BuckeTs

Sweet tanks lea. I want to do a natural river setting for my dempsey when i upgrade to a 6ft tank. I might still have to have fake plants because dempseys like to rearrange the tank when they spawn.

lea

Thanks also BuckeTs, look forawrd to seeing them! Naughty dempsys.

The riverstones make cleaning the tank so easy, and are very cheap from garden stores... just make sure you boil them like crazy first of course an watch out for limestone as it may affect the pH

In lew of natural plants, i think you could prob get the same natural effect from using driftwood and silk plants. Would your dempseys attack grass or real plants if they were attached to something like a rock or driftwood? Just a thought...

BuckeTs

I wanna try using real plants at first if they get ripped up then i will replace with silks...
if i can build a sump (cash/wifey constraints ) ill plant that instead. Ha! I just found out my old man can get large acrylic offcut from his work WIN!!!!

jenste

I have water wisteria that I leave floating because both my bettas seem to love uprooting them (sigh), but in my african clawed frog tank I can only keep weighted silk plants - ACF are powerful kickers and have uprooted, shredded and attempted to eat every kind of live plant I have attempted to keep in their tank

lea

Try to pot idea or put a few pebbles around the roots maybe? I didnt know bettas were such good diggers! My boys are very well behaved luckily

jenste

it is not that they dig up the roots...its that I have seen each one grab the plant and "fight with it" - bite, pull, shake....until it gets uprooted and floats to the surface

it is the darnest thing -- Cooper did it first, and now I have caught Mr. Wilson doing it too

lea

Can they see each other (divided tank?)? Maybe he's teaching him bad habits . I wouln't put it past a betta to learn tricks like that from other fish.

Bett (my creatively named VT) knows to quietly follow his cory tankmates after feeding to find good leftovers hiding in between the riverstones i use for substrate.

Still, a few rocks around the roots may stop them... maybe.

jenste

yes it is a divided 10 gallon so they can some what see each other...after replanting attempts proved futile, I decided to just let them be. they prefer the plants floating, so I am going to leave them floating. they are the ones who have to live in it, not me lol

Raevyna

Yes, we do! My husband and I are still pretty new at this whole fishkeeping business (set up our first tank Feb of '09 I believe), and are even newer at live plant keeping.

We started with a combo pack of bulbs, but only two ever rooted and grew: a red lotus and a very small onion plant. There were so many surface leaves shooting up from the lotus, and the leaves on the bottom created a nice little bushy hiding place for our common pleco; I loved it! Unfortunately, when we moved to a new state I cut off all the surface leaves to transport, and I didn't realize they would never grow back. So now we're just left with a little red-leafed bush. If anyone knows how to get the shoots to grow again, please inform me!

Just a month or two ago we bought a very dark green potted thing with very thin leaves but I have no idea what it is. And 1 nice little clump of java moss that our pleco drags around with him wherever he wants a new hiding spot. LOL We also bought a small amount of duckweed that our molly loved to play with, but what she didn't eat kept getting sucked up into the filter and has all died off.

We're getting ready to cycle and stock a 75 gal, and we want that one to be heavily planted, so we're doing lots of research to find out what we want in there.

Vash

Yes. It feels more natural. Besides, plants will eat up ammonia, nitrate, etc. in the water.

chumzhujun

hi,
i just converted my tank to a planted tank

Do i need a co2 diffuser? My plant have been alive for 2 days. No changing of colour? Should i need it.

Vash

You don't have to have CO2. As long as you have fish, there should be CO2 in there.

Lighting is more important. Plants can die if the light is not strong enough.

ChristineG

I have put plants in both tanks I'm taking care of, but the plants at the senior's residence don't fare well. They look nice for about a month and then start getting brown spots or leaves rotting. I really should add fertilizer--they may do much better. (But with all the fish wastes, you would think there's lots in the tank already.)

charzar-g

Live plants in my tank :0

Wonkadonk

I just have one java fern, but what a difference it makes. The tank feels so much more...alive.

lea

Hi ChristineG & chumzhujun (and others )

If leaves are going brown and dying, it may well be lighting, but extra ferts and CO2 would certinly help. I fully reccommend Flourish Excel. It was suggested to me a while ago on FL, and it has improved my plants out of sight despite low light conditions.

I put fert tabs in pots with my more demanding plants (amazon sword), but i've found the best result is from addin Flourish Excel, which provides a carbon intermediate for the plants to absorb. I do have fish and therefore CO2, but this extra boost changed the plants dramatically - so much more green and improved growth. Its the best suggestion for a planted tank i've had on FL. I have very low light also, but just adding the Excel helped so much to keep them green and healthy.

Just my 2 cents

melissap_

I have both, mostly fake, but I do have Java Moss in each tank and some plants that I grew from bulbs from Wal-mart... all are doing really well, so thinking about adding more.

backflipfronflip

Live plants - Java Fern, Crypts and a Sword of some sort. No fert, standard bulb that came with the hood, they all seem to be rocking,new leaves and plants sprouting up all the time.

I love that they add another type of life to the tank.

Dogfishead

I have all live plants in the tank im cycling right now. A Cabomba forest in the back center, some anubias and cryptocoryne in the middle to front and a couple banana plants. I love the natural look of the live plants and what they add to the environment of the tank.

konstargirl

No I don't I don't have the time right now. I do have a Java moss in Miyavi's tank, but mostly artificial plants.

psalm18.2

I LOVE planted tanks!! Just added 2 new plants, water lettuce and java fern.
I really like the anubias, so easy to grow, just throw in the tank. I have anubias stuck in a decoration, one tied to driftwood, and another tied to stone. It's so easy, anubias doesn't get buried in substrate. My amazon sword didn't look so good, so I trimmed it down to give it a fresh start. Bannana plants are easy too, just drop them in, that's it.
The hardest plant I've had so far is crypts spiralis, it's very touchy and doesn't like to be moved.
Good hint: dark green leaves means less light needed, lighter leaves means high light.

Danni

Same here- live and fake plants but planning on planting.

backflipfronflip

Interesting....Is that the case for all crypts? my Cryptocoryne Undulate(think that's what it is) has new leaves that are light green and older that are much darker. Does trimming the old leaves encourage new growth as with most other plants?

buzz4520

no live plants in any of the tanks...fishes will just uproot them and tear them up.

psalm18.2

I'm not sure. Let me look in my book, "101 Best Aquarium Plants." I love this book, borrowed from Library, but might buy my own copy. Cryptocoryne undulate is a very hardy plant. You can trim leaves when they look shaggy, are dying, and start to decay. Pruning helps stimulate the growth.

backflipfronflip

I thought as much, i have only had 2 for a couple weeks but have trimmed them and they seem to be doing well. actually trimmed off a side shoot and planted it and it seems to be taking OK.

I like that they seem to be fairly low maintenance so long as you leave them alone.

Brittany Bam

Yepp .

2 amazon sword

in with SA. cichlids. No plant deaths so far Woo !

angelfish5765

I have moss balls because I don't think I could stand any plants that need to root in the gravel. I'm always cleaning my gravel. How do you guys with live plants clean your gravel? Doesn't it uproot your plants when you do?

backflipfronflip

i try and keep most of the gravel really clean(gravel vac with every clean) but am a bit loose around the plants. I figure that the plants will take care of that bit.

Danni

Same here. Just be watchful of any roots.