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Fish owners: How to switch from faux plants and ugly gravel to live plants?

Silence

Silence

Mostly dead
Joined
Aug 29, 2003
Location
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Honduh
So we have this 30 gallon fresh-water fish tank and it came with pug-fugly gravel and faux plants.

We want to switch over to live plants to help keep the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels down and to make our tank look nicer so advice would be appreciated.

We don't really want to run a CO2 system so which plants would work? Potting soil under fine grain substrate (1~2mm) or no?

Thanks in advance. :teeth
 
I run two large tanks without a CO2 system. CO2 does make for much more lush, green plants, but is not entirely necessary. You will, however need proper lighting. Flouro doesn't work so great. Metal halyde does. I also recommend using a weekly aquarium plant specific food and nitrogen booster if you aren't running CO2.

As far as the substrate goes, I wouldn't use the potting soil. There are plenty of cheap, great looking substrates made specifically for live plants.

If you live in San Francisco, it is mandatory that you visit this shop. It is amazing. Leave your wallet at home, or be prepared to take out a second mortgage. Very friendly, helpfull staff that is happy to give advice.

http://www.adana-usa.com/index.php?main_page=afa_home

If you prefer the mail order route:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/shop.cfm?c=3578
 
For our 10gallon I got some black sand at Petsmart and planted some low-light plants. No CO2 or crazy light setup, just change the water every 2 weeks or so. For a 30gal you may need additional lighting though.

for plants I have: Wisteria (grows like weeds), anubia nana, anubia barteri, and amazon sword

an old pic, now the wisteria is all over the place
IMG_5250.jpg
 
I have pond fish.

I use soil specifically for water plants. If I pot a new plant or repot an old one, I soak the pot in a bucket until all the soil finnings have dispersed and settled. keeps from having a mud puddle for a couple of days. Not sure if the Koi care.

I also treat with a broad spectrum treatment whenever I add something new. Just in case something tries to hitchhike in.

Connies in Castro Valley, (on castro valley blvd, near 580), has a big aquarium area as well as a separate large pond area. They are very knowledgeable and helpful.
 
Water PH! Plants just rott in the water if the PH is not correct. Good luck! :)
 
Don't go to connies. I know and love hank but, yuk! Clean those tanks hank! As said above lighting, co2 and, proper substrate are essential to good plants. Once the start dying, you got a tank of algified muck. So do it right. Start here-

http://www.plantedtank.net/

My discus and loaches planted 90g
 

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what kind of fish are you going to have in your tank?? If you're going to get Cichlids, then you might as well not put any live plants in your tank cause they will rip up and uproot the plants.....
 
The setup came with a large silver dollar, a small catfish and several mollies/tetras. We probably wont go with cichs but may add one or two smaller fish in a few weeks. Also, is a quarantine tank necessary for adding plants?
 
The setup came with a large silver dollar, a small catfish and several mollies/tetras. We probably wont go with cichs but may add one or two smaller fish in a few weeks. Also, is a quarantine tank necessary for adding plants?
 
westie said:
Don't go to connies. I know and love hank but, yuk! Clean those tanks hank!
Click to expand...

:shrug

I'm always on the other side in the pond stuff.

Actually, not so much anymore. Everything is pretty well finished.
 
The safest way to do it is to set up your planted tank and let it run for ~1 month with no fish, adding a few fish flakes from time to time. There's some nice howto's out there describing this process. I let my planted tank run w/o fish initially for ~1 month and haven't had any problems with my low tech planted tank, it's been almost 3 yrs now.
 
cycling the tank for about a week and a half is good for the fishes that came with the setup.....It's really up to you if you want to quarantine the plants or not, but I think you'll be fine if you don't.....
 
planted goes berserk with a CO2 system,I ended up taking mine off because the pruning was killing me. I still have a brand new unused simple CO2 system that just works off of fermentation if you are interested I will find out how much it is worth,probably like 25 bucks. I decided to go full reef instead,a mans tank:laughing
 
VTRZA said:
planted goes berserk with a CO2 system,I ended up taking mine off because the pruning was killing me. I still have a brand new unused simple CO2 system that just works off of fermentation if you are interested I will find out how much it is worth,probably like 25 bucks. I decided to go full reef instead,a mans tank:laughing
Click to expand...

Oo, oo, oo!! I want it! Gimme, gimme, gimme!!

Let me know what kind of system it is and how much you want for it!
 
gOtChA_RC-51 said:
cycling the tank for about a week and a half is good for the fishes that came with the setup.....It's really up to you if you want to quarantine the plants or not, but I think you'll be fine if you don't.....
Click to expand...

We actually got this entire set up from another aquarium enthusiast so we inherited several gallons of the already cycled water, gravel and filter. The move only meant that the fish had a more-than-usual water change.

VTRZA said:
planted goes berserk with a CO2 system,I ended up taking mine off because the pruning was killing me. I still have a brand new unused simple CO2 system that just works off of fermentation if you are interested I will find out how much it is worth,probably like 25 bucks. I decided to go full reef instead,a mans tank:laughing
Click to expand...

Oooooooh~ :drool

DaineseDan said:
Oo, oo, oo!! I want it! Gimme, gimme, gimme!!

Let me know what kind of system it is and how much you want for it!
Click to expand...

:cry :twofinger :laughing :laughing
 
I'd suggest you talk to either a pet psychologist or a fish whisperer... :thumbup


Slowly introduce the plants one at a time. Make SURE there are NO snail eggs or live snails on the plants.

What kind of fish are they?
 
Silence said:
We know that they reproduce like crazy. What do the eggs look like?
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If you do ever get an infestation of snails, get yourself a little fresh water puffer fish. They will quickly lay waste to the invertabrates, and are cute as all hell to boot.
 

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DaineseDan said:
If you do ever get an infestation of snails, get yourself a little fresh water puffer fish. They will quickly lay waste to the invertabrates, and are cute as all hell to boot.
Click to expand...

You know, we *were* looking at them because they look so cute and silly but we've read that they can be quite territorial and aggressive. Have you had problems with your puffer killing other fish?
 
:p my friend recently went to a fish auction type thing and bought himself lots of plants..hardcore fish guy but yeah..just wanted to share that :p

never heard of a fish auction before

and yeah...i had a tank and yes...those effin snails reproduce so damn fast!
 
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