Plants And Nitrogen Cycle.

Today I am going to add ammonia and get my newly setup 29 gallon started for cycle. Can I go ahead and add plants now, or should I wait? If so what type of plants do you recommend. I have about and inch to 2 inches of Pool Filter sand, and in some areas even deeper. I was just in Petco today and bought the wrong plant, got home and read about it on the internet, found out it is a semi-aquatic plant that must have the leaves above the water with the roots in the water. I read that if it is fully submersed under water the plant will rot. I thought it was a sword plant, but instead it is a Gold Ribbon Diacaena Variegatus.

 

New 29 gallon setup, starting fishless cycle.
Can I add plants now, and if so what kind?

 

Yes, you can add plants now. The kind of plant depends on your lighting, how much you will fertilize, if co2 will be injected, and fish you want to keep. If you are starting out in planted aquariums, I recommend anubis, java fern, java moss. This selection, is for a low maintenance low light aquarium.

 

New 29 gallon setup, starting fishless cycle.
Can I add plants now, and if so what kind?

Yes you can! that's how I have been doing it for years. I've been told it helps and doesn't matter what kind

 

Yes, this is a good time to aquascape.
The kind of plants depends on the lighting you have and what kind of fish.
I have swords, cryptocorne, rosette swords, hornwort, Java ferns, several kinds of Anubias, and a Java moss wall.
Mine are low to medium light and low maintenance.

 

Sand is a hard substrate to work with when your dealing with aquatic plants. It's very hard to get stuff planted in it until your plant is rooted. I recommend Java fern, Anubis sp, and anything else you can mount to rocks or wood. You could also plant amazon sword, but you might need to weigh down the crown with rocks until it is rooted well.

 

Thanks everyone, for the plant suggestion types and good to know I can go ahead and plant now.
The tank looks kinda bare without anything in it, and as it might take a month or so to cycle, would be nice to plants in there to look at.

As of right now I have no idea what fish I will put in it after it is cycled and safe to do so. I want peaceful fish, one center fish, one species of schooling fish, and one species of bottom feeders.

 

You can add them now.
I also have pool filter sand, I found that crypts and amazon swords work well with root tabs. My stem plants do pretty well too but they are harder to keep planted at first. Anubias and java ferns also grow really well but they do best tied to wood or rocks.
Definitely take out the semi-aquatic plant, I've heard you can put them in your filter if you have a HOB but I don't know.

 

Tomorrow I will take back the semi-aquatic plants and get ones that will grow under water..

 

Petco also sells, peacock fern, lucky bamboo, and mexican oak, plants you should never put in aquarium. Everything else I believe is okay

 

Petco also sells, peacock fern, lucky bamboo, and mexican oak, plants you should never put in aquarium. Everything else I believe is okay

Thanks for the info, I will copy this and make sure I don't get any of those.

I have another question. I did buy root tabs at Petsmart, (Petco was out). When I was in Ace Hardware I looked at small root stick fertilizer, I know these are meant for potted plants, but they are way cheaper then the root tabs bought at Petsmart. The root sticks, are they safe for the aquarium?

 

In fact many people do this and it is a very cost effective way to fertilizing your plants. I don't see why there would be, but just check that there is no added chemicals in them.

 

In fact many people do this and it is a very cost effective way to fertilizing your plants. I don't see why there would be, but just check that there is no added chemicals in them.

Next time I am in Ace Hardware, or any place that might have them I will read what is in them. Thanks for the reply.

 

Unless you know every chemical that can hurt fish, I would avoid them. Maybe it’s just me but a couple $$ isn’t worth killing fish and having to dig fertilizer out of my tanks.

I buy aquarium root tabs (SeaChem) on Amazon and they aren’t that expensive.

Please look at Wetplants.com. I’ve bought Swords from them and the roots are big enough I could plant in sand with no problems. And they are twice as big, and 1/2 the price of PetSmart. You just saved enough to buy root tabs.

The only plant i’ve bought from Wetplants that I had issue with is vals. The jungle Val’s had a lot of melt but i’v Read that is common. The Indica Val’s were fine.

The swords, melon sword, verigated sword, Anubis, hornwort and some others were great.

 

Thanks Hunter, I will check it out. I agree I will not take the chance on the ones at Ace Hardware.

I bought these two plants, one from Petco (in the bag) and the other one from Petsmart (in a tube). When I got them home and compared them they looked like the same type of plants. When I bought the one from Petco it was completely underwater in their plant tank. But the one from Petsmart was in a tube on a shelve, (it was handed to me as a suggestion for a good plant by an employee at Petsmart). The one at Petsmart read on the container as semi-aquatic, so I looked up the name and yes it said it would rot under water. Is it possible that although the two plants look identical to me, that they are two different species of plants. Maybe I can still use the one from Petco in the bag... See picture.

 

I will attach some photos. All are Wetplants.com plants. And “No!” I don’t even know these folks.

But they should give me a discount because I do promote them based on my experiences.

Not the best landscaped tanks but the plants are healthy.

 

Thanks Hunter, I have checked out the website and will do some studying for what I want, then order some plants from there.