No offense taken, Jones. I'm asking 'cause I'm learning.
Thanks for the tips and, Sqwakbert, the pics.
Well, a general update as I went to my LFS last night and picked up some plants. At some point in the next week I'll try to post a few pics, but here's brief narrative of what I ended up with. To your point Jones, the good news is that they didn't have many "big" plants so I ended up with smaller specimens. I also decided against vals as I had read about their propensity to "melt" and they generally seemed a bit more difficult. So, I ended up getting the following:
3 java ferns, each with 6 - 8 leaves that are 3 - 6" in length. I attached these to driftwood
6 cryptocoryne spiralis that I planted approx 4" apart along the back (4) and right (2) perimeter of the tank.
1 anubias nana and 1 anubias coffeefolia that I planted in the middle sections of the tank in the substrate. They were potted in mesh, plastic pots. Per advice from the LFS, I kept them in these mesh pots in the tank; they told me that as the plants grew I'd eventually need to cut the pot away from the plant but until they were established to leave them as is. I did cut some of the plastic meshing away last night to give the roots more space to grow, but I generally kept the structure of the pot intact.
The root systems on all of the plants appears to be very good and the LFS took good care when handling/packaging the plants for me, IMO.
I purchased some root tabs that I put down where I planted the crypts and anubias. The LFS was out of Flourish (I have seen mentioned on AC as preferred) but I did get freshwater plant supplement by Kent Marine - not sure if this is OK??? I added a little last night, slightly less then the "recommended dose".
Still need to get timers for my light, that's on this weekend's to-do list.
Anyway, sorry if this is TMI. As always, I'm all ears for tips and suggestions.
