# Adding and caring for plants



## mok3t (Nov 28, 2008)

So i'm thinking of adding real plants to my tank instead of plastic ones. It will be starting its cycle soon and i was wondering when it would be safe to add the plants.

Also, what sort of extra stuff will i need to do to the tank to ensure the plants dont die? I had live plants before but they went a bit mushy and brown?

Thanks in advance


----------



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

If you really feel that you have a brown thumb then try hygrophila. I'm banging on about it today so excuse the repetition guys, just seems relevant.

Go here to see how well some hygro I chucked in a fert and light free tank is doing:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=184010

Also you can see my almost entirely Hygro planted tank here (some cabomba in there too which is equally easy IMO), I don't add ferts, I don't do CO2 - it's a 75 with 60w lighting in the form of 1x30w flora glo and 1x30w aqua glo bulb (hagen bulbs). I do a 50% weekly water change on the same day each week, in the morning at roughly the same time (try to keep it within and hour of lights coming on) - it's not _that_ vital but I like to be consistent.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... highlight=

Have a go with that, see how you get on, if you do well and find yourself wanting more, then you can always add to it and start looking at going high tech if you wish (ie CO2, high lighting levels, fert dosing etc). Rather that than go all out initially and have a hard time, break yourself back in slowly and get that confidence up .

You can get the plants in right at the beginning, particularly stuff like hygro, it really is like a weed and will help combat algae in the early stages (don't be put off if the growth is slow to start, it takes a while but once the plant is established it will be almost unstoppable IME).

:thumb:


----------



## mok3t (Nov 28, 2008)

Sounds like that stuff might be the answer to my plant-killer prayers hehe. What do you use to keep them down in the substrate? I had these metal and sponge ring type things before, not 100% sure about putting metal into my tank anymore though haha.


----------



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

I use sand, which is "worse" than gravel for holding plants in, at least initially, but I don't use anything at all - I plant the stem quite deep into the substrate (which is a good 2-3" thick) and then slowly pull my fingers away from the plant stem (horizontally not vertically ie lifting) as this allows the sand to collapse in on itself and holds the plant down well - once the plant has been in a couple of weeks the roots will already be anchoring them down quite substantially, after a couple of months you'll find huge root masses!



















Yes it's not hygro, but I'm showing you how well roots can spread in sand even without ferts/specialist substrate.

I don't much like using the lead weights either :? I never found them necessary to be honest - you may have to replant a few stems every once in a while but if you can tolerate it and be patient it won't take too long. If you do use metal weights I'd just make sure they weren't the lead ones and preferably a stainless steel that won't rust/degrade.


----------



## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

You can add plants at any time during the cycle. You've gotten some good suggestions on easy plants. Others include java fern, anubias, swords, vals and crypts.

The most important thing, really, with plants is making sure you have appropriate light. A low to mid-light set-up is about 1.5 watts per gallon. I personally have a 3 watts per gallon set up with pressurized C02. If you have too much light without other adequate nutrition, you'll be over-run with algae. If you have too little light, they won't grow or will just die.

Substrate is somewhat important. I prefer Eco-complete or other plant-friendly substrates. But even gravel is fine, if you also add some sort of root fertlizer under the plants.

While C02 is not absolutely necessary, I do like it to give plants an advantage over algae. You can use Flourish Excel instead if you have a relatively low-light set-up.


----------



## blairo1 (May 7, 2006)

> While C02 is not absolutely necessary, I do like it to give plants an advantage over algae.


I agree!

Good advice there. Recently suggested the same to a friend who was having algae issues and it's sorted it right out. At maidenhead you can pick one of these up - 15Â£ and perfectly adequate for your size tank:









That's the Tetra Plant CO2 depot, refill bottles are a fiver, and they generally last about 150 fills. I used to use one - it's simply a silk screen diffuser that you fill with the co2 from the bottle, I positioned it under a filter outlet as this seemed to help distribute the co2 at a better rate and you can easily gauge how much co2 you need each day - you'll see how much is left at the end of each day and then simply put this much less CO2 in the diffuser at the beginning of the day.

:thumb:


----------

