# Never had plants before and need help/suggestions for new planted tank



## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

I bought a 33 gallon aquarium with the original intention of it being a nursery for my convicts. I have placed an AC50, heater, gravel, driftwood, and flat rocks in preparation for them but no water yet. Last night I decided that I want them to swim around some plants before they meet their untimely end in the belly of my Blackbelt.

I know *ABSOLUTELY NOTHING* about how to keep underwater plants. I was hoping for some suggestions about which plants look good, are easy to grow (like weeds that dont require constant supervision) and that my fry can frolick in. Plus this will help me learn another aspect of keeping aquaria, as I now have 5 of them! Yes I am hopelessly addicted.

Now, as I am starting from scratch, can you please give me a list of products that I should buy; and, if possible, using as much of what I have already listed that I have in the 1st paragraph. I am not on a budget, but I would still like to keep costs low.

Thanks


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

java moss , you can tie it to driftwod with fishing line and it is near impossible to kill
cabomba i have had some success with but fish will rip it to shreds but it grows easily, but if it is just fry then should be good.
java fern i had onein my chi and i didnt kill it so must be tougher plant

and that is all i know about plants lol... so good luck


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

will java moss attach itself to anything? or does it always have to be tied down?


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

it will attach to everything and anything if it is left free floating it will hook on to gravel, wood, intakes, outputs, decorations, aquarium gravel .... anything.. once you have it in there if you dont keep in in check it can take over

but that being said if you cover wood in it or whatever it looks awesome after it has grown out a bit, you just have to watch for free floating masses of it that will get lodged somewhere and spread


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

Basics to starting a Planted Tank - The Planted Tank
there ya go my contribution lol


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

Can someone give me product names of substrate that they recommend for a beginner? and how many bags should I buy?


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

You won't need any special substrate for most basic plants. My goldfish tank is planted with jungle vals, swords and has java fern tied to the driftwood. The substrate is gravel with crushed coral and the plants do fine.

If you want floating plants for fry to hide in, hornwort grows like a weed and water sprite is good as well.


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

Elle said:


> You won't need any special substrate for most basic plants. My goldfish tank is planted with jungle vals, swords and has java fern tied to the driftwood. The substrate is gravel with crushed coral and the plants do fine.
> 
> If you want floating plants for fry to hide in, hornwort grows like a weed and water sprite is good as well.


Pretty much what she said...swords, vals, java fern, all easy, low maintenance plants.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

Ok I will look into them, thanks! Will I still have to buy CO2 or fertilizers?


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Not for those plants, they should grow fast without. I didn't start dosing until I got more advanced plants, and still did fine with DIY CO2. Check out this thread if you're wanting to look into CO2 as a starter crash course.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

I want simplicity. Rich, Im using your old tank for this, but I think I need to up the wattage on those bulbs


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## bcorchidguy (Jan 14, 2011)

Anubia is a very nice plant that thrives in low light conditions, it's a nice plant to have along with other plants because it grows slowly. If you look at places like King Ed, they have plastic containers of plants at the front desk for $10 there is a lot of plants in there. For low light look for Cryptocoryne affinis, C. nevillii, C. wendtii... 3 very attractive plants that grow well. You could also consider, Acorus sp., Anubia, Aponogeton sp., Echinodorus and or Sagittaria sp. Keep your eye on the classified here chances are you can get them for even less.

If you put a couple Compact Fluorescents on that tank you can maybe even keep a few plants that like more light.

Substrate can be simple aquarium gravel or you can do some fancy gravel but fancy is usually for faster growing plants that have huge demands for nutrients like Amazon swords etc... If you want an amazon you can simply put it in a terracotta plant pot and put a couple fertilizer tabs in the gravel and that way the Amazon gets fed with out having to redo you're aquarium.

Good luck, plants are fun.

Douglas


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

There's always duckweed 
I think I made a post about the different options for substrates a while back: florabase, flourite, ada, ecocomplete, and fluval stratum are the most common substrates you can buy out there.

The only thing I realized I should've looked into is that some substrates are claybased, others more like gravel; and also, some are more acidic, whereas others are more alkaline. These will affect how successful you are if you decide to try growing more difficult/high maintenance flora. Otherwise, in my 20gal I have cryps, cabomba, oxygen weed, and anubias and they all do well in ugly blue gravel. Just gotta make sure you have "decent" and timed light. Initially, even my java ferns weren't doing that great with tubular lights on for 12 hours.

I dunno what the experts think, but I think it's always good to have a bottle of Flourish to dose once in a while.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

bcorchidguy said:


> If you put a couple Compact Fluorescents on that tank you can maybe even keep a few plants that like more light.
> 
> Good luck, plants are fun.
> 
> Douglas


The tank I bought came with lights, but I dont think they have enough watts for growing.

Should I add that this tank will be exposed to sunlight filtered through my sheers for about 60-90 mins in the afternoon? There is no way around it without putting a thick black blanket over the whole thing.


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

duckweed wont work and it will make a triumphant mess lol., especially with your overflow, i would avoid it and any other floating plants


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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

You know, my swords grew beautifully with those lights and no ferts, no CO2......depends on the plants you want. Swords, java fern, etc will all do fine with lower lighting.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

rich16 said:


> You know, my swords grew beautifully with those lights and no ferts, no CO2......depends on the plants you want. Swords, java fern, etc will all do fine with lower lighting.


Cool, then it looks like Im all set! I just need to get plants and add water


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

One thing with CO2...it can cause horrible PH spikes and crashes. Not good for the fish. I'd stay away from it - most plants won't need it. A CFL fixture is fine for most of the plants listed as well. If you want to feed the plants, Flourish is a good option.


