To plant, or not to plant?

Byron

The easiest background is plain black construction paper. I have this on my smaller tanks. The background on that tank just happens to be an "Amazon" one that I got back in 1995. It is very dark coloured and not glossy, which allows it to almost disappear.

Those floating plants in that tank are a disaster, you don't want them. Amazon Frogbit. This plant seems to go through phases, right now it is covering most of the surface, but I think it is at its peak and will now begin to die back to almost nothing. I'll toss some Water Sprite in then.

Maxillius

dwarf water lettuce is riduculous it grows so fast and it looks nice!
here is and exemple (my tank)
26g Planted - 26 gallon Freshwater fish tank

Byron

I remember seeing that in your tank previously, and it is nice indeed. I see you're in Canada too, do you know where you got the dwarf water lettuce?

Maxillius

I got it at a small lfs on southshore of montreal :)
prety far away! hehe its called aza aquarium hold by vietnamese these guys know alot !
first time i went there they asked me if my aquarium was cycled and how many fish i had in how many gallons with what type of filter etc they asked me everything and wanted a water sample to know if i could buy his fish hehe

Inga

I would love some of that but have not found it around here. You are lucky to have it. Beautiful plant, I think.

Jayy

Welcome!! Using live plants is a very beautiful and rewarding way to setup your aquarium. Once you plant one tank, it's hard to stop. After the first all your tanks become planted. Once you go planted you never go back.

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rhymon78

hmmm, I think your right. bet the solid black makes the plants pop too eh? whats the best way to attach paper/card to the tank? I'm using a thin layer of oil on the current back ground. do you use small bits of tape to hold the background in place?

I wanted to ask about floating plants, in my tank the filter output points at the water surface, which breaks the surface and causes the water to cycle round the tank, back towards the intake (my filter is encased inside the aquarium). how does this work when you have the surface covered in plants? and isn't the purpose of the surface water being agitated to allow oxygen to enter the water? or does all of the oxygen come from the plants?

cheers

Maxillius

yes with enought plants there is no need for top water agitation a little bit at the bottom wont hurt tho, depending on plants and fish you have also, some prefer stronger currents.
A canister filter is always the best solution but even tho water is circulating right now it wont hurt the floating plants( at least not the ones I have link is up in the other post) My self I have used a bottle of cola cut both end to get a cylinder cut it open to make it open like a mouth and stoped the flow of my filter for a week then the plants were tick enough to not move around all over the place by the water agitation. I throw out about 2-4 cups of floating plants a week due to them starting to overcrowd my top, i get very little nitrate in my tank because of it

Byron

Agree. There is another thread ongoing that mentions how to get floating plants to stay out of the filter, might want to check into that.

I tape the background on with scotch transparent tape. I get water all over the floor in my fishroom, but strangely never down the back of the tanks, so this works fine. here's the 29g which has the black constructino paper; the back just disappears into space.

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29g Apr 6-12.jpg (76.5 KB, 16 views)

Maxillius

yes on my tank its also contruction paper from staples 99 cents for a sheet of 28x22 i beleive