Hi all I was looking at live plants and notice that it can help the tank with filtration. I was wondering what would you guys recommend that would barly need light and care other than feeding and trimming. I have a 55gal that has guppies,mollies,dojos,swordtails and platies.

Anubias

Java fern and java moss. Both of these do best when grown on driftwood or other porous decor, like porous clay pots and ceramic decorations. Use cotton thread, fish line or rubber bands to attach them to the wood until the plants root to it. Cotton thread has the advantage of disintegrating over time. Most anubias also do well this way.

Large clumps of java moss will also help with fry survival for livebearers. I've had fry of all the Big Four livebearers survive and grow to adulthood in community tanks with the parents and other fish in tanks heavily planted with it.

WYite

So these are plants that I can just throw in and dont have to worry as much? Also they dont need much light or anything speacial for it right? ( Light wise) And all I have to do is just prune and feed them right?

ninjastar wrote:

So these are plants that I can just throw in and dont have to worry as much? Also they dont need much light or anything speacial for it right? ( Light wise) And all I have to do is just prune and feed them right?

Pretty much. They will do better if ya attach 'em to some driftwood instead of just putting them in the substrate. But they all are low-light, hardy plants.

WYite

So what light, food, and fertilizer do you recommend? Also do I reall need fertilizer? I bought some plants today and I just weighted them down and put gravel on them. ATM I have no light for them maybe a 30w light as in regular light.

Does anyone know these plants? I just bought them because it was 3 for $10. Its a 10gal tank with 30w lighting, top fin 10, with 5 tetras and 6 danios

Can't see the one to the far left side except for a few stems.

The pic is kinda blurry, but I'll give it a shot.

Starting with the bunch behind the driftwood, that's definitely anacharis, a.k.a. elodea, Brazilian water weed (Egeria densa). This plant will do best if left unrooted and is allowed to just float. It will drop trailing roots/ tendrils to anchor in place. Hardy plant, good choice for your set-up. Based on the pic, 100% sure on this one.

The tall one with slender leaves looks like it might be a Hygrophila of some sort. Most hygros have a high light requirement, but if your tank gets some light from a window and you keep your light on 10-12 hours a day, you might be okay, but it's iffy. Most species do tend to get pretty tall for a 10 gallon tank. Based on the pic, I'll give it a 50/50 chance I'm correct on this one.

The one with the oval leaves in a rosette in the front right hand corner is a sword plant, Echinodorus sp. I'm guessing probably Echinidorus amazonicus. Medium light requirements, wil get 12"-15". All in all I've always had good luck with 'em, even in smaller tanks with fair lighting. I'd say ya should be good with this one as long as your tank gets some light from a window during the day. Based on the pic, I'm 99% sure its a sword plant and 50/50 that it's E. amazonicus.

Hope that helps.

WYite

Not much more to say...hope they work out for you...tank looks nice!

Boy, how rude of me! Worried 'bout answerin yer questions and didn't even mention that the tank is lookin' good!

WYite

LOL ty very much.

Also wanted to know if I put elodea in my 55gal community with the only light comming from the window, will the plant survive? And same with the 100gal cichlid?

Ohh also forgot to add is their anything I need for each of these plants? Like for food and chemicals or what ever.

now i have heard that you need like soil mixed in with your substrate to have plants grow, is this true for like low light simple plants like java fern and some anubias? tank looks good ninjastar

No I have grown swords in gravel along with hygro and several others. I just add fertilizer for aquariums and CO2 using a Hagen Plant-Gro CO2 Natural System. My lighting was a 20 watt florescent bulb if I remember correctly.

