swithcing to live plants! woohoo!!!

jpappy789

jpappy789

Plants need meat too
Feb 18, 2007
26,364
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Gainesville, FL
Real Name
Josh
Ok. So I just odered some plants (ok a lot of plants) from Mg to switch my 30 gal. from plastic plants to live plants. Here is a list of what I got:

java moss
pennywort
hornwort
cut leaf water sprite
vals
Anacharis
crypts
java fern

Now I know that these plants are pretty low maintenence compared to some other but I have two questions regarding plant upkeep...

1.) Will a RUGF be ok with live plants? Right now it is just a normal UGF but I am tired of seeing so much gunk in the gravel no matter how many times I vac...and if I need to spend $15 on a reverse kit than so be it...

2.) I am in need of some advice with ferts. Actually, I am completely lost when it comes to dosing fertilizers...I have tried to read some of the stuff from Rex grigg but I get even more confused (big plant newbie here) and even some of the other posts here have me confused. So, basically I need some general info and a direction to go in based on the plants I will be using.

Some other useful stuff...I don't plan on adding CO2 for now. Maybe later, maybe not. I don't need a jungle in my tank anyways. As for wpg, don't know right now, but I can let you know asap if it is helpful.
 
Awesome, I've got hornwort, along with 3 other types of plants including 2 onions and a banana plant. The hornwort is great and I have it growing in several areas around the tank including a large portion floating on top. For me, I have slightly less than 1 wpg, so you can't be much lower than that. For plant food I use Seachem's FlourishTabs but am beginning to phase those out b/c my dalmation and cories likes to dig them up, not to mention it's a pain when vacuuming (especially after the tab has dissolved and spread out like its supposed to). I still put one or two in their every few weeks.

I do add API (Aquarium Pharmaceuticals) "Pro Series Leaf Zone" once a week. It is designed to add 5 ml per/10 U.S. gallons once a week. This stuff has worked miracles in my tank. My banana plant, which I've only had for a month now, grew nearly 18 inches in about 4 days. My onions are growing from one end of the tank to the other.

Hope that info helps!
 
switching to live plants! woohoo!!!.......... Better than switching to dead ones .......... :laugh:
 
what's the lighting like?

you may not need much in ferts if you are going low light and no CO2

if you get to about 2 wpg and add CO2 you can prob still get by with little to no dosing ferts.

most of what you may want to add are the macros. nitrogen(nitrates) potassium etc..even then you won't need a bunch.
 
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