tykita Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 hi all just wondering if anyone can take the time to give me some advice on planting tanks. what is needed to keep the plants alive and so on. thanks in advance for your advice regards chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cosmiccreepers Posted March 28, 2004 Share Posted March 28, 2004 fertilizer, fish crap, light. can you be more specific? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 fertilizer, fish crap, light. can you be more specific? Don't forget the substrate. But I agree, Chris you need to be more specific as to what sort of tank (fish, size, pH) you have, and what you hope to achieve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Don't forget the substrate. plus how much you are willing to spend is very important for "optimum aquarium" you need light, nutrient, and CO2 or if you only want to keep plant alive just put light on it. do some research, experiment, and observe. i take it slowly to understand each element starting on lighting then CO2 and nutrient. too much info at one time is useless (well maybe it's just me) that's why i always go back and research on the "missing link" every plant has different requirements. best to start with thekrib it has never ending info anyway, these are photos of my "happy" java ferns fern1 fern2 fern3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 anyway, these are photos of my "happy" java ferns fern1 fern2 fern3 Nice pearling; I take it you inject CO2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigma Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Nice pearling; I take it you inject CO2? yup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tykita Posted April 3, 2004 Author Share Posted April 3, 2004 hi all thank you all for taking the time to write. i have a fish room in my garage and i am getting in some more fish mainly frontosa and calvus, alto comps. i don't only keep my fish room for breeding purposes but a place to relax so i want to make all my tanks something really good to look at i.e plants, rocks and so on.my other fish are electricblues and others that don't obviously like to leave my plants alone so its only for the friendly fish.i have had plants with my current fronties and comps with success from being chomped but lack of success keeping the plants alive. my question was based towards keeping a different variety of plants that are relatively easy to keep. the amount of light to give them, if there is a plant food i need to give them and what to give the plant to make it grow(cause it can cost a pretty penny to fill out all tanks with plants),what the best substarate is(and if pebbles bought from flower power about the size of a 5or10 cent piece will be ok to grow plants in if the roots are on the bottom for all the fish crap).based on the questions my tanks that i am getting,the tanks will be 6 to 7ft,ph of high 8,fish as above.these may be stupid questions but hey,what better place to find the right answers and learn from. thanks again for all replies and further replies in advance. regards chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grungefreek Posted April 3, 2004 Share Posted April 3, 2004 Hey, Well this is very rough kinda guide to a planted aquarium. First substrate, plain gravel will be fine, but you want the gravel size to be about 2-3 mm. U can have bigger gravel on top for decorative purposes, but the smaller gravel is needed so the plants will stay planted in the substrate. Lighting, Oh so important. A rough guide for working out light needed is what they call the WPG (watts per gallon) rule. I think about 3 WPG should be ok for most plants, excluding high light plants, so work out how many gallons your tank is, then calculate how much light u need to achieve 3 WPG. This is a very rough rule and breaks down on tanks smaller than 20Gal and larger than 100Gal. Plenty on the net on this rule. Depending on the plants u choose, ferts and CO2 injection isnt always needed, they will help, but not always neccesary. sometimes they make things grow too well and that means constant pruning. Some low light, easy growing plants i would say. Wysteria, amublia, java ferns, elodea and their are numerous others. Go to www.plantedtank.net and look through thier plant databases and see what they say about different plants Ok hope that helps, im only a beginner too, but others on here have heaps of knowledge to help ya out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 I think at 3WPG you NEED CO2; if you don't want to inject CO2, then be prepared for growing algae or drop the light back to under 2WPG. Quite a lot of plants grow in relatively low light, such as Java Fern, Crypts and Anubias. All of these will also grow well in higher light and CO2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nornicle Posted April 11, 2004 Share Posted April 11, 2004 this tank had 1 fluoro tube over it and 1cm substrate... used some take away containers here and there and the rest were on wood. plants dont need to be high tech Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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