Some advice from you planted tank guys please.

JosephMCorbett

JosephMCorbett

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Feb 7, 2005
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Northern California
Here's my info. 55 gallon acrylic fish only tank with lava rocks, fake plants, and average sized gravel - the kind you find at Petco in the 25lb. bags and all different colors. My fish info. is below. I've had my tank for about 3 years and have always thought planted tanks were more natural and beautiful. I've seen some posts on this site with pics. of plastic planted tanks that could fool you, but not mine. Anyway, I thought I might try to start off simple and plant a real plant in my tank. Can you give me some advice on the hardiest, easiest plant type that I should try first. Also, what do I need to know as far as care, etc. What should I do....in other words I don't know anything. Well, the one thing I do know is that if you don't keep your plants trimmed (I presume a good time is during your weekly water change, filter maintenance) live plants can add to your nitrate levels instead of decreasing them. Anyway, any and all advice is appreciated.

Joe
 
First of all you need to tell us what kind of lighting you have and how much (wattage). If your are using the typical fluorescent lighting that most 55's come with you won't have enough light to grow most plants.

Java Fern and Anubias such as nana or barteri are easy low light plants that might do well in your set up. They need to be attached to something like driftwood or a rock. You can use sewing thread, rubber bands or fishing line and once the roots have taken hold you can remove it.

I have never used lava rock myself but you may want to find out if it is leaching any chemicals in to your water. You will find out that if you stick to planted tanks, many things that were suitable for a non-planted tank are not suitable anymore.
 
I'll wager that lighting will be a big issue. In most cases of adding plants to retail tanks, lighting is the #1 issue with plant growth success. While I'm not saying that mega wattage is required to have success with any plant, you should aim for a bare minimum of 1.5watts per gallon (ideally at least 2wpg) to have reasonable success with low light plants. I'm not saying that it's impossible with less, just suggesting a minimum benchmark.

Java fern, java moss, anubias are all good choices. Floating plants can make due with just about any level of lighting, since they're all of a few inches from it, as long is it's not too hot. But floating plants aren't going to help you gain that beautiful tank effect that you're looking for.

The other advantage of these three is that they will grow very well tied down to something, like lava rock. Your substrate isn't likely ideal for root growth. You can still cram stem plants into it and use the substrate as an anchor (I say cram, but I mean gently, the biggest problem with bulky substrate is crushing the stems). Many stem plants rely mostly on the water column for nutrients, so a healthy root system isn't a necessity.

After 3 years, I doubt that there's any problem with the lava rock.
 
Thanks guys for the input. My lighting is composed of two 36 inch flourescent fixtures with one white and one blue tube in one hood. It's been awhile, so I don't remember the brand of bulb. But they didn't come from the hardware store. I bought them at Petco, and if I'm not mistaken, the white light is a 6500k daylight spectrum type bulb (?). The blue one is something else, but I forget. This probably isn't much help. Can I get by using the fixtures I have and install some type of full-spectrum flourescent tubes - say 'vita-light' or other? As far as the lava-rock. I do have some suspicions that it's raising my Ph and making my water hard and alkaline. I'm setting up a new 125 gallon in which this particular rock is not going to be used. I'm still going to use a lava rock, but it was purchased at my LFS and is supposed to be inert. I was also thinking of adding some driftwood. Anyway, thanks for your help....keep it coming.

Joe
 
The blue bulb is called Actinic. It's of little use to plants (but, allegedly, algae loves it).

I doubt that the lava rock is the source of your increasing pH/KH (especially after 3 years, you'd see a definite change in size if it were), but it's easy to test, fill a container large enough to submerge the entire piece but not much bigger with tap water. Let it sit for a few days to come to equilibrium with the atmosphere. Measure pH and KH right away and after a few days of equilibrating, if there's been no change, you're ready to add the rock. Let it sit in the water for at least a week, then test it.

Also, before you go and do all of this, try just testing tap vs. tank. Fill a shallow bowl or saucer with tap water. Test it right away and record pH and KH. Let it sit overnight and test again, it might be interesting.

For the planted tank, it will be much easier (although definitely more costly) to set up the 125g you're planning as a planted tank right from the start as opposed to retrofitting your current setup.
 
Thanks guys for all of the input so far. Will a 6500k full spectrum 40 watt flourescent bulb be ok to grow some of the plants mentioned above?
 
It won't be ideal and they'll grow very slowly but it will probably work. If you are at all handy you might want to try one of the retrofit kits over at AH Supply. It would be a shame for you to give up on plants due to relatively easy (if not cheap) to fix.
 
i'd go for some more light if you want some pretty and natural living plants. the anubias are ok, but they are more expensive. i know you'd have a tough time putting in a new substrate especially if you aren't running a bio-wheel since you'd be really attacking your biological filter. but i think if you are going to go with your lava rock and no CO2, you may as well as add some more light. actually...if you were to add the appropriate light you'd need to add CO2 to keep the plants in balance so to speak.


ok, i stop rambling now...not making any sense ....few too many beers, eh
 
Before you do anything, get a book. I like the Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants by Peter Hiscock. That'll adress many questions and help you start out the right way.

You will need more light. Less than 1wpg isn't going to grow much at all. If you don't want to mess with replacing the gravel I'd probably get java ferns an anubias, which you can attach to your rocks. Also, (I may be wrong) but some bunch plants will probably do fine in your gravel, since they get most of their nutrients from the water.
 
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