easy plants

ddayton21

ddayton21

I'm bored
Oct 25, 2005
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MISSISSIPPI
Hey,

I have NO experience with live plants and I wanted to add a few hardy plants.

what plants could I basically just stick into the gravel and grow?
Do they all need some form of fertilization?
Should I still vacuum my gravel or will the plants use waste for nutrients?
I have about 1wpg of lighting so low light plants are a must.

thanks everyone
 
What type of gravel do you have? What type of lighting (flouro, incand) and what type of bulb (6500K, 10000K)?

Those will help us more, but they're not direly needed.

If you indeed do only have 1wpg on a 20gal., then the types of plants usually recommended are most Anubias species, Cryptocorynes, Hornwort, Java Fern, and Java Moss. Others can survive under 1wpg, like Dwarf Sagittaria, Riccia, some Vallisneria (corkscrew is the only type I've kept, since it stays small).

Here's a good site to look at plant pictures, since you most likely read through all that clueless. :p:
http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

Hope this helps,
Marty
 
What SuperiorMN said.

Further, if you dont have special gravel, plants that dont care about substrate will be best IMO. Java Fern attaches to something other than the substrate which makes it ideal. Anubias attaches as well but can be in the substrate - still a good choice. Hornwort does not use a root system persay - good choice. Also, I have had good luck with Anacharis in low light condidtions and they dont even need to be planted to grow. Wisteria does decent in low light conditions as well and is not too picky. Some Aponogeton's as well can do well in lower light conditions.

Cryptocorynes are good but some can be picky. I like red wendtii because I have yet to be able to kill it in all types of tanks from .5WPG to 3.5WPG. In the 3.5WPG tank, it developed MASSIVE root systems. Plus it gives a hint of color to a tank.

This is not to say other plants will not grow in a special substrate (like Fluorite), but it makes the conversion to plants just a little more simple without having to buy the substrate for plants that will do much better with a good substrate.

Good Luck

Aries
 
my substrate is just small white aquarium gravel. The gravel is small and lightweight and moves around easily which is why I am concerned about the roots taking hold. It's a fluorescent light but i'm not sure about the type. I'm at school now but I'll look at the bulb when I get home.
 
Will I need to inject CO2 for any of those plants?
 
You don't need to inject CO2, especially since you have low lighting. However, if you double your lighting up to 2wpg, then you could add some DIY (yeast) CO2.

I would recommend picking up some Flourish or Excel, which are both basic liquid fertilizers, as they will provide a small amount of "CO2" that the plants can use. You can do this before upgrading your lighting, substrate or anything else, and it will still help, just not as much.

If any of the LFS around you have plants, stop by and write down the plant names they have. We can then help you pick out the ones that are most likely to do well.

HTH
- Marty
 
alright, sounds good! I'm not looking to have a heavily planted tank. I have plenty of plastic plants but I just would like to put some live floura in the foreground for authenticity. I will try and go tomorrow afternoon and write down the names.

thanks for all the help! :thm:
 
I have a similar question, so instead of starting a new, very similar, thread, I'll hitch a ride on this one.

For Christmas, I'm getting a new light fixture that will bump me up to 65W on a 29 gallon tank. I'm in the similar situation. Just want to try some real plants now that I'm up to low-light instead of sub-low-light. Don't really want a tankful, didn't want to mess with special substrates and fertlizer, but understand that there are some suitable plants out there as mentioned above.

This thing is, my tank is a quasi-SE-Asian biotope, and I'd like plants that would be indigenous to some part of Asia. Are any of the above Asian plants?
 
To clarify Matty's statement, Flourish will provide you with an excellent trace element source. Excel is a non-CO2 carbon source. I've been using it on a ~low light 10 g tank for about a month with good results. Next week I'll be cutting out the Excel to see if it makes a difference.

Pretender, hit up the plantgeek link that Matty posted in his first post. The plant geek website lets you search plants in their database by region, so you can just click SE Asian and see what comes up. They don't have every plant available in their database, but they sure do have most of them.
 
hey there guys

I know its been a while but I FINALLY got to the petco and got some plant names.
Here is what they have:

borneo sword
"umbrella plant"-never heard of it and I dont know scientific name
microsoriam pteropus-EDIT:just found out this was java fern so thats good
anacharis
amazon sword
"tropical fern"-never heard of it and dont know scientific
 
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