Duped by Petco!

S

stephenpence

What.. my name isn't enough?
Feb 9, 2010
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hey don't blame me! this is my first planted tank too... I have a 20gal long and i'm going for.. lightly planted. here's where Petco stuck it to me..
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the plant you see there is some sort of draecena... (sp?) which is AWESOME because they are my favoite plants that i have going on in there. i also have wsome Java ferns that seem to be doing well and flame moss on my driftwood.. here's a picture of what i have put together so far
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any suggestions on what plants angels seem to like would be appreciated! and before i hear a hundred people inform me of this, i know 20gal is too small for angels.. but they're all juveniles.. and i'm in college... and as soon as i graduate this may and move wherever my job takes me.. i'm moving them into a 50gal. i just don't want to move a tank that size and i figure they'll be ok for a few months.
as for my tank.. i have a 20W coralife spectramax bulb in there with a nutrafin CO2 ladder kickin out about 3 bubbles a minute. i think that's a little much.. but i'm not entirely sure how to adjust it..

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Angels like tall plants, like Vallisneria, which you are unlikely to find at a chain pet store. Have you looked in the Buy/Sell area of this forum?

If you don't have a local fish store you should look online for your plants. Chain pet stores (at least the ones I see here) don't sell very exciting plants, just the same old anacharis, hornwort, Amazon swords etc. You need some low light plants like Crypts, and maybe anubias attached to your wood with cotton thread.

Amazon swords look great with angels, but your tank is too small for them and swords are heavy root feeders, so you would need to fertilize with root tabs since your substrate is non-nutritive. Growing plants in pea gravel can be done but believe me, plants don't like it much. Even plain sand is an improvement.

What do you think of floating plants like Amazon frogbit?
 
It looks like you buried the rizomes (spelling?) of the java ferns. It is a bad idea to plant the rizomes of aquatic plants because the rizomes will rot if buried.

Java ferns and other rizome plants do best when attached to things such as rocks or driftwood. This can be done by tyeing the rizome to the object until the roots naturally attach themselves to the object (I believe it usually takes about 6 months).
 
www.plantgeek.net is great for research purposes. You'll need it because like Chris said, that's not an aquatic plant. And is that java fern you have planted? Java fern is better attached to rock or driftwood.
 
haha i know my favorite plant isn't aquatic! ... that's how i was "duped by petco" thank you for the info on the java fern tho.. i will promptly get it out of there and tie it on to some larger rocks. i've been thinking about slowly covering my pea gravel with sand.. i think i like the look of sand better but i don't want to kill off my bio filter.. any thoughts?
 
The sand will eventually filter itself down beneath the rocks. You won't be able to keep that look for long.
 
Better to keep dumping sand in til it fills in all the cracks? Or scrap the planted tank idea?? Ok that might have been a little dramatic.. I will look into Platytudes suggestions especially The valisneria. Anything I can do to improve my substrate without removing it?
 
since most of you BB are in the filter it wont hurt ya much to change the gravel to sand.. you may or may not get a small spike but nothing a good water change cant handle
 
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