Who's had success with plants in an African tank

[mg6682]

I've had six large amazon swords (from an established tank) in my tank (90 gallon) to help with cycling. My substrate is a mix of sand, gravel and a little bit of crushed coral. Lighting is an All-Glass 110 watt PC strip light. The swords arent doing so hot, but I figured so. Right now my water is pretty hard from the rift lake salts I add - pH around 8.0 or so. The tank is being set up to attempt to breed Syno Multipunctatus, so it'll have 6-8 synos and some sort of host mouth brooder.

I went to the LFS and picked up some nice Java Fern and two species of Anubius (hastifolia and an unk second) - I figured they do good in my low light. The fern is going on a piece of old wood and the Anubius into 4.5" ceramic pots (so I can get some good soil and ease of movement). I picked up some flourish tabs for the pots, but I'm not sure of the soil I should add. The LFS recommended gravel only (with tabs), but I've been reading some add peat, etc. I picked up a bag of combo peat/verminculite at the store, but have heard that will dissolve over time. I really dont want to buy a $25 dollar bag of flourite, etc just for the few pots I have, but will if its the best way to go.

Any suggestions on the soil set-up for the pots? What about other low maintenance plants you all have had success with? Others I've considered are Jungle Val, Cryptcorynes, and onion plants.

 

[echoofformless]

Long story...just hope it helps a little.

Okay my experience thus far is only crypts and jungle vals - I put them in the rift lake tank while it was still cycling originally just to QT them for a while before I was to add them into my asia-tope, but they were doing really well for the month, and I ended up really liking the way they looked, so I figured I'd keep them and see what happened.

Once the tank cycled, I picked up a few labs. All was well.


Finally I saved up enough money for the rest of the mbunas but of course PetsMart sold me fish with nasty fungal issues. So I reached for the aquarium salt along with the mela/pimafixes and Maroxy. I added crushed coral to the filter at this time as well. (Philadelphia tap water, which had for the past five years been so hard and alkaline you could use it as a calcium supplement and antacid was suddenly changed to a neutral pH! Moral - always test your tap water!) pH in the tank has been between 7.8 and 8.2 consistently.


Anyway these plants went from thriving like crazy - not bothered by the fish at all, sprouting new leaves almost every week, suddenly started melting like crazy. The vals were all but disappeared within days. The crypts lasted a good two weeks before I opted to pull them out and put them where they were originally intended just last night. They are pretty well damaged now, but they have strong roots so I'm sure they'll be back to happy in a few weeks.


So honestly I can't tell you if it was the increase in hardness from the coral, or the addition of the salt. It could be the Maroxy but I doubt it. And I know from experience that the mela/pima fixes are harmless to plants, so I can't say they're a factor. But I can say I wouldn't attempt crypts and vals in a rift lake aquarium anymore.


Java fern should do well however. It's said to be adaptable even to brackish conditions. Anubias is supposed to be a good strong one for rift lake tanks. As is bolbitus fern. You might attempt hornwort (floating) as well.


Now one solid piece of advice I can give you - stop by Lowe's or Home Despot and get yourself a bag of Schultz Aquatic Soil. Pondkeepers swear by this stuff when it comes to potted aquatic plants. It's a good porous clay that allows good circulation while also absorbing nutrients from the water column that plant roots can utilize as they wish. A few root tabs and a pot full of that stuff...you'll be doing well.

 

[mg6682]

Thanks, I'll give Schultz a shot.