are there any real plants that's identical to fake?

gagaliya

gagaliya

GNOME POWER!
Nov 20, 2005
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NJ
www.happyreward.com
hey guys! yeah i know confusion title..here are the plant i am looking for:

1) will not drain oxygen from tank at night (at least not any measurable amount)
2) will be ok with regular gravel (thin layer of 1/4" thick)
3) requires no co2 pump etc
4) requires no special fertilizer (i am ok with putting a few drops of plant stuff in there once a while)
5) be ok with my two strips of flouransant light (aquaglo 20W and lifeglo 20W)
6) very hardy

basically i am looking for a plant that almost require no maintaince like a fake plant and does NOT cause any issue with the tank params. My tank will be a heavily stocked 50 gallon rainbow species.

java farn? can i just drop those in the tank, put a few gravels on the root to anchor, and not worry about it?

anything else better?

thanks!
 
Well, with 1/4" of gravel rooted plants are pretty much out. Java fern, which isn't planted in substrate, would still need something to anchor too like driftwood or even some rock structures. Even then 40 watts over 50g is pretty low for plants. I mean a lot of people think my 80 watts over 50g is too low. I'm kinda thinking you might be best off not having live plants to be honest.

PS Plants don't drain oxygen they supply it.
 
Hound said:
PS Plants don't drain oxygen they supply it.
Click to expand...

During the day this is true but at night they actually absorb O2 but in a lightly planted tank it would not make a difference.


You might want to try looking into some mosses, like java moss. It's not a "leafy" plant but it can look great if done right.

Also, Anubias barteri var. nana 'Petite' is a good plant in very low light.

You might want to try attaching the plants to small rocks or pieces of slate to keep the down.

Here is a website that has pictures of plants and thier requirements.

http://www.tropica.com/default.asp
 
thanks java moss sounds like my kind of plant:) couple more questions please!

1) to plant, i just drop the java moss in my tank? anything else special that's needed for them?

2) from googling it seems java moss will cover your entire tank substrate in short order, which is fine with me. But they wont grow higher than 3-4 inchs though right. So my entire tank bottom will be a healthy green, and i dont really need to do any aquascaping?

3) how much oxygen will be consumed by a patch of 36" x15" java moss in a 50 gallon tank? a lot? do i need to add powerhead to get more oxygen for my rainbow fishes?

4) how do you grave vac the fish waste/food out of the buttom if it is covered entirely with java moss!?!

i wont have any bottom feeders except 30-40 cherry red shrimp (which i doubt i will ever see again with the java moss),

here's a pic of my current setup, which i think we all agree looks very fake..

tank4.jpg
 
The amount of oxygen consumed by the plants at night will not be a danger for your fish. It may increase the pH by a small amount, but overall, will not affect much of anything else.
 
ok thanks, can someone tell me how you gravel vac or clean the substrate of a planted aquarium? need to know how much work is involved before i go a fully covered substrate bottom.

edit:

ok think i have decided on the plants for my tank:

1)Hemianthus callitrichoides - to cover the entire tank substrate
2)Anubias barteri var nana - for some varity in fore/mid ground
3)Vallisneria spiralis - for the background

i read the sticky thread but still very confused. Can someone just tell me what's needed to keep those 3 type of plants live and healthy?

1) will normal substrate work? or require special substrate, if so which kind is best (ignoring price)?
2) what's the min lighting required? also does range matter? for example some are 6500k, others are 10000k
3) anything else i need to add to the tank for plant maintainence?

thank you for your help!
 
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