Firecracker

Anything to watch out for at the fish store?

sirdarksol

Look for green, healthy-looking plants.
Make sure you've researched the particular kinds of plants you want (check out plantgeek.net for great info), so you don't end up with high-light plants in a low-light aquarium.
If you don't want to pick up pesky snails, you're going to want to treat the plants beforehand. (There's a substance called potassium permagnate that I guess can be found at Home Depot that makes a great plant dip, people have said). I don't worry about them too much. I kind of like them in my tanks. A sudden increase in snails means something's wrong in the tank.

Firecracker

So aside from snails, it's unlikely that they will bring anything else unwanted into my tank?

My tank is still cycling ... there are no fish yet.

sirdarksol

There is always the chance of bacteria or parasites. You should quarantine your plants for a bit.
However, since there are no fish, you could plant the tank and let it run for a few weeks. With no hosts, parasites/bacteria would be unlikely to survive in the tank (this is the purpose of the quarantine of plants, to deprive unwanted visitors of hosts for long enough to kill them).

Firecracker

Cool, that's why I wanted to get them now.

I don't have much room in my tank either, because it came with a big Parthenon looking decoration/bubbler thing. So I was just going to put a couple anubias and cryptocoryne behind it and a java fern on driftwood in front.

Should I pot or plant the cryptocoryne?

sirdarksol

My crypts are all planted. The important thing is that you plant them in the right place the first time.
Crypts that are moved have a tendency to "melt". They usually grow back, but it's not a chance you want to take excessively.
They could very well do this when you move them into their tank. This can be a response to different water quality, different light levels, etc... It's my theory that a crypt's leaves are optimized for a particular location, and when the parameters change, it regrows leaves that are optimized for that area. This is not supported by any research, just a hunch of mine.

Firecracker

Huh, interesting. So when I bring some home they will die back and then regrow? How long does it take until they look healthy again?

The reason I was thinking of potting them is a.) I'm only getting 2, maybe three and b.) I already have substrate that does not have stuff in it that plants need, it's just plain ol gravel, and I thought potting it would be better than trying to give it food or whatever it needs.

Butterfly

I prefer to put plants in the substrate. Most of the pots have rock wool in them and they contain fertilizers that can contribute to an algae outbreak. I have plain gravel in some tanks and sand in others and my plants grow just fine.
Carol

sirdarksol

Mine are losing their leaves slower than most people report, but a friend had all of the leaves disappear a couple of days after he got it, and a week later, there was about an inch of growth (I'll have more to report tomorrow, when I see the tank again).
Butterfly's right. Plants can usually grow in any substrate. You usually just have to add certain minerals periodically (iron deficiency is the most common issue with aquarium plants). There are root tabs, spikes, or liquids that you can use to supplement this.

Jim

the only problem I've had is the ocasional ramshorn snail. if you get one, squash it. Other than that, I agree with sirdarksol, trumpet or teardrop (whatever they are) snails are OK, and in fact good for keeping the soil from compacting. The only problem I had from plants is a hydrophila that had this nasty hair algea that almost overran my tank overnight.

sirdarksol

I've heard that ramshorn snails are generally beneficial.

Didn't know that hair algae could grow in pure freshwater tanks. I've got the stuff in my brackish tank, but have never had it in any of my other tanks, even though I share filter media, plants, and critters (snails and shrimp) between my tanks.

Jim

My understanding is there are a couple varieties of ramshorn... some eat algea, some eat plants... I got a bad one that definitly was eating plants.

As for the hair algea, I may be wrong about it, it may be gray or brush algea, I'm not positive. It's definitly grey and hairy and mostly goes for my big giant vals, near the top of the tank.
I trimmed off the worst of it, and the algea squad seems to be getting a handle on the rest.

sirdarksol

Not sure about the algae.
Is the stuff in your tank really tough? What I've got is at least as strong as moderately-thick human hair, if not stronger.

Jim

That sounds about right. Most is gone now, but there's still some around. I'll try and get a pic today later. It's the first time I had this stuff.

Firecracker

Well I got 3 onion plants, 2 crypto-whatevers, 1 anubias and 1 java fern. It looks a little sparse in there still so I may go back for a few more later. The onions and cryptos are losing a few leaves, but so far they look like they're doing OK ... the huge Parthenon decoration thingy in the middle of the tank makes planting stuff kind of a pain! It's really hard to see down into the water and my tank is tall enough I can't see in through the sides when I am trying to reach in there. I may have to rearrange some more gravel when I do a water change prior to getting the fish.

I didn't get any snails, but maybe I will get a few. Do the trumpets breed like crazy like some of the other snails?

sirdarksol

I'd wait a bit to get more plants. See how these ones fill out before you start adding more. In the right environment, anubias grows pretty quickly, and can be cut apart in order to propagate it.
Trumpets sometimes breed quickly, and sometimes don't. However, if they're breeding quickly, it means that your tank has an excess of waste products, and they're having a feeding frenzy. If you're tank is kept pretty clean, they shouldn't overrun it. In addition, you only have to buy them once. If you ever want to populate another tank with them, just pull an adult or three from the tank and drop it in. They reproduce asexually, so you don't need to have males and females in order for reproduction to begin.

Firecracker

Yes, that is what I'd planned to do with the plants. Plus, we may get rid of the big parthenon thingy and get some driftwood, so we'll probably get more plans when we do that. Should I wait until after I get the fish and they have been in there a while to get the snails?

sirdarksol

Not necessarily. The snails can get themselves established in the substrate beforehand.