live plants HELP

[ntt]

are live plants hard to keep alive and are they expensive

 

[reiverix]

It depends on what plants you want to keep and how you are prepared to provide for them. Some plants, like java fern, are considered easy and require very little maintenance. Other plants are more needy and require lots of light and nutrients. If you give plants what they need then they will grow.

As for expense, well to fill a 100g tank outright would cost a good few bucks. Buying a few common stems is just a couple of dollars. Price varies between species, just like fish. The good thing is that not only do they look better, you can propogate live plants so they end up paying for themselves if you can sell back cuttings to your LFS.

 

[stingray25]

i wanted to do plants too. well i was thinking of doing my 30gallon how much would that cost

 

[reiverix]

Depends really. If you only have the standard tube for the 30g then you'll be hard pressed to grow anything. There's no doubt that decent lighting is where it all starts, and also where a chunk of the expense is.

 

[carttman]

i wanted to do plants too. well i was thinking of doing my 30gallon how much would that cost

I have a 29 gallon tank with 38 watts of light and I am growing plenty of plants that are fairly cheap. I am also growing some plants that cost around five dollars. It really depends on what kind of plant you choose to grow.

 

[sardesign]

Depends on the size of the tank, the kind of plants, the kind of livestock (some fish eat plants), and a few other factors.

You will spend more money for rare plants, needy plants that need very good fertilizer, and ones that need a ton of light. If you have a tall tank, you will need somewhat stronger light to reach the bottom of the tank and just make sure your current livestock don't like to eat plants. You may end up just feeding a nice (and expensive) dinner to your fish