Converting to Live Plants

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davidsnew

Catch & Release
Mar 1, 2003
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Evergreen,Co
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I am contemplating converting on of my tank to live plants. The one I think I will convert is a 29 gal that has been established about 3 years. I am hoping that live plants will help with my nitrate levels.

I do 50 % water changes about once a week. We use well water that is untreated and is on the hard side with a high iron content. That tank has a few mollies and 6 corys. Most of the Corys are about 3 years old so it seems everyone has adapted to the water. I never have problems with ammonia or nitrite but it seems that my nitrates are always at or above 40 ppm.

I have natural colored gravel that is smaller than pea gravel but would never be confused with sand. The girl at petsmart said I could just plant in the gravel. That is contrary to logic and to everything I have ever read or heard about it. So what I would like to know is how to go about changing out the substrate and what I should change it too.
 
Regular gravel is common. I use it, and I have no problem growing plants. Most stem plants get their nutrients from the water column, so I just dose (macros and micros) and they do very well. If you want to buy a substrate like Eco-Complete, that's fine too (I've used this in the past).

What you should really think about is the type of plants that you'll be putting into your tank. With that, you should be able to figure out the lighting requirements that the plants need. If you're going for low light, then you know that no co2 will be needed. Most likely you have the standard bulb and canopy for your 29. You can upgrade to something like a 55w bulb and keep low light plants. If you upgrade to something higher (2.5 wpg), your plants will need co2.

So light should be your main concern right now if you're going to start a planted tank. Everything else will fall into place. Please read the sticky regarding macro and fert dosing, this is very important as well.

HTH
 
I am surprised that just plain gravel is all that is needed for plantings. I am going to try a moss wall on th back of the tank and going to use some of it for cover in the for ground. The rest I have not decided on except that I am going to stay with a low light theme. I don't really want to expand my investment in equipment just yet.

any suggestions for midground plantings
 
Now that you've decided what light scheme you want, you may still have to upgrade your lights. 18w is still very low light, and on top of that, you'll have dark corners in your tank because the bulb is too short.

I know. I have a 29 gallon tank.

Think about upgrading the lights when you have a little money in your budget.

For midground plants, maybe you should try Java Ferns. Remember, you have a small selection of plants for your setup. If you want to grow something in the low/med range, just upgrade your lights to something like a 55w, and you'll still be below 2wpg, but your plants will be better for it.
 
davidsnew said:
I am surprised that just plain gravel is all that is needed for plantings. I am going to try a moss wall on th back of the tank and going to use some of it for cover in the for ground. The rest I have not decided on except that I am going to stay with a low light theme. I don't really want to expand my investment in equipment just yet.

any suggestions for midground plantings
Click to expand...

I use only natural gravel in my tank when I started years ago, you can always add ferts to gravel.
Be careful of moss, it can grow like weeds. I throw away clumps every week.
For low-light forground you can have annubias, crypts, ect. Larger annubias, and java sword for back-ground.
 
Aquabum, you are going to have to give me your secret for growing roots in gravel. I have stem plants that I got as clippings, and the buried parts always rotted. The gravel was just too heavy and dense for roots to grow through, and the weight also probably killed those portions of the stems. If the plants come with significant root growth already, I dont' have problems, though.

Also, I have to disagree with tanker and say don't use root tabs with gravel! I did it, and the ammonia spike following it was awful! It killed all my shrimp, but I noticed in time to do a 75% water change. Substrate fertilization is really best with plant-specific substrates that are porous and will hold onto the nutrients, rather than let them leach into the water.

davidsnew, it's good that you already have high iron content. That will definitely benefit your plants :) It sounds like you might get away without many fertilizers at all, if you already have high nitrate. Since your water change schedule is good, it's probably coming in with the well water. Do you know what the nitrate and phosphate level is in the well water?
 
From "Plah831" don't use root tabs with gravel! I did it, and the ammonia spike following it was awful!

Strange i have never had ammonia spike with root tabs. Where did you buy your tabs from?? I got some from fishvet.com and never had a problem with them.
 
you're right, it may be that we are dealing with different tabs. I bet some contain ammonia while others do not. I don't know what kind they were, they came from a trusted live plant dealer. He threw them in for free :) Suits me right. I should never put anything in my aquarium that I don't have full information on, huh?
 
Quote "I should never put anything in my aquarium that I don't have full information on,"

No truer line then that. :cool:
 
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