Who Gives A Fish Forums

I've kept fish for years, but always stuck with what I know - gravel and fake plants. Just finished some home renovations, and after losing my trusty 20-something year old Silver Dollar, I've got a blank slate. Had to drain the tank to move it, so I'm starting from scratch. Thinking of taking the plunge and trying a planted tank with a different substrate - but I'm clueless when it comes to live plants.

Any advice for a newbie with a large tank (75 gal) would be great. Are there any good books or websites that can guide me through the process?

For a beginner, I'd recommend avoiding CO2 and high-light setups - they can be a hassle to manage. A simple substrate like play sand, about 2-3 inches deep, should work just fine. You can also add a thin layer of organic potting soil underneath for an extra boost, but be cautious as it might cause some issues. A good LED light fixture with a color range around 6000k is a solid choice. As for plants, I agree with the suggestions already made, and I'd add crypts to the list - they're great for beginners. Buceplant.com is a reliable source for aquarium plants, and their customer service is top-notch if you have any questions.

I agree with the play sand suggestion, it's a good choice without adding soil. Alternatively, you could use inert river sand - just be sure to avoid those containing plant nutrients. My experience with Limpopo sand, as shown in my signature pic, wasn't great, so I'd recommend steering clear of those.

Java fern and anubias are great options, but they do need to be attached to rocks or wood as they grow from rhizomes. They're slow-growing and get their nutrients from the water, not the roots. If you're looking for faster-growing plants, hygrophila and ambulia are good choices - they're easy to care for and also draw nutrients from the water. Plus, you can just plant the cuttings when you trim the tops, making it a cost-effective way to plant up your tank.

For floating plants, I'm a fan of amazon frogbit and salvinia. Crypts, amazon swords, and other plants with extensive root systems do benefit from root fertiliser, though. I use Seachem root tabs for these plants, which need to be refreshed every 3-4 months. For the water, I use Seachem flourish comprehensive supplement at half the recommended dosage.

My approach is simple - I plant what I like the look of, and if it thrives, I keep it. If it dies, I try something else. I've found this approach works well, with minimal maintenance required. My tank, shown in my signature, is a good example - it's had almost zero maintenance over the past four years, with just an extreme prune and thinning out six weeks ago.

I highly recommend checking out the book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium" by Diana Walstad. It's a game-changer - I wish I'd read it before starting my own planted tank journey. You'll find it super helpful in setting up a thriving aquatic environment.

If you just wash out the tank and gravel, clean the filter in old aquarium water, and set the tank back up, you can grow plants in normal gravel and not have to cycle the filter again.

AQUARIUM PLANTS FOR BEGINNERS

LIGHTING AND FISH STRESS
When the tank lights come on and the room is dark, it can stress the fish. They don't have eyelids and can't tolerate going from complete dark to bright light instantly.

Open the curtains or turn the room light on at least 30 minutes before turning the tank light on. This will reduce the stress on the fish and they won't go from a dark tank to a bright tank instantly.

At night, turn the room light on and then turn the tank light off. Wait at least 30 minutes before turning the room light out. This allows the fish to settle down for the night instead of going from a brightly lit tank to complete darkness instantly.

Try to have the lights on at the same time each day. Use a timer if possible.

If you don't have live plants in the tank, you only need the light on for a few hours in the evening. You might turn them on at 4 or 5pm and off at 9pm.

If you do have live plants in the tank, you can have the lights on for 8-16 hours a day but the fish and plants need 8 hours of darkness to rest. Most people with live plants in their aquarium will have the lights on for 8-12 hours a day.

LIGHTING TIMES
Most aquarium plants like a bit of light and if you only have the light on for a couple of hours a day, they struggle. If the light doesn't have a high enough wattage they also struggle. Try having the tank lights on for 10-12 hours a day.

If you get lots of green algae then reduce the light by an hour a day and monitor the algae over the next 2 weeks.
If you don't get any green algae on the glass then increase the lighting period by an hour and monitor it.
If you get a small amount of algae then the lighting time is about right.

Some plants will close their leaves up when they have had sufficient light. Ambulia, Hygrophilas and a few others close their top set of leaves first, then the next set and so on down the stem. When you see this happening, wait an hour after the leaves have closed up against the stem and then turn lights off.

Plant lights should have equal amounts of red and blue light and a bit less green light.

USING TWO LIGHT UNITS
If you have two light units on the tank, put them on timers and have one come on first, then an hour later the second one can come on. It will be less stressful for the fish.

In the evening, turn the first light off and wait an hour, then have the second light go out.

If the lights have a low, medium and high intensity setting, have them on low in the morning, then increase it to medium after a couple of hours, and then high for the main part of the day. In the evening, reverse this and have the medium setting for a few hours, then low. Then turn the lights off.

