Tropical Fish Keeping banner

Need plant help

1K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  equatics 
#1 ·
Hello I'm new to fishkeeping and I have a 45 gallon tank with 6 black skirt tetra( 3 of which are the glofish tetra) but I'm looking to get plants in my tank and was wondering what ones are worth getting. My tank is 24" tall and I was hoping to have one plant almost reach that height. My ph is 7.8 and I would also want one plant in my 2 gallon Betta tank for my rescue please help with any advice possible.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App
 
#2 ·
Hello I'm new to fishkeeping and I have a 45 gallon tank with 6 black skirt tetra( 3 of which are the glofish tetra) but I'm looking to get plants in my tank and was wondering what ones are worth getting. My tank is 24" tall and I was hoping to have one plant almost reach that height. My ph is 7.8 and I would also want one plant in my 2 gallon Betta tank for my rescue please help with any advice possible.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App
jungle val would easily grow as tall as your tank. i have some in mine and it has just reached the top. you could also try corkscrew val, amazon sword get tall and beautiful. youll need plant friendly lights and depending on substrate you might need to change to sand or smaller gravel. amazon awords are heavy root feeders and root tabs are highly recommended for these plants. the vals like em but arent really necessary.
 
#6 ·
When we decided on plants we just went trial and error. We only had one completely die out. Plants have been growing great in our 10g that only has the LED light that came with the tank. Wisteria has been the fastest growing for us and it after a few months has reached the top of our 55g. We broke a piece off and it is growing in the gravel in my 3g betta tank.

I definitely recommend plants though. They really haven't been much maintenance for us we just trim off any dead leaves as needed and give liquid fertilizer and watch them grow!
 
#7 ·
Your fixture should be great for growing live plants! Very good choice on the light :)

Good tall plants that I can think of are Amazon Swords (bit of a slow grower, but once it gets going, it gets HUGE. Very tall with lots of leaves reaching outwards.) Another great one is Crispus Aponogeton (most other varieties of aponogeton work great, as well.) I have this plant in my tank and after a few weeks I had to trim it. I measured...the leaves were 3 feet long! They also grow quite quickly.

Jungle val would also do the trick, and can multiply quite quickly. There is also crypt. Balansae and Crypt. Spirlis, both are very pretty grass-like plants that can get to a decent height, but may not reach the top.

For the betta tank...what light is on that one? A few good plants I can think of are Dwarf Sag, Crypt. Lucens, and Pygmy chain sword.

Floating plants are also a great option for both tanks, many fish really appreciate the sense of 'cover' it gives, and love to browse through the roots. The betta will especially like this :) My favorite floating plants are frogbit and watersprite.

What substrate do you have in the tanks? I recommend adding root tabs in sand (and fine gravel) substrate, as many plants are heavy root feeders (especially the swords and crypts!) and won't do so well without tabs.

Oh! Before I forget, one last thing you'll want to invest in as a bottle of Seachem Flourish Comprehensive plant supplement. It's a great fertilizer that only needs dosed once a week, and will last you months.

As for CO2, I don't run this any any of my tanks and they're quite healthy with great growth :)

Experiment with different plants, it's fun to re-arrange them and watch them grow. And if they don't, that's okay! There are always a few finicky plants out there. :)

Good luck! If you have anymore questions feel free to ask :)
 
#8 · (Edited)
If you decide to use CO2 then you will be able to grow carpet/ground cover like Hair Grass and others, whereas they are more difficult without CO2. I don't use CO2 and I'm working with getting some Pygmy Chain Sword to grow well for ground cover. So that's my suggestion for adding to both tanks assuming you have adequate light. They branch out on runners. I wanted them because years ago when I was breeding Angelfish I got some and they were growing everywhere. I always remembered that. Of course I had too much Nitrates and the local water properties were different then. Maybe the Nitrates helped them grow, along with phosphates from the fish food and maybe Potassium from the water, plus some trace elements. I never fertilized them.

In low light situations in a small tank you don't have to fertilize that much - I just have been using Flourish Comprehensive trace elements in my 10g. Of course, I have been having problems with the plants stopping growing and BGA. If you use CO2 you will definitely have to fertilize trace elements plus Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium (NPK). And the light will have to be significantly brighter. Everything runs faster, I think.

Edit: It may have actually been Ammonia rather than Nitrates that was supplying the Nitrogen. e.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top