What Plants Will Work For Me?

A

alex818

AC Members
Dec 1, 2005
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Glendale, California
I have not had much luck with aquatic plants. I am hoping I can do better this time with some easier plants. I found this website with pretty nice looking plants:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/categ.cfm?pCatId=768

Maybe you have another site with plants to recommend? Please read the following for my current home setup:

I have a 30 gallon tank that is well stocked with community fish (Angels, gourami's etc.) with the Eclipse 3 hood so the most lighting I can get is a combined 40 watts so Im guessing that whatever plants I buy must be low to moderate light plants? I have no Co2 Injection. I am using standard gravel.

I purchased the following:

20 Watt Power-Glo Flourescent (18k lighting - this any good?)
20 Watt Flora-Glo Flourescent
Flourish (Liquid Fertilizer)
Flourish Excel (Liquid Carbon Fertilizer?)

What plants will work for me? I am a plant newbie so please be specific with the names so I can search for them.

Should I change out the gravel to a different substrate?

Im not looking to spend a whole lot of money at the moment for a Co2 injection system and I dont want to hurt the fish either so is this possible without Co2 injection?

Are the bubbles from the airstone bad for the plants? I was told that it agitates the water and doesnt allow the required carbon dioxide to remain in the water for the plants to use.

Please help! :help:

Thank you all in advance!

Regards,

Alex
 
i am by no means an expert on this but from my questions on the board i have 2 pieces of info:

1) fluorite ive heard is a good substrate for plants.

2) even if u dont want to mess around with co2 injection, if u have sufficient light and nutrients , u will see an improvement in plants by using flourish excel.
(i am not able to comment on your lighting).
 
Everything you have right now will work. I prefer aqua and life-glos, or even better cheap bulbs from Home Depot or something. The glo series are actually quite bright, not sure about the Flora ones though.

You don't need CO2. Excel is a good alternative, especially in your case because of low light levels.

Aquariumplants and Aquabotanic are two alternatives to buy from, I've never ordered from them though.

Low light plants like cryptocorynes, anubias, java fern, java moss, hygrophila polysperma, dwarf sag, vallisneria, and possibly some Echinodorus species.

Here's a good site that lets you search Tropica's database based on light level, temperature, size, etc. Searchable database
 
also, i'm having good luck with Rotala Indica and hornwart, and something called Limnophila aquatica. i have about 2wpg, no ferts though, and just a sand substrait.
 
I appreciate your responses. Thanks guys and gals :) Now that I read into the forum more I notice people talking about using Phosphporus, Iron, Nitrogen, Potassium, etc... Should I be using this stuff? Im a little confused about fertilization.
 
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Low Light Plants deffinately, use the search engine and get a selection. Also post in the 'Tank a Plant, Leave a Plant' thread (in my sig).

If you cannot change the gravel, you may consider root tabs.

Excel will work, but it does get expensive. DIY CO2 is cheap, effective and will work wonders with your tank size and plants. Check the sticky and I would recommend the Jello receipe. If you decide to use Flourish Excel, do not worry about the airstone, but if you use the DIY method, the airstone will displace the CO2, therfore cease and desist.

As far as ferts, you already have the traces, Flourish (supplement). For that size tank, I would not dose NPK seperately but go the PMDD route. You may not even need to use your Flourish since the PMDD contains CSM+B.

I hope that helps. I am fairly new too, If I made a mistake on this post, I am sure the more experienced members will chime in.
 
w/ your current setup you could grow:

anacharis, java moss, java fern, crypts, hornwort,watersprite easily.

if your substrate is aged or you use root tabs you could grow some swords.
 
Depending on the size and number of your fish, especially the angels, you may not have to add too much in the way of N. Their wastes will provide some.

What kind of water changes do you do? This will also put some nutrients back in the water. I'd suggest calling your water supply people and finding out what levels of nitrates, potassium, phosphate, calcium, and magnesium come from the tap.

If these numbers are decently high and you're doing 30-50% changes a week you might not have to any fertilizers except a bit of Flourish. Also depends on how many plants you have.

Your light and lack of CO2 will mean slower growth rates. This means less demand for nutrients (fertilizer). The Excel should speed things up a bit though.
 
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