Plants 101 Please

I was looking into swapping out my plastic plants with live ones. Sense I have never done this before, is there a plant I should start with? And I know plants have a different caring and feeding needs. Is there away to make it so their food doesn't harm my fish?

 

s there away to make it so their food doesn't harm my fish?

No plant ferts, when dosed appropriately, will cause toxicity issues to fish, so you needn't worry about that.

Pick up something like NilocG Thrive. Cheap, concentrated, all-in-one. Doesn't require much thinking or planning to use.

But I wouldn't recommend following their dosing recommendations as it's designed for use in high light, CO2 injected tanks.

Instead dose half the recommended amount (1 pump per 20 gallons instead of 1 pump per 10 gallons) and do it only once a week (rather than 2-3 times a week).

In terms of easy plants: Anubias, Java moss, Java fern, Amazon swords, Crypts, Wisteria, Hygro, etc.

All fairly low maintenance and not especially picky.

 

No plant ferts, when dosed appropriately, will cause toxicity issues to fish, so you needn't worry about that.

Pick up something like NilocG Thrive. Cheap, concentrated, all-in-one. Doesn't require much thinking or planning to use.

But I wouldn't recommend following their dosing recommendations as it's designed for use in high light, CO2 injected tanks.

Instead dose half the recommended amount (1 pump per 20 gallons instead of 1 pump per 10 gallons) and do it only once a week (rather than 2-3 times a week).

In terms of easy plants: Anubias, Java moss, Java fern, Amazon swords, Crypts, Wisteria, Hygro, etc.

All fairly low maintenance and not especially picky.

Thank you! That's super helpful! Now I have to find a place in my area that sells them without harmful snails. lol

 

Thank you! That's super helpful! Now I have to find a place in my area that sells them without harmful snails. lol

I’ve seen many of the plants listed above sold at local petcos and petsmarts. The ones that come in the tubes are great because they are free of pest snails.

As far as online goes, a google search of tissue cultured or ‘in vitro’ plants should turn up some plants that are grown in such a way so that they also don’t come with snails or other pests.

Anubias is my personal favorite, since out of all the plants I’ve tried that one always does well for me personally and I’ve never needed to use fertilizers with them. Just make sure to not bury the rhizome in substrate. Java Fern is the same way as far as planting it.

 

First, tear down your tank. Restart it properly for a planted tank. Put organic soil on the bottom, and cap it off with gravel or sand. Look into making a "walstad" tank.

Get a proper light for growing plants. A 6500K LED Light will do you wonders. Lighting is often overlooked, and definitely is not something to cheap out on.

Dose Thrive by NilocG. It's an all in one liquid fert. They're dosing instructions (1 pump per 10 gallon) once a week should be fine for a lowtech planted aquarium.

DO NOT only plant anubias, java fern, and crypts. Those are all slow growing plants and that is a recipe for an algae disaster. New aquariums need fast growing plants to suck up extra nutrients to prevent an algae outbreak. Use hornwort, anacharis, water wisteria, jungle val, and dwarf sag.

Look into running DIY CO2 with yeast and sugar, but it's not required.