plant recs for a beginner

new2tanks

new2tanks

AC Members
Feb 18, 2006
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t.o
hi,

i am planning my freshwater tank and researching various options..
i plan on going with a 15 g (max 20g ) tank and stocking it with neons, pygmy corys, some ghost shrimp and some snails.

what live plants do u suggest will help with algae and such?

(i should say im a novice,never having done this before)

also is it possible to keep healthy plants with the neons as they do not require much light and plants do require certain amont of light?
also what kind of gravel/sand shld i use for these plants?

thanks for reading and all your help, :)

N.
 
It's hard to recommend plants for you without knowing first what kind of lighting you have over your tank, and how many watts. Then we can decide which plants would be best, and what kind kind of substrate you would need.

As for neons and plants, I would say that a fairly heavily planted tank using low to medium lighting and plants should be fine--the higher light levels can be blocked to some degree by bushy plants and floating plants at the top of the tank to create some shade for the fish below.
 
Hornwort, Anubias, Crypts, Anacharis, Java Fern, Java Moss, Water Sprite are all good plants to start with and require low to medium light which you will probably have.
 
Unless you have an incandescent lighting fixture (which is often supplied with aquariums), in which case you could probably only grow java moss. You would then need to switch the incandescent bulbs for spiral compact fluorescent screw-in type bulbs (daylight, preferably 6.500 k).
 
is it really hard to have live plants? do the pros outweigh the cons..coz im reading lost of stuff about fertilizer and water parameters and im not a chemist...!

i plan on getting fluorscent lighting.... .
alos since im going with the low light plants , what is the wpg?

thanks all for their help.
 
Ms.Bubbles said:
Unless you have an incandescent lighting fixture (which is often supplied with aquariums), in which case you could probably only grow java moss. You would then need to switch the incandescent bulbs for spiral compact fluorescent screw-in type bulbs (daylight, preferably 6.500 k).
Click to expand...
Nae, lass, nae true!

My very first tank -- 36 gallon bowfront -- I switched out the tube that came with the hood and put in a 20w Coralife SunGlo for a whopping .3 WPG! Yep. I had that tank for a few months at .3 wpg and grew a lot more than java moss, which, btw, I didn't have in there. The plants grew slower, yes, and the anacharis a little spindley, yes:

bowfront%2011-27a.jpg

Thats my 36g bowfront in November at .3 wpg
Plants: anacharis, varigieted Japanese rush (not an aquatic plant), java fern widelov, water sprite, green melon, red melon, red rubin, Amazon sword (at the back, behind the driftwood, can barely see it in the first picture)​
This is the same tank, a month later, with 1.7 wpg and DIY CO2:
12-18-05%20nighbt.jpg


Now, here is the tank a couple of weeks ago after 1 month at 2.2wpg. I have revamped and replanted. The plants have not been in very long and are much harder to grow than what I had (and boy, do I need more red at the front and a new digital camera):

36%20bow2.jpg


Plants: Marsilea crenata, Amazon sword (part of the plant from the original tank planting), Rotala rotundifolia (needs higher light to go red), riccia, dwarf hairgrass, glosso (in the substrate, can't really see it), Aponogeton capuronii (supposed to be hard to grow, haven't had a problem), red rubin (from original tank planting, it's behind the rotala on the right, but it hasn't grown out yet. Rubin doesn't like to be moved)​
Substrate: Flourite​
So, you see, you CAN have plants in really low light and it can look really nice. Just looks better once you get the lighting up there. Do it slowly. Gradually. No need to rush!

Roan
 
Last edited:
1. carttman u can use the edit option to edit posts, i find it very nifty!
2. although i am also a plant noob, i can say that you can keep a lot of types of plants alive in low watage, but to thrive you need to become a chemist or invest in more light.
3. usually the thick leaved plants that are dark green in color dont need much light (ex. amazon sward= light green and needs high light, anubias=dark green and will grow in next to no light)
4. live plants, even if they are just surviveing the tank, are great for fish, they can help the tank chemistry, and man fish love hideing or eating off of plants. if you want snails in your tank, live plants are a must.
5. a lot of algie is bad but a little dusting of it can be beneficial. (excepting evil hair and beard algies)
 
carttman said:
That is a great looking tank what did you use for a substrate?
Click to expand...
Phone rang before I could add the plants and stuff in there :)

Check the post with the pics for plants in 15 or so mins.

Roan
 
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