EASY-TO-GROW PLANTS
Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma, H. ruba/ rubra, Elodia (during summer, but don't buy it in winter because it falls apart), Hydrilla, common Zorchzon sword plant, narrow or twisteadsly/ spiflake Vallis, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta).

The Water Sprite normally floats on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Ambulia, H. polysperma, Elodia/ Hydrilla and Vallis are tall plants that do well along the back. Rotala macranda is a medium/ tallish red plant that usually does well.

H. ruba/ rubra is a medium height plant that looks good on the sides of the tank.

Cryptocorynes are small/ medium plants that are taller than pygmy chain swords but shorter than H. rubra. They also come in a range of colours, mostly different shades of green, brown or purplish red. Crypts are not the easiest plant to grow but can do well if they are healthy to begin with and are not disturbed after planting in the tank.

Most Zorchzon sword plants can get pretty big and are usually kept in the middle of the tank as a show piece. There is an Ozelot sword plant that has brown spots on green leaves, and a red ruffle sword plant (name may vary depending on where you live) with deep red leaves.

There is a pygmy chain sword plant that is small and does well in the front of the tank.

GROWING PLANTS IN POTS
We used to grow some plants (usually swords, crypts, Aponogetons and water lilies) in 1 or 2 litre plastic icecream containers. You put an inch of gravel in the bottom of the container, then spread a thin layer of granulated garden fertiliser over the gravel. Put a 1/4inch (6mm) thick layer of red/ orange terrac over the fertiliser. Dry the terrac first and crush it into a powder. Then cover that with more gravel.

You put the plants in the gravel and as they grow, their roots hit the terrac and fertiliser and they take off and go nuts. The terrac stops the fertiliser leaching into the water.

You can smear silicon on the outside of the buckets and stick gravel or sand to them so it is less conspicuous. Or you can let algae grow on them and the containers turn green.

We did plants in pots for a couple of reasons.
1) I was working in an aquaculture facility and we grew and sold live plants to shops. Some of the shops wanted advanced plants in pots so we did that.

2) Plants like sword plants love nutrients and have big root systems so they needed more gravel and big pots. When given ideal conditions these plants would produce lots of runners with new plants on and we got more plants to sell.

3) Most of the tanks only had a thin layer of substrate that was nowhere near thick enough for plants to grow in so having them in pots allowed us to grow plants in tanks with minimal gravel in the tank.

TRUE AQUATIC VS MARSH/ TERRESTRIAL PLANTS
Lots of plants are sold as aquarium plants and most are marsh plants that do really well when their roots are in water and the rest of the plant is above water. Some marsh plants will do well underwater too.

Hair grass is not a true aquatic plant, neither is Anubias.

Some common marsh plants include Zorchzon sword plants, Cryptocorynes, Hygrophila sp, Rotala sp, Ludwigia sp, Bacopa sp. These plants do reasonably well underwater.

True aquatic plants include Ambulia, Cabomba, Hornwort, Elodia, Hydrilla and Vallis.

The main difference between marsh plants and true aquatic plants is the stem. True aquatics have a soft flexible stem with air bubbles in it. These bubbles help the plant float and remain buoyant in the water column.

Marsh plants have a rigid stem and these plants can remain standing upright when removed from water. Whereas true aquatic plants will fall over/ collapse when removed from water.

IRON BASED PLANT FERTILISER
If you add an iron based aquarium plant fertiliser, it will help most aquarium plants do well. The liquid iron based aquarium plant fertilisers tend to be better than the tablet forms, although you can push the tablets under the roots of plants and that works well.

You use an iron (Fe) test kit to monitor iron levels and keep them at 1mg/l (1ppm).

I used Sera Florena liquid plant fertiliser but there are other brands too.

CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2)
There is no point adding carbon dioxide (CO2) until you have the lights and nutrients worked out. Even then you don't need CO2 unless the tank is full of plants and only has a few small fish in.

There is plenty of CO2 in the average aquarium and it is produced by the fish and filter bacteria all day, every day. The plants also release CO2 at night when it is dark. And more CO2 gets into the tank from the atmosphere.

Don't use liquid CO2 supplements because they are normally made from toxic substances like Glutaflakedehyde that harm fish, shrimp and snails.

PLANT SUBSTRATE
Some pet shops sell aquatic plant substrates that are meant to improve plant growth. Most don't do anything except add a lot of ammonia to the water and eventually turn into a brown mud on the bottom. Since the majority of aquatic plants take in the nutrients they need via their leaves, having a plant substrate is not going to help much. There are exceptions to this and laterite (red terrac) can sometimes be added to the gravel to increase the iron level for the plants taking in nutrients via their roots. But for most plant tanks, all you need is gravel on the bottom of the tank.

Most aquatic plants need at least 2 inches of substrate to grow in and some need 3-4 inches.