# plants with gravel?



## afishcionado (Feb 13, 2012)

What kind of plants can I use with a gravel substrate?
Is it possible to plant and keep it in half of the tank?
Planning to move my African Cichlids from a 35g to
A 72g planted tank. 
Suggestions are most welcome. Thank you.






35g
10 blue moori
6 kribs
4 red jewels
4 yellow labs
1 spotted pleco


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Are you trying to keep plants with your Africans? If so, you may have better luck with plants that are attached to driftwood such as Anubias spp.


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## afishcionado (Feb 13, 2012)

Is Java moss ok, will it grow on gravel?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

There is no guarantee that the Java Moss will not be eaten by Africans.

However, if you want to try growing it, I would recommend you tie it down to some rocks instead of allowing it to grow on the gravel.


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## Kan (Nov 12, 2011)

I'm currently growing several plants using gravel and they are doing ok, could been better if I was using better substrate ofcourse . The problem with gravel I think is that it can not hold much nutrition (low CEC:Cation Exchange Capacity rate) and plants rooted plants absorb much more nutrition from their root than their leave so it's good to have high CEC rate substrate if you grow plants that's rooted in substrate. For moss I don't think it matters what substrate you have really 

Check my tank if you are interested what plants I'm growing in gravel

http://www.gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31666


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## XbrandonX (Nov 22, 2007)

35g
10 blue moori
6 kribs
4 red jewels
4 yellow labs
1 spotted pleco

wow, good job upgrading your tank size! Those dolphins will really appreciate it.

I would stay away from java moss, yes it would grow, it always does, but those cichlids would tear it up and it would be a mess and a waste of your time and money.

x2 on the anubias and java ferns.. there's a wide variety of shapes and sizes to choose from, they need to be tied in place (cichlids WILL up root plants all the time) and they are very hardy plants. Large swords should work too but put a bunch of root tabs in the gravel all around where your planting that bad boy. (there's a guy selling a nice sword in the buy/sell section right now that'd be perfect.). This way you can have a pile of rocks with some nice ferns and anubias tied here and there and a huge sword planted off to the side..


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## afishcionado (Feb 13, 2012)

I got some fake plants in my tank and I haven't seen any of the cichlids 
try to uproot or destroy it. Is it possible that they wouldn't bother the real
plants or am I wishing for too much.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

You can try live plants, but once the cichlids get a taste of real plants, they may not want to stop.


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