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## bcorchidguy (Jan 14, 2011)

I made my own mix of mud for a substrate and if you get serious about plants this stuff is the cats meow. I used red clay from the craft store, Red Sea substrate, plain soil from way out in the boonies, and some play sand. I had exceptional plant growth, to the point it was a pain to keep cutting them back and if I didn't cut them back then it was a real chore to get it back under control. If you want to mess around with swords, you can go to a craft store like Michaels, and buy some red modeling clay, make 1/2 inch diameter balls and put between 3 and 7 slow release fert granuals inside, like osmocote 12-12-12 or 14-14-14 work well. Bake them in your oven at around 350 for 1 hour and then you can push one down around the roots of swords every 4-6 months. The clay breaks down into an excellent source of iron and the osmocote is a slow release fert that fast growers will eat up like a fat kid eats candy.

Douglas


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

Elle said:


> If you want to feed the plants, Flourish is a good option.


What if I dont want to feed my plants


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

What about going down to the river and getting substrate straight from the source? I live about a 5 min walk from the fraser and I could grab soil directly under some plants that live there?


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

You don't NEED flourish for low maintenance plants. I used to use it as just a boost if the plants aren't growing fast enough or are looking a bit pale/yellow/holey.

I read in another post taking substrate from the beach is illegal? Plus who knows what contaminants/pests are in the mud.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

bcorchidguy said:


> I made my own mix of mud for a substrate and if you get serious about plants this stuff is the cats meow. I used red clay from the craft store, Red Sea substrate, plain soil from way out in the boonies, and some play sand. I had exceptional plant growth, to the point it was a pain to keep cutting them back and if I didn't cut them back then it was a real chore to get it back under control. If you want to mess around with swords, you can go to a craft store like Michaels, and buy some red modeling clay, make 1/2 inch diameter balls and put between 3 and 7 slow release fert granuals inside, like osmocote 12-12-12 or 14-14-14 work well. Bake them in your oven at around 350 for 1 hour and then you can push one down around the roots of swords every 4-6 months. The clay breaks down into an excellent source of iron and the osmocote is a slow release fert that fast growers will eat up like a fat kid eats candy.
> 
> Douglas


Thanks. I will try that, sounds awesome. How about jobes ferts tap, will those work, too?


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

ThePhoenix said:


> What about going down to the river and getting substrate straight from the source? I live about a 5 min walk from the fraser and I could grab soil directly under some plants that live there?


You can use gravel or whatever but if one day you decide you want to grow fancier plants and you only have gravel you will need to do a lot of work to replace your substrate.

I am not sure if you can just get soils from the river bed. They might be very rich in organic compond and could release lots of ammonia and such into your water...not sure.

Sounds like an interesting idea though. Has anyone tried it?


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## bcorchidguy (Jan 14, 2011)

Mud from around the fraser may contain, mercury, diesel, and other contaminants. Best bet for mud is to go somewhere where you can dig a tiny amount of soil that will probably not have seen fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide in that last couple years. Dollar Giant often has small bags of potting soil that is unfertilized and being from the dollar store it's about a buck.

You need very little of this mud, and if you do decide to try the mud system, cover it with 1 layer of packing paper also from the dollar store or a single layer of newspaper then put your gravel on top of that, if you have fish that dig, put a piece of mesh screen down so the fish can't dig into the dirt and release organic soup into the aquarium.

Douglas


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

bcorchidguy said:


> Mud from around the fraser may contain, mercury, diesel, and other contaminants. Best bet for mud is to go somewhere where you can dig a tiny amount of soil that will probably not have seen fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide in that last couple years. Dollar Giant often has small bags of potting soil that is unfertilized and being from the dollar store it's about a buck.
> 
> You need very little of this mud, and if you do decide to try the mud system, cover it with 1 layer of packing paper also from the dollar store or a single layer of newspaper then put your gravel on top of that, if you have fish that dig, put a piece of mesh screen down so the fish can't dig into the dirt and release organic soup into the aquarium.
> 
> Douglas


At what point in those instructions would you plant your plants?


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

You can wash those soil again and again, then dry them and put them under the sun and repeat until lots of microbons are presents before you put them in your tank...but it is a lot of work.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

microbons?


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Microbes...you want to expose all the bacteria, enzyme and what not to oxygen so the microbes can break them down into mineral that your plants need. It also helps to reduce the chance of an initial algae outbreak.
You can also add clay to the soil as it binds and also provides iron.


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## Lamplighter (Aug 3, 2012)

ThePhoenix said:


> What if I dont want to feed my plants


Give me the food instead.

Someone mentioned "Water Sprite" and I concur. I'm always cutting it down.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

If you can successfully make some mineralized soil you can plant lots of plants very well without really feeding your plants too much. The soil would contain lots of food that your plants need. 
If I were you, I would just use sand, with root tabs. It is easy to ceelan, looks good, and is low tech. Just put some root tabe next to the roots of your plants so they can feed off the tab to get good initial growth. 
Water sprite is a very good and hardy plant. It is fast growing and helps to purify your water. Your fish also would appreciate to have a bit of floating plants to feel more secure. You need to cut it from time to time or it can cover the whole surface of your water. It is a floating plant so it doe snot matter what you sue as substrate. Wisteria is also a good easy plant to grow.


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## ThePhoenix (Jul 23, 2012)

Thank you for all the suggestions, people

I will post an update with pics once the plants are added, possibly as early as this weekend


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