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Shanna66

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Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 7:43 am

so im asking for another aquaclear filter for my birthday so i can upgrade my other betta to either a 5 or 10gal and maybe put some other fish in wiht him. im thinking about doing real plants but i have no idea where to start.
how do you care for underwater plants? what plants are best to start with? and does petsmart carry any of the easy ones? is gravel ok? is river rock ok instead of gravel? what type of light? would a regulat light work or do i need something special?

Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 6:40 pm

Ahhh. I want real plants soo bad. But I know much about them (I think!).

For the gravel, you're going to need a fertilized substrate. I would recomend Eco-Complete Plant Substrate from Doctor's Foster & Smith. I LOVE that online store!

You're going to need CO2. Fish supply CO2, but sometimes that's not enough, or it is enough but becomes depleted soon, causing the aquarium plants growth to become stunted (Right? Not sure about that...) Since you're aquarium is small, you could get a small CO2 infiltration system, or you could get tabs that will induce CO2. I forget the product name, but I will find it.

Check your water parameters. Certain plants thrive in certain water conditions.
Full spectrum lighting at least 12 hours per day
Temperature should be between 75-88° Fahrenheit
pH between 6.5-7.4
Five degrees KH
Eight degrees GH
CO2 levels as high as possible, but lower than 40 mg
Low to zero surface turbulence to help retain CO2
25% water changes every other week
Appropriate substrate for root growth

Plants... Plants...
Get a good hardy selection of plants. I really like this website: LiveAquaria It's another website from Doctor's Foster & Smith. I don't shop on there, their shipping is excruciatingly expensive, but when you click on the plant, there is info on the water parameters, hardiness, carelevels, etc.
Plants like Anubias, Anachiris, Microsword, Wisteria, Temple-Narrow leaf, Four Leaf Clover, and Java Fern are good starter plants. Add some colour of reds! Get some drift wood, too!

Lighting... It still confuses me. xd You'll need a good ammount of wattage, and probably lighting around the 6700K on the spectrum (I'm still confused about this, sorry!!) I don't really understand this part.

Also: Be sure to have fish that go well with your plants! Some enjoy eating/uprooting and destroying plants! I tried plants once, but a couple of the fish I had ate them! Gr!
I hope you have success! And I don't know if Petsmart sells them. I don't have that around here, and I don't shop at chain petstores razz They're usually uninformed and little help.

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Odester

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Posted: Fri May 08, 2009 10:05 pm

Byo-Shin304

Ahhh. I want real plants soo bad. But I know much about them (I think!).

For the gravel, you're going to need a fertilized substrate. I would recomend Eco-Complete Plant Substrate from Doctor's Foster & Smith. I LOVE that online store!

You're going to need CO2. Fish supply CO2, but sometimes that's not enough, or it is enough but becomes depleted soon, causing the aquarium plants growth to become stunted (Right? Not sure about that...) Since you're aquarium is small, you could get a small CO2 infiltration system, or you could get tabs that will induce CO2. I forget the product name, but I will find it.

Check your water parameters. Certain plants thrive in certain water conditions.
Full spectrum lighting at least 12 hours per day
Temperature should be between 75-88° Fahrenheit
pH between 6.5-7.4
Five degrees KH
Eight degrees GH
CO2 levels as high as possible, but lower than 40 mg
Low to zero surface turbulence to help retain CO2
25% water changes every other week
Appropriate substrate for root growth

Plants... Plants...
Get a good hardy selection of plants. I really like this website: LiveAquaria It's another website from Doctor's Foster & Smith. I don't shop on there, their shipping is excruciatingly expensive, but when you click on the plant, there is info on the water parameters, hardiness, carelevels, etc.
Plants like Anubias, Anachiris, Microsword, Wisteria, Temple-Narrow leaf, Four Leaf Clover, and Java Fern are good starter plants. Add some colour of reds! Get some drift wood, too!

Lighting... It still confuses me. xd You'll need a good ammount of wattage, and probably lighting around the 6700K on the spectrum (I'm still confused about this, sorry!!) I don't really understand this part.

Also: Be sure to have fish that go well with your plants! Some enjoy eating/uprooting and destroying plants! I tried plants once, but a couple of the fish I had ate them! Gr!
I hope you have success! And I don't know if Petsmart sells them. I don't have that around here, and I don't shop at chain petstores razz They're usually uninformed and little help.

ooooooooh ive been waiting for someone to talk about plants I have a small question. Does anyone know how Cichlids do with plants, because I have a lone cichlid in a 10 galleon tasnk and i was thinking of making it all natural. Would that work?

