# Plant ideas for my 125G



## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

I have just completely torn down my 125G to start putting together a more lightly planted S.A severum tank.

I will have quite a bit of rock and wood but I was hoping to throw in a couple of plants.

Any ideas??

Thanks!!


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

What type of lighting and substrate you planning or are currently using?
Amazon swords (echinodorus) would be a good plant to try to fill some of the vast space in the tank.


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

jobber604 said:


> What type of lighting and substrate you planning or are currently using?
> Amazon swords (echinodorus) would be a good plant to try to fill some of the vast space in the tank.


Oh jeeze, I believe the lights are Hagen GLO with T5 bulbs and the gravel is small, light, natural coloured gravel.

The tank was previously very heavily planted and did wonderfully well.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Nice light setup.
The choices, the choices.
I would stick with the South American theme for the tank.


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

That's what the plan is. I have previously done a very heavily planted 55G S.A. tank which I tore down and made into a brackish water tank. We replaced the 55 with the 125G and made it into a gourami tank with a combination of Asian and SA plants. So now I want to do something visually very different. 

The tank will have some longer pieces of manzenita wood, lots of stones and then some smaller pieces of wood.

I would like the plants to not spread like weeds and no floating plants, lol.



Any suggestions??


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

NO FLOATING PLANTS?!?! lol

I like the idea of the amzon swords to fill up the space of a 125.... and if you don't want to do a lot of plants then a couple swords spread out would really look slick... maybe some vals across the back to fill it in?


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

Hahahaha, yup, no floaters 


The swords could be pretty cool. The valisneria would look pretty sharp as well. Like in small clusters coming up behind the rocks.


Is there a SA lotus appropriate for an aquarium? I currently have a massive tiger lotus in the tank and I was thinking that would look pretty cool coming up around the long pieces of wood. It would also dim the tank slightly which would be neat.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If you don't want the plants to spread like weeds I would try stems and big swords. No vals, no crypts. Keep the photoperiod reasonable, like 6 hours, and you should have no problems. Snip the tops of the stems once in a while and discard/compost, or if the bottoms start to look scraggly, pull the stem up, snip the top and plant and discard the bottom. I do this in my discus tank and rarely trim.


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

Hahaha, I was shocked at how integrated the vals roots were with the other plants when I pulled them up. Sneaky, sneaky plant, lol.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

although that red lotus idea is great... i love the big lotus in my tank and think that it is a great addition to any planted tank, can be a little overpowering if the pads get too big though


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

A red lotus would look awesome in a 125 gallon. The stretching stems...and large leaves...perhaps even some flowering.


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

monkE said:


> although that red lotus idea is great... i love the big lotus in my tank and think that it is a great addition to any planted tank, can be a little overpowering if the pads get too big though


I tend to nip the really big ones off the one I have. They just block out too much light and get a bit spotted when I leave them too long. I absolutely love it but it's an Asian/African plant so doesn't fit the theme very well. It flowers every couple of weeks which is just lovely. I would be over the moon if there was a SA lotus but I can't find one on google.

What do you think to Staurogyne repens as a bit of a carpet plant? I wasn't going to do that but then I saw fernster58's repens for sale and it looks very nice. And it's from Brazil


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

Any thoughts?

Specific species you would suggest would be nice so that I could google them.


Thanks!


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

SophieThomas said:


> What do you think to Staurogyne repens as a bit of a carpet plant? I wasn't going to do that but then I saw fernster58's repens for sale and it looks very nice. And it's from Brazil


You won't be able to do carpet plants with plecos or cichlids until you do CO2. The cichlids will dig it up faster than you can grow in. In gravel and low light it'll be near impossible. If you want a carpet plant, maybe try dwarf Sag.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> You won't be able to do carpet plants with plecos or cichlids until you do CO2. The cichlids will dig it up faster than you can grow in. In gravel and low light it'll be near impossible. If you want a carpet plant, maybe try dwarf Sag.


I've got the dwarf sag in my tank and it never spread out until i got my pressurized co2 system. Now it has blown up and is quickly spreading and carpeting the front of my tank.. it's looks great though.. at least i think it's dwarf sag.... here's a pic


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

That's too bad, I can't set up an CO2 system right now so I guess it's a no go on carpet plants.

I putting on a second XP3 on the tank and adding Greg's manzanita wood so I can post pics if that will give people creative inspiration, lol 


Mike- super cute dwarf sag. I notice you have an oto there  Maybe I'll put some in my oto tank when I manage to set it up, lol.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

How about jungle vals? Vallisneria Americana Gigantea.
http://www.google.ca/search?q=valli...niv&sa=X&ei=3-C5TqYVqKiJAofTlP4E&ved=0CCgQsAQ


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## SophieThomas (May 12, 2010)

jobber604 said:


> How about jungle vals? Vallisneria Americana Gigantea.
> vallisneria americana gigantea - Google Search


I actually really, really like it but in the past it has just taken over and grown into the roots of other plants making it very difficult to trim back. Do you think putting the roots in little tubs or something like that would help to control it a little better?

Or, or, (lol) I could just be more diligent about trimming my tank, hahaha

Jungle val. would look really cool growing from behind some of the rocks and between the wood.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

In lower light with no ferts, it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to kill it back, dose a little Excel.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

SophieThomas said:


> That's too bad, I can't set up an CO2 system right now so I guess it's a no go on carpet plants.
> 
> I putting on a second XP3 on the tank and adding Greg's manzanita wood so I can post pics if that will give people creative inspiration, lol
> 
> Mike- super cute dwarf sag. I notice you have an oto there  Maybe I'll put some in my oto tank when I manage to set it up, lol.


there's about a dozen ottos in that tank, they are a great low maintenance cleanup fish!


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> In lower light with no ferts, it shouldn't be a problem. If you want to kill it back, dose a little Excel.


i remember before having CO2 when i was dosing excel and i was wondering why i could never get vals or aponageton to grow! lol learned that one the hard way


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