Here is a link to the tank I had those plants in http://www.freshwatermadness.com/freshwater-picture-gallery-f6/29-gallon-community-tank-t248.htm

That tank is no longer up and had both artificial and real plants in a gravel substrate.

ok sweet cause i wanna set up a planted tank just like the one ninjastar plans on doin low maintenance right now looking at java fern, and swords also liked the look of those pygmey chains aswell, but we'll see what eventually goes in there

Swords need a lot more light and will not do as well in a low light tank over time. I ended up moving that sword to a 10 gallon tank, when I took down all my tanks I got rid of all my live plants I had. At this point all I have is a small java fern. I was just not into all the extra maintenance.

Here is a site I used a lot when looking for info on plants: Plant Geek.net

I was wondeing if I put alot of elodea in a overstocked community or cichlid tank, will it help out with the nitrate control?

How are cichlids like oscar,convits,plecos,catfish and jd with elodea?

Larger Cichlids like JD's and Oscars will uproot just about anything in there way.

So its okay then? Since elodea should be besty floating Im buy alot so it can help with my water control.

ninjastar wrote:

I was wondeing if I put alot of elodea in a overstocked community or cichlid tank, will it help out with the nitrate control?

Yes, this will help keep nitrates down. However, it is not a replacement for water changes. In order to keep nitrates low enough to minimize the interval between water changes, you need a very highly planted tank with a very low stocking density. You'd also need intense lighting and CO2 injection to maximize plant growth and nitrate uptake. In other words, a high tech system. The other possibility would be a Walstad type set-up. I would recommend avoiding a set-up like that until you have more experience, and doing the research on it as you build your water management skills.

ninjastar wrote:

How are cichlids like oscar,convits,plecos,catfish and jd with elodea?

Since it is best floating, they won't uproot it, but they will shred it. This very well could plug the intake for a power or canister filter, and looks messy. The elodea may or may not live in the small bits it ends up in. IME, ya end up with a ton of shredded Elodea that grows a bit, and gets shredded. Then some dies and ya remove it. Then it grows a bit, and gets shredded more, then ya remove the dead stuff...get the picture? And in between, ya unclog the filter uptake again and again, and watch the big cichlids enjoy turning your elodea into salad. As MC said, the fish you've mentioned will uproot swords, hygros, ludwigia and other rooted plants. Then shred them into salad.

WYite

ninjastar wrote:

So its okay then? Since elodea should be besty floating Im buy alot so it can help with my water control.

See above post...we were posting at the same time. Regardless, with fish like oscars and JDs that have a high amount of waste, you'll never remove all the nitrates. They are just too durn messy and produce way too much waste. Water changes also remove other things besides nitrates, such as phosphates, and refresh other trace minerals. Highly planted tanks will help in nitrate uptake, but there are other reasons to perform water changes than just removing nitrates.

WYite

I know its just too help with the water control. I do a 25% wc every week. And when I test it and its high I do 25%wc every other day to help lower it down. But does it have to be heavly planted to help or like a couple will still help?

I've never had good luck doing the Walstad type stuff in a tank. It seems to work fantastically in the ponds though. The pond for pacu has a waterfall, with the upper part that's completely planted out. All I use are a few plant grow bulbs from the hardware store over the plants. So long as they're not dead, even a few plants will help out some.

Water sprite is another plant that seems to do really well in low light. I'm not sure if it's supposed to float or not, but I have some in the feeder goldie tub floating and it keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's also one of the few plants I've seen that JDs just don't seem to care about.

I was wondering is ebay a good place to buy java moss and ferns? And when I get them what do I do? Also how do I make a java moss bedding in which you can see my gravel but just the fern?

With buying anything on ebay it's a matter of checking the seller's feedback and comments and whatnot.

As far as plants go, I've had good luck with these guys: http://www.aquariumplants.com

I've gotten a good gob of plants from those guys, and everything has come nice and alive and most of it continues to still be alive. Water clover was epic fail, but I think that was just due to the distance from the lights to the tank bottom I had it in.

Another thing you can do for cheap plants is to keep an eye out at the local hardware stores. The Lowes by me gets in and clears out Peace Lillies, which are a type of sword plant that I've had great luck in aquariums with.