First timer.

[pyrocreep]

Hello everyone,

So I'm looking for some advice on planting my tank and making it all pretty like yours. It is a standard 55G tank that will be housing SA fish. 2 schools of tetras or 1 school of tetras and 1 of hatchets, cories and 1-2 pairs of bolivian rams. It has a plain gravel bottom; I was going to go with plastic plants at first, but have now changed my mind. There is no type of plant substrate in the tank.

Currently for decoration there are 2 pieces of driftwood which provide caves, but sit very low in the tank and a few flat rocks that are laying flat on the bottom. There is a slight stock of fish, some rummynose tetras and a few shrimp.

As for the equipment on the tank. It is running 2 AC 70's. No CO2 currently (will be DIY if I start), a 200W submersable heater, and 2 sets of shoplights. I can't say I know the type of lights that they are, but they are both running 2 40W bulbs at 6500K.

Currently their are a few plants in the tank that I picked up from my LFS and Petco before I knew better...They are 2 differnt types of crypts (I've forgotten to right down the name), some java moss floating in a clump, a few (I believe swords), and an I don't know. The last 2 plants were the ones from Petco. They came in the packages of bulbs which they sell. The 2nd of the 2 has very broad arrowhead pointed leaves and a nice red coloration to it. (I'll ID it another time though)

So for what I'd like...I would like to see...well really I hadn't thought to much about this yet. I guess your basic tank setup. Tall in the back then short in the front. I don't want any kind of carpet plant though. Also I would enjoy some floating plants for the hatchets or black skirts. I would like to see differnt colors if possible and I'm losely trying to stick with SA plants.

So I guess a few questions then. Will my lack of a good substrait really hurt me or just limit my plant selection? What plants should I pick? If I can find them is it really important to swith to a higher K rating bulb? How easily can I find most of these plants? I'm definitally willing to buy off of here btw so if you know people have the plants for sale all the better.

I'm going to leave it here for now. It's already gotten pretty long.

 

[Mindcrime121]

6500K should be fine and your wattage per gallon seems more than adequate. There are LOTS of plants that need very little light to choose from, among them a variety of anubias and java ferns are most common. Crypts, vals, and others are also avail for low/med light, which you are more than good to go on. The java ferns and anubias all root to driftwood and the like, so do not need plant substrates. Make sure NOT to bury the ryzomes on these plants or they will rot and the plant will die. You could easily get a bag of flourite or other plant substrate and mix into the sand where you want to place any plants which require it without having to redo the entire tank, but shoot for a 50/50 or higher mix in those places.

The bulb plant you are talking about sounds like a lilly by the way. I have a nice one growing myself and it will do best with some plant substrate IMO. Here is a pic of mine.

 

[pyrocreep]

I believe we do have the same plant or atleast mine is a lilly of some kind. Also would switching over to a sand substrate (it's gravel atm if I didn't state it before) work better for plants or would mixing in some substrate with the gravel be better...or sand + substrate....

 

[Mindcrime121]

Better for planting stems if you have sand IMO. I have black gravel myself and added flourite black to it and will not be using gravel again in any future planted tanks because it's harder to get the stems into it without crushing them, plus it doesn't grab the stem bases as well as sand would when releasing the tweezers, so quite often my stems float up 2 or 3 times before I can get them anchored in the gravel propperly. Once they are in and down, they stay down fine though and root well. I think the best option would be a mix of flourite (or a similar plant substrate) and sand. Any or all can work, just depends on how much you want to mess with the stems while replanting your trimmings.

 

[stezatois]

a good deep substrate is a good starting point for plants too. plenty of room for the root systems to establish

 

[icemanx23]

Plant substrate topped with small gravels. 2-3" depth of substrate and 1-2" depth of gravel. Gravels provide anchors and prevent cloudiness during water changes while substrate provide nutrients. It is also easy to siphon debris out of tank and prevents filter intake to suck up the substrate once u topped the substrate with gravel.

 

[pyrocreep]

Hmm sounds good there. I'll probably wait for a time before swapping out the substrate as I'll be moving into a new apartment though. As for plants what species am I looking for? I'd like something fairly thick for the back of the tank that grows to 18" or so.

 

[Mindcrime121]

I've got anacharis, hygro difformis and rotala in my tank for background. The rotala grows FAST so I'm propogating it quickly and replanting the tops to get a nice thick forrest of it. Likewise with the anacharis, although that doesn't root so I just stick it between the wood and the back glass. I also have some crypt balansae but it seems to be rather slow growing. The hygro is giving me headaches dropping leaves on the lower stems though. I'm thinking I might need more current there beween the log and the back of the tank.