Plants which are best for beginners

[Guppygirl]

Hi I was wondering what kinds of aquarium plants are more for the beginner? I have always wanted to try a planted tank but never have because of what may be travelling on them ie. disease and insects. Don't want to make my fish sick. I have three 10 gallon tanks all right now with algae coated plastic plants. One tank with tetras, and two with guppies. I was thinking of changing one of the guppy tanks to some other fish maybe more black phantom tetras- now one of my favorite fish. But am stumped about plants- keep the plastic ones or try real. Will the fish eat them. How much work are they? :well: I don't want to install any more equipment- CO2 anything. Can't really, outlet is full. Also plants up here in Grande Prairie are few and far between and they are fairly expensive and sickly. May come to Edmonton one of these weekends but it is a fairly long drive with our wacky weather.

[Sam Chicklets]

If you can get hornwort it is an easy plant to grow

[Terrie Lee]

Java moss seems to do well for me. It floats around like a fluffy green cloud.

Generally anything that says it is a low light plant seems to have been recommended to me when I asked a similar question.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Terrie Lee

[Natures Corner Store]

Some easier plants with lower light requirements could include Aponogeton species, Java fern, Anubias, Cryptocoryne species, water sprite, Java moss, Crinum (onion bulb), Limnophila (ambulia).

A little more info can be found here

http://faq.thekrib.com/plant-qa.html

HTH

[Vallisneria]

My first plants were Jave fern and crypt wendtii. Here is my first plant tank. All it has is the java fern on a lava rock and a ton of crypt wendtii that kept spreading. This is a 15g tank with 1-15w bulb, no Co2 and not much fert. It was very low tech.

Do you know how many watts/gal your tank has?

[jvision]

It's getting easier and easier to keep just about any plant you want w/o going "high tech".

If you have a 10 gal w. incandescent canopy, switch the bulbs for the screw-in flourescents - the 13W bulbs in a Daylight color is what I have. Seachem Excel is an excellent carbon source for smaller tanks.

I am currently growing all kinds of plants in a 10 gal w. the above perameters.

[Murminator]

I have a PC 65W with a 50/50 10k marine bulb, think plants will grown under it? Henry told me to try it the peacock grungeons should almost glow under it

[werner]

...never have because of what may be travelling on them ie. disease and insects. Don't want to make my fish sick.

Fish diseases occur less frequently in planted aquariums than unplanted ones; the plants have an antibiotic effect on disease causing bacteria. Hitchhiking critters (especially snails) are a possibility- most are harmless.

Will the fish eat them

Guppys and tetras generally aren't plant eaters. There are always a few exceptions that will try nibbling leaves.

The plants that were listed previously are good choices, however the Limnophila species are better suited to high light tanks. A good list of plant species and their requirements can be found at Tropica.

If you have access to the Edmonton library, check out "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" by Diana Walstad. It offers a low tech, low maintenance method for planted aquariums. There's a lot of science in the book, but don't get scared off.

If you don't have good plant sources there, wait a couple months. Many of us frequently have cuttings to get rid of and can mail them when it's warmer

Edited February 8, 2007 by werner

[jvision]

I have a PC 65W with a 50/50 10k marine bulb, think plants will grown under it? Henry told me to try it the peacock grungeons should almost glow under it

What size tank you putting that over? If it's anything smaller than a 33, you'll definitely need a carbon source; otherwise, you'll be fighting algae to no end.

From what I've learned, plants don't really care what color the light is. With a 50/50 bulb, the green from the plants will be washed out - if you stick mainly with red plants, it could look OK.

[JHG]

Hey degrassi,

My current tank has Java fern on the driftwood and wendtii in the sand as well. It's a great combination. I do have a question I was hoping you could answer. Is it normal for the wendtii to have brown leaves as seen in your tank picture? I have two huge clusters in my tank. One is green and extending very high and doing well; the other is spreading outward and its leaves are brownish (not dead) with new leaves coming in as green.

Thanks,

J

[werner]

Is it normal for the wendtii to have brown leaves

There are different varieties: C.wendtii "brown" has reddish brown leaves; the normal color is green.

[Rainmaker69]

Check out some of the hygrophilla species if you are wanting stem plants. I had hygrophilla polysperma in my 10g and it grew even under incadescent light.

[Vallisneria]

Hey degrassi,

My current tank has Java fern on the driftwood and wendtii in the sand as well. It's a great combination. I do have a question I was hoping you could answer. Is it normal for the wendtii to have brown leaves as seen in your tank picture? I have two huge clusters in my tank. One is green and extending very high and doing well; the other is spreading outward and its leaves are brownish (not dead) with new leaves coming in as green.

Thanks,

J

My crypt wendtii was the "tropica" variety it was brownish with wavy leaves. There are couple different crypt wendtii, ranging from green to redish/brown.

Also crypts tend to look different in different tanks. In the tank pictured(15g) and my 58g, the crypts got tall(12") but in my new 20g they are staying short(5") and aren't nearly as dark brown. Yet they are all from the same group of plants.