Beginner Plants?

[MisterSnuffles]

Hey yall. Im getting a 10 gallon soon either with cherry shrimp or 3 pea puffers. The fish are definitely subject to change. But anyways I kinda want to try live plants. Ive never tried them and my mom is afraid it might be too much for me. So far Ive had success with fish. I plan to have small driftwood and maybe small rocks. Maybe Java Moss and Java Fern? So can anyone recommend good plants that are “bulletproof”, relatively cheap, that dont need fertilizer, and that work well with RCS or Pea Puffers? Here are my tap parameters btw.
Ammonia: 0.50
Gh: 10 (After 24 hours)
Kh: 7 (After 24 hours)
Ph: 7.5 (After 24 hours)

 

[RMtanks]

Java ferns I've found often have potassium deficiencies, but they also often do just fine! For me the plant I just can't seem to kill is Hygrophilia. Definitely reccomend H. polysperma for an easy plant, my ghosts love eating algae off the leaves. Easy to propagate, no fertilizers needed. Hornwort is always a good idea- it can be grown planted or floating, and shrimp love it from what I've read, water wisteria is in a similar vein and is also great. A faster growing crypt like C. wendtii has a similar look to java fern and is good with puffers, and anubias is a classic and extremely hardy. I recommend coffefolia just because the crinkly leaves look awesome, but you can also attach petite varieties to pieces of your hardscape just like java moss or Christmas moss.

 

[awilkinson871]

Anubias- just attach to driftwood or decor, amazon sword if you have harder water, water wisteria, hornwort. Amazon swords need root tabs, the rest may need liquid fertilizer. Shrimp will need lots of plants for molting and biofilm. Pea puffers will need lots of plants to keep aggression down.

 

[EMcT1985]

What I have found easiest: Crypt Wendtii (use some root tabs), Anubias Nana, moss balls, and floating plants like water lettuce.

 

[Ghostly]

Anubias, and salvinia do great in my tanks!

 

[Eaton]

Wisteria grows like a weed for me with a trash light and no fertiliser

 

[carsonsgjs]

Bucephalandra also is pretty difficult to kill off - similar care requirements to anubias with that one.

 

[AlphaFish]

Hello! My first reccomandation definetly has to be anubias. I have 2 thriving anubias and I only use co2 to help my plants. One of them even bloomed! Java fern is also great. Just make sure that you don't bury the rhizomes of these two, preferably attach it to some hardscape. I've heard about christmas moss and marimo moss as good mosses, but I only had experience with java moss. Java moss is quite hardy. Pennywort also seems good. I only had mine for a little past a week and it's already making a lot of new leaves.

 

[Ouse]

My understanding is anubias and Java fern don’t even need ferts added.

Attaching rhizome plants to rock or wood using string is safer than using glue.

 

[JavaMossMan]

You have a GH of 10 meaning you have hard water. I would give jungle val a shot. There are different types of val. Italian val is the one that is commonly used. Jungle val (val. americana) has thicker leaves. You can buy one and it will spread runners all over your tank turning it into a jungle or you can pull them out and scape as needed.

Another hard water plant is anacharis (can be finicky for some people) but also a nice plant that can be easy.

Crypts are soft water plants but I think they should do well in hard water and are pretty much bullet proof. Get crypt wendtii from petco in the gel containers. I literally got about 20-30 plants for $10.

For stem plants I would go with rotala rontundifolia. I have this in my low light tank and its the only stem plant that has done well for me.

None of the above need fertilizer but if you did want them to grow better all you would have to buy is root tabs (with the exception of anacharis and rotala as they are primarily water column feeders).

My personal recommendation to you is since you have hard water only buy val. for now and try to make a val. only tank. You will have a successful and nice looking tank then try other things later.

Jungle Val turned into well....a jungle | Aquarium Plants Forum | 433868