New to live plants

Lighting is key IMO. There are many plants that fall into the different light ranges. As far as how many is personal preference and deco scheme. Some plants will require a nutrient rich substrate, and ferts wont hurt.

MMartini13 said:

I have never kept plants before and i wanted to add live plants to my angelfish tank 55g. I wanted some amazon plants because i believe angelfish are amazonian correct me if im wrong?
but i was wondering what equipment i need for keeping live plants?
how many plants should i get?
any special lights?

thanks all help will be appreciated very much

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check this out ...good info for beginners


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I think you should first decide how much work (and money) you want to put into this. With any plants (except maybe Anubias and Java fern), you'll need to upgrade your lighting. The more light you have, the more plant options you have. But with more light comes the need for more fertilizers and eventually CO2 injection (with medium-high and high light). High light tanks require more work with trimming, dosing fertilizers, and such. You can have a really nice medium light plant though, that doesn't take too much work.

I went to http://www.tropica.com and used the advanced search. Some plants that would do well in medium light (around 2 watts per gallon, or 110 watts over a 55g) are Cabomba, Sword plants (some get much larger than others), Sagittaria, and Alternanthera reinecki. I'm sure there are others though.

It wouldn't hurt to use a plant specific substrate, but if the tank is already setup, I'm sure you don't want to change it out. What kind of substrate do you have (gravel, sand, etc...)?