How to convert a tank to real plants?

Lisa123

So, here is my new (quarter) planted tank!! The right front has some plants! The rest are still artificial.

Amazon Sword, Anubias nana, cryptocoryne and spathiphyllum.

I did add fertilizer and changed the bulbs. The tank seemed really dark with
the new bulbs, so I changed one and kept the other. We'll see how that works!

Attached Images

IMG_4277.jpg (74.0 KB, 12 views)

Boredomb

It looks good. BTW your Peace Lily (spathiphyllum) isn't a true aquatic plant. If left completely under water it will die. Its a household plant. Why pet stores sell these as aquarium plants I will never know! Same thing with Mondo grass or White ribbon plants I see in stores. They all are not aquatic plants. Now they will do great if the stems are in water and the leaves are out of the water. I grew a huge spathiphyllum in my frogs tank once and it was planted in water with the leaves above the water line.

Lisa123

I was kind of wondering about the Peace Lily after looking it up online! Thanks for the heads-up on that ~ not sure why they would sell it either ~ although I think the pkg said semi-aquatic now that I think about it.

I try to give the LFS the business vs. the big box pet stores, but LFS is too far away just to run there. I will probably go this week and buy some plants from him. I will keep addding plants every week or so depending on how things grow!

I am one excited fish geek-ette!

Tankfull Tropicals

It will be great. plants can soon become a passion of their own. The 2 sword plants on the right will fill in at least 1/3 of the tank. If you do plant near them find some low light beauties.

Lisa123

Thanks!
I do expect the Amazon Swords to get big - I'm thinking I will have to move them more to the back when they do get larger. Is it easy to move plants or is it best to leave them where they are planted?

Also, another question: when the plants get larger and start to cover the gravel, how do you clean the gravel with the vacuum syphon? I have been reading that you don't really. The stuff there is good for the plants - that you kind of go around and hover above it all to get syphoned up whats on top.

Thanks again ~ I really appreciate all the advice on this planted adventure!

Tankfull Tropicals

It is not so easy moving Swords around once they are established, they have huge root systems and it sets them back a few months. If you do move established plants you should trim the root ball back by 3/4s and remove some of its older leaves.
Vacuuming does get harder in a fully planted tank. I made myself a vacuum out of some 1" under gravel lift tube. I can get between some of them that way. Unless you are a constant over feeder this is not really a problem. the plants will use it too.