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 9:04 am

thanks for the info. ^.^

Shanna66

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Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 9:57 am

Odester

ooooooooh ive been waiting for someone to talk about plants I have a small question. Does anyone know how Cichlids do with plants, because I have a lone cichlid in a 10 galleon tasnk and i was thinking of making it all natural. Would that work?

I'm not really sure. I've heard that some cichlids dig up the plants, but I've heard some will do great.
Do you have fake plants in there now?

@Shanna66: No problem! razz

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 10:58 am

ok

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Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 4:46 pm

Byo-Shin304

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ooooooooh ive been waiting for someone to talk about plants I have a small question. Does anyone know how Cichlids do with plants, because I have a lone cichlid in a 10 galleon tasnk and i was thinking of making it all natural. Would that work?

I'm not really sure. I've heard that some cichlids dig up the plants, but I've heard some will do great.
Do you have fake plants in there now?

@Shanna66: No problem! razz

yeh right now i have fake ones and he seems fine with them, but since i cant put any fish in cuz he is so aggresive i wanted to do something natural in there, and so i thought plants. But i dont want to waste money if he is just going to destroy them.

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:44 pm

do apple snails and cory catfish do well with plant or would they eat them?

Shanna66

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Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 6:59 pm

i know the cory cats i have do very well with plants, im not sure about apple snails, chances are it'll be good but idk truthfully, as for the cichlid thing earlier, if you think theres a chance it'll uproot em just put a few large rocks around the base of the plants roots so that he can't actually get in to uproot it.

Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 6:41 pm

Bain_V

i know the cory cats i have do very well with plants, im not sure about apple snails, chances are it'll be good but idk truthfully, as for the cichlid thing earlier, if you think theres a chance it'll uproot em just put a few large rocks around the base of the plants roots so that he can't actually get in to uproot it.

hmm i thought about that but he is a big cichlid

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Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 10:48 pm

might be best to just not do real plants with that cichlid then
they like to dig and will most likely dig them up

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 12:36 am

i had the absolute worst time with live plants, could NOT keep the tank clean...ended up going back to plastic plants gonk

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Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 2:00 pm

Java fern is a great starter plant, it can survive in many different condtions and I've had success with it growing in ambient light (just the light from the room, no hood light or tank light.) Cory cats are fine with plants, mine just ignore them. As for apple snails, as long as you're talking about Pomacea Bridgesii(most common apple snail species) the plants will be safe as they only eat dead plant matter.

You don't absolutely needa fertilized substrate. Regular sand or gravel will be fine for most plants. Just get beginner plants until you can afford/have the experience for more difficult ones. You also don't need to add extra c02 with most beginner plants, but it wouldn't hurt.

PetSmart and PetCo sell a lot of plants that aren't actually aquatic. Most of the plants in those little no water tubes will die after a few days/weeks fully submerged in water. They get away with doing this because they never actually tell you to put the plants in water. Your best bet is to find them online or at an actual fish store.

Vote for the lesbians!

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 3:04 pm

yeh i have noticed he does dig, but what about floating plants?

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Shanna66

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Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 11:18 am

-Vanilla- eXe

Java fern is a great starter plant, it can survive in many different condtions and I've had success with it growing in ambient light (just the light from the room, no hood light or tank light.) Cory cats are fine with plants, mine just ignore them. As for apple snails, as long as you're talking about Pomacea Bridgesii(most common apple snail species) the plants will be safe as they only eat dead plant matter.

You don't absolutely needa fertilized substrate. Regular sand or gravel will be fine for most plants. Just get beginner plants until you can afford/have the experience for more difficult ones. You also don't need to add extra c02 with most beginner plants, but it wouldn't hurt.

PetSmart and PetCo sell a lot of plants that aren't actually aquatic. Most of the plants in those little no water tubes will die after a few days/weeks fully submerged in water. They get away with doing this because they never actually tell you to put the plants in water. Your best bet is to find them online or at an actual fish store.

Vote for the lesbians!

the pets mart by me has the plants in the tubes as well as a tank full of plants, just plants, nothing else so im thinking those would be fully aquatic?

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