Newbie Plant selection
- Thread starter Avogel1231
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- noob planted aquarium
Oh heck no. These things tend to be way cheaper online. You may have a local store that actually sells plant compatible LED or T5 fluorescent lighting, but more than likely the store will sell you something that is not really great for plants, just because they need to make a sale, or don't know much about tanks with plants.
Lots of LED options online. I still use some "old school" T5 fluorescents, but you have to change lamps every 6-12 months for planted tanks. Check ebay or the likes for Odyssea T5HO fixtures. Finnex or Current Satellite makes some really nice LED plant compatible fixtures if your budget is higher.
View media item 167Here is a picture of my tank in its current state. That rocky looking thing I was planning on taking out and replacing it with a piece of wood that I got at my lfs which when looking at it, I kinda want to fill with java moss. I also moved the sword, which is apparently a grandifolius sword, to the back corner.
It's a nice looking setup. Keep in mind swords can get huge, so you might want to move it more towards the middle, but off to one side a bit.
It looks as if you have a chunky natural gravel, which is fine. You don't 'need' fancy plant substrates, but they do help if you want lots of growth and rooted plants that have more needs.
Your type of gravel can be a challenge with small/young rooted plants (keeping them put), but not a problem for rhizome plants like java ferns and anubia. Java moss grows pretty much anywhere.
Also- if you intend to stock with fish that naturally sift through sand, like corys, this is not the best substrate. You can still have corys, but sand is more natural for them.
It looks as if you have a chunky natural gravel, which is fine. You don't 'need' fancy plant substrates, but they do help if you want lots of growth and rooted plants that have more needs.
Your type of gravel can be a challenge with small/young rooted plants (keeping them put), but not a problem for rhizome plants like java ferns and anubia. Java moss grows pretty much anywhere.
Also- if you intend to stock with fish that naturally sift through sand, like corys, this is not the best substrate. You can still have corys, but sand is more natural for them.
I'm back from the spontaneous vacation my family planned with the neighbors and I am currently looking at some led lights. I mixed in about 3 bags of gravel of different sizes, behind the logs and rock thing is smaller gravel, I will look into the plant substrate though. my parents used to keep fish but they are convinced that you can keep any plant with any light and any substrate so all I have to do is convince them. And would kuhli loaches or some other loach be a more suitable bottom dweller?
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Yes.
You think I can confirm 100% of all my tank's occupants?
besides, if they cannot be seen, nobody can tell you that you're overstocked.
What fertilizer should I use? I am currently using flourish excel but I was told that that isn't enough.
flourish excel will let your plants get more carbon/CO2, basically by acting like an algaecide and removing the micro-algaes from the plants. Some plants don't do well with this.
you'll want to start with your plants needs.. and go from there. There's a whole flourish line, that might be worthwhile following, there's also a set of products called Thrive, made by an ex-AC member I believe.
Or, to save the most money, you can get the dry powdered fertilizers, and add them directly to the tank or create a solution with them and use that.
you'll want to start with your plants needs.. and go from there. There's a whole flourish line, that might be worthwhile following, there's also a set of products called Thrive, made by an ex-AC member I believe.
Or, to save the most money, you can get the dry powdered fertilizers, and add them directly to the tank or create a solution with them and use that.
In my opinion, you're going to want to sort out your equipment and determine exactly what type of plants you want to keep first. Also the amount of care/time/resources you want to dedicate to the plants.
In a lower light application, the plants don't *need* to have supplemental CO2 or ferts. They grow slow and require basically NO extra attention other than keeping them in a healthy tank with some sort of livestock.
More light = more CO2 and ferts needed or you can have algae issues and issues with the plants themselves.
When I kept more stem plants such as wisteria, water sprite and cyrpts in combination with higher intensity lighting, I used a liquid glutaral product for "CO2" and used Seachem comprehensive and Seachem trace elements. I had to scoop buckets of overgrowth out of these tanks, which I kind of lost interest in doing at the time.
With my current tanks with plants, I add no CO2 or ferts and use ordinary gravel. These tanks do get weekly 50% or more water changes that replaces some trace elements.
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