not sure which plants to get...

Salix

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if you guys could help me out. My tank has a naturally high pH (7.6) and I keep the water at around 75 degrees, and I was wondering what kinds of plants would be ok to put in it. It's a ten gallon tank with a 10 watt florescent light, that I only have on for two hours a day at most and algae has been blooming like crazy lately and I've been wanting to try live plants for a while anyway, so I figured they would be the best way to get rid of this algae problem. I have small, loose gravel as substrate and I have already purchased the Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium. I was hoping to get a floating plant, and a couple of substrate rooted plants. I'm headed to the fish store tomorrow and suggestions would be helpful since I trust your opinions more than those of the pet store employees.

tanker

I had my Brazilian Pennywort in the 35-litre I used to have. It did well in there. You can plant it and it'll float across the top when it gets tall enough, or you can float it. Another plant you can float is Water Sprite.

Byron

As far as your water parameters and temp, almost any true aquatic plant will grow fine. Tanker's suggestions for floating plants are good. For substrate-rooted, any of the swords (some get large, no mention ismade of tank size), Vallisneria, etc. You will need the light on for 10 hours a day, but with plants algae should not be an issue.

Salix

Right, tank size, sorry. It's a 10 gallon. I purchased some Amazon Sword and some Wisteria as those are the only aquarium plants that they had that I've heard of. I didn't want to risk getting something that wasn't compatible with my parameters. I'm also going to pick up some more of the loose gravel. When I got this tank a year ago I never even considered live plants so the gravel I have is for decoration, so there isn't much of it. Just enough to keep the plants from floating away, but I don't think it's going to be enough for the roots.

Byron

Swords have extensive root systems and need depth of gravel, 2-3 inches. They may (depending what species they are) grow large, but it will not occur right away and swords growing into a tank is rather nice. I have had "large" swords starting as small plants in 10 and 20 gallon tanks and take a few months before they are ready to move elsewhere, so they will work fine in your 10g. Wisteria should be fine too, check the info in the profile.

Byron.

Salix

According to the plastic tube they came in they are Echinodorus Amazonicus. They're pretty small, I added pictures in the picture/video section so you can see for yourself. Right now there's only about half an inch or so of gravel. Like I said it was only for decoration, I had never planned on keeping live plants, but I'm going to pick up some more next week. Will the Wisteria be fine in only half an inch? If so I planned on creating a little hill out of the gravel for the swords on the right side of the tank so their roots will have plenty of room to grow. When they start to outgrow this tank I'll transplant them to my 45.

The ultimate goal is to have all of my tanks (I only have three) planted but I'm using my 10 gallon betta tank to experiment to find out what I like, what grows best in these water conditions and so on and so forth. The betta isn't too happy with these new plants. I took away his favorite plastic plant because of a lack of space and now he has nowhere to rest so he's been sulking. I'm sure once the Wisteria starts to grow out and he has something to lay on he'll stop pouting.

Byron

He'll love the Wisteria when it grows to the surface. And yes, building up the gravel for the swords is fine; if you have some small pieces of rock you can make a terrace at one spot to keep the gravel in place. I looked at the photos, those are fine plants, Echinodorus bleherae probably or E. amazonicus. Be sure touse the Flourish twice a week, only 1/4 tsp eacg time in a 10g will be fine.