrates, CO2 'injections'.

I would prefer not to have to worry about most of these things, especially dealing with extra C02, or increasing light levels. If there was a convenient way to keep the substrate and lighting that i have then that would be great. Any suggestions on plants, how to introduce them, tricks etc. would be great.

Are java fern & moss stuck to a piece of driftwood my only options? I see that some plants at my lfs come in 'pots' is it ok to keep them in these, or should I put them into the substrate. Will I have to add anything to the water to help growth & survival? I would prefer for everything to reach a balance without additives, is this possible?

Too many questions .. I hope not.

[BluEyes]

Originally posted by mercurial
I would prefer not to have to worry about most of these things, especially dealing with extra C02, or increasing light levels. If there was a convenient way to keep the substrate and lighting that i have then that would be great. Any suggestions on plants, how to introduce them, tricks etc. would be great.

the substrate you have will be fine - my first planted tank had regular gravel. I don't think I even used any root fertilization, but that will help alot. (look at my site - the no-longer-set-up 15g tank was my first)
Increasing light somewhat would be a good idea, though over what most aquariums come with as standard. But, there are many easy ways to do it - some kind of homemade light fixture, or just something to put another light over the tank will go a long way.
CO2 is not essential, but useful. Of course, low lighting will go hand-in-hand with no CO2. Take a look at the 20g "blackwater" tank on my site. It does not, and never has had any added CO2. No root fertilization, and only occasional fertilization. (weekly? not usually that often even)

Are java fern & moss stuck to a piece of driftwood my only options? I see that some plants at my lfs come in 'pots' is it ok to keep them in these, or should I put them into the substrate.

There are plenty of options aside from java... anubias, crypts, sagitaria, even my aponogetton grows well under pretty low light

and plant them - the material the plants are in isn't so great for the roots. Also, roots in the substrate will give the plants another source of nutrition and keeps the gravel healthy.

Will I have to add anything to the water to help growth & survival? I would prefer for everything to reach a balance without additives, is this possible?

Yes, definately possible, but you will have to keep the planting level down. When you have a fully planted, lush tank the plants just suck so much out of the water, the only solution is to fertilize. Of course, a dab of flourish and flourish iron every day or two works great. I don't precisely measure the amount anymore because I am often pressed for time, but the plants seem to get what they need...

[thom336]

dont worry about CO2, extra lighting, different substrates, height of your tank....it is possible to go mad, but no need. I keep plants in one of my tanks which is only a foot high, no lighting, no CO2, and a sand substrate (gravel is better i'd say from experiance). That said, i would suggest that you do a light if you don't have one already - a single flouresent tube would suffice. For a basic planted tank, you dont need nothin fancy of technical like all that.

Here are some plants you should try:
Vallis, Creeping Jenny, Java fern, Java moss, anubias nana, Elodia (which now goes under many new names i think), ludwigia, the list goes on...

I'll suggest to you what i seem to be telling alot of people on here - go for a plant collection! There is a post telling you where you can get one of these from, and i'll give you the name of it in a min when i check what its called. these plant collections generally contain a good quality, wide range of plants for the beginner, and it was one of these collections that i started out with. They are also generally value for money.

If you get plants in pots, then remove the plants from the pot and plant them into the gravel. The pots are there to encourage root development prior to planting.

Hope this helps.

[grace]

You will love having live plants! (once they become established ;) )

Do you know what wattage you have over the tank now? What size - especially height - is your tank?

As far as the plants go, some great low-light, hard-to-kill species are the Cryptocyrnes, Anubias nana, and of course java fern and java moss. I believe the java fern can also be planted in the gravel. You might be able to use the potted plants in your local store - do you remember what they were?

You might be OK with the amount of gravel you have, but it would be better to add another inch or so and chances are the light that came with the tank won't be strong enough or emit the right spectrum to keep the plants healthy over the long run. I know that here, in the US, we can get cheap bulbs made by General Electric that work great for plants in an aquarium in the local home improvement stores.

It is possible to have a low tech tank with good looking plants! Check out a few of the aquarium plant websites: tropica.com (http://www.tropica.com)

aquabotanic.com (http://www.aquabotanic.com)

There are others here who are more knowledgeable than I who can help you out as well, but I hope this gets you started! And there is no such thing as too many questions :D

[thom336]

'what are som good plants?' is the thread name, and it was posted by stik6shift98

U know, the 3 of us must have written our answers at the same time....

[superstein61]

Looking at your tank specs, you say you have a dual tube light - so depending on the wattage of those bulbs, you may be good to go as is.

Like you, I started out not wanting to mess with co2, more light, etc, etc. I eventually decided I needed to up my light to about 1.5 watts per gallon (before, it was about .6 watts/gallon ). other than that, if you pick the right low light plants (many have been named here - Anubia, Java fern, java moss, anachris, water sprite, hornwort, etc) you shouldn't have much problem. You may need some liquid fertilizer depending on your plant load, etc - but not to the extent that you see many speak of on the high light, co2 enriched tanks. then again, once you start planting, you may want more and better growth, so . . . . .

[mercurial]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I still have more than a little to learn. I will head on down to my lfs and see if I can pick up a mixed selection of plants and see what I can get to grow.

Thanks again.

[Faramir]

'Afore ye go...

check on the Krib for blacklisted plants http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-list.html#blacklist. LFSes are buggers for selling terrestrial plants as aquatics. They don't last long.