Plastic plants

bettababy

Ok, a few things I want to cover here quick. After rereading the whole thread, I am curious about the green water during "gravel washing"? Can you please explain about how you are washing the gravel and how often?
As for depth of the substrate being too shallow to hold plants, then I would have to suggest making it a bit deeper. The gravel bed is important for keeping the tank stable because its a huge contribution for surface area for bacteria growth. If I read the post correctly, it sounds as if the gravel is being removed for washing? If this is the case, then please, stop. Washing the gravel outside of the tank, especially if using tap water to do it, is one of the most dangerous things to do in any aquarium. There are tools designed to vaccuum the gravel bed safely, I would strongly suggest using one of those if not doing so now.
As for the debate over using live plants, even if the fish are vegetarian fishes, there are still a handful of plants they don't tend to eat. If you need this list, please let me know and I'll post it for you.

jones57742

BB:

Glad you picked up on the exterior "washing business".
I never would have.

What I was more thinking about rather than changing the entire bottom was:

Pots with large holes for root growth and soil ferts in the locations selected for "planted" plants with the gravel mounded around the pots and
Anubias attached to rocks, wood, etc.

LMF could easily implement this and with the correct "planted" plants LMF could enjoy watching her plants grow.

LMF with the correct plants and water conditions you can actually observe growth on a daily basis (I can with my plants).
BB can probably suggest a better selection of "idiot proof" plants than what I have.

Once again I am just trying to gain experience with my "idiot proof" plants in order that I can grow plants such as laces and other "exotic" plants.

TR

bettababy

Can we please not use the phrase "idiot proof"? I find that offensive. Any plant can be easy if conditions are right, it's a matter of choosing them according to the conditions in the tank.
I'm not sure what was meant by "soil fertilizers", but regular fertilizers used in gardening are highly toxic to fish. IF fertilizers are needed, which they are not always, then its important to use "aquarium plant fertilizers" that are meant for aquarium plants and are safe for the animals.
It is possible to plant potted aquatic plants, but they don't grow the best that way. The root structures soon will overgrow the pots, and this can harm the plant if the pot is too small or as the plants grow, and it makes using fertilizer more difficult because each pot has to be targeted with tablet type fertilizer pellets. The better way, the easier way, is still going to be adding some more gravel to the tank, as it should be at least 1 - 2 inches deep to begin with. The deeper gravel bed will help in many ways, including any fish that might need to hide in it, such as loaches. The bacteria culture that thrives in the gravel bed is very important for keeping the water quality stable. Anchoring the rooted plants will be much easier. I stand by my earlier advice of increasing the amount of gravel at the bottom of the tank, even if not using live plants.

love_my_fish

Okay, okay, let me clear things up. This particular tank has probably the clearest water of all my tanks. It is the only one where I do not keep live plants, as the dark algae has killed them in the past. I have maybe an inch of gravel at most. I lost some gravel when I re-set up the tank about 3+ years ago (after moving). It is also more pebble sized -- maybe 1 cm diameter. I did have plants grow sucessfully long ago (before the move).

About the green water -- I do not wash the gravel outside the tank. I meant, when I vacuum the gravel, the water coming up appears light green in color, sometimes very green. But not much debris at all (compared to my other tanks).

I checked my light timer -- it was set to 14 hours! I use this timer for 2 other, planted tanks. I reduced the time to 12 hours (when the question came up). So that is probably part of the problem.

I got a phosphate kit and I compared my tap water, to a planted tank, to this tank and the results were: 0.25, about 1.0, and between 1.0 and 2.5 respectively. So there are definately some phosphates.