Fake to real plants with sand substrate

I have a 180 litre tank with black sand substrate and mostly fake plants. I have 2 java fern with salvinia floating plants. If i want stem plants and go fully real will they be able to thrive on root tabs and ferts or would they really need aquasoil too? If aquasoil is needed am I going to be starting a new cycle as I dont have room to rehouse the fish and shrimp in the meantime?

 

They'll do fine in sand.

 

Welcome to the forum! Like proudpapa said, you will be fine with sand, ferts, and root tabs

 

For stem plants root tabs are not necessary, just use an all in one liquid fertilizer and choose "easy" plants.

 

Never used "proper" substrate with plants, and I tend to plant heavy. Do lots of investigating into any plants you like to make sure they work with your setup and don't need a whole lot of extra help. Don't forget a before and after pic for the "glow up"!

 

If there is no need for me to get aquasoil I may just gradually change over rather than doing everything at once. One of the reasons I initially went for fake was the variety of colours, so I may even leave some of them in for a bit of variety

 

There are a few plants like Amazon Sword plants that like to be rooted in a good substrate. Many other plants are just fine without it. Although Amazon Swords do best when fed though the roots, they will still absorb nutrients from the water column. Most stem plants will thrive either rooted or left floating, They even develop roots at nodes along the stems that will absorb nutrients from the water. You can cut a stem just below one of the root nodes and plant it in substrate, or just leave it floating.

 

Originally my plants did nothing in my cycling tank. Just melting. I added easy green liquid fertilizer in beginner doses and immediately saw improvement, new growth. Still, I thought my sand w/no nutrients was holding plants back even though I was adding liquid ferts.

Then I changed the temp from 79-80F to 75, suddenly my swords started to blow up. That was the most improvement I’ve seen, within 2 days the new leaves were broader than ever.

I’ve added root tabs as well now to support good growth but like the others said it isn’t strictly necessary, and impact is less obvious than either adding liquid ferts or lowering the temp

 

Never used "proper" substrate with plants, and I tend to plant heavy. Do lots of investigating into any plants you like to make sure they work with your setup and don't need a whole lot of extra help. Don't forget a before and after pic for the "glow up"!

The decoration is predominantly to the left hand side at the back as I wanted to create an area that might give a bit more protection for any fry my swordtails have, I am not specifically looking to breed them and havent seen any fry yet, but if any come along I want to give them a bit of a chance. The tank was set up last June and has been remodelled a number of times, current inhabitants are 3 gold gourami, 6 albino bronze cory, 1 male and 3 female swordtails, 2 oto (had been 6 but 4 died when I was on a two week holiday) 2 zebra snails and 5 amano shrimp.