Set-up freshwater tanks with live plants

Hey everyone I would appreciate some advice. I'm ready to take my tanks to the next step and add live plants! However I have never kept any planted tanks and am a total novice at aquatic plants. I've learned from experience to begin my research here on the forum so if you could post any information (i.e. step-by-step process, good beginner plants, pros and possible cons of having a planted tank and even stories of your past mistakes would be great). Thank you and I look forward to the learning process

 

Low light plants would be the road to go. Some may think it might be hard to take care of plants, but it's actually really easy. There's many low light plants out there that don't need too much maintenance or equipment such as Co2, high light, and ferts. This is what kinda scares people of trying live plants because they think they need all this stuff ( this is what I thought at first when a beginner) . Just a simple light would work for a few plants. Some really easy plants would be; moneywort, hornwort, water wisteria, water sprite, java moss ( any other moss would work) red ludwigia, and dwarf sag. If you have any driftwood or rocks, you can tie anubias or java Fern. These do best when tied. They can be planted too but just make sure not to cover the "rhizome". You can also tie up java moss to rocks or driftwood. Crypts and Amazon swords are easy to take care of also but these need root tabs because they are huge root feeders. These plants Don't really need much maintenance at all. You can have them growing with just a light. You don't need any special lighting for these plants. If you have a regular t8 fixture or an incandescent fixture, I would recommend getting light bulbs in the 6500k range. They should be labeled as "cool white" or "natural daylight" in some stores. This is the ideal bulb for growing plants and it really does grow plants very well. Some CFL bulbs would work as well. These are some of the plants that are really easy to take care of. I know I might be missing a few but these are the ones I remember from the top of my head. Some mistakes that I did a long time ago when I was a beginner with plants was leaving the light on too long. This was a problem because I would get some algae and it was a pain to get rid of. Just make sure not to run your lights on too long and you will be good. Once you learn the basics of planted tanks It will be a piece of cake. You'll then move on to hardier species and move on from there. One thing a will tell you is "with a planted tank, you are never done" lol. Hope this helps


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To be successful with plants it all starts with the light and putting the correct plants for the light that you have.

I assume you have stock lighting? Standard fluorescent tubes need to be replaced every 6-8 months. With a kelvin temperature of 5000-10000K; 6700K being a full spectrum (has a little bit of everything) as most aquarists go for. You can mix and match kelvins to suit your eyes. No actinic bulbs as they are for saltwater setups. And promote algae in freshwater setups.

Any substrate is doable. You do not need a special substrate. Its more of a personnel preference. I use gravel, fine gravel, sand mixed together with fertilizer root tabs.

Good beginner plants are Java Ferns (attached to hardscape), Anubias (attached to hardscape) Cryptocoryne species, pennywort, dwarf sagittaria, amazon frogbit (floating plant) and mosses. Good background plant you could try Water Wisteria.

 

Thank you both, that information was very useful.
AquaticBrandon, what exactly is a rhizome?

Also, should I consider adding CO2? If not what plants is it used for and why?

 

All plants will benefit from co2 but its not overly necessary unless you are also using strong lighting.

Wisteria, dwarf sag, mosses, anubias, java ferns, and vals all will do well without much extra effort on your part.

There is actually an easier way to work with java ferns and anubias than tying them. I'll post up a quick tutorial on it once I get home from work in a few hours either here on in a standalone thread.

 

EricV, thank you that would be amazing!

 

I forgot to add in my previous post is you want to put the lights on a timer; 6-8 hours a day.

Edit: I do not recommend Amazon Swords for small tanks as they get huge. They grow anywhere from 18-24" tall and get a massive root system. Beautiful plant but needs to be in a large tall tank to see their true beauty.

 

AlyeskaGirl, wow I didn't no that they got that big! Yeah, I think I'll save those for when I have a nice big tank haha.

 

If you are interested in a Sword then try the Oriental Sword. It doesn't get so big. Still large for a 5 or 10 gallon though. The new leaves that come in are pink and start to fade to green as the leaves mature. Swords are also heavy root feeders and do best with moderate light. If lighting is too low they can struggle a bit.

Edit: Another good plant for low-light is the Red Tiger Lotus. Forgot about that one.

 

The rhizome is the bottom part of the plant like java ferns and Anubias. They do best when tied to something but can also be planted


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Oh I see. I never knew there was a term for that. Yay for new information haha!

 

Well as promised here is my method of working with anubias or other rhizome plants like java ferns.

Start with a run of the mill metal plant anchor.




Now bend it until into the shape of a J.






Loosely wrap this over the rhizome between some leaves







Now just plant the long end into your substrate (or between rocks, driftwood etc) near whatever you'd like to attach it to.

Leave it alone for a few weeks and it will attach itself to the object. After that just grab some tweezers and pull the anchor off and you have a nice attached plant without having to pull out your hardscape to tie or glue it on. . Works like a charm.

 

I thought it would be so much harder than that for some reason. I'm truly astonished at how easy you just made it haha. Would I be able to find the metal plant anchors at LFS's or would I need to order them? Also it would seem I could just substitute other malleable metal pieces like a paperclip instead of using the anchors. Would that be unwise and could it affect the pH at all? I know some rocks/minerals added to aquariums can but I wouldn't think that paperclips would, however since I've never tried I wouldn't know. Thank you so much EricV for that amazing trick. I was thinking I was going to have to individually tie down every plant that wasn't rooted in the substrate.

 

They're a little tricky to find sometimes especially at the petcos and petsmarts....buuuuuuut if you ask the employees nicely sometimes they'll give you some from their plant shipments. If not order them online...they're super cheap.

A paperclip probably wouldn't have the weight to hold them in place while they self-anchor. Plus I'd be concerned with them rusting into the tank. Personally I'd stick with the standard aquarium plant anchors.



You should be able to find them even cheaper than that actually on eBay or something like that.

 

Those aren't expensive at all. Thanks for all the help!