low light aquarium? cheap noobie

bluemeate

bluemeate

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Sep 9, 2008
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hey, i just got a tank and its not even cycling, i put in cleaned gravel and a bunch of overfed feeder fish to get things going, so should i wait till things level out before i start planting or can i just start planting now if i use some hearty plants?

next I want some cheap plants. are plants cheapest when planted as bulbs? whats the cheapest way to get plants? should i just buy them from petsmart or something, or are there likely to be lots of people who probably have extra plants they want to get rid of?

low light? light bulbs are pretty expesnive and I like my room dark, I also want a dark themed tank so what plants should I look for? also which would be cheapest?

how many plants max should i plant for minimal maintenance... what is minimal maintenence? i dont plan on having a heavy stocked tank though.

Sorry bout the cheapness, just im still in school and dont have a job and need to stretch out what little money I have.

does algea only grow from sunlight or will artificial lights contribute to this also? what kind of algae eater can i use? chinese algae eater seems interesting, I hear they are also aggressive as they get older which seems pretty neat

also the only fish i plan on having is just a feather back aka silverback, an algae eater, a lobster and mayber another fish or two i can find that will live well with them in a 55gal


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Hope this helps.

bluemeate said:
hey, i just got a tank and its not even cycling, i put in cleaned gravel and a bunch of overfed feeder fish to get things going, so should i wait till things level out before i start planting or can i just start planting now if i use some hearty plants?
You can plant right away. The plants will actually help the tank cycle faster.

next I want some cheap plants. are plants cheapest when planted as bulbs? whats the cheapest way to get plants? should i just buy them from petsmart or something, or are there likely to be lots of people who probably have extra plants they want to get rid of?
Steer clear of chain store plants. They are way overpriced and half of what they sell are not truly aquatic plants. Check the Marketplace forum out. You'll do much better there.

low light? light bulbs are pretty expesnive and I like my room dark, I also want a dark themed tank so what plants should I look for? also which would be cheapest?
The low light trifecta; Java fern, Java moss and Anubias nana. All three of those will grow in just about any light and are readily available from almost everywhere. They also don't have any special substrate requirements. Depending on your lighting you could also get some floating plants that will block the light coming into the tank giving you the dark theme your looking for.

how many plants max should i plant for minimal maintenance... what is minimal maintenence? i dont plan on having a heavy stocked tank though.
This depends on lighting, plant types and stocking levels.

Sorry bout the cheapness, just im still in school and dont have a job and need to stretch out what little money I have.
There's nothing wrong with cheap. It just takes longer to achieve what you want.

does algea only grow from sunlight or will artificial lights contribute to this also? what kind of algae eater can i use? chinese algae eater seems interesting, I hear they are also aggressive as they get older which seems pretty neat
Algae grows from artificial lighting as well. No fish out there will eat every kind of algae, and some "algae-eaters" won't touch any algae at all. Buy a fish because you want it in the tank, not because you want it to eat something.

also the only fish i plan on having is just a feather back aka silverback, an algae eater, a lobster and mayber another fish or two i can find that will live well with them in a 55gal
The lobster may tear up your plants.


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dude, your awesome!!

i take it i should buy plant bulbs?

any other lowlight/cost plants that are more tall and stringy?

recomendations on floating plants?

since the lobster will probably eat the plants, do you have any ideas on non fish type guys i can put in the tank?
 
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If you buy bulbs from petsmart, walmart, ect, in my experience only a small percentage of them actually grow, only a few have grown for me. And i have yet to get the lily to grow! But i will probably keep buying them till one grows for me.
 
It's a standard 55gal, right? Then just buy the bulbs marked "daylight" or "sunlight" from the hardware store. Look for a Kelvin rating or color temperature of at least 5500K.

For floating plants there's quite a few: duckweed, water lettuce, hornwort, frogbit, red-root floater, salvina, azolla, etc. The duckweed and azolla can get messy and may completely cover the tank if given the chance, so be careful with them.

I'm not sure of anything plant-friendly that a knife won't eat. the floating plants will probably be safe, it's the submerged plants that will probably get destroyed.
 
schaadrak said:
I'm not sure of anything plant-friendly that a knife won't eat. the floating plants will probably be safe, it's the submerged plants that will probably get destroyed.
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the blackknife? its a herbavore?

For floating plants there's quite a few: duckweed, water lettuce, hornwort, frogbit, red-root floater, salvina, azolla, etc. The duckweed and azolla can get messy and may completely cover the tank if given the chance, so be careful with them.
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once again where can i get these for cheapest? marketplace on here? maybe home and garden supply? lfs?
 
I bought a Hygro Corymbosa from walmart and its still alive... heck it looks healthy too :P

but i would suggest the AC Marketplace. i purchased plants from Jimm197 on his stem package thread and he hooked me up with a custom low-light package for $23 shipped with a heat pack. they came in great shape and theyre doing really good. so i reccommend you check out this thread ;)

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215411

I just bought more plants tonight too. so definitely take advantage of this forums marketplace ;)
 
Do a google search for pet stores/aquariums in your area. You could probably find a place that ISN'T petsmart or petco that will sell a selection of plants.

Wisteria is also good and cheap. It will grow in low light.
 
Plant the tank right away, and Ditto on the marketplace.

I am not sure what you have as far a light, but with a single 48" 34W t-12 light tube like you can get at home depot (assumption) there is very little that will grow and nothing that will really flourish- even moss and anubias, and that's if you do get the proper bulb with a kelvin rating of 5500k or higher, which is mandatory. The plants mentioned will live, but not really do well, so I wouldn't shade the surface with floaters. That will make it even worse. Swords should work too,and possibly even crypts but again, without more light even easy plants will just survive.

That's fine, if that's your goal, but now that I've been bitten by the plant bug it would have saved me a lot of time, money and effort if I had just gone with good lights at the beginning, YMMV. You might also like the look of LED moonlights for night/evening viewing.
 
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