Gravel, it's enough?

Sherry1966

I just wanted to add that I have never seen live plants sold like that. I like it....

Geomancer

Petsmart started to do that about a month or two ago, they stock them like they do all the other decorations.

They are all very young plants which is different from how they are typically sold.

Cehszar

I like this way because it's fun to watch the growth of them, I must say it can be a bit hard if you have fishes that tend to be diggers, but if you have patience worth it. BTW they have bulbs on sale too, that can be funnier, because in first place, You can't know wich of them are going to sprout, and second; once they have sprouted You need to wait to know what kind of plant it is.

Cehszar

I've changed gravel by sand, here's the result..

Sherry1966

Thanks, the petsmart near me does not sell them like that. Hopefully they can reach us all the way up here. I looked at petsmart plants last night. They are in a big shallow aquarium with a betta fish, and tonnes of snails. I did not see which kind of snails. The tank was almost empty of plants.
I would much rather buy my plants like you have in the box/bags. Then I know exactly what I am getting. I will ask them next time I am in. Which will be soon.

Geomancer

Stores with plant tanks don't often carry the box/tubed plants. Generally, the potted ones are better as they at least are getting water/light while the boxed/tube ones are just sitting on a self and basically ignored until bought. The tube ones I always had to search through them all to find ones where the plants were still alive.

But yes, they are terrible at labeling their plants and Petco is even worse about that.

Cehszar

I've added an Aqueon 48" T5 Dual lamp fixture, so, together with the 30 watts from the two Floramax, now I have a total of 86 watts on the 55G (1.4 watts/gal) it's not bad...

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Cehszar

Besides we got more cleaning crew
Four Peppered Corys

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Cehszar

I thought I had lost the Aponogetons....

redchigh

The "stem plants" like bacope will grow much better if you remove the tie and plant the stems seperately.

with your new fixture, that's a LOT of light... You also have a few difficult plants. Your poor fish are probably being blinded .. (Your fish are "forest fish". In the wild, trees would heavily shade the water.) The t5s alone would be quite (too bright?) bright. If you have any algae problems, the light is to blame.

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