mcdonald.kk

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased some plants for my aquarium. It was one of those take it or leave it opportunities and I did not have the chance to research them very well. I ended up purchasing an Amazon Sword plant Echinodorus argentenensis mainly because it was one of the few healthy looking plants. I also purchased a plant with only "cabomba" written on it. When I got home I briefly looked them up on the net and discovered that they are rather demanding plants (particularly the cabomba). Does anyone have experience keeping either of these plants? My other question is what ways can I provide substrate/growth medium for them when my tank is already full of water? I really don't want to have to dismantle everything just so that I can add substrate to my tank. At the moment my tank has 0 nitrates and nitrites, 50 ppm hardness, 80ppm alkalinity, pH 6.8. Thanks for any help you can give me!

susitna-flower

Check on www.plantgeek.net , you should be able to find just what these plants need. Good Luck

mcdonald.kk

Oh boy....those Cabomba plants a finicky creatures. I checked out plant geek. It says they need a lot of light (1.5-3 watts/gal) I only have my measly 15 watt light fixture that came with my kit. =( I also visited an aquarium store that I found in the yellow pages. The guy was very helpful. He sold me some iron supplement tabs for the Argentine Sword, some java moss, and water sprite. He also talked to me about lighting requirements and plants. Hopefully not too many of my plants will die...=P I think I'm going to return the cabomba plant, although, by the looks of it, the store that I got it from was well on its way to killing it even before I bought it (they don't have enough lights on their plant tank...) Thanks for the website! I now have it bookmarked for future reference =)

sirdarksol

Yeah, pet stores rely on turnaround to keep their plants alive. Basically, they're hoping someone will buy the plants (or fish) before they die off.

Sounds like you are well on your way to an obsession with planted tanks. Good for you. They can really end up being beautiful.