a_smith

I have some fake plants in my aquarium at the moment, but after seeing some plants at my local pet store, I really want a real plant.

What's an easy first plant?
Do plants require maintenance? and if they do, what's a low maintenance plant (an easy plant)?
Do plants need a live sand substrate? or can they do with regular aquarium gravel?

Thanks

Amanda

Plants do well in regular gravel.
Some great starter plants are java fern, java moss, crypts, anubias, anacharis, some swords.

eiginh

Plantgeek.net is a good website to start off with your research.

Here's a subcategory from the site with a list of plants categorized by their difficulty.

http://plantgeek.net/plantguide_cat.php?category=2

You can use regular gravel but then plants will need nutrients so you will need to add it in some form either liquid, dry, or tabs and depending on how much lighting you have you may need co2 as well. Since you're just beginning I would assume you will be using your stock light bulb, if you can purchase light bulbs made for growing plants.

Edit* co2 is only needed if your lights are more than 2.0 WPG (watts per gallon)

I also forgot to mention Welcome to Fishlore!

peacemaker92

Some plants require a co2 system. That could cost a bit. Those tall growing plants require trimming. Eiginh has given a great link. You could use java moss for the base plants. They don't require much co2.

Best of luck!

Beth1965

Great thought on gettting a plant. If you're anything like me, you wont stop with one plant. They are my weekness.
Good luck
Beth

Nate McFin

Great advice above. Do be careful purchasing plants at Petsmart and the other chains as they sometimes sell plants that arent true aquatic plants.
Welcome to Fishlore and we look forward to pics after the planting!

Lucy

Welcome to FishLore

Not to mention pest snails that are near impossible to get rid of!

eiginh

Yeah, if you can try ordering plants online or a mom and pop LFS.