Thinking about planting my 29g.. Beginners' plants?

[Lindsey]

What are some good low-maintenance plants that can thrive with my stocking and parameters? I'm willing to invest in lighting (currently only have low wattage fluorescent) but I don't know what to buy, so if someone could help me out there, I'd be very grateful!

When I've finished stocking fish, it will look like this:

6 black skirt tetras
6 glofish
6-8 scissortail rasboras or zebra danio
4 green corys
1 catfish of some type to eat algae?


I'm not sure whether plants prefer a certain pH but my parameters:

pH: 6.2 steady
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 40
hardness: soft water
I use medium-grade gravel.

Thanks guys!

[speakerpedal]

What are some good low-maintenance plants that can thrive with my stocking and parameters? I'm willing to invest in lighting (currently only have low wattage fluorescent) but I don't know what to buy, so if someone could help me out there, I'd be very grateful!

When I've finished stocking fish, it will look like this:

6 black skirt tetras
6 glofish
6-8 scissortail rasboras or zebra danio
4 green corys
1 catfish of some type to eat algae?


I'm not sure whether plants prefer a certain pH but my parameters:

pH: 6.2 steady
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 40
hardness: soft water
I use medium-grade gravel.

Thanks guys!


I'm totally going to follow you here and reply.


I'd aim for a higher Wattage than what you currently have, I can't put an exact number in my head because I forgot how the scaling goes. If you can get the inches of your bulb you can go to the store and find one the same size but that's good for plants. Usually they'll have bulbs that are dedicated to planted tanks.

Good starter or rather ones I've found to be good are anacharis, amazon sword, and my personal fave, java moss. be careful of pet stores selling plants that aren't meant to be in water. This happens a lot and it kind pisses me off that they'd do this for profit. Some include chinese bamboo and foil plants.

If you can go to a LFS that is big on plants, they're usually more legit than chain stores.


I'd also recommend flourish and other fertilizers for supplement and if you can do a DIY CO2 system.


Good luck with everything! :19: :apu:


There's a list online of plants sold as aquarium suitable when they really aren't I just can't find it, maybe you'd be more lucky with google.


Best,
Matt

[Lindsey]

Oh, I adore anacharis, that makes me happy.. Maybe I'll order some once I can replace my lighting. Amazon sword I'm not so fond of, but java moss is definitely possible. Thanks for following me, your advice is great thumbs2:

[speakerpedal]

Oh, I adore anacharis, that makes me happy.. Maybe I'll order some once I can replace my lighting. Amazon sword I'm not so fond of, but java moss is definitely possible. Thanks for following me, your advice is great thumbs2:
you're very welcome! :apu:

[reds_21]

coming from experience, you should try nubias. i had less than 1 watt per gallon and mine have done really well. i havent had one die yet. i have been able to increase my lighting as of late, still low, but better at that. anubias are very pretty, i think. they compliment a tank nicely

[annageckos]

First lets look at the stocking


6 black skirt tetras
6 glofish
6-8 scissortail rasboras or zebra danio -- The scissortails get to big for you tank. You can mix the zebra danios and glofish because they are the same species.
4 green corys -- Schooling fish, you should keep at least six.
1 catfish of some type to eat algae? Look into a bristlenose pleco or a few ottos. IMO the bristlenose is a much better algea eater. But it is still up to you to do the upkeep.

These are plants I have found to be very easy to keep, anubias, java fern, java moss, val, dwarf sag, lotus, crypts, water sprite, hygro, milfoil and the bulb packages you can get from most LFS. There are many others too.

[Sarkazmo]

Java Fern, Java Moss, Anubias, Windelov, Hornwort... just about all the mosses... Marimo Balls...

I'd recommend a plant substrate such as Eco Complete.

2-4 Watts per Gallon is good for many, many plants. Above 4 W/G and you'll probably need supplemental CO2 in the form of DIY, Pressurized, or Flourish Excel daily. The rating of the bulbs should be around 6500k or so. Some run as low as 5000k, others as high as 10000k. Set your lights on a timer so that the fish and plants have adequate day/night cycles. 8-10hrs a day is good. I run my lights 5hrs on then 3hrs off. This is to keep algae down as algae can't adapt to short photo periods.

Sark

[HeatherB]

I've had good luck with java fern and anubias. My swords grow like crazy too- I chop em off and they come back even bigger than before!

[ed110220]

Marimo seems very easy to keep. I bought two in a little bottle as a souvenir at Lake Akan in Japan where they come from in September 2008.

The instructions were just to change the water with tap water once per week and put it in a place with light but out of the sun. It's done fine, except for when I thought I'd try giving it some very dilute plant food (1/10th normall strength). All that did was make common algae grow all over the bottle which was hard to remove from the marimo, but didn't seem to do any harm. I didn't remember to change the water every week either.

On a windowsill here in England temperatures go from less than 10 degrees in winter at night to about 25 in the day in summer. Not sure how it would be at higher temperatures because it comes from quite a cold part of the world.